SHAH OF PERSIA
As
has more than once been true of famous diamonds, this one represents
the price of a man's life. On January 30, 1829, A. Griboiedov, the
Russian Ambassador to Persia and a famous author, was murdered in
Teheran, Persia. Feeling in Russia against the Persian Government ran
high and war was threatened until, to conciliate Russia, this diamond
was sent to the Czar at St. Petersburg by a special Persian envoy as a
gift. By this acknowledgment of fault and offering of indemnity on the
part of Persia, Russia was appeased and war was averted. The diamond
was kept in the Diamond Room of the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg up
to 1914. In that year, however, it was removed from St. Petersburg to
Moscow and in 1922 was
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