Aleksandr Pushkin

Hovhannes Tumanyan was an Armenian author, public activist who is considered by many to be the national poet of Armenia. His work was mostly written in tragic form, often centering on the harsh lives of villagers in the Lori region. Hovhannes Tumanyan was born in February 19, 1869 in the village... of Dsegh, which was part of the Tiflis Governorate of the Russian Empire, and now is located in Lori Province of Armenia. His father was an offspring of an Armenian princely family of Tumanyan and the village's priest and his mother an avid storyteller with a particular interest in fables, Tumanyan had incorporated many of the themes from his mother's stories and his father's preachings into his writings. He was also a great master of quatrains: Tumanyan is usually regarded in Armenian circles as "All-Armenian poet". He earned this title when the Catholicos of Armenia had ordered that Armenian refugees from the west not enter certain areas of his church and house, since he is considered to be "The Catholicos of all Armenians".
more

Ğabdulla Tuqay was a Tatar poet, a classic of the Tatar literature, a critic and a publisher. Tuqay is often referred as the founder of the modern Tatar literature and the modern Tatar literary language, which replaced Old Tatar language in literature. Ğabdulla Tuqay was born in the... family of the hereditary village mullah of Quşlawıç, Kazan Governorate, Russian Empire near the modern town of Arsk. His father, Möxämmätğärif Möxämmätğälim ulı Tuqayıv, had been a village mandative mullah since 1864. In 1885 his wife died, leaving him a son and a daughter, and Möxämmätğärif married second wife, Mämdüdä, daughter of Öçile village mullah Zinnätulla Zäynepbäşir ulı. On 29 August O.S. Möxämmätğärif died when Ğabdulla was 5 months old. Soon Ğabdulla's grandfather also died and Mämdüdä was forced to return to her father and then to get married to the mullah of the village of Sasna. Little Ğabdulla lived for some time with an old woman in his native village, before his new stepfather agreed to take Tuqay into his family. Tuqay's relatively happy childhood did not last long: on O.S.
more

Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem Commedia, later named La divina commedia , considered the greatest literary work composed in the... Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature. In Italy he is known as il Sommo Poeta or just il Poeta. Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio are also known as "the three fountains" or "the three crowns". Dante is also called the "Father of the Italian language". Dante was born in Florence, Italy. The exact date of Dante's birth is unknown, although it is generally believed to be around 1265. This can be deduced from autobiographic allusions in La Divina Commedia, "the Inferno" is 70 years; and as the imaginary travel took place in 1300, Dante must have been born around 1265.
more

François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, freedom of expression, free trade and separation of church and... state. Voltaire was a prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poetry, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken supporter of social reform, despite strict censorship laws with harsh penalties for those who broke them. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma and the French institutions of his day. Voltaire was one of several Enlightenment figures whose works and ideas influenced important thinkers of both the American and French Revolutions.
more