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“I become extremely surprised when I encounter an Armenian person of no talent”, said Garegin Njdeh (Garegin Njdeh, Utterances, Yerevan, 2002, p. 73, in Russian). Times have changed. Today another popular saying, born in the West, is in fashion: “If you are clever, why are you not rich?” If that idea were absolute, then the presentday Armenia would indeed be paradise on earth. Moreover, Armenia would by no means have lost its long-standing paradise. However, the talent and intelligence given to man originally, was expected by Njdeh to yield not the riches which could only enslave and corrupt, but rather the sublime values, like patriotism, freedom, courage, and virtue.
Those who love God will also accept responsibilities with regard to nation, homeland or state. Meanwhile, the unbelieving are evil and cannot become soldiers with breath of fire.
The Armenians are defined by Njdeh as the nation who had been the first to embrace the Christian Inspiration.
Very much like the wizards and leaders of the past, the Troop Commander was keenly aware of the role of art and culture as a whole for an individual or a nation in their perfection, integration and liberation. The country, land, territory, were regarded by Njdeh as the geographic armor of the homeland, while the home country itself as the soul of the cultivating nation and its culture. (R. Hambartsumian, Garegin Njdeh, Yerevan, 2002, p. 140, in Armenian):
The same idea, however, in figurative language, is supported by another utterance. “Ararat and Mesrop are the summits of great sanctity sustaining the high level of the Armenian thought and outlook (ibid., p. 56).
Njdeh believed that the measure of the country’s and nation’s greatness is their mind, art, culture and their scopes of influence. Therefore, the significance of national art was seen by the Commander in a dignified dialogue with the culture of humanity.
That is, the national and the all human must be like communicating vessels. However, the national element has to manifest itself so brightly that in the permanent process of cultural exchange the national should not decay or become disfigured. And Njdeh declares: “Culture, if it is not national, is not culture, likewise a nation, if it is not cultured, is not a nation” (Utterances, p. 41). Commander in his turn was very well acquainted with world philosophy, with the greatest pieces of sociological and political thought, with the highest cultural values. He admired the wisdom of Socrates, the military genius of Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Napoleon. G. Njdeh was most imaginative in using the experience and ideas of his contemporaries. The philosopher Hike Asatryan draws a parallel between Njdeh and Friedrich Nietzsche. Njdeh, also within the context of “strong personality” uses the “superman” concept, however without the Nitzsche’s extravagancies. As the human SELF in struggle for existence, embracing mighty supernatural forces, will not collapse, according to Njdeh, it has to lean upon the basis of the tribal SELF, the ALL-SELF. If, by reason of a weak temper, those two YES-s cannot be superposed, that calls forth a tragedy, if they merge, that will produce a hero, a superman. Some have picked up honey from Nietzsche’s flower bed, like bees, others have gathered poison, like snakes. E.g., Hitler had inflicted great damage with his hounding both on Germans and on the humanity at large. In the meantime, Njdeh branded the conquest as “enemy of motherlands”. Commander was aware that to exempt a small nation like the Armenians which means solving a super-problem, supermen soldiers were needed who would joke with death. The presence of God is achieved using tremendous efforts and talents, isn’t it?
It is interesting to note that the Commander liked the gallant Spartans. The greatest enemy of nations, according to Njdeh, is a greedy leader. An ignorant leader is considered by him a curse and a punishment for his nation. A man having lost holiness will eventually become anti-human, while a clean body is a storage of infinite strength.
The Commander shows contrasting characters of barbarous troop commanders and Alexander the Great, Napoleon, etc., concluding that whatever the atrocities of war, making use of the “weapons of hell” should be ruled out. The Commander is very concerned with generosity of freedom fighters, which is incidentally mentioned in “The Campaign of Khanasor”.
“ ... Fear not, calm yourself, dear, revengeful Fetan will never lay a finger on the women”.
Njdeh exhorted to love the beautiful and the heroic, even among enemies. The same with Napoleon. In 1809, distraught by the death of his comrade-in-arms the French Marshal Jannie after being wounded near Vienna, which was coincidental with the death of Joseph Haydn, Napoleon, who being deeply distressed, equalled nonetheless the occasions by providing security to Haydn’s house so as to lay to rest with dignity the brilliant son of Austria, a country hostile to his own.
Njdeh expressed veneration for Richard Wagner, while another great German inspired him to write the following: “As a vessel, Beethoven is no more, he has sunk, what remains are his divine chords (Utterances, p. 64).
Indeed, divine are the starting chords of the “Heroic Symphony”. Of the same quality are other chords, like “Egmont”, “Leonora 3”, the overture to “Koriolan” and other masterpieces, supporting the daring call by Schiller: “Against Tyrants”.
Of course, Njdeh was captivated not only by the ideological principles of music. E.g., Egmont was the leader of a liberation movement, while the Roman Koriolan was a general. The Commander’s respect for music is particularly remarkable with regard to the fact that most troop commanders perceive music as a drum beat calling to assault. Incidentally, one of the concepts of Wagner’s “Parsifal” is concordant with Njdeh in that a troop commander should be honest, and that the strength belongs to a clean body. Parcifal is a noble knight, invulnerable to the arrows of evil.
The Commander, being a man of poetic soul, could not be insensitive to music. He used to say: “Suppress music and poetry, and our world will become a piggery (Utterances, p. 14). Here Njdeh echoes Nietzsche who had written: “Life with no music would be a mistake”.
Like Nietzsche, he is extremely sensitive to words, and is aware of the strength of word. According to him, a perfect example of the extraordinary force of word is the speech by Vardan Mimikonyan prior to the battle of Avarayr. Another note by Njdeh reads: “Word is the leader himself”, “In order to win, intelligence and talent is not sufficient, what is also needed is a mighty word (R. Hambartsumian, ditto, p. 58). A poem by Nietzsche reads: “…A well said word will be attended by the dead”.
Today, at the time of an all-out pursuit of wealth, when word is severely depreciated both by the crowd and by the elite, we more than ever miss the elevated fiery word by Njdeh. So contemporary-sounding are the words by the Commander: “At the time of great peril the inter-party clashes are tantamount to genocide (ibid. p. 131).
The intellectual class was regarded by Njdeh as Architect of National Destiny. He cautions against disengaging from religion, for it is the same as severing an artery. “There can be no culture without the religious feeling. The sources of his creative zeal are all dried up, so he becomes a worshipper of goods” (ibid., p. 39). Njdeh calls to the young men to aim high, in order at the hour of danger to become the living sword of Motherland. The artists are advised to regenerate and disseminate the elevated ideas expressed in old Armenian literature, this mission being all-human, rather than national. Njdeh’s indications have been partially fulfilled. Today, the best manifestations of Armenian art are being spread all over the world. E.g., music by Aram Khachaturyan, the legacy of the singers of Goght.
It is a mystic coincidence that the first night of A. Khachaturyan’s ballet “Spartacus” took place on December 27, 1956 in Leningrad. It was in some way a commemoration of Njdeh’s anniversary of death in a Vladimir City gail. Njdeh regarded Spartacus as a spiritual man, comparing him to Vardan Mamikonyan. (incidentally, A. Khachaturyan admitted that he had to overcome the resistance of Communist leadership while creating the “Spartacus” ballet: the composer just quoted the positive opinion by Karl Marx on the Spartacus uprising). Indeed, A. Khachaturyan’s Symphony #2 has also been created in the spirit of Njdeh, as well as the Violin concerto, the sound of chords of those pieces were so unpleasant to the ears of the tyrants, very much like the sounds of the trumpets of Jericho.
It was one of the Commander’s wishes to be rested on a slope of Khustup, until the bones of the Great Martyr will not only rest, but shine, like the torch of Grigor the Illuminator.
Could the Commander assume that the lines that he wrote in 1942 would be concerned with him directly, “The Martyr… will illuminate and warm up the road that we travel. He will consolidate our efforts. Those who go in his trail will become the nation of kings”.
Daniel Erazhisht
original source: http://www.armenianart.am/pdfs/files/2005-4.pdf (unavailable, site is down)
Those who love God will also accept responsibilities with regard to nation, homeland or state. Meanwhile, the unbelieving are evil and cannot become soldiers with breath of fire.
The Armenians are defined by Njdeh as the nation who had been the first to embrace the Christian Inspiration.
Very much like the wizards and leaders of the past, the Troop Commander was keenly aware of the role of art and culture as a whole for an individual or a nation in their perfection, integration and liberation. The country, land, territory, were regarded by Njdeh as the geographic armor of the homeland, while the home country itself as the soul of the cultivating nation and its culture. (R. Hambartsumian, Garegin Njdeh, Yerevan, 2002, p. 140, in Armenian):
The same idea, however, in figurative language, is supported by another utterance. “Ararat and Mesrop are the summits of great sanctity sustaining the high level of the Armenian thought and outlook (ibid., p. 56).
Njdeh believed that the measure of the country’s and nation’s greatness is their mind, art, culture and their scopes of influence. Therefore, the significance of national art was seen by the Commander in a dignified dialogue with the culture of humanity.
That is, the national and the all human must be like communicating vessels. However, the national element has to manifest itself so brightly that in the permanent process of cultural exchange the national should not decay or become disfigured. And Njdeh declares: “Culture, if it is not national, is not culture, likewise a nation, if it is not cultured, is not a nation” (Utterances, p. 41). Commander in his turn was very well acquainted with world philosophy, with the greatest pieces of sociological and political thought, with the highest cultural values. He admired the wisdom of Socrates, the military genius of Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Napoleon. G. Njdeh was most imaginative in using the experience and ideas of his contemporaries. The philosopher Hike Asatryan draws a parallel between Njdeh and Friedrich Nietzsche. Njdeh, also within the context of “strong personality” uses the “superman” concept, however without the Nitzsche’s extravagancies. As the human SELF in struggle for existence, embracing mighty supernatural forces, will not collapse, according to Njdeh, it has to lean upon the basis of the tribal SELF, the ALL-SELF. If, by reason of a weak temper, those two YES-s cannot be superposed, that calls forth a tragedy, if they merge, that will produce a hero, a superman. Some have picked up honey from Nietzsche’s flower bed, like bees, others have gathered poison, like snakes. E.g., Hitler had inflicted great damage with his hounding both on Germans and on the humanity at large. In the meantime, Njdeh branded the conquest as “enemy of motherlands”. Commander was aware that to exempt a small nation like the Armenians which means solving a super-problem, supermen soldiers were needed who would joke with death. The presence of God is achieved using tremendous efforts and talents, isn’t it?
It is interesting to note that the Commander liked the gallant Spartans. The greatest enemy of nations, according to Njdeh, is a greedy leader. An ignorant leader is considered by him a curse and a punishment for his nation. A man having lost holiness will eventually become anti-human, while a clean body is a storage of infinite strength.
The Commander shows contrasting characters of barbarous troop commanders and Alexander the Great, Napoleon, etc., concluding that whatever the atrocities of war, making use of the “weapons of hell” should be ruled out. The Commander is very concerned with generosity of freedom fighters, which is incidentally mentioned in “The Campaign of Khanasor”.
“ ... Fear not, calm yourself, dear, revengeful Fetan will never lay a finger on the women”.
Njdeh exhorted to love the beautiful and the heroic, even among enemies. The same with Napoleon. In 1809, distraught by the death of his comrade-in-arms the French Marshal Jannie after being wounded near Vienna, which was coincidental with the death of Joseph Haydn, Napoleon, who being deeply distressed, equalled nonetheless the occasions by providing security to Haydn’s house so as to lay to rest with dignity the brilliant son of Austria, a country hostile to his own.
Njdeh expressed veneration for Richard Wagner, while another great German inspired him to write the following: “As a vessel, Beethoven is no more, he has sunk, what remains are his divine chords (Utterances, p. 64).
Indeed, divine are the starting chords of the “Heroic Symphony”. Of the same quality are other chords, like “Egmont”, “Leonora 3”, the overture to “Koriolan” and other masterpieces, supporting the daring call by Schiller: “Against Tyrants”.
Of course, Njdeh was captivated not only by the ideological principles of music. E.g., Egmont was the leader of a liberation movement, while the Roman Koriolan was a general. The Commander’s respect for music is particularly remarkable with regard to the fact that most troop commanders perceive music as a drum beat calling to assault. Incidentally, one of the concepts of Wagner’s “Parsifal” is concordant with Njdeh in that a troop commander should be honest, and that the strength belongs to a clean body. Parcifal is a noble knight, invulnerable to the arrows of evil.
The Commander, being a man of poetic soul, could not be insensitive to music. He used to say: “Suppress music and poetry, and our world will become a piggery (Utterances, p. 14). Here Njdeh echoes Nietzsche who had written: “Life with no music would be a mistake”.
Like Nietzsche, he is extremely sensitive to words, and is aware of the strength of word. According to him, a perfect example of the extraordinary force of word is the speech by Vardan Mimikonyan prior to the battle of Avarayr. Another note by Njdeh reads: “Word is the leader himself”, “In order to win, intelligence and talent is not sufficient, what is also needed is a mighty word (R. Hambartsumian, ditto, p. 58). A poem by Nietzsche reads: “…A well said word will be attended by the dead”.
Today, at the time of an all-out pursuit of wealth, when word is severely depreciated both by the crowd and by the elite, we more than ever miss the elevated fiery word by Njdeh. So contemporary-sounding are the words by the Commander: “At the time of great peril the inter-party clashes are tantamount to genocide (ibid. p. 131).
The intellectual class was regarded by Njdeh as Architect of National Destiny. He cautions against disengaging from religion, for it is the same as severing an artery. “There can be no culture without the religious feeling. The sources of his creative zeal are all dried up, so he becomes a worshipper of goods” (ibid., p. 39). Njdeh calls to the young men to aim high, in order at the hour of danger to become the living sword of Motherland. The artists are advised to regenerate and disseminate the elevated ideas expressed in old Armenian literature, this mission being all-human, rather than national. Njdeh’s indications have been partially fulfilled. Today, the best manifestations of Armenian art are being spread all over the world. E.g., music by Aram Khachaturyan, the legacy of the singers of Goght.
It is a mystic coincidence that the first night of A. Khachaturyan’s ballet “Spartacus” took place on December 27, 1956 in Leningrad. It was in some way a commemoration of Njdeh’s anniversary of death in a Vladimir City gail. Njdeh regarded Spartacus as a spiritual man, comparing him to Vardan Mamikonyan. (incidentally, A. Khachaturyan admitted that he had to overcome the resistance of Communist leadership while creating the “Spartacus” ballet: the composer just quoted the positive opinion by Karl Marx on the Spartacus uprising). Indeed, A. Khachaturyan’s Symphony #2 has also been created in the spirit of Njdeh, as well as the Violin concerto, the sound of chords of those pieces were so unpleasant to the ears of the tyrants, very much like the sounds of the trumpets of Jericho.
It was one of the Commander’s wishes to be rested on a slope of Khustup, until the bones of the Great Martyr will not only rest, but shine, like the torch of Grigor the Illuminator.
Could the Commander assume that the lines that he wrote in 1942 would be concerned with him directly, “The Martyr… will illuminate and warm up the road that we travel. He will consolidate our efforts. Those who go in his trail will become the nation of kings”.
Daniel Erazhisht
original source: http://www.armenianart.am/pdfs/files/2005-4.pdf (unavailable, site is down)