Vahan Totovents

Vahan Hovhannesi Totovents (Armenian: Վահան Յովհաննէսի Թոթովենց; September 1, 1889 – July 18, 1938)[1] was an Armenian writer, poet and public activist.

Vahan Totovents c. 1912
Vahan Totovents c. 1912

Biography
Totovents lived in this building in Yerevan in 1934–1936

Vahan Totovents was born on July 17, 1893, in the town of Mezre (now Elazığ) in the vilayet of Kharberd. He graduated from the Kharberd National Central School in 1907; among his teachers were the authors Tlgadintsi and Rupen Zartarian. He left for Constantinople in 1908. In 1909 he went to Paris, and then to New York. In 1912 he began his studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied literature, history and philosophy. During World War I, he served as a secretary to Andranik Ozanian and participated in the battles of Erzurum and Van. He then worked with poet Hovhannes Tumanyan to organized humanitarian relief for survivors of the Armenain genocide. In 1917–1918 he edited the Tiflis-based newspaper Hayastan. In 1920 he left Armenia and traveled across Southern Europe.[2]

Totovents welcomed the sovietization of Armenia and came to Soviet Armenia in 1922. He worked for the satirical monthly Shesht in 1923 and for the official state newspaper Sovetakan Hayastan in 1924–26. He also worked at Yerevan State University.[2] Totovents was arrested in 1936 and executed in 1938 during the Great Purge.[3] He was rehabilitated in 1954.

Works

Totovents published his first work in 1907. His notable works include the novels, stories and dramas Doktor Burbonian (1918), Mahvan batalion ("Death Battalion", 1923), New York (1927), Baku (v. 1–3, 1930–34), Hovnatʻan vordi Yeremiayi ("Jonathan, Son of Jeremiah", 1934). His collection of autobiographical short stories Kyankʻě hin Hṛomeakan chanaparhi vra ("Life on the Old Roman Road", which "reflect[s] the society, culture, and mores not only of the Armenians of his childhood but also of their neighbors in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire", was particularly influential on Armenian literature.[4] The Armenian film A Piece of Sky (1980) directed by Henrik Malian is based on Totovents's short story "Light-Blue Flowers".

His works have been translated into Russian, English, French, Bulgarian and Turkish.

Books

In English
  • Scenes from an Armenian Childhood, 1962, NY: Oxford University Press, 182 p.,
  • Tell Me, Bella (a Selection of Stories), 1972, 127 p., ISBN 0-903039-06-0,
  • Jonathan, Son of Jeremiah (Mashtots paperbacks), 1985, 68 p., ISBN 0-903039-16-8,
  • Pigeon Fancier, 1994, 66 p., ISBN 0-903039-18-4.

In French
  • Une enfance arménienne, Julliard, 1985, 194 p., ISBN 2-260-00401-6.
Armenian Wikisource has original text related to this article:

References
  1. "Vahan Totovents - Writers.am".
  2. Arzumanyan, S. (1978). "Tʻotʻoventsʻ, Vahan". In Hambardzumyan, Viktor (ed.). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia (in Armenian). Vol. 4. Yerevan. pp. 195–196.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. "Сталинские списки". stalin.memo.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2019-05-03. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
  4. "A World of Books 2002: International Multicuturalism". www.loc.gov.
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