Vahram Alazan

Vahram Alazan (Vahram Gabuzyan) was born in city Van, Western Armenia. He received his primary education at a parish school. During the genocide in 1915 on the way to Yerevan he lost his family and was taken to orphanage. In 1918 worked at “Urartu” printing house as a typewriter, in 1921 at “Soviet Armenia” newspaper. His first poem “Red victory” was published and was signed as V. Gabuzyan, after which he published his works as Vahram Alazan. In 1923 he was one of the founders of “Avangard” newspaper. From 1922 to 1930 the editor of the newspaper "Typographic Worker" ("Tpagrakan banvor"). He was one of the organizers of the Association of Proletarian Writers of Armenia, from 1923 to 1932 was the Chairman of the Association. From 1932 to 1936 editor of literary newspaper (Grakan tert). At the very beginning of his literary activity, he published a number of poems. In 1922 his collection of poems "The game of summer" was released. He published collections of poems, novel, memoir book “Memories”. In 1990 his book on repression was published. Many works of Alazan are translated into Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Azerbaijani and other languages. In 1936 he was arrested on charges of counter-revolutionary activity. He was rehabilitated in 1954 but the years spent in the camps had a bad effect on his health. From 1956 till the end of his life he was bedridden. In 1956 Vahram Alazan was awarded the “Order of Honor”. Died in Yerevan.