Vahan Totovents

Born in Kharberd, Vahan Totovents studied in Constantinople, Paris, and the United States. During the First World War he served with Armenian volunteer forces and assisted humanitarian work before eventually settling in Soviet Armenia.

Totovents wrote novels, stories, plays, and memoir-based prose. Life on the Old Roman Road, his best-known work, reconstructs the people and atmosphere of his lost birthplace with humor and tenderness. Arrested during the Great Purge, he was executed in 1938 and later rehabilitated.