Axel Bakunts (, Alexander Stepani Tevosyan; , 1899 – July 8, 1937) was an

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 around the ...

prose

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

, translator, and public activist.

Life and career

Bakunts was born 1899 in

Goris Goris ( ) is a town and the centre of the Goris Municipality in the Syunik Province in southern Armenia. Located in the valley of the Goris (or Vararak) River, it is 254 kilometres from the Armenian capital Yerevan and 67 kilometres from the provi ...

Zangezur Zangezur () is a historical and geographical region in Eastern Armenia on the slopes of the Zangezur Mountains which largely corresponds to the Syunik Province of Armenia. It was ceded to Russia by Qajar Iran according to the Treaty of Gulistan ...

, a region of

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

that would feature prominently in his short stories. He was educated at the

Gevorgian Seminary Gevorkian Theological Seminary ( ''Gevorkyan Hogevor Č̣emaran''), also known as Gevorkian Seminary ( ''Gevorkyan Č̣emaran'', ), is a theological university-institute of the Armenian Apostolic Church opened in 1874. It is located in the town o ...

Echmiadzin Vagharshapat ( ) is the 5th-largest city in Armenia and the most populous municipal community of Armavir Province, located about west of the capital Yerevan, and north of the closed Turkish-Armenian border. It is commonly known as Ejmiatsin ...

. Always outspoken, his first publication, a satirical account of the mayor of Goris, earned him a stint in jail in 1915. He subsequently served as an Armenian volunteer in the battles of

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a List of cities in Turkey, city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. It is the site of an ...

Kars Kars ( or ; ; ) is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District.� ...

, and Sardarabad. Between 1918 and 1919 he was a teacher, proof-reader, and reporter in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...

. In 1920, he was accepted to the Kharkov Institute in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

to study agriculture. After graduation in 1923, he returned to Zangezur where he worked as an agronomist. From 1926 he settled in Yerevan where he quickly established his reputation as a gifted writer with his first collection of short stories entitled ''Mtnadzor

he Dark Valley He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter call ...

'. His oeuvre includes short story collections, various individual pieces in the press, fragments of novels destroyed following his arrest in 1936, and three screenplays for films produced by Armenkino in the 1930s, including ''

''. A colleague and friend of

Yeghishe Charents Yeghishe Charents (; , 1897 – November 27, 1937) was an Armenian poet, writer and public activist. Charents' literary subject matter ranged from his experiences in the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and frequently Armenia and Arme ...

, Bakunts was a member of the former's Armenian Association of Proletarian Writers. Although loyal to the USSR, Bakunts fell victim to the

Great Terror The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the assassination of Sergei Kirov by Leonid Nikolaev ...

and was accused of various crimes including alienation from socialist society. He was arrested in 1936 and is believed to have been shot after a twenty-five-minute trial in 1937.

Museum

The house in Goris, Armenia, where Bakunts grew up is a museum dedicated to his life and work, operating as a branch of the Yeghishe Charents Museum of Literature and Arts. Bakunts lived there as a child, and also at other times in his life. The museum includes four small rooms that display Bakunts' furniture, correspondence, and books, as well as household items, valuable pictures, documents, stories and novels that were published in periodicals.

Works

His most famous works are "Alpiakan manushak" (dedicated to Arpenik Charents, the first wife of

), "Lar-Markar", "Namak rusats tagavorin" ("A Letter to the Russian Tsar"), "Kyores" (1935) etc. Bakunts also was a film-writer ("Zangezur", etc.). A 1927 collection of his short stories, "Mtnadzor," was translated into English by Nairi Hakhverdi as "The Dark Valley" and published by the

Gomidas Institute The Gomidas Institute (GI; ) is an independent academic institution "dedicated to modern Armenian and regional studies." Its activities include research, publications and educational programmes. It publishes documents, monographs, memoirs and oth ...

in 2009.

References

External links

Works by Bakunts in ArmenianThe Dark ValleyShort Films based on a Aksel Bakunts short story Pheasant/Միրհավ
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bakunts, Axel 1937 deaths 1899 births People from Goris Armenian activists 20th-century Armenian writers Great Purge victims from Armenia Soviet rehabilitations 20th-century Armenian translators Armenian male writers