On December 13, on the birthday of Valery Bryusov, a famous Russian poet, literary critic, translator, friend of the Armenian people, a public lecture “Valery Bryusov and the Poetry of Armenia” was held at the National Library of Armenia. The last lecture of the year organized on the occasion of the poet’s 150th birthday was given by Anna Chulyan, director of the National Library, Bryusov scholar, and founder of the Bryusov Museum.   

    
The speaker presented the life and work of Valery Bryusov, in particular, touching on the history of compiling the anthology Poetry of Armenia published in Moscow in 1916. Anna Chulyan emphasized that Poetry of Armenia was born at a critical time for the Armenian people. Bryusov, having gathered a group of representatives of the leading Russian intelligentsia, together with them translated and compiled a collection that no one has managed to surpass to this day. The speaker emphasized that the pearls of Armenian poetry - from the early Middle Ages to works of the early twentieth century - were presented for the first time in Russian.   

Bryusov was the first who speak about the genocide of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire published the figure of one and a half million victims. It was Bryusov who first divided Eastern Armenian and Polish-Armenian writers. During the wonderful lecture, many revelations occurred for the participants.

 Yes, you're on the edge 

Two different arguing worlds, 

And in the depths of native legends, 

You hear the echoes of centuries.... 

This is how Valery Bryusov, an expert and admirer of Armenian literature, an incomparable translator of Armenian lyrics, began his poem “Armenians”. From this point of view, the poet considered the language, culture and history of Armenia, the real borderland of East and West.