Simon Vratsian §

Born in Bolshie Saly, Don oblast (a Crimean-Armenian colony) in 1882; studied at the Echmiadzin seminary and Nersessian school in Tbilisi before joining the ARF and becoming one of its leading younger publicists. Served as Foreign Minister and Labour Minister in the First Republic and then took office as Prime Minister on 24 November 1920, within hours of the Bolshevik 11th Army crossing into Armenia. After the February 1921 anti-Bolshevik uprising he led the Republic of Mountainous Armenia in Zangezur from April to July 1921, the last fragment of the First Republic, before retreating into Persia with the remnants of the army. Emigrated to Paris and then Beirut, where he served as principal of the Nshan Palanjian Jemaran (1944–69) and produced the major Armenian-language history of the First Republic ("Hayastani Hanrapetutyun", 1928). Died in Beirut in 1969.