1. Mikayel Nalbandian was widely revered in the Soviet period, while Dashnaks adopted "Mer Hayrenik", based on his poem "The Song of an Italian Girl", as the anthem of the First Republic of Armenia in 1918.
67 Facts About Mikayel Nalbandian
1. 2.
Mikayel Nalbandian was born on 14 November, 1829 in Nakhichevan-on-Don, an Armenian-populated town near Rostov-on-Don founded by Crimean Armenians in 1779, after they were relocated by Catherine the Great.
3.
Mikayel Nalbandian first studied, from 1837 to 1845, at the private school of Father Gabriel Patkanian, a pioneer of modern Armenian education.
4.
Mikayel Nalbandian was taught Russian and French and was exposed to Western literature and science.
5.
From July 1848 to July 1853 Mikayel Nalbandian worked as the secretary of Archbishop Matteos Vehapetian, the primate of the diocese of New Nakhichevan and Bessarabia, seated in Kishinev, in modern Moldova.
6.
Mikayel Nalbandian was forced to flee Kishnev and New Nakhichevan to avoid religious persecution.
7.
Mikayel Nalbandian thereafter abandoned his plans to become a priest, and moved to Moscow in late July 1853.
8.
Mikayel Nalbandian was briefly arrested in Moscow in January 1854 for alleged "illegal activities", prompted by the Catholicos Nerses.
9.
Mikayel Nalbandian was fired from the Lazarev Institute in September 1854.
10.
Mikayel Nalbandian left the editorial board of the monthly in the fall of 1859; however, his works continued to be published there.
11.
Until his departure, Mikayel Nalbandian authored and translated most of the articles for Hyusisapayl.
12.
Mikayel Nalbandian's dissertation was titled "On the Study of the Armenian Language in Europe and Scientific Significance of Armenian Literature".
13.
Mikayel Nalbandian subsequently left for Calcutta, India to arrange the transfer of a large amount willed by an Armenian merchant to the Armenian community of New Nakhichevan.
14.
Mikayel Nalbandian's travels lasted from August 1860 to May 1862.
15.
Mikayel Nalbandian visited Tiflis, where he met Ghazaros Aghayan and other Armenian intellectuals, Russian Armenia and Constantinople.
16.
Mikayel Nalbandian thereafter traveled to Calcutta via Marseille, Alexandria, Suez, Aden, Ceylon, and Madras.
17.
Mikayel Nalbandian was initially taken to Ekaterinoslav, subsequently to Moscow, and eventually to the Peter and Paul Fortress in Petersburg on 27 July 1862.
18.
Mikayel Nalbandian was held at the Alekseyevskiy ravelin of the fortress with Nikolay Chernyshevsky, Nikolai Serno-Solovyevich, and others.
19.
Mikayel Nalbandian was allowed to read books by the prison administrations.
20.
Mikayel Nalbandian read encyclopedias, Khachatur Abovian's Wounds of Armenia and made extensive annotations, Henry Thomas Buckle's History of Civilisation in England, Georg Kolb's Handbuch der vergleichenden Statistik, Dmitri Mendeleev's textbook Organic Chemistry, and Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.
21.
On 10 December 1865 Mikayel Nalbandian was found guilty by the Governing Senate in the following crimes: being aware of the criminal intentions of the "London propagandists", supporting them in disseminating banned literature in southern Russia among Armenians, and an aspiration to start an anti-government movement.
22.
From May to late November 1865 Mikayel Nalbandian was put into virtual house arrest in St Petersburg.
23.
Mikayel Nalbandian was then exiled to the city of Kamyshin in the Saratov Governorate.
24.
Mikayel Nalbandian reached Kamyshin "more dead than alive," in his own words.
25.
Mikayel Nalbandian was buried at the courtyard of the Holy Cross Armenian Church in Rostov-on-Don, located some 5 kilometres to the north of New Nakhichevan.
26.
Mikayel Nalbandian's funeral turned into an anti-government demonstration, which led to a year-long investigation by the Russian police.
27.
In Soviet historiography, Mikayel Nalbandian was characterized as a materialist, revolutionary democrat, and a utopian socialist.
28.
In 1862 Mikayel Nalbandian spoke out in support of the North during the American Civil War, which aimed to end slavery.
29.
Mikayel Nalbandian believed in the importance of both individual and national freedom.
30.
Mikayel Nalbandian had an intense interest in how science-based policies could improve human conditions.
31.
Soviet historians considered Mikayel Nalbandian to be a follower of the "anthropological materialism" of Ludwig Feuerbach.
32.
Mikayel Nalbandian admired many Western European authors, including utopian socialists Robert Owen and Charles Fourier, the anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, authors Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Lord Byron, French Lumieres Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire.
33.
Mikayel Nalbandian especially admired Rousseau for his promotion of democracy, republicanism, anti-clericalism, and defense of civil liberties.
34.
In 1865, while in prison, Mikayel Nalbandian wrote a poem to Rousseau's memory.
35.
Mikayel Nalbandian praised Shakespeare's plays for their realism and often quoted or referred to Shakespeare in his writings.
36.
Mikayel Nalbandian greatly appreciated Giuseppe Verdi's works and was particularly amazed by Il trovatore.
37.
Mikayel Nalbandian became highly critical of the conservative clergy of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
38.
Mikayel Nalbandian attacked conservative clerics for their efforts to stifle secular and Western-style learning in Armenian schools.
39.
Mikayel Nalbandian viewed religion as primarily a tool to formulate moral values.
40.
Mikayel Nalbandian criticized the Armenian church's claim that it had preserved Armenian identity through centuries of foreign rule.
41.
Mikayel Nalbandian was highly critical of Catholicism, its anti-Enlightenment and conservative attitudes, and its influence among Armenians.
42.
Mikayel Nalbandian translated an anti-Catholic novel by Clemence Robert and Eugene Sue's The Wandering Jew.
43.
Mikayel Nalbandian considered them scholastic monks who do not contribute to advancement of Armenians.
44.
Mikayel Nalbandian was a key figure in the formation of secular Armenian nationalism by the mid-19th century.
45.
Mikayel Nalbandian was Khachatur Abovian's successor as a key figure in the Armenian Enlightenment.
46.
Mikayel Nalbandian emphasized the widespread use, both in written and oral forms, of the Armenian language.
47.
Mikayel Nalbandian reserved an important role to women in instilling national consciousness into their children.
48.
Mikayel Nalbandian's nationalism has been described as "non-territorial" and cultural, which focused on the people rather than territory.
49.
Mikayel Nalbandian wrote his letters to his brothers in the dialect.
50.
Mikayel Nalbandian defended his insistence of the use of Modern Armenian by citing Dante Alighieri's successful use of Italian, as opposed to Latin.
51.
Mikayel Nalbandian authored a modern Armenian rendering of Ghazar Parpetsi's A Letter to Vahan Mamikonian.
52.
Mikayel Nalbandian stressed that economic freedom is the basis of national freedom.
53.
Mikayel Nalbandian often used pseudonyms, the best known of which is "Koms Emmanuel".
54.
Under that pseudonym, Mikayel Nalbandian composed short stories, published in Hyusisapayl, that portrayed the Armenian clergy's mysticism, deceitfulness, and ignorance.
55.
Mikayel Nalbandian often wrote exposes on the clergy, such as Merelahartsuk.
56.
Leo noted in his 1904 book that thanks to these two poems Mikayel Nalbandian has a glorious reputation.
57.
The poem was first published in 1859 in Hyusisapayl as part of Mikayel Nalbandian's series titled "Memoirs".
58.
Harutiun Svadjian, a friend of Mikayel Nalbandian, first published the poem separately, in his Constantinople-based newspaper Meghu in 1860.
59.
Mikayel Nalbandian translated poems by Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Heinrich Heine, and Pierre-Jean de Beranger.
60.
The "bold, somewhat reckless, and ultimately victimized" Mikayel Nalbandian was the most outspoken representative of the secular Armenian intelligentsia.
61.
Ghazaros Aghayan noted that students of the Nersisian School of Tiflis widely read Mikayel Nalbandian and were influenced by his radicalism.
62.
Mikayel Nalbandian attributed Nalbandian's reputation to his poems that were set to music and the fact that Nalbandian wrote about the societal ideals of self-recognition, revival, freedom, and fatherland.
63.
Mikayel Nalbandian indirectly influenced the Armenian rebels of Zeitun, a mountainous region in Cilicia, Ottoman Empire that enjoyed some autonomy up to the 19th century.
64.
Mikayel Nalbandian was quickly lionized by liberals, nationalists, and leftists.
65.
Mikayel Nalbandian influenced the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party and early Armenian Marxists, such as Stepan Shahumian, Alexander Miasnikian, and Bogdan Knuniants.
66.
Miasnikian, who was a distant relative of Mikayel Nalbandian, offered a Marxist interpretation of Mikayel Nalbandian as early as in 1910.
67.
Mikayel Nalbandian called Nalbandian a friend of the Armenian proletariat and peasantry.