Museums of Machael Lermontov in Russia

Lermontov Mikhail is one of the most famous Russian poets. In this review on the website Geomerid you will be able to see all the places associated with his life and work. Perhaps you will want to visit them to get better acquainted with the biography of Lermontov, who in his short life (27 years) managed to do so much.

Lermontov's creative heritage is very important for Russian culture. He wrote more than 400 verses and more than 40 poems. During the poet's lifetime, in 1840, the only “Collection of Poems by M. Lermontov” was published. However, after his death, the circulation of his works is tens of millions. His most famous verses, poems, and the novel "Hero of our time" are studied at school. Lermontov was a talented painter. A large number of his drawings, watercolors and paintings have been preserved.

The first years in the biography of Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Lermontov was born in Moscow, in the house of General Tole on the Red gate. Mikhail's parents lived in the Tarkhany estate after the wedding, but they decided to give birth to their first child in Moscow, where it was easier to get qualified medical care.

Lermontov's mother was Maria Mikhailovna Arsenyeva. She belonged to the known families Arseniev and Stolypin. His father was a poor provincial landowner Yuri Petrovich Lermontov. Maria Mikhailovna married him at the age of 17, but the marriage was unsuccessful. 2 years after Mikhail was born, but at the age of 21, she died of tuberculosis. Her mother Elizaveta Aleksandrovna Arsenyeva, Mikhail Lermontov's grandmother, took the future poet from his father. Since then, all the issues of education were dealt with only by her.

The house of General Tole at the Red Gate has not been preserved to this day. It can only be seen in some photographs of the late 19th century, as well as in old engravings. At the beginning of the 20th century, a high-rise building was built on this site, which is called the Stalin high-rise. On the wall of this house there is a memorial plaque in memory that the great Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov was born on this place, on October 3, 1814

Tarkhany estate: the native home of Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Lermontov spent his childhood and youth in the Tarkhany estate. It is located 110 kilometers west of Penza in the Central Russian region. If you are interested in the work and biography of Lermontov, then you should definitely come here.
The largest Lermontov Museum in Russia is located at the entrance to the estate. It describes in detail all the stages of the creative biography of Mikhail Lermontov. The Museum has many manuscripts, portraits of the poet himself, as well as his parents and relatives. There are drawings, watercolors and paintings written by Lermontov himself.

From the Museum you need to go to the Manor House through the extensive Park of the Tarkhany Estate. The house where Lermontov lived has not been preserved. However, an exact replica was built in 1999. The interior is also recreated in great detail, especially in Lermontov's work room. There's a lot of his personal stuff in there. A portrait of Lord Byron hangs above the table. The Park remained unchanged, even the trenches that were dug on the orders of grandmother Elizabeth Andreyevna for the war games of her grandson Michel.

Lermontov Museum in Moscow

In 1829, at the age of 16, Mikhail Lermontov left the Tarkhany Estate for the first time and came to Moscow. He entered a boarding school at Moscow University, as home schooling was not enough for higher education.

Mikhail Lermontov and his grandmother settled in a house with a mezzanine on Malaya Molchanovka street, near Novy Arbat. It is now home to the Lermontov Museum. Here you can seen interesting exposition about Moscow period of Lermontov’s life. He did not like studying at the University, but his talent as a poet was already obvious.

Two years after entering Moscow University, Lermontov decided to interrupt his studies and went to the University of St. Petersburg, but his studies there also did not work out. The rector refused to include two years of study at Moscow University, and offered to enter the first  year at the University.

Serednikovo manor – "Sushkovsky period" of Lermontov’s creativeness

The most famous place in the Moscow region associated with the work of Mikhail Lermontov is the Serednikovo Estate. It is located north of Moscow, near the city of Zelenograd. In 1825, it was bought by Dmitry Stolypin, the brother of Lermontov's Grandmother.

From 1829 to 1831, during his studies at the boarding school of Moscow University, Lermontov spent every summer at the Serednikovo estate. Here he became friends with Alexey Stolypin, whom he nicknamed "Mongo". This friendship lasted a lifetime. But the main event of those years was the acquaintance with Ekaterina Sushkova.

The Vereshchagins, close friends of the Stolypins, lived in a nearby manor. Ekaterina Sushkova was a friend of Alexandra Vereshchagina. Mikhail Lermontov was then 16 years old, and Sushkova was 18 years old. The young poet fell in love with her, so all the years that he spent in Moscow are called the "Sushkovsky period" of Lermontov's work. During this period, he wrote 17 poems, 4 dramas, and more than 250 verses.

At first, Sushkova was very mocking about Lermontov's courtship, but at the same time, they met and communicated almost every day. Their communication was not interrupted even when Lermontov went to the active army in the Caucasus. A few years later, she fell in love with him, but then Lermontov turned out to be very vindictive. This story is very similar to the one that Lermontov later described in the novel "Hero of our time" about the relationship between Pechorin and Princess Mary.

Mikhail Lermontov's life in the Caucasus

In 1832, Mikhail Lermontov refused to study at the University of St. Petersburg and entered the school of Guards ensigns and cavalry Junkers. Before entering, he wrote the poem "Sail", however, at the Junker school he was forbidden to read much, and then Lermontov called his studies at the school "two ill-fated years". During this period, he did not write anything significant.

In 1834, he joined the Guards. At this time, he broke off relations with Sushkova, taking revenge on her for ridicule. During this time, he wrote one of his most famous poems, "Borodino" about the battle with Napoleon’s army in 1812. Then came the first reference to the Caucasus.

It occurred in 1837. This year, another great Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin, was killed in a duel. Lermontov wrote the poem "Death of a Poet". After that he had a conflict even with Stolypin, who was close to him. Lermontov was arrested and a trial followed, with reporting to Tsar Nicholas I. Grandmother Elizabeth Andreyevna facilitated the transfer of Lermontov to the Nizhny Novgorod Dragoon regiment operating in the Caucasus. There he remained for several months and, thanks to the efforts of his grandmother, was transferred to the service in Novgorod. Then Lermontov returned to the Caucasus, Azerbaijan and Georgia. He loved the Caucasus with all his heart. There were created the poems "Demon" and "Mtsyri", many famous poems.

The symbol of Lermontov's love for the Caucasus is the Jvari monastery, which was built in the 5th century on the edge of a mountain above the confluence of the Aragvi and Kura rivers, near Tbilisi. It was described in the poem Mtsyri. Today, this monastery is visited by thousands of pilgrims, as it is a Shrine of Georgia. At the foot of this mountain there is a monument to Lermontov, who wrote the following lines in the poem Mtsyri:

A few years ago,
There whereas, plums, noise,
Embraced, like the two sisters,
The streams of Aragva and Kura
There was the monastery. Beside the mountain

On February 16, 1840, at the ball of Princess Laval in Saint Petersburg, Lermontov had a quarrel with the son of the French Ambassador, Ernest Brandt. He challenged Lermontov to a duel, fired first and missed. Lermontov fired into the air. After the duel, Lermontov was arrested and, after the trial, sent to the Caucasus in the Tenginsky regiment, to the front line in the Caucasian war with the highlanders.

Lermontov's first exile to the Caucasus was a pleasant walk, and in the second he took an active part in the fighting, including the bloody battle on the Valerik river. It happened in 1840 in Chechnya, near the fortress of Grozny. At the same time, he wrote his novel "Hero of our time".

Lermontov's House in Pyatigorsk

In 1840, Lermontov came to St. Petersburg on vacation. During this time, he wrote the famous poems "the Prophet", "the Cliff", "I go out alone on the road" and many others, but at the beginning of 1841, he had to return to the Caucasus in the Tenginsky regiment. On the way, he decided to stop in Pyatigorsk for treatment, where he spent the last two months of his life. The Lermontov Museum in Pyatigorsk is located in the houses where all the events related to his quarrel with Martynov and the subsequent duel took place.

Arriving in Pyatigorsk, Mikhail Lermontov and Stolypin rented a small house from Colonel Chiliev. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, "society at the resort" lived riotously, and Lermontov was the soul of this society. This is not surprising, because then he was already famous poet.

Next door was the House Verzilin, where Lermontov was every day. The high society of Pyatigorsk gathered in this house. At first, he began courting Emilia Verzilina. Her mother was not against it, and Emilia herself initially took Lermontov's courtship with interest, but then made her choice in favor of Nikolai Martynov. The situation was complicated because Martynov liked Nadezhda Verzilina (sister of Emilia) better, and he courted her. Lermontov began to tease Emilia and openly mock Martynov. Martynov asked for an end to the taunts, but Lermontov ignored these requests. 

All this led to a quarrel between Martynov and Lermontov, which occurred on July 13, 1841. The house where Lermontov lived and the Verzilins ' house where the quarrel took place, as well as the surrounding buildings, have been turned into a Museum. In Emmanuel Park there is a secluded grotto called the Lermontov Grotto.

Place of Lermontov’s duel at the foot of Mashuk mount

The duel was scheduled for July 15, 1841, at 7 p.m. The place of Lermontov's duel at mount Mashuk was located in a small clearing. As his second Prince Vasilchikov later recalled, Lermontov was cheerful on the eve of the duel and said that it was just a joke that went too far.

Lermontov spent the night before the duel in a house in the village of Inozemtsevo. The duel itself was scheduled on the old Nikolayev road, which led from Pyatigorsk to the village in Inozemtsevo. According to the recollections of the seconds, Lermontov fired into the air. According to another version, he did not shoot at all. Martynov, on the contrary, went to the barrier and aimed for a long time. The poet was shot through the chest. Mikhail Lermontov was only 27 years old.

At the foot of mount Mashuk, at the place where the duel took place, a temporary memorial was erected. In 1914, on the centenary of the poet's birth, a monument to the famous sculptor Mikeshin was erected.

Lermontov's grave in Tarkhany

On July 17, 1841, the great Russian poet Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was buried at the Pyatigorsk cemetery. However, his grandmother decided to reburial him in the family tomb in the Tarkhany Estate. She made this request to the Emperor, and he granted it. Lermontov's Tomb in Tarkhany is located in the family necropolis in the Tarkhany Estate.

Lermontov rested at the Pyatigorsk cemetery for 250 days. After then he was transported to Tarkhany. On April 23, 1842, Mikhail Lermontov was buried in the Lermontov-Arsenyev family tomb next to the grave of his mother and grandfather. 4 years later, Elizabeth Arsenieva was buried here, next to Lermontov's grave.