Gershenzon, M. O. Griboedov’s Moscow (Griboedovskaya Moskva), 1916. In Russian

Гершензон М. О. Грибоедовская Москва.
Изд. 2-е, доп. 
Москва: Издательство М. и С. Сабашниковых, 1916.
152 с. Мягкая издательская шрифтовая обложка, обычный формат.
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Gershenzon, M. O. Griboedov’s Moscow (Griboedovskaya Moskva).
2nd edition, expanded. 
Moscow: M. and S. Sabashnikov Publishing, 1916.
152 pp. Publisher’s typographic softcover, standard format.

This 1916 edition, published by the legendary Sabashnikov brothers, is a masterpiece of cultural history by Mikhail Gershenzon (1869–1925). Griboedov’s Moscow is not merely a biography of a city, but a brilliant reconstruction of the social fabric that inspired Alexander Griboedov’s immortal comedy, Woe from Wit. Gershenzon, a master of the "history of the soul" and domestic detail, uses the private archives and correspondence of the Rimskaya-Korsakova family to breathe life into the era of the 1810s and 1820s.
The narrative centers on the household of Maria Ivanovna Rimskaya-Korsakova, a quintessential Moscow matriarch whose salon was a focal point for the Russian intelligentsia. Gershenzon reveals that the "Famusov society" described by Griboedov was not a fictional caricature but a precise reflection of the real-life figures Griboedov encountered in these very rooms. The book traces the intricate web of social ties that linked the family to both Griboedov and Alexander Pushkin, who famously courted one of Maria Ivanovna's daughters.
This second, expanded edition features additional materials that further illuminate the customs, upbringing, and daily rituals of the Moscow nobility. Gershenzon’s prose transforms dry genealogical facts into a vibrant mosaic of balls, dinner parties, and intellectual disputes. He explores the tension between the old "Catherine the Great" aristocrats and the nascent, rebellious spirit of the Decembrist generation, providing the essential historical context for the conflict between Chatsky and Famusov.
Produced during the twilight of the Russian Empire, this Sabashnikov edition is prized for its high scholarly standards and elegant, minimalist typographic design. For historians of Moscow, students of Russian literature, and bibliophiles, Griboedov’s Moscow remains an unsurpassed guide to the vanished world of the Russian Regency—a world that lived and breathed just as Griboedov wrote it.