MURATSAN (Ter-Hovhannisyan Grigor) was born on December 1, 1854 in Shushi. An Armenian writer. He finished the seminary of Shushi in 1873, taught Armenian language at Kh. Stepane school in 1875-76. In 1877 Muratsan was in the historical places of Artsakh and Syunik and wrote the “Brief history of noble Hasan-Jalalyan family” (1880). In 1878 he moved to Tiflis. He became known by historical drama “Ruzan or Patriotic Young Woman” (1900). Muratsan didn’t accept the radical reforms and revolution and considered church, family, national traditions and customs to be the base of the national identity. The idea of the national unity and traditional living are depicted in the works of Muratsan and have a certain propagandistic character (“Armenian protestant family”, 1882, the novel “My catholic bride”, 1885, the short stories “Public adoptee” 1884, “The rich are having fun”, 1884). According to Muratsan, stong individuals i. e. missioners are vital for the further development of the nation. In the novel “The Mysterious Nun” (1889) the heroine Sister Ann outlined the author’s ideas of social utopia: economically developed patriarchal community the moral base of which are school and church. He tried to resurrect the missioner hero in the works "The Center of Enlightenment" (1892),
“Crow of Noah” (1899), "Sisters of Mercy" (1902), but the reality ruined his illusions. Not finding his ideals in reality Muratsan turned to the historical past. The novel “Gevorg Marzpetuni” (1896) is the romantic, historical and philosophical comprehensive embodiment of Muratsan and depicts the 10th century events during the Bagratids reign. The vision of the author is expressed in the character of protagonist Gevorg Marzpetuni, that is “Spring will come even with a single flower”. The martyrdom of the school superintendent of Agulis, Andreas for the sake of homeland and Armenian church is depicted in the historical novel "Andreas Presbyter" (1897-98). In the short stories “Grief of Mrs Pilarean (1897), “Special correspondent” (1902), etc. the author mocked the false piety.
Streets and schools in Yerevan and in the cities of RA and NKR are named after Muratsan.
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