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Marietta Shaginian (1888 - 1982)Sketch by her sister, Magdalene Shaginian. |
Multi-genre writer,
who later adopted Social Realism. Known for her
travelogues on Armenia and other Soviet Union Republics. Marietta Shaginian is the author of over twenty books many of them translated into other languages. She is best known as a travel writer, who closely observed and documented her impressions of the Soviet Union. Her literary scope includes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. |
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| Russian-Armenian pre- and post-revolutionary writer Marietta
Shaginian was born in 1888 in Moscow. She was one of the “Fellow-Travelers” of the 1920’s led by the Serapion Brotherhood. A prolific
writer, she excelled in a varity of genres such as novels, short stories, essays, poetry and travelogues --
all based on her excursions across the newly formed Soviet Union. Diverting from her early religious
idealism, Shaginian was one of the first Soviet writers to experiment in satirico-fantastic
novel writing. Soviet Marxist critics condemned her innovative fiction as “bourgeois” and
“decadent,” which forced her to stop writing in this genre and instead she turned to travelogues,
mostly focusing on her frequent travels to Armenia.
With her customary fervent involvement, Shaginian spent several years on the construction site
of a hydro-electric station in Armenia at Dzorages, documenting, experiencing first-hand and
writing her novel HydroCentral (1929), which became a classic of Social Realism. Shaginian is the
author of over twenty books, which have been translated into several languages.
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| Books | |
| Literaturny dnevnik: Ocherki [Literary Diary: Essays]. St. Petersburg: Parfenon, 1922. | |
| Orientalia. St. Petersburg, 1922. | |
| Mess-Mend, ili Yanki v Petrograde. St. Petersburg, 1923. | |
| Mess-Mend: Yankees in Petrograd. Trans. Samuel Cioran. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1991. | |
| Lori Len Metallist [Laurie Lane, Metalworker]. Moscow: Gos-Izd, 1924. | Doroga v Bagdad [The Road to Baghdad]. St. Petersburg, 1925. | Povesti [Short Stories]. Leningrad, 1927. | Gidrotsentral’ [HydroCentral]. Leningrad, 1929. | Dnevniki: 1917-1931 [Diaries]. Leningrad, 1932. | Peremena [Change]. Moscow: Sov-Pis, 1941. | Priklyuchenia damy iz obshestva [Adventures of a Woman of Society]. Moscow: Sov-Pis, 1941. | Sovetskoye Zakavkazie [Soviet Caucasus]. Yerevan, 1946. | Goethe. Moscow, 1950. | Dnevnik pisatelia: 1950-1952 [Writer’s Diary]. Moscow: Sov-Pis, 1953. | Journey Through Soviet Armenia. Moscow, 1954. | Armianskaya literatura i iskusstvo [Literature and Art of Armenia]. Yerevan, 1961. | Pis’ma izza rubezha [Letters From Abroad]. Moscow, 1964. | Taras Shevchenko. Moscow, 1964. |
| TO ARMENIA Marietta Shaginian 1903 translated by S. Avagyan, 2004 |
Excerpt from Mess-Mend
translated by Samuel Cioran, 1991 |
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This selection is from Orientalia:
With such unfathomable comfort and a prayer on my lips do I recall the soulful chants of your churches, my far off homeland. With a pain as burning as the silhouette of my lover’s face do I recall your meadows, rivers and valleys, and the opulent fragrance of thyme. Submissive to a mysterious law, my ears are still accustomed to long for the sound of your solemnly lucid language – oh, so glorious. And at this hour of incessant yearning while searching for a final haven, your ill-starred child is coming to rest with you, my precious. I know, the smart wild beast crawls back to its burrow when wounded. Oh native land, nurse my pains that the northerner inflicted on me. |
From the introductory autobiographical essay on Jimmy Dollar (Shaginian's pen name),
appearing as a preface to Mess-Mend:
The negotiations continued for ten days. Finally “Prix-Fixe-Book” agreed to the publication of Dollar’s first book. In all probability, our readers know that the book was sold out in the first eight days and is presently appearing in the twenty-second edition. It was not without a veiled sigh that the editor somehow brought himself to say to Jim Dollar: “You’re an excellent writer, Jim. But, by God, you do have one shortcoming. Don’t be angry with me, but you completely overestimate yourself as an artist.” It was the first time that Dollar had heard any hint of the worthlessness of his drawings. It stung him, he blushed and replied haughtily: “Even if it is a shortcoming, then it’s one that I share with a certain Goethe.” |
| Sources: The above information is compiled by
Shushan Avagyan. Born in Yerevan, Armenia, she is currently working on her
doctorate in English and Women’s Studies, and is the recipient of Dalkey
Archive Press fellowship at the Illinois State University.
She can be reached at savagya@ilstu.edu. |