Vagharshak Shahinyan’s gravestone is the only one in Sardarapat Memorial. During the soviet years there was special cruelty against the commanders participated in the Battle of Sardarapat. Those who survived in the 1920s did not manage to flee the severity of Stalin in 1937. Vagharshak Shahinyan was among the unique heroes, who managed to find an asylum in remote America.
Vagharshak Shahinyan was born in 1889 in the city of Van, Western Armenia. In 1910 he left for America but after a short period of time, in 1914, he returned to the homeland and participated in the World War I. In 1918 he participated in the Battle of Sardarapat along with his detachment comprised of 1100 home guardsmen.
The soldier fighting and struggling for his homeland could not endure the sovietization. The new regime was not for him. He returned to the United States and settled there.
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