Magda Janpoladyan. ‘In the whole world, there’s only one Armenia…’

Abstract

The review is concerned with the book ‘In the Whole World, There’s Only One Armenia…’ [‘Na svete lish odna Armeniya…’] — a collection of scholarly and critical articles by the renowned scholar of Russian-Armenian literary connections Magda Janpoladyan. In focus of the book are works by those Russian poets who visited Armenia and, having fallen in love with the country, decided to spend the rest of their lives in close contact with this region and its culture and literature. With the help of the poets’ epistolary legacy, reminiscences, and literary output, as well as other sources, the author creates a unique overview of Russian-Armenian cultural ties. The book names V. Bryusov, O. Mandelstam, S. Gorodetsky, S. Marshak, V. Zvyagintsev, M. Petrovykh, E. Nikolayevskaya, M. Matusovsky, M. Dudin, A. Gitovich, S. Lipkin, A. Tarkovsky, B. Chichibabin and others as poets whose life and work reveal a profound impact from an unforgettable encounter with Armenia.