Emin, Gevork

(pen name of Karlen Grigor’evich Muradian). Born Oct. 30, 1919, in the village of Ashtarak, Armenian SSR. Soviet Armenian poet. Member of the CPSU since 1953.

Emin graduated from the department of hydrotechnics at the Yerevan Polytechnic Institute in 1940. He took part in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. From 1969 to 1972 he was editor in chief of the journal Literaturnaia Armeniia. He was first published in 1935. Emin’s first collection of verse, The Beginning of a Path, appeared in 1940.

Emin turned to Armenia’s past in his verse collection New Road (1949; Russian translation, 1950; State Prize of the USSR, 1951), in which he described Armenian refugees, portrayed the famine and turmoil of the prerevolutionary years, and depicted the threat of extermination that faced the entire Armenian people in that era. The poet’s artistic goal, the expression of the complex world of contemporary man, was reflected in the philosophic lyrics in the collections Search (1955), Up Till Now (1959), At This Age (1968; Russian translation, 1972), The 20th Century (1970), Seven Songs About Armenia (1974), and The Century, The Land, Love (Russian translation, 1974; State Prize of the USSR, 1976).

Emin’s poetry has been translated into many languages. Emin has been awarded two orders and a medal.