“Water flows and teaches”: Marietta Shaginian’s novel Hydrocentral

The words above, detailing how “water flows and teaches” us, are those of Anush Malkhasian, an elderly female schoolteacher and mediator figure. They echo the main idea of the massive novel Hydrocentral, written by the Soviet-Armenian writer Marietta Shaginian (1888-1982). Hydrocentral is regarded as one of the “forgotten classics” (Nicholas 34) of Socialist Realism, one of the movement’s “flagships” (Terras 484), and a “pioneer work” describing socialist construction (Kuznetsov 194). The novel was published in 1930-1931, first serially in the journal Novyi mir, and then as a separate volume in 1931.