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Mikhail (Yuryevich) Lermontov - born on October 3 (New Time Oct. 15), 1814 - died July 15 (New Time July 27), 1841 |
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The freedom loving Russian Romantic poet and author of the novel Geroi nashego vremeni (1840, Hero of Our Time), which had a deep influence on later Russian writers. Mikhail Lermontov was exiled twice to the Caucasus because of his libertarian verses. He died in a duel like his great contemporary, the poet Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837). The Sail A lone white sail shows for an instant Mikhail
Lermontov was born in Moscow, the son of Yuri
Petrovich
Lermontov, a poor army officer, and Maria Mikhailovna Arsen'eva, the
only child of Elizaveta Alekseevna Arsen'eva, a member of the wealthy and prominent
Stolypin
family. The Lermontovs claimed descent from the Learmonths in
Scotland. Maria Mihkailovna died of consumption in 1817; her marriage
had lasted barely four years. After her death, Lermontov's father left his son's upbringing to Elizaveta Alekseevna. In the new home he became the subject of family disputes between Madame Arsen'eva and his father, who was not allowed to participate in the upbringing. Yuri died in 1831; he saw his son only a few times. Lermontov received an extensive education, but it included doubtful aspects: in his childhood he was dressed in a girl's frock to act as a model for a painter. When Lermontov was thirteen or fourteen, he moved to Moscow, where he entered a boarding school for the sons of the nobility. At the Moscow University he started to write poetry under the influence of Lord Byron (1788-1824). His grandmother bailed him out of troubles. One of Lermontov's first loves during this period was Ekaterina Sushkova, who did not respond to his feelings. Seventeen years later Lermontov revenged by publicly courting her and then dumped her – or so the story goes. Lermontov, who played the violin and sang folk songs with great feeling, was praised for his performance in 1829. Possibly he wrote his own music for the 'Cossack Cradle Song'. At the university he studied ethics, politics, and literature, but was expelled in 1832 for disciplinary reasons. He then went to St. Petersburg and graduated from the cadet school in 1834 with the lowest officer's rank of cornet. He was stationed in the same town with a Husser regiment of the Imperial Guards. From his position in the Hussars and with his early devotion to writing, Lermontov observed the social life of the wealthy. By 1832 he had already written two hundred lyric poems, ten long poems and three plays. His first verse narrative, Hadji Abrek, came out in 1835. Maskarad (1836), considered Lermontov's best drama, centers around a bracelet, mistaken identities, and jealousy. At the end a faithful wife is poisoned with ice cream by her husband. The play was first produced by V.E. Meyerhold in St. Petersburg on the eve of the Revolution in 1917. Later Lermontov's melodrama inspired Aram Khachaturian's Masquerade Suite (1944). A number of Lermontov's poems have been arranged for romances. In the late 1830s Lermontov gained wider recognition as a writer. After Alexandr Pushkin was killed in a duel in January 1837, he published an elegy, 'Poet's Death' (Smert poeta). In it he finds, behind the blind tool of destiny, a conspiracy of betrayal: "Why did he clasp the hands of slanderers so base, / Believe their lying words, / their false embrace, / He who from youth had learned mankind to know? " (The Demon and Other Poems, translated by Eugene M. Kayden, Antioch Press, 1965, p. 32) And Lermontov continues prophetically: "But God is just! A mighty judge, our God, / O men of crime! He waits! / The clink of gold will not avail! / He knows your infamies and hates!" (Ibid., p. 33) The poem was enthusiastically received by liberal intellectuals, among whom it circulated in mnuscript, but annoyed the autocratic Tsar Nicholas I. Lermontov was arrested. To protect himself, Lermontov informed on his friend, who had circulated the poem. Lermontov was transferred to the Nizhegorodsky Dragoon Regiment in the Caucasus. There he with several of the members of the Decembrist anti-Nicholas I revolt. Due to the influence of his grandmother, Lermontov was
permitted to
return to Petersburg. However, Lermontov's attitude toward contemporary
state of affairs did not become less critical. "There was something
ominous and tragic in Lermontov's appearance," said Ivan Turgenev
later, "his swarthy face and large, motionless dark eyes exuded a
sort of somber and evil strength, a sort of pensive scornfulness and
passion." . . . . The words, "His eyes did not laugh when he laughed,"
from A Hero of Our Time, etc., could really have been applied
to himself." ('Introduction' by Lewis Bagby, in Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time": A Critical Companion, edited by Lewis Bagby, 2002, pp. 5-6) Also in 1837 there appeared the poem About Czar Ivan Vasiliyevich, His Young Bodyguard, and the Valiant Merchant Kalashnokov. The scenery of the Caucaus, the wild tribesmen, and the company of ordinary soldiers inspired Lermontov. He produced a series of tales, later collected under the title A Hero of Our Times, one of the great classics of 19th-century Russian literature. The Caucasus had also inspired Puskin, and later Tolstoy depicted this wild and colorful frontier and its people in Hadzi-Murat. Politically the Russian Empire gained control of the Caucasus in the 1860s, but it has been ever since a constant source of conflicts, lately in the Checheno-Ingush region. A Hero of Our Time has been characterized as the first Russian novel of psychological realism. It consists of five separate stories linked by a common hero, Grigori Alexandrovich Pechorin, who is young, intelligent and feels his life empty. In the foreword Lermontov writes: "A Hero of Our Time, my dear sirs, is indeed a portrait, but not of one man; it is a portrait built up of all our generation's vices in full bloom." (A Hero of Our Time, Moscow: Foreign Language Publishing House, translated from the Russian by Martin Parker, 1957, p. 6) The book involves three narrative levels, which do not
follow chronological order. The first tale in part one, 'Bela', introduces an
unnamed narrator. He tells a story, in which Pechorin steals a
Circassian princess, Bela. She loves Pechorin, who after some time
starts to spent his time on hunting trips. Finally she is murdered by a
vengeful Circassian. In 'Maxim Maximych' the narrator acquires
Pechorin's papers. Pechorin starts his journey to Persia, tells that "I
doubt whether I shall return, nor is there any reason why I should!" (Ibid., p. 62) He
dies upon his return. In 'Taman' Pechorin is nearly drowned in a
wretched provincial town. He has witnessed at night strange doings of
local smugglers and a young girl, working for them, tries to kill him
in a boat. Pechorin manages to hurl the girl into the sea. In 'Princess
Mary', part two, Pechorin asks "why it is that I so persistently seek to win the
love of a young girl whom I do not wish to seduce and whom I shall
never marry. Why this feminine coquetry? Vera loves me better than
Princess Mary ever will. Were she an unconquerable beauty, the
difficulty of the undertaking might serve as an inducement. . . ." (Ibid., p. 125) Pechorin
has no desire to marry the Princess. In a duell he kills Grushnitsky,
who has been his friend and loves the Princess. The last story,
'The Fatalist' has Pechorin speculating on whether fate or change rules
human existence. One of Pechorin's friends, Vulic, had earlier played
Russian roulette; he survives the game but bets are made was the pistol
loaded – it was. Vulic is killed on his way to home by a drunken
Cossack by a sabre. "After all this how could one
possibly avoid becoming a fatalist?" (Ibid., p. 193) During this creative period he wrote such masterpieces as The
Novice, The Cliff, Argument, Meeting, A
Leaf, and Prophet.
In 'Clouds' (1840) the poet contrasted the clouds "free both to come
and go, free and indifferent" to his fate in exile. 'The Dream' (1841)
anticipated the poet's death in that remote country: "I dreamed that in
a vale of Daghestan / With a bullet in my breast, alone I lay, / That
from a smoking wound my lifeblood ran / Into the sands,—ran drop by
drop away." (The Demon and Other Poems, translated by Eugene M. Kayden, Antioch Press, 1965, p. 96) Lermontov's best-known poem, The Demon (1842), about an angel who falls in love with a mortal woman, reflected the poet's self-image as a demonic creature. The melancholic Demon, exiled from Paradise, wanders on Earth, weary of evil, and without hope of finding love. At night he enters the chamber of Tamara, who mourns the death of her betrothed. She asks: "Swear thou wilt turn from thoughts of evil, / Swear me a solemn, binding vow, / Such oath as never saint nor devil / Swore from the first of time till now." (The Demon, translated from the Russian of Lermontoff by Robert Burness, Douglas & Foulis, 1918, p. 36) The Demon says: "My shrine, mine altar; I have wooed thee, / To lay my glory at thy feet. / Give me thy love-for thee is waiting / Eternal life for earthly span" (Ibid., p. 38) His kiss like deadly poison kills Tamara, who is saved by her martyr's fate. The Demon curses his dreams of better things – "Alone! alone! through all the ages! / No gleam of hope—no hope of love!"(Ibid., p. 47) Lermontov drafted the poem first at the age of 14. Because of a duel with the French ambassador's son, Lermontov
was
again exiled, this time to Tenginskii Infantry Regiment on the Black
Sea. He arrived in Stavropol in suffocating heat, with little hopes of
pardon in the near future. The regiment was almost permanently engaged
on active service and
for his courage Lermontov gained the admiration of his fellow officers,
but serving in the front made it difficult for him to write. However,
some of his finest pieces date from this period, among them 'Valerik'
and 'Zaveshchanie' (Testament), both written in 1840. Lermontov was
cited at least twice for bravery in the bloody battle at the River
Valerik, but Tsar Nicholas I himself crossed his name off the list. Pretending to be ill, Lermontov returned to the health resort of Pyatigorsk, near Moscow and joined the social life of the town. He quarrelled with Major Nikolai Martynov, who dressed himself as a native Circassian, and thus brought out his talent for mockery. Lermontov was killed on July 15, 1841, at the age of 27, in a duel with him. It has been claimed that Martynov acted on secret government instructions to kill the poet. (The rumor was that the tsar himself was behind the order.) Lermontov intentionally fired into the air, saying "I shall not fire at this fool." (Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus by Oliver Bullough, Penguin Books, 2011, p. 98) According to an eyewitness, after being insulted again, Martynov strode towards Lermontov
and fired his pistol
at close range. "Lermontov fell as if he had been cut down on the spot,
without making a movement either forward or backward, without even
succeeding in putting his hand to where he had been hurt . . . There
was a smoking wound in his right side and in his left side he was
bleeding: the bullet had gone through his heart and lungs." (The Rise of the Russian
Novel by Richard Freeborn, 1973, pp. 88-89) For further reading: Geroi nashego vremeni M. Iu. Lermontova by S. Durylin (1940); Three Russian Poets by Vladimir Nabokov (1945); LermontovMikhail Lermontov by John Mersereau, Jr (1962); Lermontov: Tragedy in the Caucasus by Laurence Kelly (1977); LermontovSud'ba Lermontova by Emma Gershtein (1986): A Wicked Irony by Andrew Barratt and A.D.P. Briggs (1989); The Fey Hussar, edited by Jessie Davis (1989); Mikhali Lermontov, edited by Efim Etkind (1992); Lermontov's 'A Hero of Our Time' by Robert Reid (1997); Lermontov's Narratives of Heroism by Vladimir Golstein (1998); Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time: A Critical Companion, edited by Lewis Bagby (2002); A Fallen Idol Is Still a God: Lermontov and the Quandaries of Cultural Transition by Elizabeth Cheresh Allen (2007); 'Unseen Beauty, Shadows of Liminal Space, and the Caustic Passions of Exile: the Life and Writings of M. Yu. Lermontov' by Michael Marsh-Soloway, in Russia's Golden Age, edited by Rachel Stauffer (2014); Lermontov: nakhodki i otkrytiia v dvukh tomakh by D.A. Alekseev (2016); Lermontov i ego okruzhenie: Biograficheskiĭ slovarʹ: V dvukh tomakh by D.A. Alekseev (2017); Letopisʹ zhizni i tvorchestva M. IU. Lermontova: kommentariĭ by D. A. Alekseev (2018); Lermontov: sokrovennye svideteli gibeli by D.A. Alekseev (2019); Lermontov: pozabytye vospominaniia sovremennikov by D.A. Alekseev (2020); Rokovoĭ zhrebiĭ Lermontova by Zinaida Ageeva (2020); M. IU. Lermontov: fantazii i fakty by Oksana Vinogradova (2021); Lermontov: pokhozhdeniia na Kavkaze v 1837 godu by D.A. Alekseev (2021); Posledniĭ potseluĭ: Lermontov v liubvi i tvorchestve by Nikolaĭ Shakhmagonov (2022) - Suom.: Kultaa ja myrkkyä: runoja, suom. Olli Hyvärinen (2020). Suomennoksia myös teoksessa Venäjän runotar, toim. V. Kiparsky ja Lauri Viljanen (1946) Selected writings:
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