Aivazovsky, Gabriel Konstantinovich

Born in Feodosia in the family of an impoverished Armenian merchant. Baptized in the local Armenian church of St. George. Gabriel was the first child in the Aivazovsky family.

Educated at the parish school at the church of St. Sarkis. At age 13, he was sent by his parents to the city of Karasubazar to study with Minas Medicine . In 1826, Fr. Minas sent Gabriel to receive a humanitarian and theological education at the Academy of Mkhitarists on the island of St. Lazarus in Venice .

In 1830, Gabriel Aivazovsky was tonsured a monk, in 1834 he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite with the title of Master of Theology. In the years 1837-1847. served as Secretary of the Congregation. Also, since 1837, Gabriel Aivazovsky received the title of professor and began to teach Oriental languages ​​at the Academy of Mkhitarists. In 1843 he founded the first magazine of the Congregation Bazmavep.

In 1847, Aivazovsky moved to Paris . In Paris, he was appointed rector of the Lyceum, where he again began to engage in his teaching activities, which he combined with scientific work.

In 1855 he began the release of the new edition of “The Pigeon of Masis” ( French: La colombe du Massus ).

Subsequently, under the influence of his brother Ivan Konstantinovich, he abandoned the Catholic faith and returned to the fold of the Armenian Apostolic Church .

In 1858, at the invitation of the Russian government, he returned from Paris to his native Theodosia, was appointed leader of the Nakhichevan-Bessarabian diocese.

Halibov School

Upon returning to Feodosia, Gabriel and his brother Ivan went to Moscow in order to get acquainted with the Lazarevsky College of Oriental Languages . In the autumn of the same year, they went to St. Petersburg and submitted to the government bodies a ready-made draft and charter of the future national Armenian school in Feodosia.

A large sum of money for this project was allocated by the philanthropist-mayor, large industrialist Harutyun Pogosovich Halibyan, in whose honor the school was named. This was his basic condition necessary for him to allocate money for the construction.

Education in the educational institution was given at the gymnasium level, that is, general secondary education. The school provided for a six-year course of study. Since 1858, it was in a rented room, but in 1862 the school moved to a new, good two-story stone building, where a pharmacy and a hospital were also built.

A private printing house was opened at the school, which became the first printing house in the history of Crimean Armenians. The “Pigeon of Masis” was published here in Russian, Armenian, and French. There was an addition to it - the Rainbow magazine.

A book of Hovhannes (Ivan) Ter-Abramian, personal secretary of Archbishop Aivazovsky, who worked in the printing house, was at its origins in the printing house of the Khalibov school. He wrote a book in the Armenian language “History of the Crimea”, where he presented quite voluminous information on Crimeology. In this book, he spoke about the Crimea and the peoples who inhabited it. The book was printed in 1865 ^[1] . In 1879, Aivazovsky resigned and was engaged in the affairs of the diocese, living in Tiflis ^[2] .

• "Essay on the History of Russia" (in Armenian, Venice, 1836)
• “The History of the Ottoman State” ( grabar , 2 vol., Venice, 1841)
• “The Great Lexicon of the Armenian Language” (co-authored with the monks Somalyan and Agelyan)
• A note on the origin of the Novorossiysk Armenians. // ZOOID. - t.6. - Odessa, 1867. - p. 550-555
• Grammar of Russian language
• Translation into Armenian of Krylov’s fables.
• Essay on the Spirit and Direction of the Mkhitaryan Congregation of Venice (in Armenian), Paris, 1857

• Father: Kaitan Gayvazovsky
• Mother: Hripsime Gayvazovskaya
• Brother: Aivazovsky, Ivan Konstantinovich - the famous artist-marine painter.
• Brother: Aivazovsky Grigory Konstantinovich - college assessor since 1853, captain of the Theodosian quarantine port ^[3] .
• Sister.

• G.K. Aivazovsky knew more than 12 languages.
• 1997 was declared by UNESCO the year of the Aivazovsky brothers.
• When the news of the death of Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky circled Europe in May 1900 , Parisian newspapers wrote that Gabriel Aivazovsky’s brother had died in Feodosia .
• Translations by G.K. Aivazovsky of Krylov's fables are considered to be closest to the original.

• Encyclopedia of the Hayazg Foundation
• Russian history in portraits
• Aivazovsky, Gabriel Konstantinovich // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Shaen Khachatryan. AIVAZOV BROTHERS // Tretyakov Gallery Magazine, # 4 2016 (53)