Aleksandr Griboyedov

Born in Moscow, Griboyedov studied at Moscow University from 1810 to 1812.

He then obtained a commission in a hussar regiment, which he resigned in 1816. The next year, he entered the civil service.

Petersburg in 1816, was followed by other similar works. Neither these nor his essays and poetry would have been long remembered but for the success of his verse comedy Woe from Wit, a satire on Russian aristocratic society. As a high official in the play puts it, this work is "a pasquinade on Moscow". The play depicts certain social and official stereotypes in the characters of Famusov, who hates reform; his secretary, Molchalin, who fawns over officials; and the aristocratic young liberal and Anglomaniac, Repetilov. By contrast the hero of the piece, Chatsky, an ironic satirist just returned from western Europe, exposes and ridicules the weaknesses of the rest.

In 1818 he was appointed secretary of the Russian legation in Persia, and transferred to Georgia. His verse comedy The Young Spouses, which he staged in St.

In Russia for the summer of 1823, Griboyedov completed the play and took it to St. Petersburg. It was rejected by the censors. Many copies were made and privately circulated, but Griboyedov never saw it published. After his death manuscript was jointly owned by his wife Nina Alexandrovna Griboyedova and his sister Maria Sergeyevna Durnovo (Griboyedova).

His words echo the outcry of the young generation in the lead-up to the armed insurrection of 1825.

The first edition was printed in 1833, four years after his death. Only once did he see it on the stage, when it was performed by the officers of the garrison at Yerevan. Soured by disappointment, he returned to Georgia.