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Mikhail LermontovA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Lermontov wrote A Hero of Our Time, a work of historical fiction, in 1840, when Russia was undergoing significant political and social change. The first half of the 19th century saw the expansion of Russian territory under Tsar Alexander I (1777-1825), particularly with the Russo-Persian War (1801-1813), in which Russia gained control of much of the Caucasus region. Napoleon stopped Alexander I’s expansion into Eastern Europe during the Patriotic War of 1812, in what became one of the most famous military campaigns in history. However, the region would remain contested throughout the 19th century.
Though Russia and France were political enemies, the Russian nobility had adopted elements of French culture and Enlightenment ideals under Catherine the Great in the late 1700s. Alexander I continued to encourage Enlightenment ideals, which put the Russian upper classes in even closer contact with Europe. It was common for the Russian nobility to speak at least some French, and young Russian men of the nobility began studying in France. As a result, they adopted its liberal, democratic values, including the idea of abolishing serfdom.
This French influence led to the Decembrist Revolt in 1825, in which a liberal element of the Russian military fought against the succession of Nicholas I to the throne after Alexander I’s death. Nicholas I proved to be a military autocrat who quelled the liberal changes begun by his predecessor, leading to an ideological schism in Russian society: Slavophiles believed that Russia should follow the path of Orthodox Christianity and uniquely Russian values, while Westernizers (also called Modernizers) believed rationalist European ideals would move Russian society forward. This debate took place in the public sphere, in politics, and in literature. A Hero of Our Time addresses these issues by presenting characters that have no clear moral values and, therefore, no vision for the future beyond pursuing personal pleasure and engaging in military action.
Writers during the Golden Age of Russian literature (1820-1880) used Romanticism and Psychological Realism to address artistic, philosophical, and ideological debates in Russian society. One of the most popular character types used in critiquing society’s ills was the “superfluous man” (lishniy chelovek), a Russian version of the Romantic hero popularized by the English poet Lord Byron (1788-1824).
The Byronic hero was typically a young, well-educated man of the upper classes who, despite his many talents and abilities, felt disenfranchised in society and became cynical as a result. The superfluous man shares these characteristics and is generally rootless, always looking for meaning in life but finding none. Pechorin exemplifies this type: He is incapable of loving another person and sees the women in his life as romantic conquests. He takes pleasure in emotionally manipulating them, as he does with Princess Mary. Pechorin seeks adventure but finds no pleasure in his exploits.
The classic Byronic hero comes from Byron’s epic poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812-1818). The main character is based on Byron himself; he wanders throughout Europe, admiring the natural beauty and contemplating his life. The Russian term for the Byronic hero came from Ivan Turgenev’s novella Diary of a Superfluous Man (1850) and was retroactively applied to the protagonists of classic works of Romantic Russian literature, such as Alexander Pushkin’s verse novel Eugene Onegin (1825-1832), Lermontov’s novel A Hero of Our Time (1840), and many others. A female example of this type is Anna Sergeyevna Odinstova from Turgenev’s novel Fathers and Children (1862).
Like the Byronic hero, the superfluous man is an intelligent, capable outcast who cannot find his place in society. Fatalism and nihilism characterize his worldview; he engages in risky behaviors, such as duels, gambling, and physical altercations, not caring if the actions result in his death. The authors of these works met fates worthy of their Romantic plots: Both Pushkin and Lermontov died in duels in their thirties. Narratives that feature superfluous men are generally pessimistic about Russia’s future, implying that its most capable individuals are stifled by the country’s adherence to outdated autocratic principles. The narratives also explore broader existential questions, such as the meaning of life and the possibility (or impossibility) of true love.