that when news of his death reached Nicholas, the
Tsar splenetically declared, "A dog's death for a
dog!" ²

Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov's brief but eventful
life began in Moscow on the 2nd or 3rd of October,
1814. ³ His mother, Marya, was the only daughter of
the widowed Elizaveta Arsenieva, proprietress of a
rich estate in Penza who belonged to the old and well-
placed Stolypin family. The father's origins were less
illustrious. Tradition had it that the Lermontovs were
descended from a Scottish mercenary, George Lear-
mont, who first fought for the Poles and subsequently,
after his capture by the Russians in 1613, entered the
service of Muscovy. Still another legend connected
the family with Thomas Learmont, the thirteenth
century Scottish bard known as Thomas the Rhymer.
Yury Petrovich Lermontov, the author's father, while
still young had retired from the army to devote him-
self to the management of his small estate in central
Russia. His rather modest means combined with his
reputation as a bon vivant to produce an unfavorable
impression on Marya's family, which opposed the mar-
riage of the seventeen-year-old girl to a man with such
an unpromising potential. However, the marriage took
place and the young couple settled in Moscow, where
their son was soon born. A few months later they
moved to Tarkhany, the estate of Marya's mother,
and it was there that the future poet lived until the
age of thirteen.

The death of Marya Lermontova in 1817 marked
the beginning of a bitter contest between the father
and grandmother over the custody of young Mikhail.
Elizaveta Arsenieva desperately wanted her only grand-
child near her, and it was rumored that she either
threatened to disinherit the child if the father took
him from Tarkhany or that she bribed the father to

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