Hovhannes Tumanyan

Hovhannes Tumanyan was born on 19 February 1869 in the village of Dsegh in the province of Lori, and he died on 23 March 1923 in Moscow.¹ He went to the parish school in Dsegh, then to a school in Jalaloghli, now Stepanavan, and then for about four years to the Nersisian School in Tiflis, which he left in 1887. He finished his education on his own.¹

His two-volume Poems of 1890 and 1892 made his name. His other works include “Maro”, “Sako of Lori”, “Anush”, “A Drop of Honey”, “Aghtamar” and “The Capture of Tmkaberd”, and a retelling of the epic of David of Sassoun.¹ The operas Anush (1912) and Almast (1930) are based on his work, and about fifteen animated films have been made from it.¹

In Tiflis he organized the literary group Vernatun, which met from 1899 to 1908, edited the daily Horizon in 1910 and 1911, and led the Caucasian Society of Armenian Writers from 1912 to 1921.¹ During the First World War he helped refugees of the Armenian Genocide through a relief committee, and he is known as the Poet of All Armenians.¹ In 1921 and 1922 he chaired the Committee of Assistance for Armenia.¹