Summary of "In Ruins"
The excerpt from "In Ruins: The 1909 Massacres of Armenians in Adana, Turkey" by Zabel Yesayan, describes the somber aftermath of the 1909 massacres. It paints a vivid picture of the surviving Armenian population in Adana—widows, orphans and the elderly. These survivors are portrayed as emotionally and physically traumatized. It highlights the unimaginable scale of the atrocities they endured, including families torn apart, people losing their minds, and the sheer terror of being trapped between gunfire and flames. Overall, the passage provides stark and painful insights into the tragic impact of the massacres on the individual and the community.
The Biography Zabel Yesayan
February 1878 – 1945?
Zabel Yesayan was an Armenian writer and political figure from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Her books, article and speeches included topics including the Adana massacre, Armenian genocide and women’s rights.
When the Ottoman Turks detained 250 of the most influential leaders in in Western Armenia on April 24, 1915, Yesayan was the only woman slotted to be arrested. She escaped to Bulgaria and eventually made it to France where she lived until the early 1930’s with her husband and children.
In 1932, Yesayan and her family moved from Paris to Armenia. The Soviet Union controlled Armenia. As a supporter herself, Yesayan was happy to live under the control of the Communist Party. By 1936, Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, began what is known today as the Great Purge.
In 1937 order No. 00447 called for the imprisonment and mass execution of “socially harmful elements” that were “enemies of the people.” Despite being a supporter of the Communist Party, Yesayan was arrested and accused of being an enemy of the people. She was first sentenced to death and she was able to convince the court to lift the death penalty. Instead, she was sentenced to ten years in prison. The last letter her children received from her was in 1945. To this day, no one can find documentation of when and how she died.
Eleven years after that last correspondence her children, her son was able to have her case retried and in 1957 she was pardoned.