Silva Kaputikyan: biography and creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

For more than half a century, every Armenian schoolchild, having barely mastered his native alphabet, memorizes Silva Kaputikyan's poem "Listen, son." This poetess, whose works in Russian sounded in the literary translations of B. Okudzhava, E. Yevtushenko, B. Akhmadulina and others, made a huge contribution to the development of Armenian literature and the strengthening of cultural ties between the peoples of the former republics of the USSR.

Parents

The future poetess was born in Yerevan in 1919. She never saw her father, Barunak Kaputikyan, who died of cholera shortly before her birth. Silva's parents were refugees from the city of Van (now located in Turkey). Before the First World War, Barunak worked as a teacher and was an active member of one of the oldest Armenian political parties - Dashnaktsutyun. After it became clear that the city would be handed over to the Turks by Russian troops, he, along with other residents who survived after the Van self-defense, left his homeland andmoved to Eastern Armenia. Among the refugees was the mother of Silva Kaputikyan - Leah.

Young years

In 1937, the future poetess graduated with honors from the Yerevan N. Krupskaya Demonstration School. Long before that, Silva Kaputikyan had already begun to publish in the Pioneer Kanch newspaper, and her poem “Answer to Tumanyan” made her quite famous among the Armenian youth. In 1941, the girl graduated from the philological faculty of Yerevan State University and became a member of the Union of Writers of the Armenian USSR. After 8 years, she was sent to study in Moscow, at the Higher Literary Courses. M. Gorky. There she met many young poets and prose writers from other Soviet republics.

Community activities

Silva Kaputikyan, whose biography is quite typical for representatives of the Soviet intelligentsia, sincerely believed in the ideas of communism. At the same time, she was active in preserving the national identity of members of the Armenian diaspora in all corners of the planet. In particular, Silva Kaputikyan traveled to almost all countries where there were numerous organized communities consisting of refugees from Western Armenia and their descendants. Among them were many people who achieved great success in business, science and art in their host states. Therefore, they could be useful for Soviet Armenia and the establishment of informal ties between the Soviet Union and other states.

The position on the Karabakh issue and the last years of life

During the years of Perestroika SilvaKaputikyan, despite her age, did not stand aside from political changes in society. She took an active position on the issue of self-determination of the NKR. On February 26, 1988, the poetess and writer Zori Balayan met with Gorbachev in order to convince him to contribute to the resolution of the Karabakh issue in favor of excluding Karabakh from Azerbaijan.

Since the early 1990s, Silva Kaputikyan began to sharply criticize the policies of the Armenian authorities, and after the suppression of an opposition rally in 2004, she returned the Order of St. Mesrop Mashtots to the then President of the Republic of Armenia Robert Kocharyan.

Creativity

Kaputikyan Silva Barunakovna during her long life created many works - both lyrical and patriotic. They were published both in well-known literary magazines and in collections in Armenian (of which, by the way, there were about 60). In addition, Silva Kaputikyan actively translated the works of European, Soviet poets, as well as writers from the Middle East.

Family

Silva Kaputikyan was in only one short-term marriage. Her husband was the famous Armenian poet Hovhannes Shiraz, famous for his poem "Danteakan", dedicated to the Armenian genocide. From this marriage in 1941 a son was born - Ara, who later became a famous sculptor.

Awards

The merits of Silva Kaputikyan were duly appreciated by the authorities of the ArmUSSR, the USSR and the Republic of Armenia.

She received her first award - the Stalin Prize of the second degree - in 1952 forcollection "My relatives". In addition, she was awarded the orders of the October Revolution, the Red Banner of Labor, Friendship of Peoples, St. Mesrop Mashtots, Princess Olga III degree (Ukraine) and others.

In 1988, she was awarded the State Prize of the Armenian SSR, and 10 years later, Silva Barunakovna was awarded the title of "Woman of the Year" (according to the Cambridge Geographical Institute).

Memory

Kaputikyan Silva Barunakovna (see photo above) died in 2006 and was buried in the Pantheon. Komitas. Three years later, the house-museum of the poetess was opened in Yerevan, where educational and cultural events are regularly held.

Recently, her work has been actively discussed by young people and literary critics. At the same time, opinions are expressed that among the Armenian poets of the same generation as her, there were many who surpassed Kaputikyan in terms of talent, but did not deserve her laurels. Time will tell who is right, but for now, every Armenian schoolboy can quote the lines of her famous poem about their native language.