Mikhail Lermontov

Russian writer, poet and painter (1814–1841)

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Momentum2.6
Writers rank#232
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Lived 1814–1841, aged 27

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Wikipedia
86 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1814–1841
Aged 27

Summary

Updated 2026-09-07

He inherited the throne of Russian poetry at twenty-three when Pushkin fell in a duel, then died the same way six years later. Between those brackets Lermontov laid the foundation for the Russian psychological novel and earned the label "poet of the Caucasus" for work so sharp it twice got him exiled.

Biography

About

Lermontov grew up in Tarkhany under his grandmother's strict control, sickly with scrofula and rickets, educated at home in languages, music, and painting — conditions that made him lonely and introspective. By 1829 he was writing poetry in Moscow, influenced by Pushkin and Byron, and traveling to the Caucasus for his health, landscapes that marked him permanently. In 1832 he moved to Saint Petersburg for cavalry school and joined the Life-Guard Hussars, where his sharp wit made enemies as fast as his pen made pages. His poem "Death of the Poet," written after Pushkin's death in 1837, brought…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Lermontov

said1840

O vanity! you are the lever by means of which Archimedes wished to lift the earth!

— A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

Mikhail Lermontov

said1840

Many a calm river begins as a turbulent waterfall, yet none hurtles and foams all the way to the sea.

— A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

Mikhail Lermontov

said1840

I would make any sacrifice but this; twenty times I can stake my life, even my honour, but my freedom I shall never sell. Why do I prize it so much? … What am I aiming at?

— Referring to marriage

Mikhail Lermontov

said1840

Happy people are ignoramuses and glory is nothing else but success, and to achieve it one only has to be cunning.

— A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

Mikhail Lermontov

said1840

The public of this country is so youthful, not to say simple-minded, that it cannot understand the meaning of a fable unless the moral is set forth at the end.

— A Hero of Our Time (1840; rev. 1841)

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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