Alexander Griboyedov. Mind and heart are out of tune. Part 4. Music and diplomacy
During his short life, Alexander Griboyedov composed many pieces of music. Only two have survived, one of them is the famous "Griboyedov Waltz". Contemporaries were surprised and regretted that Alexander Sergeevich never recorded his musical improvisations, which are lost to posterity forever …
Part 1. Family
Part 2. Cornet of a non-shiny regiment
Part 3. College of Foreign Affairs
Alexander did not want to leave Petersburg and Moscow, but his appointment as the secretary of the Russian diplomatic mission in Persia was signed long ago, and he had to seriously prepare for his departure. Having overcome more than 3 thousand miles from Moscow to Tiflis, making his way through dangerous Caucasian paths in the company of his colleagues, Griboyedov ended up in Georgia. He had not yet had time to inspect the city when he ran into Yakubovich.
The disgraced lancer had known for a long time about the alleged arrival of Alexander and immediately demanded satisfaction. Yakubovich told all Tiflis about the death of Sheremetev, hoping to get supporters and seconds. The duel took place. Yakubovich aimed at Griboyedov's hand and shot through the little finger. Regretting that he had not killed, he commented: "At least you will stop playing!" It took Alexander a long time to recover from the injury and learn to play with his left hand with 4.5 fingers.
For a brilliant musician like Alexander Griboyedov, losing the opportunity to play music was tantamount to depriving him of the main way of filling his lack of sound.
"One can hear the flute, then, like a piano" [1]
In the village where the children of N. F. Griboedova, Alexander and Masha learned to play the piano. The brother carefully watched his sister's fingers running on the keys, and when the seat at the piano became free, he himself played the melodies he heard.
A bit awkward and not very capable of dancing, Sasha took his own, sitting down at the piano, getting real pleasure from the very process of playing, giving pleasure to the listeners. A naturally diligent and concentrated boy with a sound vector did not learn the technique of playing and the correct placement of hands, which did not prevent him from becoming a brilliant pianist and improviser.
As easily as on the piano, Alexander learned to play the violin, flute and harp. The harp was considered a female instrument, but he mastered it foolingly. At the beginning of the 19th century, women were not supposed to play the flute, and men were not supposed to play ladies' instruments.
In the comedy Woe from Wit, Griboyedov gives his heroine a "forbidden" occupation. The emancipated Sophia challenges society by playing the flute all night long with a young man.
"It is not the composer who composes the music - the universe is through him" [2]
System-vector psychology of Yuri Burlan explains that for a person with a sound vector, abstract perception of the world is natural. In the endless process of self-knowledge, he becomes a "stalker", a guide between two worlds - the Planet of people and the Universe.
The rustle of stars and the rustle of the Universe, heard in the silence of the night, the sound engineer learns to transform into notes, rhymes and formulas. Alexander Griboyedov wrote poetry and plays in verse. Literature and music filled his sound voids. Wherever he was, he could not do without an instrument, without music, without improvisation, without poetry. Like many sound specialists, Griboyedov suffered from insomnia, so he "bought a piano … and began to announce the house with roulades at the most unexpected time for the neighbors." [3]
During his short life, Alexander Griboyedov composed many pieces of music. Only two have survived, one of them is the famous "Griboyedov Waltz". Contemporaries were surprised and regretted that Alexander Sergeevich never recorded his musical improvisations, which are lost for posterity forever.
“Throwing sounds into the air,” he did not memorize his original melodies. Griboyedov with "lordly carelessness" did not think of himself as a playwright and composer. He just composed, enjoying the very process of creativity.
Music and poetry were only a way of self-knowledge and self-realization, helping the sound engineer Griboyedov not to plunge into the depressive failures of his own psychological emptiness.
Is it so important for Alexander to leave squiggles on the music paper, while the universe was filled with sounds that he heard himself and through his playing made it possible for others to hear? His love for music was great and unselfish.
Having made friends with Alexander Alyabyev, a military officer, partisan of the war of 1812, an inveterate gambler and a passionate musician, Griboyedov found a kindred spirit, ready to listen to his piano improvisations for an infinitely long time.
Later, connoisseurs of Griboyedov's music argued that in Alyabyev's romances one could hear the motives of Alexander Sergeevich's improvisations. Griboyedov's melodies were light, memorable, melodious, natural and combined a European salon composition with Russian folklore. The creativity of Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov, according to experts, influenced the development of the entire musical art of Russia.
Musical Tabriz
After leaving Tiflis and crossing the Caucasus Mountains, the secretary of the Russian diplomatic mission ended up in Persia, in Tabriz, the city where all the missions of the countries with which the Iranians maintained diplomatic relations were concentrated.
Soon, among the Europeans stationed in Tabriz, Griboyedov was known as the brightest and most educated figure. He seemed not to be killed by the boredom and Persian heat that the Europeans suffered from.
Having overcome a long way through the mountains, the piano finally reached him. The living quarters were so small that the sounds of the instrument died out in them. Then it was decided to drag him to the upper platform, intended for walking and recreation. The concerts on the roof became the landmark of Tabriz, the Persians gathered here, the diplomatic audience came. People listened for hours as the musical fantasies of Alexander Griboyedov poured down to earth from heaven.
Open-air musical evenings have become one of the ways for diplomatic officials representing the political interests of their countries to get to know each other.
With the French and Italians, Alexander Sergeevich made a superficial, non-binding friendship. The British were prim and wary. Griboyedov remembered the main task that he and his comrades had to accomplish - to overcome the hostility of the British. The small European colony of Tabriz met every day for walks, in bazaars, over a cup of Indian tea.
England had such a weight in the world that not receiving an invitation to English evenings for a diplomat was tantamount to a serious blunder. Any diplomat knows that the fate of states is decided not during business negotiations, but at secular receptions.
"Eh, yes, this is intrigue, not politics!" [four]
Despite the external benevolence, the British treated Russian diplomats with obvious wariness and poorly hidden hostility. This was caused by a change in geopolitics in Central Asia, actively pursued by Russia.
The reason for the confrontation was the fear of losing India, which for the second century was the prey of the Britons and represented the most important sphere of economic interests of England. This would end the existence of the East India Campaign, the main supplier of Indian treasures to the island.
One could get to the Indian paradise through Persia and Afghanistan. In the event of the advance of the Russian army to the South, the British armed forces did not pose any danger to it. Therefore, Persia was important for the British, as the last bastion and barrier on the way to India.
The Europeans did not encroach on it, the way to the Ganges was too unprofitable and time consuming. But here, unexpectedly for everyone, Russia declared itself. Once located behind the Caucasian ridge, in the course of protracted military operations, it annexed Georgia, Armenia and even part of Azerbaijan.
It seemed that what did Britain care about the relationship between Russia and Persia. The answer comes, one has only to look at the geographical map of Central Asia. Semi-wild countries, leading endless civil strife, were actively sponsored by the English East India Campaign, which received the status quo in this region. Her spies bribed the military and governors, continuing to mercilessly plunder the countries of Central Asia.
Not only Persia, Afghanistan, the shortest, but the most difficult way to India, which the Britons held so dear, were inundated with the Russians and the British. Today the names of these people are associated with geographical discoveries and even world classical literature. But the task with which they moved along the mountain trails and dusty roads of Central Asia and the Caucasus was to collect intelligence data.
Rogue mission secretary
Driving from Tabriz to Ermolov's headquarters in Tiflis, Griboyedov did not stay long in the city. Not to remember how many times he had to cross the Caucasus, and each trip lasted at least a month. These travels were of a service nature - the annexed Georgia required study.
All the information collected by Alexander Sergeevich about the mountain peoples, their habitats, moods, occupations, way of life, and most importantly about the travelers he met on the roads of the Caucasus, lay on the table of the Commander-in-Chief - the Tsarist governor, sovereign master of the Russian Transcaucasia, endowed with unlimited power, the general Ermolov. He was also the direct superior of Griboyedov.
The general refused to believe that the travelers who pretended to be pilgrims, collectors of folklore, ethnographers, etymologists, roaming the hard-to-reach mountain paths "to seek the similarity of the Persian language to Danish" were in fact spies. Hiding behind the most diverse and innocent masks of horse buyers, geographers, cartographers, traders, travelers, adventurers, merchants and other people, British intelligence officers were doing their secret business.
The English Parliament or the East India Company sent them to the Caucasian peoples with money and weapons to sow hatred and raise uprisings against Russian expansion.
Griboyedov traveled to villages and mountain auls, carrying out orders from the Caucasian Commander-in-Chief, and by his appearance prevented the British from entering into negotiations with the mountaineers. Not without the participation of Alexander Sergeevich, the number of uprisings and provocations by the deceived highlanders financed by the British has significantly decreased.
Griboyedov collected, analyzed and studied the methods of work of British intelligence officers and diplomats. In the future, he, together with the new Commander-in-Chief of the Caucasus, Paskevich, will use them, waging the most "humane war" in this region, saving Russia and Persia from unnecessary human casualties.
It is possible to analyze these and other historical events deeply and psychologically accurately using systems thinking. Registration for free online lectures on Systemic Vector Psychology by Yuri Burlan at the link:
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List of references:
- A. S. Griboyedov. "Woe from Wit"
- Anna Nesterova. “In memory of Viktor Tolkachev. Tablets of Psychoanalysis"
- Ekaterina Tsimbaeva. "Griboyedov"
- Beaumarchais. "The Marriage of Figaro"
