Griboyedov Alexander Sergeevich (1795 - 1829), playwright, poet.

Born on January 4 (15th NS) in Moscow in the family of an officer of the Russian Guard, a nobleman. Received a versatile education at home. For seven years he was sent to the Moscow University Boarding School. At the age of eleven, Griboyedov is a student at Moscow University. After graduating from the verbal department of the Faculty of Philosophy, he entered the law department and received. second diploma - candidate is right. In 1810 he studied at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, which was an extraordinary affair for the noble youth. Knowing French, English, German and Italian from childhood, during his studies at the university he studied Greek and Latin, and later - Persian, Arabic and Turkish. He was also musically gifted: he played the piano, flute, composed music himself.

In his student years, he talked with the future Decembrists: the Muravyov brothers, Yakushkin. Subsequently he was close to P. Chaadaev. Griboyedov's poetic abilities are also manifested at the university.

The outbreak of war with Napoleon changes Griboyedov's plans: he volunteered for the army as a cornet (junior officer rank in the Russian cavalry) in the hussar regiment. He did not have to participate in hostilities. After the end of the war, he retires, settles in St. Petersburg, enters the service in the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, where Pushkin, Kuchelbecker and many Decembrists serve at that time, gets acquainted with them. In addition, he is a member of the circle of people involved in the theater, collaborates in magazines, writes plays.

In 1818 he was sent as the secretary of the Russian mission to Persia, where he spent over two years, traveling a lot around the country and keeping travel notes and a diary. Upon his return from Persia in November 1821, he served as a diplomatic secretary to the commander of the Russian troops in the Caucasus, General A. Ermolov, surrounded by many members of the Decembrist societies. Lives in Tiflis, works on the first two acts of Woe from Wit. However, this work requires more privacy, more freedom from service, so he asks Ermolov for a long vacation. After receiving leave, he spends it first in the Tula province, then in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

In the estate of his friend Begichev writes the last two acts of comedy, in Moscow he continues to finish "Woe from Wit", in St. Petersburg in 1824 the work was completed.

All attempts to print the comedy were not crowned with success, and its staging in the theater turned out to be impossible. The reactionary camp took the comedy with hostility. The language of "Woe from Wit" was called harsh and incorrect. The Decembrists enthusiastically greeted the comedy, seeing in it an artistic generalization of their ideas and feelings.

At the end of September 1825 Griboyedov again arrived in the Caucasus, and at the end of January 1826 he was arrested in the case of the Decembrists by a courier specially sent from St. Petersburg. Ermolov warned him about the impending arrest, and the writer managed to destroy the papers dangerous for him. During the investigation, Griboyedov adhered to a complete denial of his participation in the conspiracy. The tsarist commission of inquiry failed to prove anything, he was released.

After returning to the Caucasus in 1826, Griboyedov acts as a diplomat. In 1827 he was ordered to be in charge of diplomatic relations with Turkey and Persia. In 1828 he took part in the preparation of the Turkmanchay peace treaty concluded with Persia. He then receives an appointment as minister plenipotentiary to Persia, viewing this appointment as "political exile."

In August 1828, in Tiflis, Griboyedov married Nina Chavchavadze, the daughter of his friend, famous poet A. Chavchavadze. Leaving his wife in Tabriz, he left with the embassy to Tehran. Here he fell victim to a conspiracy and was killed by a mob of Persian fanatics. Griboyedov's body was transported to Tiflis and buried on Mount St. David.

Biography and episodes of life Alexandra Griboyedova. When born and died Alexander Griboyedov, memorable places and dates important events his life. Quotes from the playwright, images and videos.

Years of life of Alexander Griboyedov:

born January 4, 1795, died January 30, 1829

Epitaph

"Your mind and deeds are immortal in Russian memory, but why has my love survived you?"
The inscription made by A. Griboyedov's wife on his tombstone

Biography

Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov left a mark on Russian literature as the author of one work - the famous play "Woe from Wit". Everything he had written before this thing was still immature in a youthful way, and the author did not have time to finish what he wrote after. Meanwhile, Griboyedov was a man of brilliant mind and versatile talents: he composed music, played the piano beautifully, wrote critical articles and essays, and was promoted to the diplomatic service. Perhaps, if his life had not been cut off so tragically, today the descendants would have inherited a much more extensive legacy of Griboyedov.

Griboyedov was born in Moscow, in a wealthy family, and from childhood he was distinguished by a lively and sharp mind and learning ability. At the age of 6, Griboyedov spoke fluently three foreign languages, later learned three more.

After graduating from the university, Griboyedov gave some time to military service, but soon left it for the sake of writing exercises, metropolitan life and, subsequently, a diplomatic career. Griboyedov was sent east, then to the Caucasus, learned four more languages \u200b\u200band continued to work on translations, poems and things in prose.

In the same place, in Tiflis, Griboyedov married a beautiful and noble girl, Princess Nina Chavchavadze. Alas, the young people managed to live together for only a few months.

The death of Griboyedov in the prime of life became sudden and tragic. A crowd of religious fanatics smashed the Russian embassy in Tehran and killed everyone who was there. Griboyedov's body was so mutilated that it was possible to identify him only by the trail of a duel wound on his arm.

Griboyedov was buried in Tiflis, near the Church of St. David on the slope of Mount Mtatsminda. On the centenary of his death in 1929, a pantheon was opened at the burial place of the playwright and his wife, where the remains of many prominent public figures of Georgia were buried.

Life line

January 4, 1795 Date of birth of Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov.
1803 g. Admission to the Moscow University Noble Boarding School.
1805 g. Work on the first poems.
1806 g. Admission to the verbal department of Moscow University.
1808 g. Obtaining the title of candidate of verbal sciences, continuing education at the moral and political, and then at the physics and mathematics departments.
1812 g. Joining the volunteer Moscow hussar regiment of Count Saltykov.
1814 g. The first literary experiences (articles, essays, translations) during his service as a cornet.
1815 g. Moving to St. Petersburg. Publication of the comedy "Young Spouses".
1816 g. Leaving military service. Joining the Masonic lodge. The appearance of the idea of \u200b\u200ba comedy in the verse "Woe from Wit"
1817 g. Joining the diplomatic service (provincial secretary, later - translator of the Collegium of Foreign Affairs).
1818 g. Appointment to the post of secretary in Tehran (in Persia).
1821 g. Transfer to Georgia.
1822 g. Appointment to the post of secretary under General Ermolov, commander of the Russian army in Tiflis.
1823 g. Returning home, life in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
1824 g. Completion of the comedy "Woe from Wit".
1825 g. Return to the Caucasus.
1826 g. Arrest on suspicion of belonging to the Decembrists, investigation in St. Petersburg, release and return to Tiflis.
1828 g. Appointment as Resident Minister in Iran, marriage to Princess Nina Chavchavadze.
January 30, 1829 Date of death of Alexander Griboyedov.
June 18, 1829 The funeral of Griboyedov in Tiflis, near the Church of St. David.

Memorable places

1. House number 17 on Novinsky Boulevard in Moscow, where Griboyedov was born and raised (a replica of the original building).
2. Moscow University, where Griboyedov studied.
3. House number 104 (apartment building Walha) on the emb. the Griboyedov Canal (formerly the Catherine Canal) in St. Petersburg, where the playwright lived in 1816-1818.
4. House No. 25 on Kirov Avenue (former hotel "Atinskaya") in Simferopol, where Griboyedov lived in 1825.
5. House number 22 on the street. Chubinashvili in Tbilisi (formerly Tiflis), now the house-museum of Ilya Chavchavadze, where the wedding of his granddaughter Nina with Griboyedov took place.
6. Pantheon Mtatsminda in Tbilisi, where Griboyedov is buried.

Episodes of life

In 1817, the famous quadruple duel took place with the participation of Griboyedov, the cause of which was the famous ballerina Istomin. Griboyedov and his opponent Yakubovich fired a year later than the first pair of duelists, and in this duel Griboyedov was wounded in the arm.

The famous E-minor waltz, written by Griboyedov, is considered the first Russian waltz, the score of which has survived to our time.

By the time of the wedding with Griboyedov, Nina Chavchavadze was only 15 years old, but after the death of her husband, she remained loyal to him and mourned for him until her own death at the age of 45, rejecting all courtship. Loyalty to the deceased husband earned his widow respect and fame among the Tiflissians.

Covenants

"Blessed is he who believes, warmth to him in the world."

"Happy hours are not observed."

“Not the pleasure of life is the goal,
Our life is not a consolation. "

Two waltzes by A. Griboyedov

Condolences

"In my life I have never seen a person in any nation who loved his fatherland so ardently, so passionately, as Griboyedov loved Russia."
Thaddeus Bulgarin, writer and critic

“The blood of his heart was always playing on his face. No one will boast of his flattery; no one dares to say that they have heard a lie from him. He could deceive himself, but never deceive. "
Alexander Bestuzhev, writer and critic

"There is something wild about Griboyedov, de farouche, de sauvage, in self-esteem: at the slightest irritation, it rears up, but he is smart, fiery, it is always fun with him"
Pyotr Vyazemsky, poet and critic

Griboyedov Alexander Sergeevich (1795-1829), Russian writer and diplomat.

Belonged to a noble family. Received an excellent education. Griboyedov's many-sided talent was revealed very early, in addition to literary talent, he also had a bright composer's talent (two waltzes for piano are known). He studied at the Moscow University Noble Boarding School, then entered Moscow University. After graduating from the verbal department, Griboyedov continued to study at the ethicopolitical department.

One of the most educated people of his time, Griboyedov spoke French, English, German, Italian, Greek, Latin, and later mastered Arabic, Persian, and Turkish.

With the beginning Patriotic War 1812 Griboyedov stops scientific studies and enters the Moscow hussar regiment as a cornet. Military service (as part of the reserve units) brought him together with D.N.Begichev and his brother S.N.Begichev, who became a close friend of Griboyedov. Having retired (early 1816), Griboyedov settled in St. Petersburg and was assigned to serve in the Collegium of Foreign Affairs.

Leads a secular lifestyle, moves in the theatrical and literary circles of St. Petersburg (becomes close to the circle of A. A. Shakhovsky), he writes and translates for the theater (comedy "Young Spouses" (1815), "His Family, or Married Bride" (1817 g) together with Shakhovsky and N.I. Khmelnitsky, and others).

The consequence of "ardent passions and mighty circumstances" (A.S. Pushkin) was a sharp change in his fate - in 1818 Griboyedov was appointed secretary of the Russian diplomatic mission to Persia (not the last role in this kind of exile was played by his participation as a second in duel between A.P. Zavadsky and V.V. Sheremetev, which ended in the death of the latter) After three years of service in Tabriz, Griboyedov was transferred to Tiflis to the chief governor of Georgia A.P. Ermolov (February 1822).

The first and second acts of "Woe from Wit" were written there; their first listener was the author's Tiflis colleague V.K. Kuchelbecker. In the spring of 1823 Griboyedov went on vacation In Moscow, as well as in the estate of S.N. Begichev near Tula, where he spends the summer, the third and fourth acts of "Woe from Wit" are created.

By the fall of 1824, the comedy was completed. Griboyedov travels to St. Petersburg, intending to use his connections in the capital to obtain permission for its publication and theatrical production. However, he soon becomes convinced that the comedy is "no missing". Only the excerpts published in 1825 by FV Bulgarin in the almanac "Russian Thalia" (the first complete publication in Russia -1862, the first production on the professional stage -1831) were censored. Nevertheless, Griboyedov's creation immediately became an event in Russian culture, spreading among the reading public in handwritten copies, the number of which was approaching the book circulation of that time (the distribution of the lists was facilitated by the Decembrists, who considered comedy as a mouthpiece for their ideas; already in January 1825,

II Pushchin brought A.S. Pushkin to the Mikhailovskoye list of "Woe from Wit") The success of the Griboyedov comedy, which has taken a strong place in the ranks of Russian classics, is largely determined by the harmonious combination of the acute and the timeless in it.

Through the brilliantly drawn picture of Russian society in the pre-Decembrist era (disturbing disputes about serfdom, political freedoms, problems of national self-determination of culture, education, etc., skillfully outlined colorful figures of that time, recognizable by contemporaries, etc.), “eternal” themes are guessed: the conflict of generations , the drama of the love triangle, the antagonism of personality and society, etc.

At the same time, Woe From Wit is an example of an artistic synthesis of the traditional and the innovative: paying tribute to the canons of classicism aesthetics (unity of time, place, action, conventional roles, names-masks, etc.), Griboyedov "revives" the scheme with conflicts and characters taken from life, freely introduces lyrical, satirical and journalistic lines into comedy.

The accuracy and aphoristic accuracy of the language, the successful use of the free (differential) iambic, conveying the element of colloquial speech, allowed the text of the comedy to retain its sharpness and expressiveness; as Pushkin predicted; many lines of "Woe from Wit" became proverbs and sayings ("Fresh tradition, but hard to believe", "Happy hours are not observed", etc.). In the fall of 1825, Griboyedov returned to the Caucasus, but already in February 1826 he again appeared in St. Petersburg as a suspect in the case of the Decembrists (there were many reasons for the arrest: there were four Decembrists during interrogations, including S.P. Trubetskoy and E.P. Obolensky, named Griboyedov among the members of the secret society; in the papers of many arrested people were found lists of "Woe from Wit", etc.).

Warned by Ermolov about the impending arrest, Griboyedov managed to destroy part of his archive. During the investigation, he categorically denies his involvement in the conspiracy. In early June, Griboyedov was released from arrest with a "cleansing certificate". Upon his return to the Caucasus (autumn 1826), Griboyedov took part in several battles of the outbreak of the Russian-Persian war. Achieves significant success in the diplomatic field (according to N.N. Muravyov-Karsky, Griboyedov "replaced ... with his single person the twenty-thousandth army"), prepares, among other things, the Turkmanchay world, beneficial for Russia.

Bringing the documents of the peace treaty (March 1828) to St. Petersburg, he received awards and a new appointment as plenipotentiary minister (ambassador) to Persia. Instead of literary pursuits, to which he dreamed of devoting himself (in his papers there are plans, sketches - poetry, the tragedies "Rodamist and Zenobia", "Georgian Night", the drama "1812"), Griboyedov was forced to accept a high position. His last departure from the capital (June 1828) was tinged with gloomy forebodings.

On the way to Persia, he stops for a while in Tiflis. Nurtures plans for economic transformations in the Transcaucasus. In August he marries the 16-year-old daughter of L. Chavchavadze - Nina, together with her he goes to Persia. Among other things, the Russian minister is engaged in sending captive Russian citizens to their homeland. The appeal to him for the help of two Armenian women who fell into the harem of a noble Persian was the reason for the reprisal against the talented diplomat. On January 30, 1829, a crowd, incited by Muslim fanatics, defeated the Russian mission in Tehran. The Russian envoy was killed. Griboyedov was buried in Tiflis on Mount St. David. The words of Nina Griboyedova-Chavchavadze are carved on the tombstone: "Your mind and deeds are immortal in Russian memory, but why did my love survive you?"

Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov was born on January 4 (15), 1795 (according to other historical sources - 1790) in Moscow, into a family of noble families. His father traced his ancestry from the Polish gentry.

The education of the children was supervised by the mother. She was a proud and arrogant representative of her class, but not devoid of intelligence and practicality. Nastasya Fedorovna understood that in modern times, promotion and occupation of a high position in society can give not only origin and connections, but also a person's education. Therefore, much attention in the family was paid not only to upbringing, but also to the education of children. Alexander's teachers were truly enlightened French governors. Later, professors from the university were invited for lessons. Already in childhood, Griboyedov read a huge number of books.

Since 1803, the boy has been assigned to the Moscow Noble University Boarding School. In 1806 he entered Moscow University. Before the war of 1812, Griboyedov graduated from the faculties of speech and law, his education in physics and mathematics did not allow him to end the war.

Already at the university, Alexander Sergeevich is unanimously recognized by those around him as one of the most educated people of his time. He perfectly knows all world classics, reads and speaks fluently in several foreign languages, composes music, plays the piano perfectly.

Military service and social life in St. Petersburg

With the outbreak of the war of 1812, Griboyedov considers it his duty to enroll in the hussar regiment to defend the fatherland. But while the regiment is being formed, Napoleon is already being thrown far from Moscow, and soon the army is leaving for European territory.

Despite the end of hostilities, Griboyedov decides to stay in the army, and their regiment is transferred to remote places of Belarus. These years will practically "drop out" from the life of the writer. Later he will remember them with regret, although some of his acquaintances of this time will be brought out as heroes in his comedy "Woe from Wit". Together with his comrades, he participated in the most reckless ventures, spent time in revelry and games. All the best, instilled in him by university education, seemed to be lost. But after a while, the hectic pastime begins to weigh on Griboyedov. First, he joins a circle of officers who, in their free time, are engaged in writing simple poems, then he begins to write articles. At this time, they sent notes to St. Petersburg "On cavalry reserves" and "Description of the holiday in honor of Kologrivov." More and more carried away by literature, Griboyedov realizes that he can no longer exist in the hussar environment and in 1815, having visited St. Petersburg, he makes the necessary connections and acquaintances there, preparing his transition to the College of Foreign Affairs.

In 1816, Alexander Sergeevich retired and moved to St. Petersburg. Here he draws closer to the leading people of his time and immediately accepts their ideas. Among his friends there are many future organizers of secret societies. In secular salons, Griboyedov shines with cold wit and even cynicism. He is also drawn to the theatrical stage. During this period, he wrote and translated for the theater the comedy "Young Spouses" (1815) and "His Family or Married Bride" (1817).

In the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, Griboyedov has a reputation for being in good standing.

The calmness and regularity of life is disturbed by the participation of the writer in a duel, which ends with the death of one of the duelists. Largely thanks to the connections of his mother, Griboyedov was sent away from the capital - as a secretary to the Russian diplomatic mission in Persia.

Service in Persia and the Caucasus

In March 1819, after a deliberately slow journey, Griboyedov finally arrives at his place of service - in Tehran, and then in Tabriz. He gets a lot of new impressions, meets with court and local princes, ordinary people and wandering poets. The service turns out to be uncomplicated, and Griboyedov has enough time to engage in literary work and self-education. He reads a lot, hones his knowledge of the Persian and Arabic languages, with surprise and joy realizes that his comedy "Woe from Wit" is being written here more fruitfully than ever. Soon the first two acts of the final cut of the comedy were ready. During this period, Griboyedov managed to commit one truly heroic deed. At his own peril and risk, he was able to take out several Russian prisoners from Persia. The desperate courage of Griboyedov was noticed by General Ermolov and decided that such a person deserves a better fate than living in Persia. Thanks to the efforts of Ermolov, Alexander Sergeevich was transferred to the Caucasus in Tiflis. Here the first and second acts of Woe from Wit were completely finished.

Return to Petersburg and arrest

In 1823, the writer goes on vacation. In Moscow and the estate of his friends near Tula, he completely finishes the main work of his life.

In the fall of 1824 Griboyedov went to St. Petersburg with the hope of publishing and staging Woe from Wit. But he meets with categorical opposition. With great difficulty, fragments of the comedy can be printed in the anthology "Russian Thalia". As for the handwritten versions, their number was close to book circulation. The distribution of the book was also facilitated by the Decembrists, who considered it their "printed manifesto". The work combines innovation and classicism, strict adherence to the rules for constructing comedy and the free development of characters. A significant adornment of "Woe from Wit" is the use of iambic, a precise and aphoristic language. Many lines of the comedy were “taken away for quotes” already at the time of handwritten lists.

In the fall of 1825, Griboyedov was going back to the Caucasus, but he was returned from the road on suspicion of participating in the preparation of the Decembrist uprising. Thanks to Yermolov's warning, Griboyedov managed to destroy incriminating materials from his archive. At the time of his arrest, there is no evidence of him. During the investigation, the writer categorically denies his participation in the conspiracy. In June 1826, Griboyedov was released from arrest as completely innocent.

Tragic luck

With great reluctance, he is going to the Caucasus again. And maybe the writer would have achieved his resignation and stayed in Petersburg, doing literary work, but his mother takes an oath from her son to continue his diplomatic career.

With the beginning of the Russian-Persian war, Alexander Sergeevich took part in several battles, but with great success he acts in the field of diplomacy. He "negotiates" for Russia an extremely profitable Turkmanchay peace treaty and brings the documents to St. Petersburg, hoping to stay in the capital. He dreams of continuing to write poetry, finishing the tragedies "Rodamist and Zenobia" and "Georgian Night", the drama "1812" begun.

But it is thanks to the personal contribution of Alexander Sergeevich to the drafting of articles of such a profitable peace treaty that the tsar decides that Griboyedov is most suitable for the post of ambassador to Persia. It is impossible to give up the highest appointment and the writer is forced to go to Persia again.

Tragic ending

With great reluctance, in June 1828, Griboyedov left Petersburg. With all his might, he postpones the arrival to the destination, as if anticipating his fate.

The last "ray of happiness" in his life was the ardent love for the daughter of his friend AG Chavchavadze - Nina, whom he married while passing through Tiflis. Leaving his wife in Tabriz, he goes to Tehran to prepare everything for the arrival of his beloved woman.

What happened next is difficult to assess unequivocally. According to most sources, for an attempt to export Armenian women from the harem of a noble nobleman and caretaker of the shah's harem, Griboyedov was killed by Muslim fanatics, and the entire Russian mission was defeated.

According to other sources, Griboyedov and the mission staff behaved disrespectfully towards the Shah and the laws of the country, and the rumor about the removal of women from the harem simply became the last straw that overflowed the patience of the Persians and forced them to deal with insolent strangers.

There is a version - that religious fanatics were skillfully incited by British diplomats on the Russian mission.

Whichever of these versions turns out to be true, the result turned out to be sad - a wonderful Russian diplomat, poet and playwright Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov took a terrible death at the hands of Muslim fanatics of Persia on January 30 (February 11), 1829.

His body was transported to his homeland and buried in Tiflis (now Tbilisi) in the monastery of St. David.

Interesting facts about Griboyedov:

The writer was fluent in French, English, German, Italian, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Persian and Turkish.

While living in the Caucasus, Griboyedov used his position and all connections to make the life of the Decembrists exiled here in any way easier and was able to "pull" some of them out of Siberia.

The writer was a member of the largest Masonic lodge in St. Petersburg.

“I hope a little for my skill, and a lot for the Russian God. You also need proof that my sovereign's business is the first and foremost thing, and I don’t care about my own. I have been married for two months, I love my wife without memory, but meanwhile I leave her here alone to hurry to the Shah ... ”- wrote the Russian ambassador Alexander Griboyedov, going to where he did not return alive.

This publication was being prepared for another occasion, but now the author is dedicating it to the memory of Andrei Karlov, the Russian ambassador, who was killed in Turkey.

A life

Three streams rushed down from the high bank with noise and foam. I moved across the river. Two oxen, harnessed to a cart, climbed the steep road. Several Georgians accompanied the cart.
Where are you from? I asked them.
- From Tehran.
- What are you carrying?
- Griboeda.
It was the body of the murdered Griboyedov, which was taken to Tiflis.
A.S. Pushkin. "Journey to Arzrum"

Snowball, circling over Palace Square, as if posing for memories. A rare case - not windy, does not burn over the Nevki, the icy St. Petersburg wind does not beat against the glass. Somewhere a waltz is being played - Griboyedov's, in E minor.

Several well-known cliches make up for us the image of the author of the famous comedy. Firstly, “Woe from Wit”, which we “passed” at school. I also vaguely remember a happy marriage to a Georgian princess, and that he was killed somewhere in Persia. Supposedly - sympathy for the Decembrists. In confirmation - the theme of the essay: the protest ("and who are the judges?") Spirit of "Woe from Wit", today and at all squeezed to the size of the Unified State Exam and has long been ripped apart into poorly understood quotations.

Another one, tearing the heart, is no longer from the play: "Your mind and deeds are immortal in Russian memory, but why did my love survive you?" - the words of his young widow, inscribed on the Griboyedov tombstone.

“It would be the business of his friends to write his biography; but wonderful people disappear with us, leaving no traces behind. We are lazy and incurious ... "- AS complained. Pushkin in the same "Journey to Arzrum".

Your mind and deeds are immortal in Russian memory

Since then, biographies have been written, and even a whole novel, but, perhaps, none of the books really reflected the main thing (and well, if not distorted at all) - the fact that a hot Christian heart was beating in the chest of Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov.

Not a liberal, not a supporter of revolutionary ideas, but an Orthodox person and a patriot of his Fatherland, who served God and the emperor - this is who he really was, whom both historians and writers loved to present as a secular rake, almost a Decembrist.

Meanwhile, in the "Diary" of Wilhelm Kuchelbecker - Griboyedov's younger friend - we find the striking: "He was, without any doubt, a humble and strict Christian and unquestioningly believed in the teachings of the Holy Church."

Another important testimony is the words of Griboyedov himself, which Thaddeus Bulgarin remembered: “Only in the temples of God do Russian people gather; think and pray in Russian. In the Russian Church, I am in the Fatherland, in Russia! I am moved by the thought that the same prayers were read under Vladimir, Dimitri Donskoy, Monomakh, Yaroslav, in Kiev, Novgorod, Moscow; that the same singing touched their hearts, the same feelings inspired pious souls. We are Russians only in the Church - and I want to be Russian! "

He wanted to be Russian and was, but you need to remember the historical context in order to better understand what was said.

As now, and in the time of Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov, the so-called "advanced part" of society looked to the West with devotion.

"She did not know Russian well, did not read our magazines, and expressed herself with difficulty in her native language" - Pushkin's irony can be easily attributed to that part of our compatriots whom Konstantin Aksakov would name in the middle of the 19th century, in opposition to the people, by the public: “The focus of the public in Moscow is Kuznetsky Most. The focus of the people is the Kremlin. The audience subscribes from the sea of \u200b\u200bthoughts and feelings, mazurka and polka; the people draws their life from their native source. The audience speaks French, the people speak Russian. The audience is in German dress, the people in Russian. The public has Parisian fashions. The people have their own Russian customs.

The audience is asleep, the people have long since got up and are working. The audience is working (mostly with their feet on the floor) - people are sleeping or are already getting up to work again. The public despises the people - the people forgive the public. The audience is only one and a half hundred years old, and the people cannot be counted. The public is transitory - the people are eternal. And in the public there is gold and mud, and in the people there is gold and mud; but in the public there is mud in gold, in the people - gold in mud. The public has light (monde, balls, etc.), the people have peace (gathering). The public and the people have epithets: our audience is the most respectable, the people are Orthodox. “The audience, go ahead! People - back! ” - so pointedly exclaimed one stingy man. "

Hieromartyr Hilarion of Vereisky, who was very fond of Aksakov's thought about the public and the people, already at the beginning of the twentieth century grieved, foreseeing terrible storms: war. The enlightened French came to Moscow, robbed and desecrated national shrines, thereby showing the seamy side of their European soul. Alas! This hard lesson did not benefit Russian society. "

It did not go so much that, as you know, in 1825 there was a riot, which seemed to be headed by the best people, and among them was Griboyedov's closest and beloved friend, Prince Alexander Odoevsky.

Griboyedov himself was also enrolled in the Decembrists, but there is nothing better than finding out the truth first-hand.

In the yard - 1828. For three years, Alexander Odoevsky has been in bondage. Griboyedov writes to him at the Nerchinsk mines. A pen walks on paper, leaves an ink trail - like a noble frigate hurrying to help a friend. “There is an inner life, moral and high, independent of the outer. To be affirmed by reflection in unchanging rules and become better in chains and in confinement than in freedom itself. This is the feat that lies ahead for you.

But who am I saying this to? I left you before your exaltation in 1825 (meaning A. Odoevsky's participation in the Decembrist uprising. - Note. auth.)... It was instantaneous, and now you are truly the same my meek, intelligent and beautiful Alexander ... Who lured you into this death !! (Crossed out: "Into this extravagant conspiracy! Who ruined you !!") You were, although younger, but more solid than others. You shouldn't mix with them, but they should borrow your intelligence and kindness of heart! "

Exaltation, death, an extravagant conspiracy ... All this is about the Decembrist uprising. Moreover, Alexander Griboyedov calls hard labor "deserved suffering", undoubtedly seeing in it the redemption of guilt before God and the Fatherland for this tragic rebellion: "Do I dare to offer consolation in your present fate! But there is it for people with intelligence and feeling. And in deserved suffering, you can become an honorable sufferer, ”he writes to Odoevsky frankly and honestly, like a Christian to a Christian, all in the same 1828.

And yet how Griboyedov fought for his friend! Interceded for him wherever possible. He exhorted, begged!

“My benefactor is priceless. Now, without further prefaces, I just throw myself at your feet, and if I were with you, I would do it, and shower your hands with tears ... Help, help out the unfortunate Alexander Odoevsky, - he writes to Count Ivan Fedorovich Paskevich, his relative , to one of the confidants of Emperor Nicholas I. - Make this good the only one, and it will be reckoned to you by God with the indelible features of His heavenly grace and cover. His throne has no Dibichs and Chernyshevs, who could outshine the price of a high, Christian, pious deed. I have seen how fervently you pray to God, a thousand times have seen how you do good. Count Ivan Fedorovich, do not neglect these lines. Save the sufferer. "

But all the efforts of Griboyedov are in vain - God judged differently, saving, hopefully, Odoevsky for the Kingdom of Heaven. He will serve a full term in hard labor - eight years - at the end of which, demoted to a soldier, he will be sent to the Caucasus, where in 1839 he will die of malaria, having outlived his faithful friend for ten years. And Griboyedov himself will be killed in Tehran a year after writing this letter.

Secret war

In the Caucasus, it is as if there is a certain, unspecified norm of concentration of all Russian in the air - and as soon as it is exceeded, tension is instantly felt. Why in the regions of the North Caucasus, where mainly Muslims live, are Russians, to put it mildly, wary? Each of us, probably, could immediately name several reasons, but the true lies much deeper than what first comes to mind.

"Forges impotent sedition, trembling over the abyss, Albion!" This quote is from the poem "Russia", written in 1839 by the Orthodox theologian and one of the founders of Slavophilism, Alexei Khomyakov. Let's take his lines for an answer: in the 30s of the nineteenth century, the Caucasus became a sphere of vital interests of Britain, which put a lot of effort into weakening Russia through it - this is what Alexey Khomyakov wrote about. As for the abyss, it should be understood in a spiritual sense.

Throughout the nineteenth century, Great Britain was engaged in the fact that, playing on the religious feelings of the mountaineers and in every possible way stirring up and supporting the jihad in the Caucasus, tried to separate it from Russia. And not for the sake of the declared freedom of the highlanders themselves - it is known how Britain treated the "freedoms" of the peoples living in its colonies - but only because it saw Russia as a powerful rival and tried to weaken it.

After the victorious wars with Persia and Turkey, almost the entire Caucasus became part of the Russian Empire. The British, whose world influence and wealth rested on the colonies (what was England without them? Just a big island), were afraid that Russia would not stop and go even further - to India. Scared England - the ruler of the seas - and the domination of Russia in the Black Sea, and the Russian navy in the Caspian. Both were the result of Russian military victories - as well as the possibility of Russia's access to the Mediterranean through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.

Russia needed to be stopped. But how? The same methods used by the United States and its allies in the Middle East today: intriguing and using, before all others, the so-called “Islamic factor”. The British decided to "create a buffer Islamic state in the Caucasus."

The prim British gentlemen with dry mouths and impeccable manners, pedants and purists, played great chess and seemed to have no equal. One story of the schooner Vixen says a lot.

The first Turkish War ended in 1829. As a result, Russia withdrew the eastern coast of the Black Sea - from Anapa to Abkhazia.

Some residents were unhappy with the changes, and Britain was quick to take advantage of this. The supply of weapons to the highlanders and other "help" well known from modern history began. Its purpose was to separate Circassia from Russia.

The weapons were delivered from Turkey, by sea - on supposedly merchant ships.

Fighting this deadly smuggling, in 1832 Russia tightens the rules and issues a prescription: from now on, "military cruisers will allow ... foreign commercial ships only to two points - Anap and Redoubt-Calais, which have quarantine and customs ..."

England protests immediately: this is a violation freedom trade! - but Russia does not intend to concede. England too: arms smuggling continues.

For another four years the highlanders have been shooting from British weapons at the Russian soldiers, but the real "liberation" war will not swing, will not unfold, and London decides to provoke.

In Constantinople, by order of the first secretary of the British Embassy, \u200b\u200bDavid Urquart - here he looks like an eccentric uncle from a novel about good old England, looking from a yellowed photo - they equip a schooner. Its name is "Vixen" - "Fox". Taking on board bags of salt, under which are hidden guns and ammunition, the schooner goes to the Russian shores - and in the most insolent course. The captain has a prescription: not only not to avoid meeting with Russian ships, but, on the contrary, to look for it!

What is Anap and Redut-Kale, - defiantly passing by Gelendzhik, the schooner moves to Sudzhuk-Kale, in the area of \u200b\u200bpresent-day Novorossiysk. She seems to be shouting - "notice me!"

She is noticed: the schooner is pursued by a Russian brig - and detained, but at what moment! Having settled at ease in the Sujuk-Kale bay, the Fox unloads bags of salt onto the boats.

On "Ajax" - the so-called Russian brig - they require inspection of the schooner. For this, everything was started: in response, the British captain declares that his king never recognized the blockade of the “coast of Circassia”, protested and said that he would submit “only to force”. But the Russians are not fools either: they have no thought of an assault: if you do not obey, we will flood the schooner, the captain of Ajax promises, and the captain of Vixen concedes.

The schooner was confiscated, the crew was sent to Constantinople. London, having learned about this, of course, suffocates with indignation - as it was, for example, when Turkey shot down our plane, but behaves as if it was we who treacherously killed its pilots.

Conservatives are raising the question of the legality of Circassia's stay under the jurisdiction of Russia, which "squeezes freedom." They demand the immediate introduction of the British fleet into the Black Sea. The air smells of war, but - the grace of God - this time it does not start.

However, we know that while the directors of world productions share ambition and money, the performers of minor roles deceived by them, who fervently and sincerely believe in the slogans with which they were brought up, fighting "for justice", kill and perish themselves. The flames of the war fanned by the British crackled down the fuse-cord of the implanted radical Islam and finally reached the dynamite. In the 30s of the XIX century, the green banner of the ghazavat was hoisted over Dagestan and Chechnya - a holy war against the giaurs, the infidels. That is, the Russians.

Dagestan was the center of militant Islam - it happened historically: even during the prosperity of Christian Alania, in the VIII century, an Islamic state was founded here - Kazikumukh shamkhalstvo.

There were different opinions on the "Russian question" in shamkhalism. Either the Shamkhal people built a fortress with the Russians, then they fought against them, then they reconciled again and, rallying together, went to Kabarda.

In the sixteenth century Ivan the Terrible was even sent a live elephant from here - with a request to protect him from the Crimean Khan, the Shevkal king and the Ottoman Turks.

The latter sought to seize shamkhalism in order to use it as a springboard for advancing to the Caucasus.

Georgia was in a similar situation, with the difference that the conquerors were merciless to its inhabitants - not Muslims, like them, but Orthodox. Those who fell from their swords filled up the host of martyrs for the faith of Christ. Whole areas were emptied. From tormented Georgia, they repeatedly turned for help to Moscow - it was provided by both Ivan the Terrible and his son, the first, glorified in the face of saints, the Russian Tsar Theodore Ioannovich. Tsar Theodore took under his patronage the Kakhetian Tsar Alexander, in part this saved Georgia from the attacks of the Turks and Persians, and the Caucasus from being absorbed by Islam.

As for his father, Ivan IV, who had done so much for the Russian statehood, added to this the fact that in 1567 he founded in the Caucasus the border Russian fortress city - Terki.

The new city was settled not by aliens, but by local people - the Greben Cossacks, later known as the Terek Cossacks: they lived on the slopes of the Tersk ridge. This fortress became the first Russian shield on the path of foreign invasions of the North Caucasus.

As time went on, the Terek army grew, Cossack towns were built.

A harsh fate awaited this Cossack region for a long hundred and fifty years. While Russia, seized by the bloody Troubles, which began after the death of the last of the Rurikovichs, defended itself from internal and external enemies and could not help the Caucasus, it was the Cossacks who stood up as a living wall between the Russians and foreigners who were breaking out from the south. Almost all of them were beaten, but they did not leave their land.

At this time, not only conquerors, but also Muslim missionaries moved to the North Caucasus - the final Islamization of the mountain peoples began.

Only in the eighteenth century, under Catherine, did Russia come back to the Caucasus - and saw it completely different: openly hostile. Now, willy-nilly, they had to look for an opportunity to protect the newly acquired lands - Novorossiya - from the raids of the mountaineers. Russia sought to secure its southern outskirts.

In the foothills of the Main Caucasian ridge and on the adjacent plains, Russia began to build the Azov-Mozdok defensive line. This is how the fortresses were founded - which later became the cities of Stavropol, Georgievsk, Mozdok, Yekaterinograd. The mass resettlement of the Cossacks from Khopra, the Black Sea region and the Don began.

The villages, together with the fortified cities, formed a chain (thoughtlessly destroyed by the Soviet authorities during the decossackization), which lay as a reliable barrier along the Caucasian ridge and blocked the exits from the mountain gorges. Built as a defensive line in the eighteenth century, a century later, under General Yermolov, this line became an outpost for advancing deep into the Caucasus mountains.

The nineteenth century was approaching - the time of brilliant victories and successful campaigns: the Russian troops defeated the old enemies of Georgia and the Orthodox Balkan peoples - both the Persians and the Ottomans, Russia annexed new territories and fortified the seas.

And then came the hour that London was so afraid of: Emperor Paul I, having made friends with Napoleon, decided to go to India, to the main colonies of the British crown.

In 1801, the advance detachment of the Russian army - 22 thousand Cossacks, the Don army - went to Orenburg.

Back in late December 1800, the British tried to kill Napoleon with a "hellish machine": a barrel of gunpowder exploded on the street along which his carriage was following. Many died, but Napoleon himself survived.

Now, in view of the beginning of the campaign, Britain had to urgently do something: all its income, including the opium trade, came from India.

Then began her "Big Game" against Russia, or the "Tournament of Shadows": a network of special operations, a spy war, shameless and merciless, like sudden death.

Among its victims we will find Emperor Paul I, and Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov, and - already in the 20th century - Grigory Rasputin, and the Russian Empire itself, to the destruction of which the "foggy Albion" made a lot of efforts.

We know from school textbooks that Emperor Paul I was strangled to death - at night, asleep, in his own bedroom, by his own courtiers. But about who loomed behind the backs of the regicides like a dancing shadow from a candle on the walls of the Mikhailovsky Castle will not be told by a textbook, but by a jubilant letter from the British envoy to Russia, Lord Charles Whitworth.

“Please accept my most sincere congratulations! - he writes after the assassination to the former Russian ambassador in London, Count S. Vorontsov, - How to express everything that I feel about this happy event sent down by Providence. The more I think about him, the more I thank heaven. "

The letter was written to London, and "providence" is present in it as a figure of speech - Whitworth knew very well the value of this "providence": the conspirators gathered at the house of his mistress, the famous St. Petersburg adventurer Olga Zherebtsova, because it was through Whitworth that they financed from London assassination of the Russian emperor.

Few people know that before the revolution, on behalf of another emperor, the future passion-bearer Nicholas II, the Holy Synod considered the question of the canonization of Paul I. At the same time, the Peter and Paul Cathedral, where, like all the Romanovs before him, Paul I was buried, published a book with testimonies about miracles through prayers at his grave.

The Indian epic ended with the death of Paul I. A few months later, in March 1801, upon learning about the death of a friend, Napoleon did not for a second doubt who did it: "The British missed me in Paris, but they did not miss me in Petersburg!"

11 years passed, Napoleon, having already become emperor, attacked Russia himself, was defeated, and after the victory over him the time of the heyday of the Russian state came.

The emperors who ruled it considered it necessary for themselves to care not only about Russian, but also about universal Orthodoxy: Serbs, Bulgarians, Moldovans, Greeks, oppressed by the Ottoman Turks. The Balkan wars brought the long-awaited freedom to the Orthodox peoples, exhausted under Islamic rule, - and where liberation was impossible, the desired was achieved through diplomatic means. So, for example, under Emperor Nicholas I, all Orthodox Christians living on the territory of the Ottoman Empire were under the official patronage of the Russian state.

And the British Empire continued its "Great Game". In the Caucasus, she supported separatism with weapons and money, while the ideological component - Islamic fanaticism - was supplied by the Ottoman Empire, an ally of Britain. This export was the gateway to Dagestan, where in the 30s of the nineteenth century the star of Imam Shamil rose. With the artificial implantation of the ideas of jihad, the last memories of the Christian past disappeared from the memory of mountain peoples, including the Balkars.

“How hard it is to live when no one is at war with Russia,” exclaimed Lord Palmerston, the famous politician who at the end of his career became Prime Minister of Britain.

“Crimea and the Caucasus are taken away from Russia and withdrawn to Turkey, and in the Caucasus, Circassia forms a separate state, which is in vassal relations with Turkey,” was his plan: the partition of Russia.

And in 1853 the war began. A hotbed of discord broke out not just anywhere, but in the Holy Land, which was part of the Ottoman Empire.

The keepers of the keys to the Temple of the Lord were then the Orthodox Greeks. And so, under pressure from the Vatican, England and France, the Turkish sultan took these keys from the Orthodox and handed them over to the Catholics, at the same time denying Russia patronage over the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman Empire.

In response to this, Emperor Nicholas I on June 26, 1853 announced the entry of Russian troops into the Orthodox lands lying under the rule of the Turks - the Moldavian and Wallachian principalities. And in October, Turkey declared war on Russia. The British Foreign Secretary called it "the battle of civilization against barbarism." Isn't this day? And the same plan for the partition of Russia, and the same stereotypes.

The Crimean War lasted three years, and the Caucasus could not calm down for more than ten years. A lot of blood was shed, a lot of evil was done, and deep wounds, dragging on, make themselves felt even today, when, following the British, now new forces are shaking the Caucasus, throwing in old ideas of Islamic fanaticism, financing militants, provoking large and small wars.

Alexander Griboyedov left us an invaluable testimony of what the relationship between the highlanders and Russians in the Caucasus really was like in the 19th century. Here is a letter written by him in 1825, during the Caucasian War, from the village of Yekaterinogradskaya, one of the very first defensive fortresses founded under Catherine.

“My soul is Wilhelm. I hasten to notify you of my life, as long as a new month is not born, and with it new adventures; a few more days and, it seems, I will go with A [Leksey] P [Etrovich] to Chechnya; if the military turmoil there soon subside, we will move to Dagestan, and then return to you in the North.

... Things were pretty bad here, and now the horizon is barely clear. Velyaminov pacified Kabarda, knocked down two pillars of a free, noble people with one blow. How long will it work? But here's how it happened. Kuchuk Dzhankhotov is the most significant owner in the local feudalism, from Chechnya to the Abazekhs, no one will touch either his herds or the yasyrs under his control, and he is supported by us, he himself is also considered one of the loyal Russians. His son, the favorite of A [Leksei] P [Etrovich], was at the embassy in Persia, but, not sharing his father's love for Russia, in the last invasion of the Trans-Kubans he was on their side, and generally the bravest of all young princes, the first shooter and rider and ready for anything, if only the Kabardian girls sang his exploits in the auls. It was ordered to seize and arrest him. He himself appeared at the invitation to the Nalchik fortress, accompanied by his father and other princes. His name is Dzhambulat, in Circassian abbreviation Jambot. I stood at the window when they drove into the fortress, old Kuchuk, entwined with a turban, as a sign that he had visited the holy places of Mecca and Medina, other not so much noble owners rode at a distance, ahead of the bridle and foot slaves. Jambot in magnificent decoration, colored silence over the armor, a dagger, a saber, a rich saddle and a bow with a quiver over his shoulders. They dismounted, entered the reception room, and the will of the commander-in-chief was announced to them. Here arrest is not like ours, it will not soon give himself to be deprived of his arms by a man who believes in him all the honor. Jambot resolutely refused to obey. His father urged him not to destroy himself and everyone, but he was adamant; negotiations began; the old man and some with him came to Velyaminov with a request not to use violence against the unfortunate daredevil, but in this case it would not agree with the government's benefit to yield. The soldiers were ordered to surround the room where the disobedient was seated; his friend Kanamat Kasayev was with him; at the slightest attempt to escape, an order was given to shoot. Knowing this, I blocked the window through which the old father could see everything that was happening in the other house where his son was. Suddenly a shot rang out. Kuchuk shuddered and raised his eyes to the sky. I looked around. Jambot fired from the window, which he knocked out with his foot, then stuck out his hand with a dagger to deflect those around him, put his head and chest out, but at that moment a rifle shot and a bayonet threw him to the ground right in the neck, after which several more bullets were not given to him long struggle with death. His comrade jumped after him, but in the middle of the courtyard he was also met point-blank with several shots, fell to his knees, but they were crushed, leaned on his left hand and still managed to cock the pistol with his right, gave a miss and immediately lost his life. Good bye, my friend; I was so hindered that they did not allow me to finish this bloody scene in a proper way; it has been going on for a month now, but I can't get it out of my head. I felt sorry not for those who had fallen so gloriously, but for the elder father. However, he remained motionless and it is still not visible that the death of his son had a stronger effect on him than on me. Goodbye one more time. Bow to Grech and Bulgarin. "

Alexander Griboyedov calls the enemies "a free, noble people", and the rebellious prince - more simply, the traitor - "an unfortunate daredevil." No hatred or dislike, on the contrary: in every line of the jewel, respect appears - if not admiration.

Griboyedov himself will also become a victim of Great Britain's policy, for which Russia's victory over Persia and the Treaty of Turkmanchay drawn up by the brilliant diplomat Alexander Griboyedov became a defeat. Under this treaty, Armenia and part of Azerbaijan withdrew to the Russian Empire. The British will take revenge, and the method will be the same - to fan up religious enmity and hatred of the infidels.

Death

In 1828, a two-year war with Persia ended with a Russian victory. In the village of Turkmanchay, General Paskevich and the heir to the Persian Shah, the ruler of Azerbaijan Abbas-Mirza signed a peace treaty. Its compiler was Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov. This document is the peak of the state career of the thirty-year-old Griboyedov and one of the most brilliant diplomatic victories for Russia.

But one thing, albeit a huge one, was to conclude a contract, and another to achieve its execution. Alexander Sergeevich brings the signed papers to St. Petersburg, and it is he who is appointed to oversee the execution of the contract - the plenipotentiary resident minister to Persia.

This promotion did not please him at all. A contemporary testimony has been preserved: “A gloomy foreboding, apparently, weighed down his soul. Once Pushkin began to console him, Griboyedov replied: "You do not know this people (Persians), you will see that it will come to knives." He expressed himself even more definitely to AA Zhandru, saying: “Do not congratulate me on this appointment: we will all be cut there. Allayar Khan is my personal enemy and he will never give me a Turkmanchay agreement ”.

The treaty brought many unpleasant things to Persia: instead of conquering the Caucasus, it lost part of Armenia (the Erivan and Nakhichevan khanates). Tehran no longer laid claim to either Georgia or Northern Azerbaijan. A part of the Caspian coast also went to the Russian Empire.

Huge losses! The British Empire, which pushed Persia in the back in the war with Russia and lost its influence in the region with its defeat, although it recognized them, was not going to give up.

Persia also had to pay an indemnity - 20 million rubles in silver - and release all the prisoners. Taking care of the fulfillment of these two conditions became the special care of Alexander Sergeevich.

He goes to Persia through Tiflis. In a city frozen from the heat - Griboyedov arrives there in July - where shady plane trees, intertwining their branches over narrow streets, and the boards of suspended balconies are so hot that one cannot step barefoot, awaits his last consolation before going out on death: earthly love. He meets young Nina Chavchavadze, whom he knew as a child - he looks and does not recognize.

She is so beautiful that anyone will lose their head - and Alexander Griboyedov is no exception. Nina loves him.

She is not yet sixteen - almost a child - and who did not fall in love at the age of fifteen, but it is surprising: her love is not a hobby, as is usually the case at that age, but a rare treasure - a real, deep feeling. When Alexandra Griboyedov is gone, all 28 years remaining until her own death, Nina will mourn for her husband. "Black Rose of Tiflis" - that was her name in the city.

In August 1828, they were married in the ancient Sioni Cathedral, where the greatest shrine is kept - the cross of Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina.

The groom is sick with a fever and his wedding ring falls off - a bad sign. He is happy, but bad presentiments, it seems, still do not leave him. “Do not leave my bones in Persia, if I die there, bury in Tiflis, in the church of St. David,” he will say to Nina, and the time will come when she will do it. In the meantime, they go to the border with Persia. Sweet Georgian September sways with heavy branches around.

“I am married, I travel with a huge caravan, 110 horses and mules, we spend the night under tents on the heights of the mountains, where the cold is winter, my Ninusha does not complain, she is happy with everything, playful, cheerful; for a change we have brilliant meetings, the cavalry rushes at full speed, dusty, dismounts and congratulates us on a happy arrival where we would not want to be at all, ”writes Alexander Griboyedov from the road.

Finally, they are in the border Tabriz. Fath-Ali-shah Qajar reigns in Tehran, but the actual ruler of Persia, Abbas-Mirza, is here in Tabriz.

In early December, leaving Nina (she is pregnant and the pregnancy is difficult), her husband leaves for Tehran: “You also have proof that my sovereign’s business is the first and foremost, and I don’t care about my own. I have been married for two months, I love my wife without memory, and meanwhile I leave her here alone to hurry to the Shah for money in Tehran ... "

A loyal subject of the Russian Tsar, the son of his Fatherland, without knowing it, Alexander Griboyedov hurries to meet his death.

The thirteenth paragraph in the treaty drawn up by him reads: "All prisoners of war of both sides, taken during the last war or before, as well as subjects of both governments who have mutually fallen into captivity, must be released and returned within four months."

In January, two Armenian women from the harem of Allayar Khan, the son-in-law of the reigning shah, seek asylum at the Tehran residence of Alexander Sergeevich. According to the Turkmanchay agreement, they must be returned to their homeland: Eastern Armenia is now part of the Russian Empire.

To assess the actions of Alexander Griboyedov when he accepts a refugee from the Allayar Khan harem, let us once again recall his words to friends in St. Petersburg: “… Do not congratulate me on this appointment. All of us there will be cut. Allayar Khan is my personal enemy. "

Persia lived according to Sharia - Islamic law, according to which death is liable for leaving Islam. The treasurer of the shah (and therefore of the whole country), the eunuch, who ruled his huge harem, knew firsthand about this. Mirza Yakub was a secret Christian. In fact, his name was Yakub Markaryants - an Armenian from Erivan, he was captured 25 years before the events described, forcibly emasculated and, under pain of death, forced to accept Mohammedanism.

Who knows how many times, waking up on a black Persian night from the fact that he was crying, he kept trying to keep the dream away and at least mentally return to where thick maple shadows swayed on the yellow brickwork of the wall familiar to the cracks, and smelled of a house, and two familiar figures in the back of the courtyard they shuffled their old feet to the gate. Mother, father! Throwing away the veil, he jumped up, fumbled around the bookshelf, found the required volume, opened it and took out a sheet with an Armenian cross inscribed on it, a khachkar, and kissed this cross, and cried, and again hid it between the pages of Islamic books, and peered at the ceiling, wondering that maybe one day ...

But is it necessary? At court he is valued and respected, not knowing about his secret. He is brilliant in financial affairs, is wealthy and seems to have everything one could dream of. And only the Turkmanchay treaty changes matters - Yakub has hope. For her sake, he is ready to give up everything, exchange wealth and honor for the dream of returning home. It was a dream - of course, having lived a quarter of a century in Persia, he was not deceived on this score: he would hardly be released in peace.

Yakub is trying not to act backhand - in the evening he comes to the Russian mission and announces to Alexander Griboyedov “a desire to return to Erivan, his fatherland”, – writes mission secretary Ivan Maltsev. “Griboyedov told him that only thieves were looking for refuge at night, that the minister of the Russian emperor provided his patronage publicly, on the basis of a treatise, and that those who had anything to do with him had to resort to him explicitly, during the day, and not at night ... day he again came to the messenger with the same request. "

And when the Russian ambassador agrees to receive Yakub Markaryants, Tehran instantly boils. "Death to infidels!" - rushes through its streets, and a familiar shadow looms in the shadows, adds fuel to the fire, traditionally using the "Islamic factor" - agents of the British Empire.

A series of accusations and proceedings follows: Yakub owes money to the treasury, - no, he shouldn't, and so on - until it comes to the highest spiritual person of Persia, Mirza-Mesih.

He does not throw words to the wind - they fall like stones that are thrown in the squares of those responsible for quitting Islam: « This man has been in our faith for 20 years, has read our books, and now he will go to Russia, he will outrage our faith; he is a traitor, unfaithful and guilty of death! "

He is echoed by his mullahs - akhundas, as they are called in Persia: “We did not write the peace treaty with Russia and we will not tolerate the Russians to destroy our faith; report to the shah to return the prisoners to us immediately. "

They walk through the city, shouting: “Lock up the market tomorrow and gather in the mosques; there you will hear our word! " - and these screams bounce off the walls, multiply and roll on, heavy as cannonballs, and it seems that the smell of tomorrow's blood is already spreading in the air, and is hot and drunk. Death to infidels!

“On January 30, it was barely dawning, when suddenly a dull roar was heard; the traditional exclamations of “Ea Ali, Salavat!” were gradually heard coming from the mouth of a crowd of thousands. Several clerks came running to announce that a large crowd, armed with stones, daggers and sticks, was approaching the embassy house, preceded by mullahs and seids. The cry “death to the kafirs” was heard very well " , – recalled the courier of the Russian mission.

And the crowd broke into the embassy, \u200b\u200bsmashing the gates and doors, flowed into the rooftops, "with fierce cries expressed their joy and triumph."

And this is again the testimony of Ivan Maltsev: “The envoy, believing at first that the people only wanted to take the prisoners away, ordered the three Cossacks who stood at his watch to fire blank charges and then only ordered them to load the pistols with bullets when he saw that people in the yard began to cut people ours. About 15 people from officials and servants gathered in the envoy's room and courageously defended themselves at the door. Those who tried to invade by force were chopped up with sabers, but at that time the ceiling of the room, which served as the last refuge for the Russians, blazed up: all those who were there were killed by stones thrown down from above, rifle shots and dagger blows from the rabble that burst into the room. "

Of those who could see the death of Alexander Griboyedov, no one survived. Defending the Russian mission, the entire Cossack convoy fell - 37 people. Torn to pieces, hacked to death, crushed by the crowd, they were thrown into the ditch - arms, legs, decapitated bodies.

Cossacks are a holy host! How many centuries have they, without hesitation, simply, without looking back, gave their lives - for the Fatherland, for friends (John 15:13), for God's sake. The Greben army stood in the Caucasus as a living shield, bleeding, and in the Time of Troubles almost everything was beaten. The entire nineteenth century went under the bullets of the mountaineers, pacifying the Gazavat, the Tertsy loyal to the sovereign. So it was after the new Troubles - in 1917, until the Cossacks, faithful to God, were exterminated. Now the thick grass is swaying, hugging the lopsided crosses on the abandoned Cossack graves in the former villages of the Caucasus. But memory lives, and will live, as long as there is someone to remember.

We also remember how Christian blood was shed in Tehran, but did not extinguish the terrible fire - the maddened city burned with demonic fire for three more days, and for three days the body of Alexander Griboyedov was dragged along the streets by a crowd not satiated with murders.

Not having power over the soul, they raged, screamed, tormented dead flesh. Finally, as if tired, they threw them into a ditch, where his faithful escort was already waiting for the Russian envoy: so, it must be, and he departed for heaven - a warrior of Christ, surrounded by his squad.

The devil is the father of all evil and disgusting violence, he is the main enemy of the human race. He comes to a person and tries to make him work, and if you resist, he seeks to destroy you. The people whom he captivated and carried away to his kingdom do the same: there are many ways of seduction, for that he is crafty to deceive a person, and one should not blame only Muslims. There are enough episodes like this in our own history.

In 988, the Grand Duke Vladimir was baptized and baptized his people. And a century and a half after that in Kiev, in a similar way - by an enraged crowd - Prince-monk Igor of Kiev and Chernigov was killed. In this crowd that burst into the church and seized it during the Divine Liturgy, there were no gentiles.

The brother of the Grand Duke who reigned in Kiev tried to save him - he snatched him out of the crowd, drove him to his mother's house, pushed him out of the gate - but wherever there: the pursuers could no longer stop, the devil was hot blood, and, seeing Igor from the street in the gallery on the second floor, the crowd rushed like hounds on a fresh trail. They smashed the gates, smashed the doors, sweaty, red, with mad eyes, smashed the entryway, dragged down the holy martyr and beat him to death on the lower steps of the stairs. They did not stop there, but also dragged the monk's body through the streets, tying his legs with a rope, until the Tithe Church, they threw it onto a cart, tired of dragging, and drove to the market, where they left it, and went home, as if not an Orthodox people, but mad Pechenegs.

The body of another prince-passion-bearer, Andrei Bogolyubsky, ruthless killers - their own, from the nearest circle - dragged out into the garden, threw them to the dogs, and only one who remained faithful, Kuzma Kiyanin, asked for him, cried. He asked for it, brought it to the church, but even there they said: "What do we care about him!" And in the narthex, under the cloak, lay the body of the prince for two days and two nights, while the inhabitants of the city robbed his house, and only on the third day the murdered prince was buried.

Several centuries later, for the regicide, financed by the British envoy Whitworth, there were also performers from among their own: Emperor Paul I was killed by his own convoy.

Behind all this is the devil, who has deceived and deceived people. And the paths to their hearts in all ages are the same - through voluptuousness, popularity and avarice. So let us not suffocate from "just" hatred towards anyone, but let us fight in our own hearts against the devil - for from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, blasphemy (Matthew 15, 19).

When the riots in Tehran finally subsided, the authorities, as if waking up, began to act. They tried to "hush up". They sent gifts to St. Petersburg, including a huge diamond, but most importantly, they gave to take away the disfigured body of Alexander Sergeevich - he was identified by the shot off his little finger.

And the holy remains of the Cossacks remained lying in the ditch - until the Tehran Armenians risked their lives.

The first Armenian church in the city was being built nearby (maybe Yakub Markaryants, with his enormous potential, secretly had a hand in this - and the Persians themselves, having lost the war, tried to look more tolerant of the Gentiles).

The workers and the priest (history has preserved only his last name - Davudyan), who lived during the construction, responded to the Russian feat with a feat: arms, legs, Cossack bodies with ripped bellies were collected by them in the dead of night and buried in the courtyard of the St. Tatevos church under construction. Heaps of excavated earth towered around, bricks lay, but in order to completely avert suspicions, a vine was planted over a fresh grave - the Persians were looking for the missing remains, but they did not find anything.

On February 6, news of the death of the Russian envoy reached Tabriz, but not to Nina - for her, her husband would live for several more months. Poor Nina: they hide from her, they are afraid that they will lose the child. She feels, rushes, cries. They calm down, they say something.

Already in Tiflis, where she was deceived, Nina finally found out everything.

“After my arrival, when I barely rested from the exhaustion I had endured, but became more and more anxious in inexpressible, painful anxiety with ominous forebodings, they considered it necessary to tear down the veil that hid the terrible truth from me. It is beyond my power to express to you what I experienced then. The upheaval in my being was the reason for the premature release of the burden. My poor child has lived only an hour and has already united with his unfortunate father in the world where, I hope, his virtues and all his cruel sufferings will find a place. Nevertheless, they managed to baptize the child and gave him the name Alexander, the name of his poor father ... ”- she writes in Tabriz to their mutual friend, the English envoy John MacDonald.

It was he and his wife who were instructed by Alexander Griboyedov, going to Tehran, his wife - two diplomats from rival empires, Britain and Russia, it seems, were indeed friends.

Finally, the body of Alexander Sergeevich arrived in Tiflis. Nina met him standing on the fortress wall. I saw a wagon with a coffin and lost consciousness, fell.

Once upon a time, the holy princess Eupraxia stood on the fortress wall of Ryazan with little John in her arms. There is much in common in the destinies of the Zaraisky prince Theodore and the secular man of the nineteenth century, Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov. Both of them were Orthodox, having absorbed the piety of the Russian Church.

Let us recall once again the words of Alexander Griboyedov and put them on our hearts:

“Russian people gather only in the temples of God; think and pray in Russian. In the Russian Church, I am in the Fatherland, in Russia! I am moved by the thought that the same prayers were read under Vladimir, Dimitri Donskoy, Monomakh, Yaroslav, in Kiev, Novgorod, Moscow; that the same singing touched their hearts, the same feelings inspired pious souls. We are Russians only in the Church - and I want to be Russian! "

Like all of us, more than once Alexander Griboyedov heard the reading of the Apostle in church during services that faith without works is dead (James 2:20) - and what for Christ's sake, not only believe in Him, but also suffer for Him (Phil. 1, 29).

And when his hour struck, and the time came to act, he acted not as a politician, but as a Christian.

Monuments to Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov rise today on the capital squares of Russia, Georgia and Armenia. Two Christian Caucasian peoples - Armenians and Georgians - have real, deep respect for him, and behind this respect lies precisely the veneration of him as a Christian who i laid down my soul for my friends.

And no momentary political trends can shake this respect for Alexander Griboyedov, a Russian person.