Artistic interpretation of the Great Patriotic War in the poetic discourse of 1941–1945

Abstract

The Great Patriotic War remains a landmark event of 20th-century world history. Armenian poets have not only introduced it in their works but personally fought on its fronts, suffered wounds in its brutal battles, and contributed to the joint effort to crush Nazism. Such veteran poets include A. Saginyan, V. Davtyan, G. Emin, R. Ovanesyan, and others. The poet T. Gurian lost his life in 1942 during the Siege of Sevastopol. The article explores the poets’ biographies, recounting facts otherwise barely known to a broad audience, and analyzes their work devoted to events of World War II, including the French Resistance, the relationship between Russians and Armenians in the 1940s, concrete military operations, etc. Quoting Armenian poets, the author provides excellent Russian translations of their verse by V. Zvyagintseva, M. Petrovykh, and O. Chukhontsev. In her study of these texts, the scholar finds that the literary legacy of Armenian wartime poetry lives on as a source of lessons taught by history, core moral principles, and preservation of cultural identity.