Lermontov from Lermontov
Many readers believe Mikhail Lermontov was born at Tarkhany, the grandmother’s estate in the Penza region, and that the site of Lermontovo now fuels confusion. The fact remains that in 1842 Lermontov’s ashes were laid to rest in Tarkhany, a detail frequently cited in biographies. The muddled lore around his birthplace often clouds the real starting point of his life.
In truth, the poet was born in Moscow, in the house of Major General Konrad Friedrich von Toll on the Red Gate. That house no longer exists; between 1947 and 1953 a tall building rose on its footprint. On the facade there is a portrait of Lermontov and an inscription: “In this place was the house where the great Russian poet Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was born on October 3, 1814.”
Lermontov comes from a simple family
Earlier biographies sometimes cast Lermontov as the child of a modest officer who retired with the rank of infantry captain. The poet’s family, however, carried noble lineage on both sides. On his maternal side, Elizaveta Alekseevna Arsenyeva traced back to the Stolypin noble line, and the poet’s cousin Afanasy Stolypin was a renowned guards officer. Lermontov attended her wedding to Princess Trubetskoy at the residence of the heir to the Russian Empire, a detail that underscored his connections to high circles.
On the paternal side, the Lermontov family descended from Scotland; an ancestor named George Lermont is noted as a Polish Army lieutenant. This cross‑cultural background helped shape a life lived between literary aspiration and aristocratic expectation.
Because of the scandal, Lermontov was expelled from the university
Lermontov did not stay long at Moscow University, leaving there quickly and reportedly by request. Biographers differ on the exact cause. Some point to a conflict with the blunt professor Mikhail Malov, claiming student protests led to his dismissal and a broader purge of the so‑called pranksters. Others rely on different sources that suggest he left on his own initiative, with Elizaveta Lodyzhenskaya noting that those expelled for mischief typically received travel tickets and left by late May, whereas Lermontov disappears from the student roster after June 1832. He hoped to continue at the university in St. Petersburg but did not rejoin the program at the expected start time.
Thus, the path to further education was uneven, and the choice to move away from Moscow opened the door to other pursuits that would shape his later writing.
Lermontov – a romantic and handsome man
Public memory often casts Lermontov as a romantic, handsome figure, partly due to his fictionalized portrayal as Pechorin in A Hero of Our Time and to the portraits that circulated during his era. Yet contemporaries describe a different image. A classmate at the Guards School, Alexander Tiran, remembered a compact, sturdy man with broad shoulders and lively eyes who rode well, though not as a model of elegant charm. Vera Annenkova, a friend who later wrote about their acquaintance, recalled a first impression that was far from romantic: a short, stocky man with a stern gaze and a rough, sometimes crude smile, more intense than strikingly handsome. She described him as not fitting conventional standards of beauty, yet unmistakably vivid in presence.
Lermontov and a good reputation
Many fans regard Lermontov as a deeply spiritual, sensitive youth, but his contemporaries offered a more mixed view. One observer noted that while he could be friendly and sociable, he was also capable of sharp, sometimes cutting wit. It was said that he could be charming in company but quick to slight others, and some evenings found him weaving stories that bordered on mischief. A colleague also recalled that there were occasions when he spent the night with a companion, not always explained, with rumors of avoidance of home comforts and a lingering sense of danger in his social life. These anecdotes contribute to a picture of a writer who walked a fine line between warmth and volatility, never simply a saintly poet in the eyes of his circle. [citation]
Lermontov wrote brilliantly since childhood
Despite his early death, Lermontov was not a child prodigy who arrived fully formed. Critics noted that his youth showed signs of learning and imitation as he refined his craft over the years. He practiced, revised, and developed his voice in the later years of his life, drawing on the experiences of his peers and surroundings. A fellow cornet, Alexander Arnoldi, observed that Lermontov sometimes wrote in a restless, exploratory way, turning out lines after long sessions of sitting and writing. The impression they shared was of a writer who evolved through trial, mistake, and persistence, not one who arrived fully polished at a single moment.
Lermontov – student of Pushkin
There is a belief that Lermontov moved in Pushkin’s orbit and was influenced by the great poet. They shared many acquaintances, and Lermontov drew inspiration from Pushkin’s work, though they never met in life. After Pushkin’s death, Lermontov produced one of his most famous poems, Death of the Poet, a piece that expressed public sentiment about the era’s social and political tensions and reflected the poet’s own stance on Russia’s shifting landscape. [citation]
Lermontov was killed by a sniper on the orders of Nicholas I
Lermontov’s death has long been surrounded by competing theories. Some stories claim that Emperor Nicholas I, angered by Lermontov’s verse and his harsh critiques, ordered the life of the poet ended. Others insist that the fatal event was a duel, spurred by personal insult, and documented by comrades such as Alexander Vasilchikov and Alexey Stolypin, as well as the remarks of the duel’s participant Nikolai Martynov. A surviving letter from the emperor to his wife, written in 1840, addressed his assessment of the work The Hero of Our Time, noting its moral concerns and the uneasy portrait of power and authority; this letter is often cited in debates about motive and censorship. While some still argue for a political ordering of events, the duel account remains the better supported version among historians who have studied the testimonies and records from those close to the scene. [citation]