Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov 1814-1841 - an outstanding Russian poet and prose writer. Born in Moscow, but spent all his childhood in the estate of Tarkhany, now the village of Lermontovo, near Penza. Misha's parents seldom lived together, his mother died soon, and his father left for a dilapidated estate, leaving the boy in the care of his grandmother, born Stolypin. Lermontov grew up a sickly child, receiving home education, and entered a closed boarding school for boys from noble families, straight into the 4th grade. After finishing it, Misha was fluent in four languages, played the guitar, violin, cello, and piano, and drew well. There, in school, the first poems and early sufferings emerged. The emotional dramas, unrequited love, and cold disdain for society that the poet himself experienced became the leitmotif of his creativity. During this time he began to conceive of Demon, based on a keen awareness of universal loneliness. Another poem's concept arose - Mtsyri, hidden in a youthful note by Lermontov: to write notes from a young monk. At 17 years. Since childhood, he has been in a monastery, having read nothing but sacred books... A passionate soul is tormented. Ideals. He worked on Demon for 10 years, but during his lifetime, he never saw publication due to censorship bans. Lermontov's talent matured quickly, and his spiritual world grew, aided by studying at Moscow University in the department of literature, during which Lermontov immersed himself in urban secular life: salons, balls, masquerades. But after studying for two years, Lermontov suddenly wrote a request for expulsion from the number of students and entered the School of the Guard Sub-officers and Cavalry Cadets, an institution far removed from literature. From there, he graduated as a cornet of the Life Guards. The reading public first recognized him as a poet in a poem on the death of Pushkin. The event deeply shook the young hussar, and he poured his heartfelt bitterness onto paper. Leaves with the free verse Death of a Poet, circulated among people, caused a storm in society; an arrest followed, trial, and exile to the dangerous Caucasus in those years. This exile was not the only one; later, Lermontov participated in the battles of the Caucasian War. But Lermontov did not perish in war. Like Pushkin, Lermontov died in a duel, shot in the chest with a pistol. He was 26 years old.
