Gazaros Agaian

Agaian, Gazaros 

Born Apr. 4 (16), 1840, in Tbilisi; died June 20 (July 3), 1911. Armenian writer and educator. Studied in Tbilisi.

Agaian’s democratic views were reflected in his memoirs The Main Events of My Life (published as a separate book in 1893) and Arutiun and Manvel (1867), as well as in his novel Two Sisters (1872), in which the social contradictions of the Armenian village in the 1860’s and 1870’s were depicted, along with the struggle of the peasantry against their exploiters. He was the author of fairy tales (Anait, 1881; Aregnazan, 1887; and others) and of narrative poems, among which Torg-Angekh (1888) is the most outstanding. He was an outstanding children’s writer (Tales of Grandmother Giul’naz, 1904), and he translated the works of A. S. Pushkin and I. A. Krylov. Agaian was a major figure in Armenian pedagogy and an advocate of democratization in education. He demanded that the schools be freed from the influence of the clergy and placed in the hands of the people. He was also the author of textbooks for the study of the Armenian language.

WORKS

[Aghaian, Gh.] Erkeri zhoghovatsu, books 1–4. Yerevan, 1962–63.

REFERENCES

Shaumian, S. “Gazarosu Agaianu—k 40–letiiu ego deiatel’nosti.” In his book Literaturno-kritich. stat’i, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1955.
Asadriyan, A. Ghazaros Aghayan, Gyankn ou gordzuneyutiun. Yerevan, 1940.
Ghazaros Aghayane zhamanagagitzneri husherum. Compiled and annotated by A. Asadriyan. Yerevan, 1967.