Ruben Filian was born in 1952 in Yerevan. He graduated from the Yerevan State University with a degree in Journalism.

Filian was frustrated by the soviet state, which was censoring the art and making it a tool for propaganda. By then he was one of the most prominent representatives of Yerevan’s bohemian circles, mastered several languages, had already been attracted by eastern philosophy, practiced karate and yoga and was doing translations from Sanskrit.

His first book The Unknown Self Biography was published in 1980. In the 70es Filian managed to flee from the Soviet Union. He set off to France, then travelled towards the Mediterranean, later to Egypt, Jordan and set down in Goa, India, where he taught yoga, karate, music and eastern philosophy. The last years of his life Filian lived in a hippy community in Goa and passed away on January 6, 1983, in a murder case, under unknown circumstances.

The book The Ambassador of Your Country got published in 1992 and included the homonymous novel, short stories, and tales. In 2022 ARI Press published the full variant of the above mentioned book and in 2024 the new edition of The Unknown Self Biography․