Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Lermontov was Russia’s most renowned Romantic poet. He was born in 1814, and his short life was both difficult and sensational. He was brought up by his grandmother and as an adult he held various posts in the Russian military. But he also fought several duels, and was killed in his last duel in 1841. He was just twenty-six years old.

It was his writing, however, which brought him fame, and through which his name lives on. His work inspired, among others, Turgenev, Tolstoy and Chekhov. He was a prolific poet and he also wrote in prose. His novel A Hero of our Time remains a crucial work in Russian literature, and his play, Masquerade, is a landmark in the development of his country’s theatre.