Mikhail Lermontov (Part 1)

It’s common knowledge that words possess boundless power that actually controls humanity and kneads our history. The distinctive flair for matching true words is a special talent, and poetry is an art of composing music out of thoughts. Russian poetry is particular, as our rich and stormy history moulded peculiar mentality with strong spirit and subtle soul that cannot, but reflect in the works of our poets and other art workers. Mikhail Lermontov (October 15, 1814 – July 27, 1841) is one of our most famous poets. His poetry defies description and may be partly comprehended through his contradictive and peculiar biography.

Lermontov, the great Romantic poet

Despite his impressive contribution to our literary heritage, the name of Lermontov is not very familiar with foreigners, unlike, for example, Alexander Pushkin. But Lermontov largely continues the tradition of Pushkin, and even the fate of the two poets are similar.

Pushkin and Lermontov are two great poets, which initiated the new Russian literature. They are almost contemporaries. Lermontov is 15 years younger than Pushkin but he belongs to another generation. He entered in his adult and poet life in the years that followed the defeat of the Decembrists’ uprising, and this influenced his work.

“В годы жестокого подавления человека Лермонтов мучительно размышлял о судьбе и правах человеческой личности”, – писал известный русский критик-демократ В.Г. Белинский. (“During the brutal repression of people, Lermontov painfully pondered the fate and the rights of the individual person”, wrote a famous Russian critic-democrat V. G. Belinsky).

Like a soldier during the battle, Lermontov picked up the banner of Russian poetry, fallen from the hand of a dead Pushkin, and took his place. Like Pushkin before him, the fate of motherland and individual human being were the main content of his work.

Early years

Lermontov was born in Tarkhany, the estate of his grandmother who raised him. The poet’s mother died when he was three years old. His grandmother didn’t allow Lermontov’s father to see him. The rift in the family and the longing for his father influenced the character of the poet. Lermontov was a introspective and vulnerable man. This reflected in the poems that he wrote in his childhood:

Нет, я не Байрон, я другой, Ещё неведомый избранник, Как он, гонимый миром странник, Но только с русскою душой.

No, I’m not Byron; I am, yet, Another choice for the sacred dole, Like him – a persecuted soul, But only of the Russian set.

School years

Together with his grandmother in moved to St. Petersburg in 1832 with the intention to enter university there. But he was refused the entry to all universities due to his exclusion from the University of Moscow.

Then he decided, like most young noblemen at that time to entered a cadet school and build a military career. His years of study in this school were difficult, the spiritual atmosphere was unfavorable to the thinking and talented poet.

Read in the second part of our article, the tragic destiny of the young poet.

Евгения Плещунова