The Presidential Library’s collections illustrate Alexander Griboyedov’s life and death

“His melancholic character, his embittered mind, his good nature, the very weaknesses and vices, the inevitable companions of humanity, everything in him was unusually attractive. Born with an ambition equal to his talents, for a long time he was enmeshed in networks of petty needs and suspense. The abilities of the human state remained unused; the poet's talent was not recognized; even his cold and brilliant courage remained suspicious for some time”, -  Alexander Pushkin’s describes Griboyedov in his book “Alexander Griboyedov: his life and death in the memoirs of his contemporaries”, a digital copy of which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov, a Russian writer and diplomat, was born on January 15, 1795. The Presidential Library’s portal features electronic collection “Alexander Griboyedov (1795–1829)”, including digital copies of books, magazines, archival documents, literary-critical, biographical, graphic, and other materials devoted to his life and work. Here is a copy of the manuscript of the comedy “Woe from Wit” and copies of editions of this famous literary work of the mid-19th – early 20th century. The Presidential Library's portal contains in electronic form the complete set of works of the writer, which includes poetic, prose works, travel notes by Griboyedov, as well as his correspondence with famous literary and government officials.

Griboyedov was one of the most educated people of his time and, according to Pushkin "one of the smartest people in Russia". He is fluent in French, English, German, Italian, Greek, Latin, and later mastered Arabic, Persian and Turkish, he also had musical skills - he was an excellent pianist, he had composer talent.

In 1815, Griboyedov settled in St. Petersburg, entered the service of the State Collegium of Foreign Affairs, but due to "ardent passions and mighty circumstances", by definition of Pushkin, in 1818, was forced to leave the capital and go as secretary of the Russian diplomatic mission to Persia.

After three years of service in Tabriz, he transferred to Tiflis to the chief governing of Georgia, General A. P. Yermolov. Here were written the 1st and 2nd acts of his most famous work - the comedy “Woe from Wit”. By the autumn of 1824, it was completed, but only passages published by the writer F. V. Bulgarin in the Russian Thalia almanac passed the censorship. Since then, Faddey Venediktovich Bulgarin has become the best friend of a talented author, about whom, after his death, he will write memoirs published in the collection Alexander Griboyedov: his life and death in the memoirs of his contemporaries. In his memoirs, Bulgarin, in particular, noted a special talent, which was owned by his extraordinary friend: “There are no donations for which Griboyedov would not dare to friendship - friends donated everything to Griboyedov. He could not be loved except passionately, because his fiery soul warmed and inflamed everything around him”.

Returning to Persia, Griboyedov took up the embodiment of one of the articles of the peace treaty, which involved the return of citizens of Russia to their homeland. Alexander Griboyedov’s activities as a diplomat during his service in the East, in particular his participation in the conclusion of the Turkmanchays agreement important for Russia, can be assessed thanks to digital copies of the Russian Antiquity magazines 1874 and 1876, which are also included in the collection. N. N. Muravyov said about him: “... Griboyedov in Persia was completely in his place ... he replaced us there with one person’s face a twenty-thousand-strong army ... there could not be, in Russia, a man so capable of engaging his place".

Appeal to him for the help of two Armenian women who had fallen into the harem of a noble Persian, inflamed the situation around the Russian mission to the limit and was a reason for reprisals against an active diplomat. On February 11 (January 30, old style) of 1829, a crowd instigated by fanatics defeated the mission in Tehran. Russian envoy was killed. This sad event is dedicated to the work of one of the first biographers of Griboyedov, the orientalist Adolph Berger, published in 1872 in the magazine “Russkaya Starina” and based on official documents: notes, dispatches and reports of the highest government officials of Russia, Persia and England. Another glance at the death of the Russian ambassador is presented in the notes of M. Y. Alaverdyantz “The death of Alexander Griboyedov according to Armenian sources”.

Griboedov died early, therefore the memoirs of his contemporaries, no matter how incomplete and clumsy they were, became almost the only sources for clarifying certain points in his biography. These records are collected under the cover of the book “Alexander Griboyedov: his life and death in the memoirs of his contemporaries", published in various publications over 80 years.

According to V. Grigoriev, one of the authors of the above-mentioned collection devoted to Griboyedov, “the Fatherland lost one of its best citizens, literature - the first-class poet and the immortal creator “Woe from Wit” familiar to him - a person with a high mind, creative, flaming love for all that is righteous, graceful and kind, with a rare nobility of character, combined with the extraordinary ability to revive everything around him”.