# Hovhannes Tumanyan

Hovhannes Tumanyan (Armenian: Հովհաննես Թումանյան, classical spelling: Յովհաննէս Թումանեան, February 19 [O.S. February 7] 1869 – March 23, 1923) was an Armenian poet, writer, translator, and literary and public activist. He is the national poet of Armenia.
Tumanyan wrote poems, quatrains, ballads, novels, fables, and critical and journalistic articles. His works were mostly written in the style of realism, frequently revolving around the everyday life of his time. Born in the historical village of Dsegh in the Lori region, at a young age Tumanyan moved to Tiflis, which was the centre of Armenian culture under the Russian Empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries. He soon became known to the wide Armenian society for his simple but very poetic works.
Many films and animated films have been adapted from Tumanyan's works. Two operas, Anush (1912) by Armen Tigranian and Almast (1930) by Alexander Spendiaryan, were written based on his works.

## Biography

Hovhannes Tumanyan was born on February 19, 1869, in the village of Dsegh, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire (now in Lori Province, Armenia).
His father, Aslan (1839–1898), was the village priest known as Ter-Tadevos. He was an offspring of an Armenian princely family of Tumanyan, branch of the famous royal house of Mamikonian that settled in Lori in 10th and 11th centuries from their original feudal fief of Taron.
His mother, Sona (1842–1936), was an avid storyteller with a particular interest in fables. Young Tumanyan was the oldest of eight children; his siblings were Rostom (1871–1915), Osan (1874–1926), Iskuhi (1878–1943), Vahan (1881–1937), Astghik (1885–1953), Arshavir (1888–1921), Artashes (1892–1916).
From 1877 to 1879, Tumanyan attended the parochial school of Dsegh. From 1879 to 1883 he went to a school in Jalaloghly. Tumanyan moved to Tiflis in 1883, where he attended the Nersisyan School from 1883 to 1887. Tumanyan's wrote his first poem at the age of 12, while studying in Jalaloghly school. He lived at the teacher's house for a while and fell in love with the teacher's daughter Vergine. Since 1893, Tumanyan worked for Aghbyur, Murtch, Hasker and Horizon periodicals and also was engaged in public activism.
In 1899, Tumanyan came up with an idea of organizing meetings of Armenian intellectuals of the time at his house on 44 Bebutov Street in Tiflis (present-day Amaghleba 18, in Sololaki). Soon it became an influential literary group, which often gathered in the garret of Tumanyan's house. Vernatun means garret in Armenian, which was the name the group was referred to. Prominent members of the collective were Avetik Isahakyan, Derenik Demirchyan, Levon Shant, Ghazaros Aghayan, Perch Proshyan, Nikol Aghbalian, Alexander Shirvanzade, Nar-Dos, Vrtanes Papazyan, Vahan Terian, Leo, Stepan Lisitsyan, Mariam Tumanyan, Gevorg Bashinjagyan and many other significant Armenian figures of early 20th century. With some pauses, it existed until 1908.
In 1912 Tumanyan was elected the president of the Company of Caucasus Armenian Writers.
In the fall of 1921, Tumanyan went to Constantinople to find support of Armenian refugees. After months spent there, he returned ill. After surgery in 1922, he started to get better. But in September, Tumanyan's disease started to progress again. He was transferred to a hospital in Moscow, where he died on March 23, 1923.

### Personal life

In 1888, at the age of 19, Hovhannes Tumanyan married Olga Matchkalyan, age 17. They had 10 children: Musegh (1889–1938), Ashkhen (1891–1968), Nvard (1892–1957), Artavazd (1894–1918), Hamlik (1896–1937), Anush (1898–1927), Arpik (1899–1981), Areg (1900–1939), Seda (1905–1988), Tamar (1907–1989).

## Political and public activism

During the government-provoked Armenian–Tatar massacres of 1905–1907, Tumanyan took the role of a peacemaker, for which he was arrested twice. Tumanyan also deeply criticized the Georgian–Armenian War of 1918. Tumanyan was also actively engaged in preaching the Gospel. As he put in one of his verses, "There is only one way of salvation; through Jesus Christ abiding inside every one of us".
In October 1914 Tumanyan joined the "Committee for Support of War Victims", which later helped Armenian Genocide refugees settled in Etchmiadzin.
In 1921 in Tiflis he founded the House of Armenian Art.

## Literary work

Eduard Jrbashyan describes Tumanyan's language as "simple, natural and at the same time poetically inspired and beautiful." Many expressions from Tumanyan's works have become common phrases and sayings in Armenian.
Tumanyan is usually regarded in Armenian circles as "All-Armenian poet". He earned this title when the Catholicos of Armenia had ordered that Armenian refugees from the west not enter certain areas of his church and house, since he is considered to be "The Catholicos of all Armenians". Tumanyan in response decried that decision claiming that the refugees could seek relief in the Catholicos' quarters under order of "The Poet of all Armenians".
He created lyrics, fables, epic poems and translations into Armenian of Byron, Goethe and Pushkin.
Tumanyan's most famous works include:

## Legacy
### Translations

Tumanyan's works have been translated into numerous languages. Translators of his works into Russian include Valery Bryusov, Konstantin Balmont, Joseph Brodsky, Samuil Marshak, and Bella Akhmadulina.

### Places named after Tumanyan

In Armenia:
* Tumanyan Matchbox Label Museum
* Tumanyan City in Lori Province, which until 1951 was named Dzaghidzor.
* Pedagogical University of Vanadzor
* Armenian State Puppet Theater in Yerevan
* Tumanyan St. in central Yerevan
* Tumanyan Park in Yerevan's Ajapnyak district
* Tumanyan's native village of Dsegh was renamed Tumanyan in his honor in 1938, before being changed back to Dsegh in 1969.
Outside of Armenia:
* Tumanyan Square (Площадь Туманяна) – in Northern Administrative Okrug of Moscow, Russia.
* Tumanyan Streets in Kyiv, Tbilisi (sign), Donetsk, Sochi, khutor Shaumyanovsky in Rostov Oblast.
There are 2 museums dedicated to Tumanyan in Armenia, one in his birthplace Dsegh and another one in Yerevan. Tumanyan's museum in Yerevan was opened in 1953.
In Autumn of 2011 the government of Armenia purchased a flat that Tumanyan had lived in in Tbilisi from its Georgian owner and in 2017 opened it as a museum and cultural center.

## In popular culture
### Opera

* Anoush (1912) by Armen Tigranian, based on the narrative poem Anush (1902)
* Almast (1930) by Alexander Spendiaryan, based on the narrative poem T’mkaberdi ar’umë (The capture of Tmkabert, 1902)
The following films were adapted from Hovhannes Tumanyan's works.

### Postage stamps, banknotes and coins

* Soviet postage stamp, 1969
* Tumanyan memorial coin, 1994
* Obverse side of the 5,000 Armenian dram, 1998
* Stamp of Abkhazia, 2003
* Armenian-Russian Joint issue, 2011
* Armenian-Russian Joint issue, 2011
* Armenian stamp sheet, 2019
* Stamp of Artsakh, 2019

## Collections in Armenian

* The Complete Works, Vol I-X, Yerevan, 1988-1999