SOURCE: "Lermontov," in Russian Writers, Their Lives and Literature, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1954, pp. 80-99.

In the excerpt below, Lavrin discusses the literary influences in Lermontov's writings, providing an overview of his life and career.

The romantic movement, for various reasons, affected Russia less many-sidedly than was the case with other European countries. The influence of Byronism itself was limited only to some of its aspects, and even those were partly conditioned by a regime under the pressure of which the few liberties still left seemed to be going from bad to worse. In Pushkin's day there was at least the atmosphere of the pléiade, the members of which firmly believed in literary culture and were able to stimulate one another. The growing vigilance of the Nicholas' police made fellowships on such a scale impossible even in matters of culture, let alone politics. As there was no...