From Famusov’s House to Bolshoi Theatre. Key locations of Griboyedov's Moscow

Moscow is the home city of the author of the first Russian realistic comedy 'Woe from Wit'. Alexander Griboyedov spent his childhood on Novinsky Boulevard, studied at the Institute in Mokhovaya Street, and made his cousin sister's house renowned. We will take a walk through the streets the writer once walked, too.

Mother's house: primary education

17 Novinsky Boulevard

Alexander Griboyedov spent his childhood and youth in the house of his mother Anastasia (nee Griboyedova, too), a member of a renowned noble family. She inherited the estate on Novinsky Boulevard from her brother, Alexei Griboyedov.

The would-be author of 'Woe from Wit' was educated at home with a special focus on foreign languages: as a child, he studied French, English, German, and Italian. He was trained by the best teachers, including Bogdan Ion, a graduate of the University of Göttingen.

In 1812, Griboyedov enlisted as a volunteer in the Moscow hussar regiment. He went to fight in the war right from his house to never see it again, as the estate was later badly damaged by fire.

Another house was built on the site, but the writer disliked it at once. After Griboyedov's death, his mother sold the mansion. New owners rebuilt it many times. Today there is a building constructed in the 1970s.

University: first literary attempts

11 Mokhovaya Street

In 1803, Alexander Griboyedov entered the Moscow University Noble Boarding School. Three years later, he already studied at the Literature Department of the Moscow University. Fluent in four foreign languages, Griboyedov began to learn Persian, Arabic, Turkish, ancient Greek, and Latin. After graduation, he was enrolled in the law and physics and mathematics departments, as he also took interest in exact sciences.

Griboyedov began writing his first works while studying. That was also when he befriended Pyotr Chaadayev, the Muravyov brothers, and Ivan Yakushkin.

The school in Mokhovaya Street built in 1782 was also damaged in the fire of 1812, as well as Griboyedov's house. Much of the library was lost. Restoration took a few years. The facades were designed in Empire style and decorated with reliefs.

The former Lazarev Institute: Griboyedov's visits

2 Armyansky Pereulok

The Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages was established in 1815. Initially, it was intended for young Armenian nobility, but later it became multinational. The Institute was named after its founders, Ivan and Yekim Lazarev, sons of a wealthy merchant from the old family Lazar Lazaryan, who changed his name to Lazarev.

The Institute, whose stone gates were decorated with snow-white pylons featuring lion sculptures, became at once very popular with writers and scientists who often visited it, with the 20-year-old Alexander Griboyedov, just beginning his writing career, among them. Back at that time, he concerned himself with international relations, too. By the way, Ivan Turgenev was among the graduates of the Institute.

The school occupied an ensemble of six buildings, with its own printing house in one of them, one of the best in Moscow. In 1822, an Empire-style obelisk was set up in the garden behind the main building in memory of its founders. In 1914, it was moved to the middle of the front yard.

Lazarevsky Institute has been renamed many times. For some time, it housed a Theatre Studio directed by Yevgeny Vakhtangov. In 1927, the Institute became part of the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies. Today this building houses the Embassy of Armenia.

Famusov's House: inspiration for comedy

3 Pushkinskaya Square

Alexander Griboyedov often visited his cousin sister Sophia and her husband Sergei Rimsky-Korsakov. This couple gave the famous guest nights to bring together Moscow nobility. It was their ways and habits that helped Griboyedov complete the images of the characters in the 'Woe from Wit' comedy, highlighting and ridiculing the life of Moscow nobles of that time. He began working on the play in early 1820 to finish the first version in 1823. The prototype of Sofia Famusova is believed to be the writer's sister. Muscovites called the mansion Famusov's House.

The building with a triangular pediment, arches, high windows and a plaster moulding frieze was built in 1803. It is one of the few buildings in Moscow that survived during the fire of 1812. In the late 19th — early 20th century, it housed Stroganov School, then the Seventh Moscow Men's Gymnasium built in memory of Emperor Alexander III, and later the Communist University of the Toilers of the East, where Joseph Stalin spoke to students.

In the late 1960s, the mansion was demolished to be replaced with the building of the Izvestiya newspaper. Muscovites tried to preserve Famusov's House, but they failed.

Vyazemsky's House: 'Woe from Wit' readings

9 Voznesensky Pereulok

Guests of the famous writer, Prince Pyotr Vyazemsky, were the first to hear the comedy finished in 1824. He was also Alexander Pushkin's friend, who, by the way, highly appraised the play. 'While listening to his comedy, I did not criticise, but enjoyed it,’ Pushkin wrote. Two years later, he read his 'Boris Godunov' in that house.

Vyazemsky's House built in the early 1820s has been restored many times. In 1996, the Association of Moscow Sculptors moved in the building to establish the Moscow Sculptor's House on the new site.

Begichev's House: farewell to Moscow

15 Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street

Griboyedov, a renowned and experienced diplomat at the time, stayed in the house of his friend and colleague Stepan Begichev in the winter of 1823-1824 on his way from Tiflis. He brought two acts of the play 'Woe to the Mind. Comedy in Verse' (the original name of the play). Here, in Begichev's House, the writer continued his work on the comedy. This was his last visit to Moscow, as five years later, Griboyedov was killed in Persia, where he was serving as Russia's Plenipotentiary Ambassador. He was killed in an attack by religious fanatics who had broken into the Embassy. Stepan Begichev took his death very hard, as it was him who had advised his friend to take the job.

Begichev's House has not survived. Today there is the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History on the grounds.

Bolshoi Theatre: 'Woe from Wit' premiere

1 Teatralnaya Square

The play premiered in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1831, two years after the writer's death. The best actors were engaged in the famous comedy of manners starring Michael Shchepkin as Famusov, Alexander Lensky as Molchalin, and Pyotr Mochalov as Chatsky.

Actor Pyotr Stepanov was praised by Nicholas I for his Tugoukhovsky’s part. The Emperor awarded him a ring and a thousand roubles.

The Monument to Alexander Griboyedov: instead of Bakunin

Chistoprudny Boulevard

In 1959, a monument to Alexander Griboyedov by sculptor Apollon Manuilov and architect Alexander Zavarzin was set up on Chistoprudny Boulevard. It was mounted on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the writer's death. The pedestal and column feature the 'Woe from Wit' characters.

It is located close to Myasnitskaya Street, where Griboyedov once lived. Earlier, the site was occupied by another monument, the one to Mikhail Bakunin, the founder of anarchism, but only for a short time, less than a month. Muscovites spoke against a sculpture holding its own head. It was decided to remove the monument.

Griboyedov Library: the first library courses

15 Bolshaya Pereyaslavskaya Street

Established in 1910, the Griboyedov Library is considered one of the oldest in Moscow.  Three years later, the first Moscow library courses launched there. In another three years, the library housed the Society of Griboyedov Library Friends attended by Nikolai Gusev, Lev Tolstoy's personal secretary.

During the Great Patriotic War, the reading room was still open to lend out books and send parcels with different publications to the frontline. Library goers performed concerts for soldiers at assembly points.

Initially, the library occupied a building on the corner of Samarsky and Orlovsky lanes. It had only two rooms. A year later, it moved to a larger premises at 7 Bolnichny Pereulok. In 1968, a building in Bolshaya Pereyaslavskaya Street housed the library. You can still find it there.