In August 1883, Ter-Tadevos took his fourteen-year-old son Hovhannes to the largest center of Armenian culture – Tiflis city.
It was a new world for a young peasant who fell into a big city. “...a huge wedding hall. Zurna, dhol, daira, nagհara, clapping-laughter, dance, song... The whole city was ringing dressed up and decorated" (H.T. "Two great Tiflisians").
At first, Ter-Tadevos put his son through the cadet corps (secondary military school in Tsarist Russia), obsessed with the idea to see his son as a distinguished soldier. Toumanian didn’t put up with the strict rules and regulations of the military school and left it after a short period as he considered himself a poet from a very young age.
In September 1883, Toumanian enrolled in the second grade of Nersisyan School as a commuter student. In this school he studied for about three years and gained general intellectual development, particularly in the field of humanitarian.
Some of Toumanian's teachers were really wise and educated: historian-novelist Tserents (Hovsep Shishmanyan), who taught Armenian history and French, translator Gevorg Barkhudaryan taught Russian history and geography, Phil. Vardanyan: General history, philologist K. Karapetyan: Armenian language and others.
Tserents was one of the favorite teachers: thanks to his lessons and reading classes Toumanian’s love and interest developed and deepened towards the Armenian people history.
During the studying years, Khachatur Abovyan’s novel “Wounds of Armenia”, Raphayel Patkanyan’s and Miqayel Nalbandyan’s articles and songs, Raffi’s novels, as well as reading the works of Russian poets Lermontov, Pushkin, Krylov left a deep mark on the formation of the young poet’s literary and social views.
Raffi’s charm had a huge exceptional impact on the youth of the time, as well as on Toumanian. Hovhannes was still a student when he visited the great novelist Raffi “when he was writing and proofreading “Samvel”, spread out in front of him”. His “The Fool”, “Jalaleddi”, “David Bek”, “Sparks”, “Samvel” were published one after another, fueling the young poet’s creative imagination.
The third-fourth grade students of Nersisyan School, including Toumanian, followed the press of the time. They read “Hyusisapayl” magazine, “Nor Dar” and “Mshak” newspapers with great enthusiasm. In that period, the young poet made his first steps to work with the press.
During the student years he started to write legends – “The Dog and The Cat”, “Unlucky Merchants”, and several national-patriotic poems – “Why are you sad”, “Let the wind blows” song’s music”, “The Patriarch's Lament” and others. Spreading among the students, they announce the young poet's name in the school and beyond it.
Despite the ban for Nersisian school students, young Hovhannes was also fascinated by the theater. It reveals Shakespeare for Toumanian and his contemporaries with Petros Adamyan's (Armenian prominent actor) brilliant performance of “Hamlet”, and directs them to drama – the most complex type of literature.
In addition to Adamyan's several Shakespearean performances that Toumanian saw in theatre, once he had opportunity to play with the great artist in the historical drama “Vardanants War” of H. Karinyan, in the role of a soldier.
Toumanian was still under the magical impression of Adamyan's “Hamlet”, when he got news from the village about the threat to his father's life. As it turned out after, the news was the result of a simple misunderstanding. “The Chopur boys” revenge subject was not Ter-Tadevos but Ter-Hakob. However, only the thought that his father might become a victim of revenge by misunderstanding, terrified the loving son.
That circumstance, as well as dissatisfaction with the restrictive school order and form, the rapidly growing interests and curiosity that were no longer satisfied at school, the desire for literary-social life and unfavorable material conditions become the main internal and external factors for leaving the school.
In spring 1886, Toumanian leaved the school and went back to Dsegh.
A seventeen-year-old boy, with a burning desire to continue his studies, spends the summer in the village, surrounded by the villagers, travels around the nearby places, participates in village work, and meets “the Chopur boys” who rebelled against Tsarism.