Nino Chavchavadze

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Princess Nino Chavchavadze (Georgian: ნინო ჭავჭავაძე; also known as Nina Griboyedova in a Russian manner) (November 4, 1812-June 28, 1857), was a daughter of the famous Georgian Prince and poet Alexander Chavchavadze and wife of Russian diplomat and playwright Alexandr Griboyedov.

Nino was raised in the Tsinandali palace, eastern Georgia, where her father was writing his historical novels and poetry. When Nino turned sixteen, she met Russian poet and novelist Alexandr Griboyedov during one of her fathers parties in Tiflis. Griboyedov proposed to her soon after the meeting and they married at Tbilisi Sioni Cathedral on August 22, 1828. Later in the same year, she accompanied her husband in his fatal mission to Persia, but Nino became ill and Griboyedov chose to leave her in Tabriz. After hearing of her husband’s death in Teheran (January 30, 1829), Nino gave a premature birth to a child, who died soon after. Pursuant to Griboyedov's will, Nino reburied him to Mount Mtatsminda, Tbilisi, and ordered a grave stone with the inscription in Russian:

Your intellect and your deeds are immortal in the Russian memory, but why has my love outlived you?

She never got married again, rejecting her numerous suitors (including the prominent Georgian poet and military commander, Girgol Orbeliani, who, inspired with hopeless passion towards Nino for thirty years, never got married in his life) and winning universal admiration by her fidelity to his memory. She spent most of her unhappy life in the Tsinandali residence, frequntly visiting Tiflis. and her sister, Ekaterine, in Mingrelia.

Nino died in 1857, and was buried next to Griboyedov.

On the burial stone of Alexandr Griboyedov in Tbilisi, the statue of Nino is depicted weeping over the death of her beloved husband.