Real name Alexander Minasovich Movsisyan. Writer, playwright, in 1930 he was awarded the title of People's Writer of the Armenian SSR and the Azerbaijan SSR. Born in Shamakhi (Azerbaijan) in the family of a tailor. In order to support his family, he went to work in Baku, where he served in the provincial government for eight years and worked in the offices of oil companies. The birth of the oil nouveau riche of Baku took place before the eyes of the young Shirvanzade. Shirvanzade’s best works were written in the period 1890 - 1905, including the writer’s most outstanding work - the novel “Chaos” (1898), which describes the life of an industrial city - the chaos of the capitalist world . The struggle of social classes and estates, the exploitation of workers, the decomposition of the bourgeois family, in which the thirst for money dominates all feelings - these are the main problems on which the plot is based. During the massacre of Armenians in Turkey 1894-1896, Shirvanzade, being a member of the Hunchak party , published publications in the press in defense of the Armenians and, in order to raise funds for the victims, went to Russia, but was arrested by the tsarist authorities and thrown into Metekhi prison. In 1898 he was exiled to Odessa for two years, where he continued his literary activity. In 1905 he left for Paris, where he lived until 1910. In 1919, for the purpose of treatment, he again went abroad. In 1926, the writer returned to Soviet Armenia, where he lived until the end of his days