5 great Armenians who made a huge contribution to Russian culture

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

For many centuries the history of Russians and Armenians has been closely intertwined. The Armenians were allies of the Russians in the North Caucasus; from their midst came a lot of officers who served first in the Russian Empire, then in the USSR. And some Armenians are so tightly embedded in Russian culture that we sometimes forget about their Armenian origin.

Mikael Tariverdiev

Despite the obviously non-Russian name, we are so used to seeing him at the end of films in Russian that we never even thought about the origin of the composer. "Seventeen Moments of Spring", "Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath", "Welcome or No Trespassing Entry", as well as such movie tales as "The Deer King" and "The Apprentice of the Healer" - from an early age we grew up surrounded by his music …

Tariverdiev was born into an Armenian family in the Krasnodar Territory. When he was still a child, misfortune befell his family. Father, director of a state bank, was arrested at thirty-seven. But the family resisted this grief. When Mikael became a young man, at the insistence of his mother, he entered the Yerevan Conservatory. I must say before that Mikael speaks only Russian, and after the conservatory I began to speak the language of my ancestors. After Yerevan, he went to conquer Moscow - and conquered. And not only Moscow, but the entire USSR.

Sergey Dovlatov

Not everyone thinks about where the Russian writer Sergei Dovlatov got such an eastern surname. The fact is that he bore the surname of his Armenian mother, who raised him. Nora Dovlatyan was a proofreader, but she had to. Due to domestic circumstances, she had to leave her career as an actress. Is it surprising that later her son entered the Faculty of Philology? If you do not know what is the specialty "Finnish", then not really. He studied, of course, in Leningrad, in the homeland of his parents, and grew up in Ufa, where they ended up during the war.

Dovlatov wrote poignant short stories and peculiar stories that Soviet magazines did not want to publish. He eventually migrated to the United States. And only after that he became famous, one of the symbols of Russian literature of his generation. Already in our time, Stanislav Govorukhin shot the film "The End of a Beautiful Epoch" based on his stories. In total, after the collapse of the USSR, there were five adaptations of Dovlatov.

Agrippina Vaganova

This Armenian ballerina and choreographer is called the mother of Russian ballet. She developed her own methodological system for teaching classical dance, which is still used today and on which all the stars of ballet of the twentieth century grew up. Agrippina Akopovna was born in St. Petersburg, where her father moved from the Astrakhan Armenian community even before her birth. Non-commissioned officer Akop Vaganova, having retired, was hired to serve in the theater. Agrippina from an early age considered a ballerina and dreamed of becoming one of them.

When her father succumbed to Agrippina's persuasions and gave her to teach ballet, the girl was very disappointed with how the teachers explain or, more precisely, do not explain the basic movements. At that time it was believed that one should learn ballet exclusively by repetition. Much later, when Vaganova had already made her own career as a ballerina, left the stage by age and began to teach herself, she radically changed the methodology. Thanks to Agrippina Akopovna, ballet schools began to analyze movements with students. This significantly increased the general, average level of the ballerina's training, and contributed to the popularity of Russian ballet.

Ivan Aivazovsky

Since the birth of the famous marine painter, his name was Hovhannes Ayvazyan. Actually, Ivan is the same as Hovhannes, but in a Russian way, and only the ending has been replaced in the surname Ayvazyan, and this is how the artist's father began to introduce himself. Aivazovsky was born into a merchant family in Feodosia. His father went broke during the plague. Perhaps that is why, from his youth, they tried on professions related to art on the boy.

At first, little Ivan-Hovhannes learned to play the violin, but then they decided that his artistic talent was stronger, and they did not fail. Aivazovsky graduated from the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg at public expense and returned to his homeland to paint his beloved sea. Aivazovsky was released from the Academy two years ahead of schedule - there was nothing more to teach him. Aivazovsky's paintings are associated all over the world with Russian painting, working for its reputation.

Evgeny Vakhtangov

The legendary theater director, the very one after whom the Vakhtangov Theater is named, which grew out of his theater studio, Evgeny Bogrationovich was not his own in Moscow. He was born in Vladikavkaz, the son of an Armenian manufacturer and his Russian wife. As a teenager, Evgeny Bogrationovich performed in amateur performances and began to stage them.

After graduating from the gymnasium, his father sent him to enter the Riga Polytechnic Institute, where his cousin was already studying. Vakhtangov immediately went to work as an actor in a local drama club and eventually failed the entrance exams. Instead of going home to confess, Evgeny Bagrationovich went to Moscow to his uncle. There he studied, oddly enough, to become a lawyer, but did not give up the stage. In the end, the theater won, and for the better. At least for Russian culture.

National minorities from different countries often make an unexpectedly large contribution to state culture and history. Indigenous Tatars of Poland: Why there was no Pan over the Uhlans, but there was a Muslim crescent.