Armenian writer and poet Gurgen Mahari was born on August 1, 1903, in the city of Van in Western Armenia. In 1915, fleeing from the Genocide, he along with his mother and brother moved to Eastern Armenia. He lived in Armenian and American shelters.
In 1936, Mahari was arrested by the Soviet government. He would spend a total of 17 years in prisons, exile, and free settlement.
Mahari was one among the amazing writers of ours. He was a friend of Yeghishe Charents and Axel Bakunts. It was them who had to live with us, forming our spiritual life, our literature, but they were destroyed – they were killed, exiled, and only some of them, after going through all the circles of hell, returned to us and managed to form the part of literature which they were predestined to create since birth.
17 years of martyrdom did not kill joy, slyness, and unshakable faith in life in Gurgen Mahari. And Mahari, returning from Siberia, gave us the joy of communicating with the Great Romantic.
Source: Collection of stories “What are you, Armenia?”, Moscow, “Izvestiya”, 1989.
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