Aleksandr Griboyedov proved himself as a man of many talents: he was an insightful Russian diplomat, an endowed playwright and a composer. Griboyedov is often referred to as homo unius libri, a writer of one book, who won his laurels for the brilliant verse comedy “Woe from Wit,” still very timely and one of the most frequently staged plays in Russia. “Woe from Wit” takes precedence over the finest modern satires, like Nikolay Gogol’s “Dead Souls,” which lampoons the bureaucracy of Imperial Russia, and Mikhail Bulgakov's satiric short stories of “The Soviet State.”
Aleksandr Griboyedov was born in Moscow on 15 January 1795. Like his contemporary, Aleksandr Pushkin, he was raised in a well-to-do upper class family and traveled in wealthy circles of society. A very talented young boy, he was home-schooled, but received a very profound education. In 1803 he studied at the University Boarding School, which he left for the Moscow University in 1806, graduating in 1812 at the age of fifteen with a master’s degree in philology. One of the most well-educated people of his time, he had a strong command of French, English, German, Italian, Greek and Latin, and later he added Arabic, Persian, and Turkish to his linguistic arsenal.
Griboyedov’s body was so ill treated by the mob for three days that it could be recognized only by a scar from the old duel on his hand. His body was taken to Tiflis and buried in the Monastery of Saint David. His 16-year-old widow, Nina, on hearing of his death, gave premature birth to a child, who died a few hours later. She lived another 30 years after her husband's death, rejecting all suitors and winning universal admiration by her fidelity to his memory. The inscription on Griboyedov’s tombstone says, “Your wit and your feat are immortal in the Russian memory, but why did my love outlive you?”
