Word: vosdanig
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Gorky was born Vosdanig Adoian in Khorkom, a village in Turkish Armenia. In his early 20s he adopted a new name - Arshile (Russian for Achilles) Gorky (in homage to the Russian writer Maxim Gorky). He may not have known that gorky means bitter in Russian, but he was certainly acquainted with bitterness. He had arrived in New York City in 1920 as an 18-year-old refugee from the Turkish campaign of atrocities against Armenians. One year earlier, his mother had died of starvation in his arms. In adulthood, from 1926 to 1942, he obsessively reworked two haunting double portraits...
Barefoot & Ragged. In his short lifetime (he was 43 when he died), Gorky knew more than his share of sorrow. Born Vosdanig Adoian in Turkish Armenia, he was three when his father deserted the family and ran away to avoid being conscripted into the Turkish army. During the Turkish massacres of the Armenians, his mother fled with the boy and his three sisters to Erivan in Russian Armenia. After his mother died at the age of 38, Gorky and his youngest sister decided to go to the U.S. Barefoot and ragged, they made their way to Tiflis. There they joined...
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