Regina Ghazaryan

Regina Tadevosi Ghazaryan (; April 17, 1915 in Yerevan – November 6, 1999 in Yerevan) was an Armenian painter and public figure. Known as a friend and benefactor of Yeghishe Charents, she is credited with saving many of the poet's manuscripts during the regime of Joseph Stalin.

Biography Ghazaryan was born in a family of an Armenian genocide survivor from Van and a noble mother from Yerevan (Khorasanyans). She met the poet Yeghishe Charents in 1930. At the age of fifteen, Ghazaryan, an orphan, had "in some sort been adopted by Charents as both an intimate friend and a witness to his solitary hours".

In 1937, from the prison cell Charents had secretly informed his wife Izabella that she should trust all of his writings only to a family friend, Ghazaryan, and that she will save them from being destroyed. After Charents's death Ghazaryan hid and preserved many of his manuscripts (7000 lines in total including "Requiem to Komitas", "The Nameless", "Songs of Autumn" and "Navzike") in the garden. As a military pilot she participated in World War II. She finished Yerevan Fine Arts Institute in 1951.

On 11 March 1954, Anastas Mikoyan called for the rehabilitation of Charents in a speech in Yerevan. The speech inspired Ghazaryan to remove Charents's manuscripts from hiding. She granted them to the Charents Museum of Literature and Arts. Renowned painter of Armenia (1985)

Works Charents (1966) Aghavnadzor (1965) Komitas (1969) Aspetakan (1975) Paruyr Sevak Khaghagh tiezerk

Personal exhibitions Yerevan (1967, 1987, 1988) Gyumri (1967) Ejmiatsin (1967)

Books Charentsyan Nshkharner by Regina Ghazaryan (1998)

Publications Regina Ghazaryan, "Reminiscences about Charents" [Husher Charentsi masin], Garun. Erevan, #1. 1987, pp. 67–75