Raphael Patkanian was one of the most popular Armenian

Armenians

Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....

 poets.
Patkanian was born in Nor Nakhichevan

Nor Nakhichevan

Nakhichevan-on-Don , also known as Nor Nakhichevan is an Armenian-populated region in the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia. In 1778, Catherine the Great invited Armenian merchants from the Crimea to Russia...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 in 1830, his father and grandfather had been known for their poetic gifts. While at the University of Moscow, he created a literary club for his Armenian students, and from initials of their names formed his own pen-name of Kamar Katiba. Many of his poems were written during the Turco-Russian war, when the Russian Armenians

Russian Armenia

Russian Armenia is the period of Armenia's history under Russian rule beginning from 1829, when Eastern Armenia became part of the Russian Empire to the declaration of the Democratic Republic of Armenia in 1918...

 had high hopes for the deliverance of Turkish Armenia from the Ottoman yoke.