Central Regional Library Named After Marietta Shahinyan

The connection between Marietta Sergeyevna Shahinyan and Grigoriopol runs deep through generations of her family’s history. Her great-grandfather, Makariy Shahinyan, lived in Grigoriopol, serving as a healer and the leader of the group of Armenian immigrants who, in the 18th century, founded the Armenian colony on the banks of the Dniester that would become Grigoriopol itself. Marietta’s father, Sergey, was born in Grigoriopol, later graduating from the Medical Faculty of Moscow University where he became a lecturer. Marietta Sergeyevna herself visited Grigoriopol with her father to see her grandfather, establishing her own personal connection to this ancestral city.

In the summer of 1970, already in her ninth decade of life, Marietta Sergeyevna undertook a road trip she described as a journey “to the land of the ancestors,” traveling the route from Grigoriopol through Izmail to Odessa. During her visit to the library, the celebrated writer offered a remark that has since become part of the institution’s identity: “It is very remarkable and significant that there is a library in the writer’s house.” The library preserves a record of Marietta Sergeyevna’s personal appeal to the citizens of Grigoriopol, ensuring her words remain connected to this community.

Today, the library houses a literary-memorial complex dedicated to Marietta Shahinyan, containing books, brochures, articles and pictures — some of which were donated by the author herself — creating a meaningful tribute to this remarkable writer whose family roots reach directly into the founding story of Grigoriopol.

Address: 148, K. Marks str., Grigoriopol
Phone: +373 210 32792