Artashes Karinian

Karinian, Artashes Balasievich

 

(pseudonym of A. B. Gabrielian). Born Oct. 30 (Nov. 11), 1886, in Baku. Soviet critic and literary scholar. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR (1956). Became a member of the CPSU in 1907.

Upon graduation from the University of St. Petersburg in 1910, Karinian worked as a revolutionary propagandist in Baku. In 1918 he was the people’s commissar of justice for the Baku Council of People’s Commissars. From 1924 to 1928 he was the chairman of the Central Executive Committee of Armenia. In 1929 and 1930, Karinian served as the deputy people’s commissar of education of the Armenian SSR.

Karinian began his literary work in 1906. His articles were published in the Bolshevik newspapers Kaits (The Spark), Bakin-skii rabochii (Baku Worker), Put’ pravdy (The Path of Truth), and Pravda. He is the author of the books Faces and Events (1928), The Significance of Russian Literature for Soviet Armenian Literature (1948), Mikael Nalbandian and the Progressive Russians of the 1860’s (1949), Anton Chekhov (1954), and Critical and Literary Articles (1962). He also wrote monographs, including Essays on the History of Armenian Periodicals (vols. 1–2, 1956–60). Karinian has been awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and several medals.

WORKS

Karinyan, A. Grakan ardzagank’ner. Yerevan, 1955.
Hovhannes Vumanyan (husher ev hodvacner). Yerevan, 1971.
In Russian translation:
“Na fronte kul’tury v dni Bakinskoi Kommuny 1918 g. (Vospominaniia, Fakty).” Izv. AN AzSSR: Seriia istoriia, filosofii i prava, 1966, no. 3.

REFERENCE

“Golos kritika.” Druzhba narodov, 1956, no. 5.

L. G. MKRTCHIAN