Alexander Griboyedov. Mind and heart are out of tune. Part 5. Secretary of the Wandering Mission
Part 1. Family
Part 2. Cornet of a non-shiny regiment
Part 3. College of Foreign Affairs
Part 4. Music and diplomacy
"Mountain peaks … Quiet valleys …"(From Goethe)
Before starting any business, Alexander Griboyedov carefully studied the subject. Faraway Central Asia, unknown to a Russian, with all its secrets, history and economics appeared before Griboyedov after reading the book of the English researcher, military, diplomat John Malcolm "History of Persia". In the book, the author provides an exculpatory analysis of British colonial policy.
This work for a narrow circle of specialists, written through the prism of the skin-olfactory strategy, and his own observations confirmed Griboyedov in the idea that the domestic policy of England was heterogeneous, that the country was split into two camps, and the interests of the island state and the managers of the East India Company itself were opposite.
The Indian colony was officially part of Britain with a governor appointed from London. In fact, local and visiting British officials have long been bribed by the owners of the Company. The income from its management went into the private hands of its co-founders and deposited in their personal accounts in British banks. The British treasury was replenished only by meager contributions from all OIC transactions.
The East India Company sought to capture the entire market in Central Asia and extend its political influence over it. With victories in the Caucasus, Russia spoiled the picture of the world created by the British in their imaginations.
Part of the Caucasus already belonged to the Russians, which not only bothered the British, but forced the East India Company to incur huge losses. The overactiveness of the British in Persia and Afghanistan was due to the fear of Russia, which these countries have been interested in since the time of Peter I as a corridor leading to the Indian Ocean and the main colony of the British.
Russian expansion in India would have ended the existence of the East India Company, cutting off the main resource that feeds the small island state in the Atlantic, where all world politics was carried out.
By the hands of the puppets bribed by Britain, wars were declared and ended on other continents, prime ministers were appointed and removed, kings, kings, shahs ascended and fell, emperors clashed their foreheads, ready for their own ambitions to throw many thousands of armies into the fire of military conflagrations, then capitulate and pay the winner humiliating, plundering indemnities. The collapse of the East India Company would have led to the inevitable collapse of the entire British Empire.
"Humble yourself, Caucasus: Ermolov is coming!" [one]
All this was unknown to Ambassador Extraordinary General Yermolov because of his short stay in Persia and the inflexibility of political thinking. Alexei Petrovich Ermolov began to serve under the leadership of the urethral generalissimo of the Russian troops, Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov.
From him he took over respect and care for the Russian muscular soldier. Ermolov “forbade exhausting the troops with senseless shagistika, increased the meat and wine portions, allowed them to wear hats instead of shako, canvas sacks instead of knapsacks, short fur coats instead of greatcoats in winter, built strong apartments for the troops, built a hospital in Tiflis with the sums he saved from a trip to Persia, and did his best brighten up the hard life of the troops”[2].
In St. Petersburg they put up with the "whim" of the general, exiling him to Central Asia out of sight. Yermolov was an executive campaigner, but diplomacy and analytics were alien to him.
"Now he is a collegiate assessor in foreign affairs" [3]
The intrigues and provocations of the East India Company directed against the actions of Russia in Central Asia were obvious to Griboyedov, but his Petersburg bosses, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Count Nesselrode, were of little interest to him. For fear of confrontation with England, he did not consider it necessary to inform the Russian Tsar on a number of foreign policy issues that required an early solution in the Caucasus. What did a foreigner as a foreign minister care about Russian problems?
Since the second half of the 18th century. dozens of foreigners poured into the Russian Foreign Ministry. Germans, Swedes, Greeks, Romanians, Poles, Dalmatians, Corsicans left their diplomatic service and moved to Russia, receiving ministerial portfolios, high ranks, salaries incomparable with scanty European salaries and complete freedom for intelligence activities.
Often these "advisers" were in the service of the emperor without even changing citizenship, worked for the intelligence services of England, Germany, France and had an absolutely clear goal - to destroy Russia.
The Alopeus, Nesselrode, Kapodistrias, Rodofinikins, Sturdzy, Brunnovs, Sukhtelens, Pozzo di Borgo, etc., ousted the old Russian dynasties of diplomats Tolstoy, Panins, Rumyantsevs, Obrezkovs, Vorontsovs from high Foreign Ministry posts. Most of the strangers pursued another goal: to fill their own pockets with tsarist gold pieces of gold from unaccounted state monetary sources.
For these foreign bosses, it was a common thing to detain Russian diplomats in another country, a salary for six months, to forget to present a distinguished employee for the next rank or award, to be irresponsible for urgent documents of state importance, gathering dust on the table for months before getting to sign king.
There are no analogues in history of such a careless attitude to service and the transfer of government positions into the hands of mercenaries who served without knowing the Russian language, without changing citizenship and faith, without trying to understand the mentality of the people, without hiding their deep contempt for everything Russian.
This state of affairs in Russia amazed even Friedrich Engels, who wrote about Russian diplomacy as a “secret society, recruited initially from foreign adventurers” [4].
“The notorious chain of the all-sultry Caucasus, Impenetrable, deserted country … [5]
Long before Griboyedov's arrival in Central Asia, the long-term war between Persia and Russia ended with the conclusion of the Gulistan peace treaty on favorable terms for the Russians. Part of the Caucasian territory was ceded to Russia, which could not but disturb Great Britain. General Ermolov needed an assistant who would be in Tabriz, looking after the Persians and their fulfillment of the terms of the treaty.
Among the most important provisions of the peace treaty for Russia, “in addition to the payment of indemnity, was the transfer of Russian prisoners of war and deserters, who made up the famous“Russian battalion”of“bekhadyran”(heroes) in Persia” [6]. The reason for keeping the Russian prisoners was Tehran's internal political and palace intrigues.
The aged Shah Feth Ali, violating the traditions of succession to the throne, transferred the internal government of the state to the jurisdiction of the youngest son of Abbas Mirza. The older sons showed latent discontent and, hiding, waited for an opportune moment to remove their younger brother.
Naturally, Abbas Mirz did not feel at ease. He did not doubt the cunning of his older half-brother, and in the event of his father's death he expected an organized coup or rebellion. Knowing well the corruption of the Persian military and palace guards, Abbas Mirza did not trust them.
This is where the "neutral" "Russian battalion" would come in handy, which became something like the personal guard of the Persian crown prince. Taking into service Russian prisoners of war and deserters, Abbas-Mirza counted on them in future internecine wars with his brothers. The "Behadirans" were in a privileged position, although the heir was in no hurry to pay them their salaries.
These guardsmen and other Russian prisoners were to be returned to Russia, according to the Gulistan treaty, by Alexander Griboyedov. The British impeded this process in every way, influencing Abbas Mirza with the help of expensive gifts and money.
I'll lay my head for the unfortunate compatriots
Demanding the return of prisoners from the Russian battalion from the shah-zade, Alexander Griboyedov touched upon the deep internal problems of the shah's court, which he had not previously suspected. Returning to Tabriz, he plunged into the trouble of extraditing prisoners of war.
Soldiers and officers who refused to serve in the Russian battalion were subjected to cruel and humiliating abuse. Some of them could still be saved and taken to Russia. Others, who had endured severe torture and torture, could no longer stand the way home. "I will lay my head for the unfortunate compatriots," Griboyedov gave himself his word. Soon he managed to take 70 soldiers from the Russian battalion belonging to the prince, then their number doubled.
The British watched with pleasure the spat between the uncompromising secretary of the Russian mission and the intractable Shah-zadeh. They were quite satisfied with the conflict between the winners and the losers, they actively sponsored the Persians and secretly incited them to the envoys of the official Russian government.
The passage with soldiers-deserters and former prisoners through the Caucasus lasted for several weeks. Griboyedov, overcoming 70 km in the saddle. a day, personally escorted to Tiflis and gave Ermolov one hundred fifty-eight people.
The diplomat did what none of the military could do. The general was delighted with the actions of Griboyedov, and he sent to St. Petersburg a petition addressed to Count Nesselrode for presentation to the secretary of the Russian mission in Persia, Alexander Griboyedov, a reward with the next rank and distinction. The refusal followed with a notice: "A diplomatic official should not have done that."
This news could not fail to please the ubiquitous British. Petersburg courtiers did not even imagine what damage they caused to Russian politics and diplomacy in the Caucasus. Nesselrode was more worried about whether the act of Russian diplomats in Transcaucasia had an impact on relations with England. Alexander was no longer surprised at how stupidly the imperial embassies were organized and was not surprised at the two-facedness and betrayal of Petersburg.
The main thing is chairs
Griboyedov never ceased to be indignant at the disrespectful attitude of the Persians towards Russian officials. Ermolov also approved the principles of European behavior of diplomats at the Shah's receptions. At the talks with the Shah, Russian diplomats should have been given chairs, and not offered to sit on carpets in an Asian manner. When the Shah visited, diplomats were not required to take off their shoes and put on the notorious red stockings.
The British maneuvered and bowed in front of the Persians in a skin-like manner, did not conflict with Tabriz in the olfactory way, demonstrating in every possible way their loyalty and respect for the local authorities. They resignedly followed Asian customs and pretended that they were sympathetic to the indignation of the Persians with the "ignorance" and "disrespect" of the Russian occupiers, which aroused the Shah's favor.
“It is easy to manipulate the anal society, using the concepts of“honor”,“traditions of ancestors,”“customs of fathers and grandfathers,”explains the peculiarities of the anal mentality, system-vector psychology of Yuri Burlan. The anal frustrations and grievances of the Persians caused by the defeat in the war with Russia and the need to fulfill the harsh conditions of the Gulistan peace treaty were exorbitantly inflated and cultivated with special penetration by the British. The growing emptiness was filled with anal zeal and resentment mixed with xenophobia.
They served as an accumulator of negativity towards the "unfaithful" Russians. All that remained was to find the right catalyst for an explosion of hatred. Such a catalyst was the religious enmity and provocations of the Britons.
You can learn about the properties and manifestations of the anal mentality, about its differences from our unique Russian mentality at the training on System-Vector Psychology by Yuri Burlan. Registration for free online lectures at the link:
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List of sources:
- A. S. Pushkin, "Prisoner of the Caucasus"
- From Wikipedia
- A. S. Pushkin Epigram on Alexander I
- F. Engels "Foreign policy of Russian tsarism"
- P. A. Katenin
- Ekaterina Tsimbaeva. "Griboyedov"
