Alexander Sergeevich Griboedov and Persia: New Interpretations

Alexander Segeevich Griboedov, both as a person but more as a diplomat shaped and influenced the history of the Russian-Iranian relationship at the start of the Great Game. It is even possible to say that his rather short life full of great ambitions and expectations and even more so his tragic death caused this phenomenon and identified the direction of Russo-British politics in Persia.
In my paper I intend to compare the established views on the period of Russian military success in Persia between the treaties of Gulistan and Turkmanchay with those expressed in the new publications related to the theme of Griboedov in Persia. Recent authors discuss the facts that influenced his decision to accept the post at the Tehran embassy, and his activities as plenipotentiary minister of Russia until his murder. The publications in question will include new biography of Griboedov, which is the lifetime achievement of the most prominent scholar of Griboedov Professor Sergey Alexandrovich Fomichev of the Pushkin House in St Petersburg (SPb: Vita Nova, 2012), which is the continuation of his Griboedov Encyclopaedia (SPb: Nestor-Istoria, 2007): both publications contain the results of the most recent Russian studies on Griboedov and his milieu. I will also consider newly published sources which became available in Russia in the post-Soviet period, like Russian émigré literature on Griboedov (Minorsky, Khodasevich, Struve, Kizevetter, Svyatopolk-Mirsky et al.) as well as the memoires of A. Berzhe, editor of the Acts of the Caucasian Archeographic Commission (Acts) and originally published in Russkaya Starina (Kavkazskaya starina, Pyatigorsk: Sneg, 2011) together with the materials from the Acts.