In the film "Russian Ark" there is a scene apparently set in the 19th
century referring to the murder of some Russian diplomats in Tehran.
Searching on Google I could not find any further information (the only
links were to reviews of the film itself). In the film, the Persian
ambassador to Moscow (who I think was supposed to be the grandson of
the Shah) expressed the Shah's regret to Tsar Nicolas in a grand
ceremony, and blamed ruffians. Did the incident really happen, or was
it fictional? Was the Persian government actually behind the murder? I
had never heard of this incident before, but it sounded oddly similar
to the U.S. hostage crisis of 1979-80.

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Clarification of Question by trebek9-ga on 17 Jul 2004 20:37 PDT

I did some more searching, and apparently it was a real event. There
was a book a few years ago about Alexander Griboyedov, one of the
Russian diplomats killed:

http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/186064869X/

Hi trebek9!!


Yes, you are right. The incident was a real event that happened on
11th February of 1829. I found a nice article that describe the causes
of this incident by the Russian and Persian points of view.
The article also tell how the Shah react sending an embassy headed by
a prince who was a grandson of the Shah Feth Ali (a son of the Prince
Abbas Mirza) to apologize.
Apparently the Persian government was not behind the murder, because
they fear a new war against the Russian empire (the recently lost a
war against Russia in 1828).

Here is the link of the article:
"GRIBOEDOV, ALEXANDER SERGEEVICH":
http://www.iranica.com/articles/v11f4/v11f4002.html


Here are some links to brief biographies of Griboyedov, Abbas Mirza
and the shah Feth Ali:
"GRIBOYEDOV, ALEXANDER SERGUEEVICH ":
http://9.1911encyclopedia.org/G/GR/GRIBOYEDOV.htm

"ABBAS MIRZA":
http://44.1911encyclopedia.org/A/AB/ABBAS_MIRZA.htm

"Fath Ali Shah":
http://www.bartleby.com/65/fa/FathAliS.html


Search strategic:
Griboyedov persia -book
Griboyedov Tehran -book


I hope this helps you. If you need a clarification, please post a
request for it before rate this answer. I will gladly respond to your
requests.


Best regards.
livioflores-ga

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Clarification of Answer by livioflores-ga on 19 Jul 2004 06:24 PDT

Thank you for the good rating.
See the fp-ga's comment in regards to the fonts problem. You must
download a font to your system.

Good Luck!!
livioflores-ga

Thanks for the answer, livioflores.

I also found this teaching guide to "Russian Ark", which is interesting:

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~nrc/teacherresources/arkguide.htm

By the way, some of the foreign characters show up strangely in the
Iranica.com article. Any idea what encoding to use so that they come
out properly?

A portrait of Alexander Griboyedov:
http://www.er3ed.qrz.ru/griboyedov.htm

Trebek9-ga, regarding the characters showing up strangely:
http://www.iranica.com/articlenavigation/main.html