Terian, Vaan

Ter’ian, Vaan 

(pen name of Vaan Sukiasovich Ter-Grigor’ian). Born Jan. 28 (Feb. 9), 1885, in the village of Gandzani, in what is now Bogdanovka Raion, Georgian SSR; died Jan. 7, 1920, in Orenburg. Soviet Armenian poet and social figure. Member of the Communist Party from 1917.

Ter’ian graduated from the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages in Moscow in 1906. He became well known for his first poetry collection, Visions of the Twilight (1908), a work filled with sadness and loneliness. In his later poetry, Ter’ian stressed social themes, for example, in the verse cycle The Country of Nairi(published 1915). He hailed the October Revolution of 1917 in such poems as “I Sing Your Praises” and “A New Day Rises Before the Peoples.”

Ter’ian was elected to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee at the Third and Fourth All-Russian Congresses of Soviets. His works, which have influenced the development of Armenian poetry, are structurally refined and rich in rhythm. Ter’ian translated V. I. Lenin’s works State and Revolution and Karl Marx into Armenian.

WORKS

[Terian, V.] Erkeri zhoghovatsu, vols. 1–3. Yerevan, 1960–63.
Erkerizhoghovatsu, vols. 1–3—. Yerevan, 1972–75—.
Namaknere Ant’aoam Miokarianin. Yerevan, 1972.
In Russian translation:
Izbrannoe, Yerevan, 1952.
Stikhotvoreniia. Leningrad, 1973.

REFERENCES

Grigor’ian, K. Vaan Ter’ian: Ocherk zhizni i tvorchestva. Moscow, 1957.
Garibdzhanian, G. “Vladimir Il’ich Lenin i Vaan Ter’ian.” In Literaturnaia Armeniia, 1970, nos. 2–3.
Bol’shakov, L. N. Glavy iz zhizni. Cheliabinsk, 1974.
Partigouni, V. Vahan Terian. Yerevan, 1968.