Diplomacy and Murder in Tehran.(Book Review)(Brief Article) From: Middle East Quarterly | Date: June 22, 2003| Author: Rubin, Michael | COPYRIGHT 2003 Middle East Forum. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

By Laurence Kelly. New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2002. 288 pp. $45 ($24.50, paper).

A century and a half before Iranian radicals seized the U.S. embassy and took fifty-two hostages, a frenzied Iranian mob spurred on by the mullahs stormed the Russian legation in Tehran and massacred all but one member of the mission. Among those murdered was Alexander Griboyedov, playwright and Russia's chief diplomat in Tehran. While largely forgotten, the massacre illustrates yet a...