Born in 1814, Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was a Russian Romantic writer, poet, and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus." He was the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death. His influence on later Russian literature is still felt in modern times, not only through his poetry but also by his prose.

Lermontov died in a duel like his great predecessor poet, Aleksander Pushkin. Even more so tragically strange (if not to say fatalistic) that both poets described in their major works fatal duel outcomes, in which the main characters (Onegin and Pechorin) were coming out victorious.