Shushanik Kurginian

Born Aug. 18 (30), 1876, in AleksandropoF, present-day Leninakan; died Nov. 24, 1927, in Yerevan. Soviet Armenian poet. Daughter of an artisan.

Kurginian began publishing her work in 1899. She and A. Akopian are the fountainhead of Armenian proletarian poetry. Her best verses are imbued with revolutionary enthusiasm—for example, “Douse the Torches,” “Workers,” and “Our Pain Is One.” Kurginian urged women to struggle for civil rights (“Let Us Also Unite”). Her collection Sounding of the Dawn appeared in 1907.

After the defeat of the Revolution of 1905–07, Kurginian wrote a series of songs that were directed against reaction and decadence and that glorified the champions of freedom (“At the Mass Grave,” “Before the Prison,” and “Red Procession”). In 1920 she founded the S. Shaumian workers’ club in Vladikavkaz. In the early 1920’s, Kurginian published her songs about the victory of the new order.