“Angel” Nina
Nina was one of three daughters of Prince Alexander Chavchavadze, poet and lieutenant general of the imperial army. He was born on the family estate in Tsinandali and grew up in Tbilisi; here she lived with her mother and sisters in an annex in the house of the family’s close friend Praskovia Akhverdova. My father rarely visited the city; he either spent time in Tsinandali or was in Elmwood, where his regiment was staying.
Griboyedov met Nina at the Akhverdovs in 1822, shortly after he had moved to Tbilisi from Persia. The writer briefly gave music lessons to the nine-year-old girl, and then went to Moscow.
In 1828, Griboyedov played an important role in the negotiations on the end of the Russo-Persian War, in which the Turkmenchay peace treaty was signed in favor of Russia, and was appointed ambassador to Iran. The diplomat stopped again in Tbilisi on his way to the office, which ended unexpectedly with his marriage to 15-year-old Nina Chavchavadze.
Griboyedov was not the first to fall completely in love with the young princess Chavchavazde. The girl was unusually beautiful, smart, kind and distinguished by her excellent manners.
For example, in 1828 Griboyedov’s colleague Karl Adelung wrote of Nina, “She is very kind, very beautiful, and well educated.”
Officer Nikolai Senyavin, son of Admiral Dmitry Senyavin, was passionately and unrequitedly in love with Chavchavadze. “You won’t believe how madly I love N. I am ready to sacrifice everything for him. But what am I saying? We must come to our senses! And the worst thing is that he is so used to seeing pain next to this beauty that he writes me among the usual number of all unfortunate, ”wrote his friend Boris Chilyaev, who introduced his lover to the Chavchavadze family. .
This and other letters of Senyavin were certainly filled with ardent passion and grief, for the beloved Angel, as he called her, did not experience mutual feelings. “No, there can be no such perfection in the world! Beauty, heart, feelings, indescribable kindness, how clever! God, no one can compare to him! – that’s how the officer described Nina.
How did Griboyedov fall in love and find a bride in one day?
It evoked similar feelings in other men. Among Chavchavadze’s admirers were Sergey, General Yermolov’s cousin, and Lieutenant General Vasily Ilovaisky, who was not young at the time, who was engaged but rejected. Another admirer turned out to be Griboyedov, who returned to the Akhverdovs’ home in July 1828.
Describing in a letter to his friend the misfortunes that had brought him to Tbilisi once again, the diplomat stated that he was at dinner with his old friend Akhverdova, and Nina was sitting at the table opposite: “She kept looking at him, her heart began to pound as she thought, is it some other kind of anxiety? I don’t know if it was because of work that was now unusually important, or if it was something else that gave me extraordinary determination, I got up from the table, took his hand and said to him: “Venez avec moi, j’ai quelque chose a vous dire” ( “Come with me, I need to tell you something – “socialbites.ca”)”.
Chavchavadze pursued a family friend, thinking he would teach him to play the piano again, as Griboedov had suggested.
“Things did not go well, his mother’s house was nearby, we ran away from there, went into the room, my cheeks turned red, I gasped, I do not remember what I began to mutter to her, and more and more vividly, I cried, laughed, kissed her, then to her mother, grandmother, second mother Praskovya Nikolaevna Akhverdova ‘Oh, we are blessed, I hung on his lips all night and all day, I sent a courier to his father in Yerevan letters from both of us and our relatives, ”the poet recalled.
So actually, on the same day, the ambassador of the Russian Empire in Iran and the author of the book “Woe from Wit” fell in love and found a bride. Blessing from Alexander Chavchavadze from Yerevan (Yerevan) He came while Griboyedov was in Gyumri. As the author later wrote to a friend, “He blesses me and Nina and rejoices in our love.”
Young people got married in Tbilisi Sioni Cathedral. There is a legend that the marriage was overshadowed by an unpleasant event: the groom with a fever dropped his wedding ring.
Griboyedov got really sick before the wedding. “On August 6, when I returned to Tbilisi from the active detachment here, I fell ill with a severe fever. I was relieved on the 22nd, Nina did not get out of my bed and I married her.
But on the day of the wedding, the guard visited me again under the aisle, and I haven’t rested since, and I’ve gotten so thin and yellow and thin that I don’t think there’s a healthy drop of blood left in me. , ”the author complained in one of his letters.
By the way, Griboyedov later explained the rush of the wedding precisely with his illness. “As for my wedding, it’s a simple thing. If I hadn’t gotten sick in Tbilisi, it would have been postponed to next summer. However, since my health was deteriorating, I did not want to miss this opportunity, and at the same time I asked Count Ivan Fyodorovich to give the highest attention to this matter through his relationship with His Excellency the Vice-Chancellor. However, neither the disease nor my wife kept me away for a long time,” he said.
“Anywhere You Don’t Want To Be”
Shortly after the wedding, it was time for the newly appointed ambassador to leave for Iran. After the war, the relations of the countries left much to be desired – Griboyedov had to ensure the release of prisoners and payment of compensation in the amount of 20 million silver rubles, according to the Turkmanchay peace agreement. Despite the danger of the mission and the difficulties of the journey, young Nina Griboedova wanted to accompany her husband. In September 1828, the couple left Tbilisi.
Nina at first tolerated the road well. “We are married, we travel in a huge caravan, 110 horses and mules, we spend the night high in the mountains, under the tents, where the winter is cold, my Ninusha does not complain, she is content, playful, cheerful; let there be a change, we have wonderful meetings, the cavalry is running at full speed, dusting, dismounting and congratulating us on our happy arrival, which we never wanted to be, ”Griboyedov said in a message to his friend Varvara Miklashevich.
He wrote about his wife with obvious pride and love: “I love my Ninochka. Do you want to know him? In Malmaison, in the Hermitage, right at the entrance, there is a virgin in the form of the shepherd Murillo (Spanish artist Bartolome Esteban Murillo. – socialbites.ca) – here it is.
On the way it turned out that Nina is expecting a baby. The pregnancy was difficult, the girl was often sick, and in Tabriz, where the embassies of European states were located in the palace of Prince Abbas Mirza, it was decided to open the road to Tehran. (there was a meeting with the local ruler Feth Ali Shah) Griboyedov will continue without him.
On the way, the diplomat wrote to his wife: “My dear friend, I feel sorry for you, it is so sad to be without you. Now I really feel what it means to love.
Earlier, I was separated from many people with whom I was also very close, but a day, two, a week – and the longing disappeared, now the further away from you the worse. Let’s hold on a little longer, my angel, let’s pray to God that we will not be separated from now on.
He imagined how he would be reunited with Nina soon, and remembered the day he confessed his love to his future wife, made an offer, received the bride’s consent and her mother’s approval:
“Remember, invaluable friend, how I wooed you, without intermediaries, there was no third party. Do you remember how I kissed you for the first time, soon and sincerely we met and forever. Do you remember the first evening, how your mother, grandmother and Praskovya Nikolaevna were sitting on the porch, and how you and I pressed on you in the depths of the window, and you, dear, blushed, I taught you how to kiss harder and harder. Then I came back from camp, got sick and you visited me. Dushka!
“Why did my love survive you?”
Griboyedov did not return from Tehran: on January 30, 1829 (or February 11, according to the new style), angry fanatics against the staff of the diplomatic mission attacked the embassy, mainly because of rumors. They were violating the etiquette of the Shah’s court. Their anger was due, among other things, to the fact that Armenians serving at the court were hiding in the embassy.
On the eve of January 30, Griboyedov sent a note to the Shah informing him that he had to ask the Russian government to withdraw the mission from Iran, but that he did not have time to leave the country. In the morning, the crowd attacked the embassy – in the massacre all 38 people who remained in the building were killed, including the ambassador himself, who, together with the Cossacks, protected him from the fanatics. His body was so dismembered that it was only possible to identify the body from the embassy uniform and the wound he received in the youth duel. Only the secretary of the embassy, Ivan Maltsov, who had been hiding during the massacre, survived the massacre.
After the incident, the Shah sent his grandson Khozrev Mirza to St. sent to St. Petersburg. Rich gifts were presented to the Russian Emperor Nicholas I, including the famous Shah apple. Apologies accepted.
For two weeks they were afraid to tell the widow of Alexander Griboyedov about the death of her husband. However, when Nina found out she was no longer her, she went into labor prematurely – the newborn only lived for a few hours.
Griboyedov’s body was brought to Tbilisi. The widow was born on the slope of Mtatsminda Mountain. He ordered that he be buried in the Church of David. “Your mind and actions are immortal in Russian memory, but why did my love survive you?” He left an inscription on his tombstone.
Nina never remarried and turned down all offers. Griboyedov’s wife, who died of cholera for the rest of her life and at the age of 44, mourned, for which she nicknamed herself the Black Rose of Tbilisi.
Alexander and Nina Griboyedov are buried together. Their graves are located in Tbilisi, in the Mtatsminda pantheon, where famous writers, artists, scientists and national heroes of Georgia are buried.