A Hero of Our Time

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Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov was born in Moscow on October 3, 1814 (according to the old calendar used in Russia until the Revolution). His early poetry was inspired by the beautiful nature of Caucasus, stories heard about the Caucasian War and long trips taken across all of Russia on horse. Among the works that he read in school (in four different languages) were those of Shakespeare, Schiller, Walter Scott, Thomas Moore and George Byron. He became the leading Russian Romantic poet. Lermontov suddenly became widely known for a piece of poetry which he wrote on the occasion of Pushkin?s death (1837). A great poet, as well as a lover of liberty and a foe of oppression, was revealed at once in his powerful verses. In a few days all St. Petersburg, and very soon all educated in Russia, knew this verses by heart; they circulated in thousand s of manuscripts copies.