Shushanik Kurghinian ( hy, Շուշանիկ Կուրղինյան; Popoljian; 18 August 1876 – 24 November 1927) was an

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

n writer who became a catalyst in the development of

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

and

feminist poetry Feminist poetry is inspired by, promotes, or elaborates on feminist principles and ideas. It might be written with the conscious aim of expressing feminist principles, although sometimes it is identified as feminist by critics in a later era. Some w ...

. She is described as having "given a voice to the voiceless" and herself saw her role as a poet as "profoundly political". Her first poem was published in 1899 in ''Taraz'', and in 1900 her first short story appeared in the journal ''Aghbyur''. After founding the first Hunchakian women's political group in

Alexandropol Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

, Kurghinian fled to

Rostov on Don Rostov-on-Don ( rus, Ростов-на-Дону, r=Rostov-na-Donu, p=rɐˈstof nə dɐˈnu) is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East Eu ...

in order to escape arrests of the tsarist regime. Her first volume of poetry, ''Ringing of the Dawn'', was published in 1907, and one of her poems from this volume, "The Eagle's Love," was translated and included in

Alice Stone Blackwell Alice Stone Blackwell (September 14, 1857 – March 15, 1950) was an American feminist, suffragist, journalist, radical socialist, and human rights advocate. Early life and education Blackwell was born in East Orange, New Jersey to Henry Browne ...

's second anthology ''Armenian Poems: Rendered into English Verse'' (1917). After the Russian Revolution, in 1921 she returned to NEP-era

Soviet Armenia The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic,; russian: Армянская Советская Социалистическая Республика, translit=Armyanskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika) also commonly referred to as Soviet A ...

where she lived until her death. Throughout her lifetime, Kurghinian cultivated significant relationships with famous members of the Armenian artistic and literary worlds of her time, including

Vrtanes Papazian Vrtanes Mesrop Papazian ( hy, Վրթանես Մեսրոպի Փափազյան; 1866–1920), was an Armenian writer, public-political and cultural activist, literary critic, editor, literature historian, teacher and translator. Biography Vrtanes ...

Avetik Isahakian Avetik Sahak Isahakyan ( hy, Ավետիք Սահակ Իսահակյան; October 30, 1875 – October 17, 1957) was a prominent Armenians, Armenian lyric poet, writer and public activist. Biography Isahakyan was born in Alexandropol in 1875. ...

, Hovhannes Toumanian, Hrand Nazariantz and others.

Biography

Shushanik Popoljian was born in

(present-day

Gyumri Gyumri ( hy, Գյումրի, ) is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city w ...

, into a family of artisans. The young Shushanik benefited from the expansion of Armenian education to the working-class and attended an all-girls' primary school at a local monastery, before attending the Alexandropol Arghutian Girls' School. In 1895, she studied at a Russian gymnasium, which was one of the many schools instituted by

Tsar Alexander III Alexander III ( rus, Алекса́ндр III Алекса́ндрович, r=Aleksandr III Aleksandrovich; 10 March 18451 November 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 18 ...

to russify the Caucasus and expand the borders of Imperial Russia. At her school Kurghinian's literary ambition was known and encouraged by her teachers. At age 21, she married Arshak Kurghinian, a member of the socialist underground in the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

. In 1903, she moved to

with her two children, while Arshak stayed in Alexandropol. Experiencing utmost hardship and poverty, Kurghinian immersed herself in the Russian revolutionary milieu and some of her most powerfully charged poetry was written between 1907 and 1909, during the years of her affiliation with Rostov's proletarian underground. ''Arshaluysi ghoghanjner'' (Ringing of the Dawn), her first book of poetry was published in Nor Nakhijevan in 1907. It was a direct response to the failed revolution of 1905 and was published with the assistance of Aleksandr Myasnikyan. Kurghinian's second volume was heavily criticized and rejected by tsarist censorship. From the late 1910s to the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...

, she continued to write and participate in social projects, but her activities were curtailed by fragile health. In 1921, the year after the

sovietization Sovietization (russian: Советизация) is the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets (workers' councils) or the adoption of a way of life, mentality, and culture modelled after the Soviet Union. This often included ...

of Armenia, she moved back to Alexandropol, her native city. In 1925, she traveled to

Kharkov Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.

and

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

for medical treatment and returned home disappointed. In 1926, after the Leninakan (Alexandropol) earthquake, she settled in Yerevan, where she was welcomed with great enthusiasm by literary circles. Due to health complications, Kurghinian died, aged 51, in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...

on 24 November 1927. She was buried in the

Komitas Pantheon __NOTOC__ Komitas Park and Pantheon ( hy, Կոմիտասի անվան զբոսայգի և պանթեոն) is located in Yerevan's Shengavit District, on the right side of the main Arshakunyats Avenue, in Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron off ...

. Kurghinian is considered one of the founders of feminist and

proletarian literature Proletarian literature refers here to the literature created by left-wing writers mainly for the class-consciousness, class-conscious proletariat. Though the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' states that because it "is essentially an intended device of ...

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

Quotations

Shushanik Kurghinian's tomb at the Komitas Pantheon-Park

''I Wanted to Sing''

I wanted to sing: they told me I could not,
I wove my own songs: quiet, you are a girl!
But when in this troubled world
an elegy I became,
I spoke to the hearts of many.
The more I sang:
the sooner she'll get tired, they said.
The louder I sang:
the faster her voice will fail.
But I kept singing endlessly,
that's when they started to cajole (1907).

''I Want to Live: Poems of Shushanik Kurghinian'', AIWA Press, 2005.

Bibliography

Works by Kurghinian

* ''Արշալույսի ղողանջներ (Arshaluysi ghoghanjner; Bells of the Dawn)''. Nor Nakhijevan, 1907. * ''Երկերի ժողովածու (Yerkeri zhoghovatsu; Collected Works)''. Yerevan, 1947. * ''Բանաստեղծություններ (Banasteghtsutyunner; Poems)''. Yerevan: "Hayastan" Publication, 1971. * ''I Want to Live: Poems of Shushanik Kurghinian''. Shushan Avagyan (trans.), Susan Barba and Victoria Rowe (eds.), Watertown, MA: AIWA Press, 2005.

Works on Kurghinian

* Bakhshi Ishkhanian, ''The Concept of Work and the Worker in the Poetry of Ada Negri, Hakob Hakobian and Shushanik Kurghinian''. Nor Nakhijevan, 1909. * Hovhannes Ghazarian, ''Shushanik Kurghinian''. Yerevan: National Academy of Sciences, 1955.

References

External links

A Review of ''I Want to Live: Poems of Shushanik Kurghinian''
at The Critical Corner, 27 February 2006.

at The Critical Corner, 15 July 2003.

at The Critical Corner, 10 January 2005. * a short film by Tina Bastajian (2005)

Accessed 19 October 2022.

from Hrand Nazariantz to Shushanik Kurghinian, from Stamboul-Sirkedji, 25 June 1912. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kurghinian, Shushanik 1876 births 1927 deaths People from Gyumri Armenian women poets Armenian-language women poets Armenian-language poets 19th-century Armenian poets 20th-century Armenian poets 19th-century Armenian women writers 19th-century Armenian writers 20th-century Armenian women writers Feminist artists Armenian feminists Political literature Burials at the Komitas Pantheon