OFFICE OF LITERATURNAYA GAZETA’S CORRESPONDENT OPENS IN YEREVAN

Noyan Tapan

Se p 12, 2008

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 12, NOYAN TAPAN. The editor of Literaturnaya
Gazeta newspaper (Russia) Yuri Polyakov and several members of the
editorial staff are on a visit to Yerevan within the framework of
Days of Russian Speech in Armenia organized on the initiative of the
Society for Friendship and Cooperation with Russia.

At the invitation of the chairwoman of the Union of Journalists of
Armenia Astghik Gevorgian, the editor of this newspaper famous for
its literary and historic traditions met with representatives of
Armenian mass media on September 11. In the words of Yuri Polyakov,
in Russia the real admirers of arts and literature have already found
their viewers and readers.

"Commercial events are starting to lose their viewers. Real art
admirers have rediscovered their cultural centers," Y. Polyakov noted.

Over the past seven years, the circulation of Literaturnaya Gazeta
has increased from 23,000 to 100,000, with 6,000 copies being printed
in Frankfort for Russian-speaking readers in Europe. Besides, the
newspaper is also printed in Vladivostok.

Y. Polyakov said that some Soviet-time traditions of the newspaper
have already been restored, including the pages dedicated to national
literature.

"I think there were writers in those years, for example, Hrant
Matevosian, Silva Kaputikian, Chingiz Aytmatov, whose influence on
the literature of that period was enormous. It would be wrong not to
publish them," the editor said.

The office of the Armenian correspondent of Literaturnaya Gazeta was
opened at the Union of Armenian Writers on the same day.

Literaturnaya Gazeta was founded in 1830 by the great Russian
poet Alexander Pushkin. Later, in 1929, it was restored by another
distinguished writer Maxim Gorky.