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Zabel   Yesayian
Zabel Yesayian (1878 - 1943) Novelist, short story writer, and essayist, she is one of Armenia's most talented prose writers of the twentieth century.

Zabel Yesayian, Constantinople born, and Sorbonne educated, published essays on French literature, and women's and social issues. She survived the 1915 genocide only to fall victim to Stalin's purges.

She leaves a legacy of social concerns, a strong sense of patriotism, and her literature.

Armenia's foremost novelist, short story writer and essayist, Zabel Hovanesian, was born in 1878 in the district of Silihtar, in Constantinople. After her graduation from the Holy Cross Armenian school in Scutari she went to Paris to study literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne in 1895. Here she met and married Armenian painter Dikran Yesayian (1874-1921). Already a professional writer, Yesayian returned to Constantinople in 1902. Refusing the only career path for literary women as public educators, she began publishing essays on French literature, women’s, and social issues. In 1909 Yesayian was sent to investigate the aftermath of the Armenian massacres in Cilicia, which became material for her book Among the Ruins (1911), a chilling witness account and interviews with survivors.

During World War I Yesayian was listed as one of the Armenian intellectuals to be arrested in April of 1915; she escaped the arrest by chance and hid several months in Constantinople before eventually fleeing to Bulgaria. In exile Yesayian served as a spokesperson and missionary for the Armenian refugees and orphans, traveling through the Caucasus, Iran, Iraq and Egypt, and helping set up orphanages. She wrote and published numerous articles on the plight of the Armenian people and the survivors of the Genocide, among which “The Agony of a People” (1917) and “Le role de la femme armenienne pendant la guerre” (1922).

After her husband’s death, in 1922 Yesayian settled in Paris with her mother and two children, where she lectured and continued writing. In 1933, at the invitation of the Soviet Armenian government and the campaigns to “return to the land,” Yesayian moved to Yerevan. She read lectures on French literature at the Yerevan State University and wrote important new works including Shirt of Flame (1934), the autobiography Gardens of Silihtar (1935) and her last book Uncle Khachik (1966), which appeared only posthumously. Marked as an antirevolutionary and a nationalist, Yesayian was heavily criticized and hounded by Stalin’s people. During the height of the Great Terror involving the 1936-37 “show trials” and the mass arrests of “people’s enemies,” Yesayian was arrested along with Yeghishe Charents, Aksel Bakounts and Vahan Totovents, and deported to Siberia. According to the official death certificate, Zabel Yesayian died in 1937, the year of her arrest, but her daughter, Sophie, recorded that her mother’s death occurred sometime in 1942-3, place unknown. In her appeal to the Soviet government, Sophie wrote: “I would have liked to bury her in the Pantheon, in her dear homeland, among her people. That would have been her most desired final home, “at the foot of Mount Ararat” as she liked to say.”


Bibliography
Autobiography [Inknakensagrutiun]. Yerevan: Sovetakan grakanutiun, 1979. Out of Print.
Among the Ruins [Averaknerun mej, 1911]. Out of Print.
Civilized People. [Shnorkov mardik]. Constantinople: Sagsian, 1907. Out of Print.
Hours of Solitude [Andzkutian zhamer, 1924]. Out of Print.
Fake Geniuses [Keghts hancharner]. Constantinople: Biuzandian Gratun, 1909. Out of Print.
Gardens of Silihtar [Silihtari parteznere]. Yerevan: PetHrat, 1935. Out of Print.
In the Waiting Room [Spasman srahin mej]. Tsaghik, 1903. Out of Print.
The Last Chalice [Verjin bazhake]. Constantinople: Cilicia, 1924. Out of Print.
The Man [Marde]. Masis, (March 26, 1905): 68. Out of Print.
Meliha Nuri Hanem. Paris: Taron, 1928. Out of Print.
Murat’s Journey [Murati chambordutiune, 1920]. Out of Print.
My Exiled Soul [Hogis akslorial]. Out of Print.
Retreating Forces [Nahanjogh uzhere, 1923]. Out of Print.
Shirt of Flame [Airvogh shapik, 1934]. Out of Print.
Uncle Khachik [Barpa Khachik, 1966]. Out of Print.
When They Don’t Love Anymore [Yerb ailevs chen sirer, 1914]. Out of Print.

early editorial by Zabel Yesayian  
from Victoria Rowe's A History of Armenian Women's Writing:1880--1922

The "women's section" of Tsaghik must endeavor to publish useful and masterful articles in a popular and clear way. It should keep our women informed of the work in the areas of education and charity that women in other countries are doing. For this series of publications, which has all the difficulties of being the first of its kind, we have great hopes of our women's contributions. These pages are open to all who have something to express or a cause to defend and we are sure that from our women writers' efforts, all classes of women will be able to contribute to this "Women's Section," which has definite educational and charitable goals."

Letter by Z. Yesayian to Avetik Isahakian (translated by Shushan Avagyan)
Armenian Original
English Translation.
 

Sources: The above information is compiled by Shushan Avagyan. Born in Yerevan, Armenia, she is currently pursuing 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.

For further information on Yesayian read Victoria Rowe's A History of Armenian Women's Writing: 1880--1922, Cambridge Scholars Press Ltd. London, 2003.

Also search out Ara Baliozian's translations of Zabel Yessayan's memoirs: "Zabel Yessayan by Zabel Yessayan," and selections from The Gardens Of Silihdar.

Note that alternate spellings of her name include Yessayan, Yessaian, Esayan, Essayan.