Leo (historian)

Arakel Grigori Babakhanian (Template:Langx; 14 April [O.S. 2 April] 1860 – 14 November 1932), commonly known by his pen name Leo (Template:LangxTemplate:Efn), was an Armenian historian, writer, critic, and professor at Yerevan State University. He is best known for authoring a multi-volume work on the history of Armenia.Template:Sfn Leo adopted a critical stance in examining some of the most important issues in Armenian history, literature and contemporary problems of the early 20th century.Template:Sfn

Biography

Leo was born on 14 April 1860 in the city of Shusha/Shushi in the region of Mountainous Karabakh, which was then a part of the Russian Empire.Template:Sfn He was one of several children of Grigor Babakhanian, a tailor (later bellringer) of modest means.Template:Sfn He graduated from the local school in Shusha in 1878.Template:Sfn Due to the death of his father in 1879, Leo was unable to attend university and began working to support his family.Template:Sfn He took up several jobs in Shusha and Baku as a notary's clerk, telegraph operator, and the manager of a printing house called ("Plough").Template:Sfn He first began to write in the late 1870s.Template:Sfn From 1895 to 1906, Leo worked as a journalist and secretary in Tiflis for the influential Armenian-language newspaper ("Tiller").Template:Sfn Leo would later become the editor of in 1918.Template:Sfn In 1906, he began teaching at the Gevorgian Seminary at Ejmiatsin, although he returned to Tiflis a year later and dedicated himself to his academic work.Template:Sfn

Politically, Leo was opposed to the policies of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation () political party and was a member of the Armenian Populist Party, joining it in 1917.Template:Sfn Soviet sources, however, claim that Leo was not affiliated with any political party.Template:Sfn He was an adviser an adviser to the delegation of the Seim of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic during its negotiations with the Ottomans Trabzon in March 1918.Template:Sfn He served as the president of the Karabakh Armenian Patriotic Association from 1918 to 1920.Template:Sfn In 1919, during the existence of the First Republic of Armenia, Leo visited Yerevan to participate as a guest lecturer in the public educational program organized by Minister of Education Nikol Aghbalian.Template:Sfn Leo welcomed the sovietization of Armenia in 1920 and offered his services to the newly established state.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He was invited to lecture in history and other subjects in Armenian studies at Yerevan State University in 1924.Template:Sfn In 1925, he was granted the rank of professor and made a member of the Academy of Science and Art of the Armenian SSR, the predecessor to the republic's Academy of Sciences.Template:Sfn Leo continued to teach, research and write until his sudden death.Template:Sfn He died in Yerevan on 14 November 1932.Template:Sfn

Career

Leo never received a higher education and his knowledge and erudition was almost entirely self-taught.Template:Sfn He first began to write in the late 1870s.Template:Sfn Over the years, he wrote for various Armenian newspapers and journals, such as , , , , and .Template:Sfn He was influenced by the liberal nationalist writers Raffi and Grigor Artsruni (the founder of ).Template:Sfn From about 1880 to 1900, Leo mostly wrote works of fiction, reviews, and articles on contemporary issues, whereas from 1900 onward, he focused on writing history.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In 1901–1902, he published a two-volume work titled (Armenian printing), which studies the cultural, intellectual and political life of Armenians between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

File:Arakel Babakhanyan.jpg

Stamp commemorating the 150th anniversary of Leo's birthday.

Leo's most noteworthy work is his three-volume History of Armenia (, vol. 1 originally published in Tiflis, 1917; vols. 2 and 3, Yerevan, 1946–1947; republished in 1966–73).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn His work traces Armenian history from its beginnings until the end of the nineteenth century, with the exception of the period stretching from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries (the third volume begins with the sixteenth century, whereas the second volume ends in the eleventh).Template:Sfn It devotes particular importance to the political, cultural and social issues that surrounded Armenian life and the role that Armenia's neighbors played in the country's history. Leo's History is valued for its extensive use of primary and secondary sources and for its engaging and understandable style.Template:Sfn After Soviet Russian writer Andrei Bitov visited Yerevan in 1960, he remarked that "he did not enter any house which did not have the familiar three volumes of Leo's History of Armenia."Template:Sfn

Besides his historical and social-political writings, Leo also wrote some literary criticism, translations of European authors, and a number of fictional works in the style of realism.Template:Sfn These works included short stories, novels, and plays, almost all dating to the earlier part of his career.Template:Sfn For Leo, literature was more important as a means of moral and intellectual education than as a form of artistic expression.Template:Sfn The usual theme of his short works is the backwardness and misery of Armenian rural life.Template:Sfn His stories set in cities depict the injustices of the capitalist system.Template:Sfn A few of his short stories and his novel (The melik's daughter) are set in his native Karabakh.Template:Sfn

File:Գերեզման՝ Լեոյի.jpg

Leo's grave at Komitas Pantheon in Yerevan.

Further reading

• Template:In lang Ohanian, A. K. Leoyi gegharvestakan steghtsagortsutʻyune [Leo's artistic output]. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1969.
• Template:In lang Leo. Tʻiwrkʻahay heghapʻokhutʻean gaghapʻarabanutʻiwne [The ideology of the Turkish Armenian revolution], 2 vols. Paris: Tpagr. Pahri Eghbarts, 1934–1935.
• Template:In lang Leo. Yerkeri zhoghovatsu [Collected Works]. 10 volumes. Yerevan: Hayastan Publishing, 1966–1973.

External links

• Leo in The Great Soviet Encyclopedia