Alexander Griboyedov was born on January 4, 1795 in the family of a retired Major Seconds. The father of the future poet Sergei Ivanovich and mother Anastasia Fedorovna came from the same clan, but from different branches - the father from Vladimir, and the mother from Smolensk. The Griboyedov family itself is mentioned for the first time in documents from the beginning of the seventeenth century. According to family legend, it was founded by the Polish gentry Grzybowski, who arrived in Muscovy together with False Dmitry I, and then quickly became Russified. The Smolensk Griboyedovs turned out to be much more fortunate than their relatives from Vladimir, to whom the epithet "seedy" was quite appropriate. Griboyedov's maternal grandfather - Fedor Alekseevich - rose to the rank of brigadier and was the owner of the rich Khmelita estate, located not far from Vyazma. And his only son, Alexei Fedorovich, lived as an important gentleman. The marriage of Alexander's parents could not be called successful. Sergei Ivanovich was a real bastard, an inveterate gambler and, in general, an absolutely dissolute person. Marrying Anastasia Feodorovna, he was deceived by her 400 serfs. In the upbringing of his children - Maria (born in 1792) and Alexander - Sergei Ivanovich did not take any part.
In 1794 Nastasya Fyodorovna acquired the village of Timirevo in the Vladimir province, in which Alexander Sergeevich spent his childhood. There was nothing to move to Moscow, and only at the beginning of the new century did Alexei Fedorovich give his sister a house “near Novinsky”. Since then, Anastasia Fedorovna and her children spent winters in the ancient capital of Russia, and in the summer they came to Khmelita, where Aleksey Fedorovich kept a serf theater. Griboyedov also attended Moscow theaters, mainly Petrovsky, in which his mother took a box for the entire season. Also, one of the brightest childhood impressions was the annual Podnovinsky festivities, which were held during Holy Week a couple of steps from the Griboyedovs' house.
Like many noble children of that time, Alexander began to speak French almost earlier than Russian. Griboyedov began his formal studies at the age of seven, after he was assigned a tutor, a German by the name of Petrozilius. Following his sister Masha, who showed exceptional success in playing the piano, the boy became interested in music. The famous dance teacher Peter Iogel taught him to dance. In the fall of 1803, Anastasia Fyodorovna sent her son to the Noble Boarding School, which operated at Moscow University, but Alexander studied there for only six months, having managed to receive a number of awards in music during this time. Further visits to the boarding house were prevented by poor health - the boy was again transferred to home schooling. Griboyedov became a self-employed student (i.e., studying at his own expense) at Moscow University in 1806. Just two years later, the thirteen-year-old successfully passed the exam for the Candidate of Arts degree. It was still too early for him to enter the service, and the family decided that Alexander should continue his studies at the university, but at the ethical and political department.
By that time, Alexander Sergeevich became close friends with the brothers Peter and Mikhail Chaadaev. All three were inveterate theatergoers, and they preferred to spend their evenings in theaters. Like Onegin, they "breathed freedom" walked "between the chairs on the legs", pointed a double lorgnette "at the boxes of unfamiliar ladies", bowed and were dissatisfied. By the way, in the theater of that time, the voices of the actors were not always audible because of the noise. The theater of those times was somewhat reminiscent of a modern club, where people met, gossiped, started romances, discussed the news … The theater was entertainment, it became a "temple" much later, when a serious repertoire appeared that could educate people and change lives for the better. In the days of Griboyedov's youth, as a rule, only "trinkets" were shown on the stage - reworkings of French plays. Psychological theater did not exist, and dramatic performances were a series of recitations of actors, changing from time to time memorized poses. The first literary experiments of Griboyedov also belong to this period of time. So far, however, these were only "jokes". On the subject of university life in the spring of 1812, Alexander Sergeevich composed the tragedy "Dmitry Dryanskoy", which was a parody of "Dmitry Donskoy" by Vladislav Ozerov.
The atmosphere in the country, meanwhile, was heating up - everyone was preparing for a war with Napoleon. The Chaadaev brothers entered the army in the spring of 1812. The future playwright was eager for them, but his mother stood in his way, categorically - due to the growing danger - who did not want her son to become an officer. No one wanted to quarrel with her, and only after the start of the Patriotic War, Alexander Sergeevich secretly from Anastasia Fedorovna came to Count Pyotr Saltykov, who was ordered to form a hussar regiment in the capital. In this regiment, young Griboyedov was immediately enrolled in the rank of a cornet. The "amateur" regiment resembled a regular combat unit very little and looked more like a Cossack freeman. This confirmed his "journey" to the east. In the city of Pokrov, the hussars, deprived of competent leadership, and, in fact, not familiar with military discipline, in the course of a wild drinking binge, perpetrated a uniform pogrom. Young officers, having escaped from the care of their parents, took the trip exclusively as a fun “adventure”. The damage inflicted on the city and the county amounted to over 21 thousand rubles, which was a huge amount at that time. In units of the regular army, such a savage trick of the Moscow hussars did not at all contribute to the growth of their "rating". The unfortunate warrior was sent to serve in Kazan, while Griboyedov, having caught a bad cold, remained for treatment in Vladimir, where his relatives lived. The disease turned out to be quite serious - only in the spring, with the help of local healers, he finally recovered.
By that time, the Moscow hussars were united with the Irkutsk dragoon regiment, which suffered heavy losses and gained great glory in the Smolensk battle. The new regiment was included in the reserve army being formed in Poland, from where the French had already been driven out. Griboyedov also traveled to the western borders of the Russian Empire. On the way, he visited the Moscow conflagration. He found neither his home, nor the university - everything disappeared in the fire. Then the cornet visited Khmelita, where he heard the story that Napoleon himself lived in the Griboyedov estate (in fact, it was Marshal Joachim Murat). He found his regiment, now called the Irkutsk Hussar Regiment, in the city of Kobrin in June 1813. Griboyedov did not stay too long at this place - he had several letters for General Andrei Kologrivov, who commanded the cavalry in the reserve army. The general's headquarters was located in Brest-Litovsk, and soon a young officer also appeared there. He did not find the general here, but he made friends with the brothers Stepan and Dmitry Begichev. The first served as an adjutant of Kologrivov, and the second served as the ruler of the chancellery. Thanks to their participation, Griboyedov was enrolled in the headquarters - the general needed intelligent officers who knew Polish.
At the headquarters, Alexander Sergeevich acted as a "negotiator" with local residents, who treated the Russian soldiers extremely unfriendly, and showed himself in this field from the best side. But in his free time from the service, Griboyedov led a rather absent-minded life - he played music, hung around, participated in officers' parties. Some of his "exploits" went beyond what was permissible, for example, once, together with Stepan Begichev, he entered the hall in which the ball was being held (on the second floor!), On horseback. Another time, Alexander Sergeevich, having kicked out the organist of the church, performed “Kamarinskaya” on the organ during the Catholic service. However, Kologrivov appreciated him, and Griboyedov was fine. In Poland, he continued his literary attempts - he began to compose the comedy "Young Spouses" and was published twice in the "Vestnik Evropy" - with an article "On cavalry reserves" and a poetic and prosaic "Letter from Brest-Litovsk", presenting a report on the celebration of the victory over Napoleon.
After the end of the war, the service to Alexander Sergeevich, who had never fought, quickly got bored. In December 1814, having received leave, he left for St. Petersburg, where he lived for three months, plunging headlong into theatrical life. During that period, he became friends with Prince Alexander Shakhovsky, who directed all the St. Petersburg theaters. After returning to Brest-Litovsk, Griboyedov finished writing his "Young Spouses" and sent the comedy to Shakhovsky. Alexander Alexandrovich was delighted with the work and invited the author to St. Petersburg to take part in the production of the play. Having knocked out a new vacation - now for a year, but without saving his salary - Griboyedov rushed to the Northern capital in June 1815. His financial affairs, by the way, were very bad. In 1814, his father died, leaving only debts. The mother, avoiding unnecessary payments, persuaded her son to give his share of the inheritance to his sister. Uncle Alexei Fyodorovich had already gone broke by that time and also could not help his beloved nephew. The only joy was that the audience received the Young Spouses favorably, although without much enthusiasm. And in December 1815, Alexander Sergeevich filed a petition to enter the civil service. Despite Kologrivov's efforts to raise his protégé, on March 25, 1816, the cornet Griboyedov was dismissed "to be assigned to affairs of state by the previous rank of state."
In St. Petersburg, Griboyedov lived with his old friend Stepan Begichev. His life, as before, was scattered - he visited high-society salons, became his own behind the theatrical scenes, met old Moscow friends, and also made new ones. Among them, it is worth noting the heroes of the war, Alexander Alyabyev and Pyotr Katenin. By the summer of 1817, the efforts of Griboyedov's mother were crowned with success, and he was hired to serve in the Collegium of Foreign Affairs - by the way, simultaneously with the graduates of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, Alexander Pushkin and Wilhelm Kuchelbecker. The newly-minted official did not abandon the drama, but was still content with "trinkets". In the summer of 1817 he lived at Katenin's dacha, where, together with the owner, he composed the comedy The Student. And since August, he began to visit Alexander Shakhovsky more often. He had a creative crisis, and Griboyedov was one of his critics. Desperate, the prince invited him to show him how to write - of course, within the framework of the prepared plot. Alexander Sergeevich, without thinking twice, composed five scenes, which Shakhovskoy, correcting, and later included in the comedy "The Married Bride". It was in these scenes that Griboyedov first found the language that glorified him in Woe From Wit.
In the fall of 1817, the poet fell into an unpleasant story. It all started with the fact that the ballerina Avdotya Istomina, who lived with Vasily Sheremetev, left her lover. Sheremetev's father, alarmed by his son's feelings for the "actor", asked Begichev and Griboyedov to "scout" the case. After the next performance, Alexander Sergeevich met the ballerina and took her to Count Zavadovsky, with whom he lived at that time, to discuss the current situation. Unfortunately, the jealous Sheremetev found them there. A challenge followed. Everything would have ended in reconciliation if the famous daredevil and brute Alexander Yakubovich had not intervened. As a result, a quadruple duel, unprecedented in our country, took place. On November 12, 1817, Zavadovsky and Sheremetev shot themselves, and then Yakubovich and Griboyedov were supposed to converge. However, Sheremetev was fatally wounded in the stomach and died the next day. The second duel was postponed. Alexander I, at the request of Sheremetev's father, forgave Griboyedov and Zavadovsky, and the guardsman Yakubovich, thanks to whom the incident grew into a fatal accident, went to serve in the Caucasus. Society condemned all participants in the fight. Zavadovsky left for England, leaving Griboyedov alone in the capital, which had become not too comfortable for him.
At that time, a dual power reigned in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs - the West was in charge of Karl Nesselrode, who led the Foreign Affairs College, and Count John Kapodistrias was responsible for the East. Griboyedov, dissatisfied with his insignificant position in the Collegium, expressed a desire to use his diplomatic skills in Greece, where the liberation struggle against the Turkish invaders was about to begin. To this end, he even began to study the Greek language, but everything turned out differently. Kapodistrias, who did not approve of the emperor's policy of rapprochement with Austria, fell out of favor. In April 1818, Alexander Sergeevich was offered a choice - either to go to distant America, or to Persia for the newly formed Russian mission. The first option was absolutely unpromising, but the second did not look brilliant either. Nesselrode - his immediate superior - while talking with Griboyedov sweetened the pill: the poet was transferred to the next class and was given a decent salary. There was nowhere to go - in June, Alexander Sergeevich was officially appointed to the post of secretary of the Russian mission. Saying goodbye to his friends, at the end of August 1818 Griboyedov hit the road.
The poet found General Ermolov in Mozdok. The owner of the Caucasus received him kindly, but in Tiflis Yakubovich was already waiting for Alexander Sergeyevich. Two days after Griboyedov's arrival in the city (October 1818), a "postponed" duel took place. Her conditions were extremely harsh - they shot from six steps. Yakubovich fired first and shot Griboyedov in the left hand. The wounded poet fired back, but missed. There were many rumors about a duel in quiet Tiflis, but its participants managed to hush up the matter. Excused by illness, Alexander Sergeevich stayed in the city until January 1819. Despite the treatment, his left little finger was immobilized. According to eyewitnesses, most of all Griboyedov lamented that from now on he would not be able to play the piano. However, after a while he brilliantly mastered the game of nine fingers. It should also be noted that during his stay in Tiflis, the poet became close friends with Major General Fyodor Akhverdov, the chief of artillery of the Caucasian army. The family of Prince Alexander Chavchavadze lived in the wing of his house, and Praskovya Akhverdova (wife of Fyodor Isaevich), not sorting out her own and the prince's children, was engaged in their upbringing.
At the end of January 1819 Griboyedov went to Persia. For the next three years he lived in Tehran and in Tabriz, where the residence of Abbas Mirza, the heir to the throne who ruled the country, was located. For a long time and with difficulty Griboyedov settled down in a new environment for him. After a long trip to Tabriz, his piano "arrived". Alexander Sergeevich put it on the roof of his house and played music in the evenings, delighting the townspeople. Under the inactive head of the mission, Simon Mazarovich, Griboyedov became the main "driving force", developing an active rivalry with the British, our main opponents in this country. Persia at that time acted as a buffer between Russia, advancing in the Caucasus, and India, which the British jealously guarded from strangers. In this struggle for influence, Aleksandr Sergeevich twice “beat” his rivals. In the fall of 1819, despite the dissatisfaction of Abbas Mirza and the British, he personally led 158 captured Russian soldiers and fugitives to Tiflis. And in the middle of 1821, after the beginning of the liberation uprising in Greece, Griboyedov made sure that the Persian prince, who had been looking closely at the eastern Turkish territories for a long time, moved his troops against the Turks. In protest, the British consul left the country.
In November 1821, Griboyedov, who broke his arm when falling from a horse, arrived in Tiflis for treatment, but General Yermolov kept him with him as "secretary for foreign affairs." The poet, who became a collegiate assessor in January 1822, had to "look after" the guests from England. During these months he talked a lot with Yermolov, visited the widowed Akhverdova, became friends with Kuchelbecker, who worked for Alexei Petrovich as an official on special assignments. In the spring of 1822, Alexander Sergeevich began to throw on a new play, from which Woe from Wit later grew. Wilhelm Kuchelbecker, who literally idolized his comrade, became its first listener. However, these readings did not last long - in May, Kuchelbecker fired on a local official, and Ermolov expelled him with an unpleasant characterization. However, the friendship between Wilhelm Karlovich and Alexander Sergeevich continued - Griboyedov subsequently often helped his comrade get out of the difficult situations that he fell into every now and then.
The poet spent the summer of 1822, accompanying the British, traveling across the Transcaucasia and the Caucasus, and at the beginning of 1823 procured a vacation - his old friend Stepan Begichev was going to marry and invited Griboyedov to the wedding. In mid-March, he was already in Moscow. His mother greeted him unkindly, reproaching her son for evading service. First of all, the poet went to a meeting with Begichev, to whom he read a number of scenes from his new comedy. To his surprise, the comrade criticized what he had written. Later, on reflection, Griboyedov agreed with Stepan and burned the manuscript - a new, "correct" plan for the play, which received the first title "Woe to the mind", was born in his head. At the end of April, the playwright played the role of best man at Begichev's wedding, and spent the whole of May, yearning for social life, at balls. He did not want to return to the Caucasus, and Griboyedov filed a petition to extend his leave without pay. The petition was granted.
In July 1823, Alexander Sergeevich appeared in the Tula province in the Dmitrovskoye estate, where the young Begichevs were. Dmitry Begichev and his wife were also here. Everyone led a completely "dacha" life - everyone except Griboyedov. Every day after breakfast he went to the gazebo in the far corner of the garden and worked. At evening tea, the poet read what he had written and listened to comments. At the end of September, Alexander Sergeevich returned to Moscow with three ready-made actions. To compose the last, fourth, he needed Moscow observations. Not wanting to listen to his mother's lectures, he settled with the Begichevs, where he lived for the next six months. While working on comedy, he did not live as a hermit at all: he went to theaters, played music. Together with the retired Chaadaev, Griboyedov attended the English Club, and with Pyotr Vyazemsky he wrote the vaudeville "Who is a brother, who is a sister." Finally, in May 1824 the play was completed, and Griboyedov went with her to St. Petersburg.
The famous Russian playwright Andrei Zhandr, a good friend of Griboyedov's, undertook to prepare the manuscript for submission to the censorship committee. Soon the case was put “on stream” - the employees of the office of the Military Counting Expedition headed by him day and night rewrote the work, and it was distributed in a huge number of copies throughout the city, meeting with an admiring reception everywhere. But things went wrong with the censorship, and Alexander Sergeevich was in frustrated feelings. At the end of the summer, he visited the poet Alexander Odoevsky at his dacha in Strelna, and on his return to St. Petersburg rented a modest apartment near what is now Teatralnaya Square. The poet was in poverty - he even had to lay the Order of the Lion and the Sun, received from the Persian Shah. And on November 7, 1824, Griboyedov experienced a terrible flood in his apartment. The room on the ground floor was flooded, and when the water left, a ship froze on the pavement near the house. It was impossible to live in an apartment, and the playwright moved to Odoevsky.
While living with Alexander Ivanovich, Griboyedov met Kakhovsky, Obolensky, Ryleev and unwittingly found himself drawn into a conspiracy. By the way, the Decembrists could not make a decision for a long time whether it was necessary to initiate Alexander Sergeevich into their plans. However, his connections, in particular with Yermolov, were too important, and as a result, a frank conversation took place. Griboyedov did not believe in the success of the uprising, but agreed to help the Decembrists. In May 1825 he left for Kiev in order to return to his place of service, as well as to establish ties with the Southern Society. It is known that in Kiev he met with Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Muravyov-Apostol, Trubetskoy and other conspirators. From there the poet went to the Crimea. For three months he traveled around the peninsula, noting everything he saw and experienced in a travel diary published three decades later, and in October 1825 he returned to the Caucasus. Griboyedov met Ermolov in the Yekaterinograd village, where the general was preparing to oppose the highlanders. However, the planned campaign, which Alexander Sergeevich persistently requested, had to be postponed due to the death of Alexander I. Ermolov had to swear in the troops - first to Konstantin Pavlovich, and then to Nikolai, with whom, by the way, the general had strained relations.
On December 14, the Decembrist uprising took place, and at the end of January 1826, a courier arrived at the Groznaya fortress, where Ermolov was located, with the order to arrest Griboyedov and take him to St. Petersburg. Upon arrival in the capital, Alexander Sergeevich was placed in the building of the General Staff, and not in the Peter and Paul Fortress, which in itself was a good sign. The content here was not shy - the prisoners dined in a restaurant and could visit friends. Weighed only the uncertainty. In this position, Griboyedov spent three months. During this time, only Obolensky named him a member of the Society, while Ryleev and other Decembrists denied the poet's participation. The husband of the playwright's cousin, General Paskevich, whom the new emperor trusted infinitely, also shielded his relative in every possible way. In the end, Nicholas I ordered: to release Griboyedov "with a cleansing certificate", to make him a court counselor, to provide an annual salary and send him to his old place of service. In July, after the execution of five "initiators" of the riot, Alexander Sergeevich left for Tiflis.
While Griboyedov was absent from the Caucasus, much has changed there. In mid-July 1826, the Persian Shah, driven by the British, decided to unleash a war with Russia. Aleksey Petrovich, misled by Mazarovich, who claims that the Persian army trained by the British is extremely strong, acted uncertainly, having lost all of Eastern Transcaucasia in the first month of hostilities. Denis Davydov and Ivan Paskevich were sent to help him, and the second - with the permission of the emperor to remove Ermolov at any time. Cases on the frontline went more successfully, but the diarchy lasted until the spring of 1827, when, dissatisfied with the results, Nicholas I directly ordered Paskevich to head the Caucasian Special Corps. Fired "for domestic reasons" Yermolov went to his Oryol estate, and Denis Davydov followed him. Officially entrusting Griboyedov with diplomatic relations with Turkey and Persia, unofficially Paskevich gave him the civil administration of the entire region and, without looking, waved all the papers that the diplomat presented to him. Under Ermolov, this was not the case - the general liked to get into all matters and did not tolerate contradictions. Now Alexander Sergeevich could swing, which, in fact, he did. Thanks to him, the publication of "Tiflis Vedomosti" was started, the local noble school was reformed, a project for the development of the city and plans for the economic study of Georgian territories were drawn up. Evenings of working days, he still preferred to spend with Praskovya Akhverdova. The older girls of her "boarding house" - Nina Chavchavadze and Sonya Akhverdova - have grown up noticeably, and Griboyedov gave them music lessons.
In May, Alexander Sergeevich worked out the principles of a new policy towards Persia. First of all, the poet defended the "politics of influence", the great masters of which have hitherto been the British. Griboyedov suggested not trying to cut down local traditions at the root, but turn them in favor of Russia. For example, to leave the national administration on the new lands, of course, under the supervision of Russian chiefs. By that time, the summer campaign had begun. Alexander Sergeevich was with the army all the time, and his activities began to bear the first fruits. In the course of the advance of the Russian soldiers to the south, the local population willingly supplied them with food, and a number of khans even betrayed Abbas Mirza by going over to our side.
The Persian prince suffered one defeat after another, lost the fortresses of Abbas-Abad, Nakhichevan, Erivan and, as a result, his own capital, Tabriz. By the way, there was no censorship in the fallen Erivan, and Russian officers independently - to the delight of the author - for the first time staged and played "Woe from Wit". And soon Abbas-Mirza requested an armistice and in November arrived for negotiations at Paskevich's headquarters. Alexander Sergeevich proposed tough peace conditions - the Persians had to cede the Nakhichevan and Erivan khanates, pay the Russian Empire a huge indemnity (twenty million rubles in silver) and provide advantages in trade. The Persians began to delay sending money, and in December the father of Abbas Mirza Feth Ali Shah, as if dissatisfied with the actions of his son, announced that he would send a new negotiator to Paskevich. Griboyedov, enraged, in January 1828 persuaded Ivan Fedorovich, who did not want to fight in the winter, to move the troops forward. Soon Russian units were stationed near Tehran, and the Persians had no choice but to fulfill all the terms of the agreement.
On February 10, 1828, a peace treaty was signed in Turkmanchai, which marked the end of the Russian-Iranian war. Paskevich decided that Griboyedov would take the treatise to the capital. The poet arrived in St. Petersburg in March - his arrival in the city marked 201 cannon shots. The triumphant was awarded high awards - he was awarded the Order of St. Anna of the second degree, the rank of state councilor and four thousand gold pieces of gold. In those days, Alexander Sergeevich was the most famous person in St. Petersburg, everyone was looking for a meeting with him - from writers to the great dukes. Even the famous enemy of Griboyedov, the Russian military leader Nikolai Muravyov-Karsky, admitted: "In Persia, Alexander Sergeevich replaced us with a single person with his twenty-thousandth army, and there is no man in Russia to take his place so capable."
In the capital, the playwright stayed at the Demutov tavern, where Pushkin also lived. The writers, meeting every day, quickly became friends. Pushkin wrote about his namesake as follows: “This is one of the smartest people in Russia. It's exciting to listen to him. " A curious case - in April 1828 Pushkin, Krylov, Vyazemsky and Griboyedov conceived a joint tour of Europe. Vyazemsky told his wife: “… In cities we can appear like giraffes … is it a joke to contemplate four Russian writers. Magazines would probably talk about us. Upon arrival home, we would publish our travel notes: gold ore again”. However, nothing came of this - the emperor forbade Pushkin to travel abroad, major changes took place in the life of Griboyedov. At the end of April, the Senate issued a decree establishing an imperial mission in Persia. Alexander Sergeevich was appointed ambassador extraordinary in the rank of minister. He delayed the departure as much as he could, attended literary meetings, and hurried to "breathe" the theater. In May, Pushkin read him the forbidden Boris Godunov. Griboyedov also tried to return to literature, starting to write the romantic tragedy "Georgian Nights". Those who saw the passages claimed they were excellent. All the last days in the capital, the playwright was tormented by gloomy forebodings. "I will not return from Persia alive … You do not know these people - you will see, it will come to knives," he said to his friends.
In early June, Griboyedov left St. Petersburg. For a couple of days he stayed in Moscow next to his mother, who was proud of his son, then in the Tula province he visited Stepan Begichev. Together with him, the poet went to his sister who lived nearby. She had just given birth to a son, also named Alexander, and Griboyedov christened the baby (by his own admission, he “rushed up solemnly”). On July 5, Alexander Sergeevich was greeted with great honors in Tiflis, and on July 16, unexpectedly for everyone, the famous diplomat and playwright confessed his love to Akhverdova's pupil Nina Chavchavadze and asked for her hand in marriage. Fifteen-year-old Nina gave her consent, later she said: “As if in a dream!.. As if it was burnt by a sunbeam!”. A day later, Griboyedov left for the headquarters of Paskevich, who was waging another Russian-Turkish war. In Akhalkalaki, he convinced the count to send troops to conquer Batum, which could serve as a convenient port. In early August, Alexander Sergeevich returned to Tiflis and a day later fell ill with a fever. On August 22, he married Nina in the Zion Cathedral, while the sick poet could barely stand on his feet. In September, he felt better, and the newlyweds left for Persia. The minister's motorcade reached Tabriz by October 6. Here it turned out that the diplomat's wife was pregnant. The young people lived in the city for two months, and at the beginning of December Griboyedov went to Tehran alone.
Griboyedov was not going to linger in Persia, he wrote to his wife: “I miss you. … Now I truly feel what it means to love. " After giving the required visits and handing his credentials to Feth Ali Shah, Alexander Sergeevich focused on the release of the prisoners. The Persians, as usual, resisted, but Griboyedov managed to do a lot. On the eve of his departure, a certain Mirza-Yakub (actually the Armenian Yakub Markarian), who is the second eunuch of the shah's harem and the second person in the treasury, asked for the protection of the embassy. He wanted to return to his homeland, and Griboyedov received him. After that, riots broke out in Tehran - the mullahs openly urged residents to take Mirza Yakub by force. On January 30, 1829, a hundred thousand uncontrollable crowd of brutal fanatics gathered at the Russian embassy. The mission's convoy, consisting of thirty-five Cossacks, put up decent resistance to the attackers, but the forces were unequal. Together with the Cossacks, Alexander Sergeevich courageously defended the embassy. The Shah's troops did not come to the rescue - later Feth Ali Shah claimed that they had failed to break through. Thirty-seven people at the embassy were killed in the attack. The disfigured corpse of the diplomat, who had been playing for the Tehran rabble for three days, was identified only by his hand, long ago shot by a pistol bullet. As an "apology" for the defeat of the Russian embassy, the Persians handed over to the Russian Tsar the Shah diamond, which is now in the Diamond Fund of Russia. In July 1829, Griboyedov's ashes were taken to Tiflis and, according to his will, they were buried in the monastery of St. David on Mount Mtatsminda. On the tombstone of the poet's grave, the phrase of Nina Chavchavadze is engraved: "Your mind and deeds are immortal in Russian memory, but why did my love survive you!" By the way, the poet's wife was not informed about the death of her husband for a long time, protecting the child she was carrying. When the truth was revealed, Nina Griboyedova-Chavchavadze lay in delirium for several weeks, eventually giving birth to a premature boy. He lived only an hour. At the age of sixteen, Griboyedov's widow put on mourning, which she wore until her death in 1857. Her loyalty to her deceased husband became legendary during her lifetime; local residents respectfully called her the "Black Rose of Tiflis".
The premiere of Griboyedov's comedy Woe from Wit, which was the pinnacle of Russian poetry and drama, took place in full in January 1831 in St. Petersburg on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater. Nevertheless, the term "in full" requires clarification - the play was mutilated by the censor, which gave the historian and censor Alexander Nikitenko a reason to note: "There is only one grief left in the play - it is so distorted by the knife of the Benckendorf council." Despite this, the performance was a resounding success, the bright aphoristic style of the comedy contributed to the fact that it was all "dismantled into quotes." The philosopher Nikolai Nadezhdin wrote: "… The physiognomies, representing different shades of our life, are so happily set, so sharply outlined, so correctly captured that one involuntarily stares at it, recognizes the originals and laughs." The Moscow premiere took place later, in November 1831, at the Bolshoi Theater.
