January 15, 2012
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Aleksandr Sergeyevich Griboyedov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Грибое́дов) (January 15, 1795 – February 11, 1829) was a Russian diplomat, playwright, and composer. He is recognized as homo unius libri, a writer of one book, whose fame rests on the brilliant verse comedy Woe from Wit (or: The Woes of Wit), still one of the most often staged plays in Russia. One expert, Angela Brintlinger, argues that "not only did Griboedov's contemporaries conceive of his life as the life of a literary hero — ultimately writing a number of narratives featuring him as an essential character — but indeed Griboedov saw himself as a hero and his life as a narrative. Although there is not a literary artifact to prove this, by examining Griboedov's letters and dispatches, one is able to build a historical narrative that fits the literary and behavioral paradigms of his time and that reads like a real adventure novel set in the wild, wild East."

 Born in Moscow, Griboyedov studied at the Moscow University from 1810 to 1812. He then obtained a commission in a hussar regiment, but resigned it in 1816. Next year, Griboyedov entered the civil service, and in 1818 was appointed secretary of the Russian legation in Persia, and was transferred to Georgia. He had commenced writing early and, in 1816, had produced on the stage at St. Petersburg a comedy in verse called The Young Spouses (Молодые супруги), which was followed by other works of the same kind. But neither these nor the essays and verses which he wrote would have been long remembered but for the immense success gained by his comedy in verse Woe from Wit (Горе от ума, or Gore ot uma), a satire upon Russian aristocratic society.

As a high official depicted in the play styles it, this work is "a pasquinade on Moscow". The play's merits are in its accurate representation of certain social and official types - such as Famusov, the lover of old abuses, the hater of reforms; his secretary, Molchalin, servile fawner upon all in office; the aristocratic young liberal and Anglomaniac, Repetilov; contrasted with whom is the hero of the piece, Chatsky, the ironic satirist, just returned from the west of Europe, who exposes and ridicules the weaknesses of the rest, his words echoing that outcry of the young generation of 1820 which reached its climax in the military insurrection of 1825, and was then sternly silenced by Nicholas I. Although rooted in the classical French comedy of Molière, the characters are as much individuals as types, and the interplay between society and individual is a sparkling dialectical give-and-take.

Griboyedov spent the summer of 1823 in Russia, completed his play and took it to St. Petersburg. There it was rejected by the censors. Many copies were made and privately circulated, but Griboyedov never saw it published. The first edition was printed in 1833, four years after his death. Only once did he see it on the stage, when it was acted by the officers of the garrison at Yerevan. Soured by disappointment, he returned to Georgia, made himself useful by his linguistic knowledge to his relative general Ivan Paskevich during a campaign against Persia, and was sent to St. Petersburg with the Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1828. Brilliantly received there, he thought of devoting himself to literature, and commenced a romantic drama, A Georgian Night (Грузинская ночь, or Gruzinskaya noch').

Several months after his wedding to the 16 year old daughter of his friend Prince Chavchavadze, Griboyedov was suddenly sent to Persia as Minister Plenipotentiary. In the aftermath of the war and humiliating Treaty of Turkmenchay, anti-Russian sentiment in Persia was rampant and, soon after Griboyedov's arrival at Tehran, a mob stormed the Russian embassy. The incident began when an Armenian eunuch escaped from the harem of Persian shah Fath Ali Shah, and two Armenian girls escaped from that of his son-in-law. All three sought refuge at the Russian embassy. As agreed to in the Treaty of Turkmenchay, Armenians living in Persia were permitted to return to Eastern Armenia. However, the Shah demanded that Griboyedov return the three. Griboyedov refused. This caused an uproar throughout the city and several thousand Persians encircled the Russian compound demanding their release. Griboyedov and other members of his mission, seeing that things are bad, prepared for a siege and sealed all the windows and doors, armed and in full uniform, resolved to defend to the last drop of blood. The Cossack detachment assigned to protect the embassy was too small in number but held off the mob for over an hour until finally being driven back to Griboyedov's office. There, he and the rest of the Cossacks held out even further until the mob broke through and slaughtered them all. Griboyedov was among the first who were shot to death. Second secretary of the mission Adelung and, in particular, a young doctor (name unknown) fought hard, but the fight was too unequal , and soon the scene was that of butchered, decapitated corpses. The mob grabbed the corpse of Griboyedov, distinguished by his uniform, and dragged it through the streets and bazaars of the city, with cries of celebration. The eunuch was one of the first killed in the assault on the embassy; the fate of the two Armenian girls remains unknown.

His body was for three days so ill-treated by the mob that it was recognized only by an old scar on the hand, due to a wound received in a duel. His body was taken to Tiflis and buried in the monastery of Saint David (Mtatsminda Pantheon). His 16 year old widow, Nino, on hearing of his death, gave premature birth to a child who died a few hours later. She lived another thirty years after her husband's death, rejecting all suitors and winning universal admiration for her fidelity to his memory.

In a move to placate Russia for the attack and the death of its ambassador, Persia presented the Tsar with a large diamond, now known as the Shah Diamond, as a gift. The ceremony is depicted in the 2002 film Russian Ark, by leading Russian director Alexander Sokurov, with lavish realism.

One of the main settings for the satire of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita is named after Griboyedov, as is the Griboyedov Canal in Central Saint Petersburg.