Armenian Literature

Before the introduction of Christianity into Armenia in the 3rd century AD, Armenian literature was Assyrian or Medo-Persian in character. After that date, however, the language, literature, and finally the alphabet of Greece appeared in Armenian writing, although eastern Armenia retained the Syriac alphabet. The translation of the Bible into Classical Armenian, traditionally ascribed to the monk and scholar St. Mesrob, and his systematization of the Armenian alphabet in 410 opened a period of literary activity …

…works in every literary form, though none of its writers won an international reputation; the movement is also responsible for important collections of Armenian folklore. After the founding of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936, literature in Armenian was encouraged and carefully monitored by the Soviet government. The most successful field for the Armenian writer in the 20th century was journalism, with many periodicals written in Armenian being published in various parts of the world.