Lermontovskaya Street
Lermontovskaya street has become an integral part of Moscow’s cultural landscape. Not only it connects different parts of the city, but it is also a monument of cultural heritage that takes us into the world of creativity and history. The street is named in honour of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, a great Russian writer who wrote many classic poems and stories, as well as the textbook novel “The Hero of Our Time”.
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (1814-1841) was a great Russian poet, prose writer, dramatist and artist. He was born on 15 October, 1814 into an officer’s family. He lost his mother at an early age. He was brought up by his grandmother, Elizaveta Alekseevna Arsenyeva. The future poet spent his childhood in the village of Tarkhany, the Penza governorate, on Arsenyeva’s estate. M.Y. Lermontov suffered from the separation from his father, which made his childhood difficult. He found solace in the study of languages, especially French and German, and in the fine arts he stood out among his peers. From 1828 to 1830. M.Y. Lermontov studied at University Boarding School in Moscow, where he wrote his first poems. In 1830-1832 the poet became a student at Moscow University and showed interest in the works of Friedrich Schiller, William Shakespeare and George Gordon Byron. Lermontov soon left the university and entered the St Petersburg School of Guardsmen and Cavalrymen. In 1834 he was appointed to the Life Guards Hussar Regiment. In his spare time he worked as a writer. He became famous after the publication of the poem “Death of a Poet”, written on the death of the great Russian poet and prose writer A.S. Pushkin. In the following years he served in the Caucasus, in 1840 he took part in the fighting and proved to be a brave warrior. He was killed in a duel in 1841. M.Y. Lermontov left a rich literary legacy, including the novel “The Hero of Our Time”, the poems “The Demon”, “Mtsyri”, “The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov” and many others, making a significant contribution to the Russian literary tradition. M.Y. Lermontov’s childhood trips, studies at the Noble Boarding School and University, visits from St. Petersburg, and repeated stops on his way from St. Petersburg to Tarkhany and the Caucasus were all connected with Moscow. In Moscow he felt himself a poet for the first time, realised his destiny. Here was born a “true and strong” feeling for V.A. Lopukhina, here at the birthday party of Nikolai Gogol in 1840 Lermontov read an extract from “Mtsyri”, here he met General A.P. Ermolov, M.I. Shchepkin, Y.F. Samarin and other famous people. The last time Lermontov was seen in Moscow in April 1841, three months before his death. Leaving Moscow, he said: “If I were allowed to leave the service, with what pleasure I would settle here forever.
Address: Moscow, Lermontovskaya St.
