Mikhail Yuryevich
Lermontov
1814-1841
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was a Russian poet, prose writer, playwright, artist, lieutenant of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment. The poet was born in Moscow on 15 October, 1814. He was the son of an army captain, Yuri Lermontov, and a rich heiress from the Arsenyev family. The writer had Scottish roots on his father’s side. Because of his mother’s early death, Lermontov was brought up by his grandmother, Elizaveta Arsenyeva. The future writer spent most of his childhood in Tarkhany, his grandmother’s estate in the Penza region. From 1828 the poet was determined to attend the boarding school of Moscow University, where he spent several years. The next step was to enter the school of guardsmen and cavalry cadets in St Petersburg, after which he was assigned to a hussar regiment. One of Lermontov’s first works, the poem “Hadji Abrek”, was published in 1835. In poems on the death of Pushkin, the poet openly expressed his anger at the ruling circles in Russia at the time, for which he was exiled to the Caucasus. During this exile the author’s creativity flourished. In addition to literature, he began to paint. Thanks to his grandmother’s pleas, Lermontov was reinstated and returned to St Petersburg. However, he was sent to the Caucasus for a duel with the Frenchman Barant. The best works of the writer are “Mtsyri”, “The Hero of Our Time”, “The Prisoner”, “Borodino”, “Masquerade” and some other stories in verse. His lyrics were characterised by an attraction to eternity and alienation. Lermontov himself was characterised by a bold and rebellious spirit. When he returned from his second exile, in Pyatigorsk, he met his old friend Nikolai Martynov. They fell out and on 15 July, 1841 they fought a duel in which Lermontov was killed. The writer died a few months before his 27th birthday. There is a memorial plaque on the house where he lived from 1830 to 1832. Here he became a prose writer, playwright, here he was engaged in translations. Here appeared the first poetic experiments for the future poem “Borodino”, wrote the tragedy “Menschen und Leidenschaften”, the drama “Strange Man”, finished “The Spaniards”, made corrections to the second edition of “Demon” – a total of 17 poems, 11 biographical notes, about 250 poems.
Address: Moscow, Malaya Molchanovka str., 2
