Secrets of Lermontov’s soul and depth of his work are reflected in the Presidential Library collections

The Presidential Library has acquired new editions telling about the life and work of one of the most rebellious and secret Russian poets, who lived his short life in the confrontation with the ignorance and treacherous attacks of representatives of his environment.

"Many Russian poets spoke of their contempt for the" crowd ", but none lyricist except for Lermontov gave himself entirely to clarify all the immeasurable tragedy of this unequal struggle," reads the electronic copy of I. Andronicov’s "Life of Lermontov" published in 1939.

All this led to his early disappointment in human nature itself, darkness, nihilism. His "Hero of Our Time" could not be different.

"Pechorin is a relative of the Demon, of Arbenin, of Radin, of Ishmael and the final completion of the latter. Utter disappointment in everything... passionate nature, who arbitrarily condemned himself to idleness, willfully discarded the fundamental questions of life, given to all counter-flows," writes A. Georgievsky in the study of 1914 "Lermontov about the purpose and meaning of life."

The problem of a collision between a lively reflexive person and the inertia and aggressive snobbery of the "cream of society" was not spared by literary critics even talking of Pushkin, however, "what Pushkin had only in its infancy, develops and reaches a higher degree of tension in Lermontov’s works, continues Georgievsky in his "Lermontov." This is the moment of spiritual disorder, feverish pursuit of new ideals, dissatisfaction and despair due to a difficult task of reconciliation with life."

Metropolitan reality negated all attempts of Lermontov to "conform" to the politesse of the capital, accept the laws of the high life. In February 1840, secular enemies of the poet gave to the son of a French Ambassador Ernesto de Barante an epigram about him, allegedly composed by Lermontov. In fact, they used the old rhymed verse of Lermontov addressed to another person. The result was a duel, which took place on February 18^th near the Chernaya River, on Pargolovskaya road. Barante shot the first and missed. Lermontov shot aside. The opponents parted ... and all this would have ended, but the enemies of the poet took advantage of the duel.

Lermontov was arrested, the military trial began, which ended with the expulsion of the latter to the Caucasus. Barante safely left for abroad.

"Is the society described by me fair? I do not know; at least, it will always be for me an assembly of unfeeling people, extremely selfish and full of envy for those who keep in the soul even the slightest spark of celestial fire," that is how Lermontov assesses his milieu; the quote was taken from a research by V. Sipovsky, "Lermontov and Griboyedov // Voice of the past". G. 3 1915, № 5. Moscow, 1915 digitized by the Presidential Library.  

Nikolai Martynov, who killed the poet in a duel at the foot of Mount Mashuk in Pyatigorsk, did not have the slightest spark of celestial fire in his soul. Otherwise, he could not have shot the officer, who presented in Pyatigorsk his classmate Martynov as his friend and who was not even going to shoot at him - now it is known from the documents and memoirs. Most of the duels of that time ended with reconciliation of the opponents.

However, Major Martynov, who shot much worse that the cornet who served in the Caucasus, this time did not miss.

All the above mentioned publications are part of the Lermontov's collection of the Presidential Library, based on original sources and consisting of more than 115 electronic copies of rare editions. The last significant contribution to the Lermontov’s collection was made by the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia. It provided to the library ten editions to be digitized, including, in particular, the cited above I. Andronicov’s "Life of Lermontov."

All lovers of Russian literature will find a lot of interesting things in the sources previously inaccessible from the Presidential Library holdings, which today number about 400, 000 units.