Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov was born on October 3rd in 1814 in Moscow, Russia. When he was only six months old, he was taken to Tarkchany, near Penza, to live with his grandmother, Elizaveta Alekseevna Arsenyeva, on her estate. After his mother died when he was three years old, his father and grandmother had an argument which led to his grandmother gaining full custody of him. He was educated at home until he was twelve years old, and then studied at a boarding school for the nobility in Moscow. He became very talented in playing the violin, drawing, painting, and English. It was during that period of his life that Lermontov wrote his first poem.

As a boy, Lermontov was frequently ill and rather frail. To help improve his health, his grandmother often took him to a mineral spring in the North Caucases. His writing was influenced greatly by the nature of the Caucases, as well as stories about the Caucases he heard while he was there.

In 1830, Lermontov entered Moscow State University to study politics. It was in this same year that his poem "Spring" was publised in "Atenei," a magazine of the time. However, he had to leave due to disagreements with professors. After failing to get into the university in St. Petersburg, he entered the School of the Guard Ensigns and Cavalry Cadets in 1832, where he wrote for and helped publish a handwritten magazine called "School Dawn."

Lermontov achieved the position of cornet in the Hussar regiment in 1834. Three years later, in February, he was transferred to the Caucases as punishment for a poem that he wrote. The poem was called "A Poet's Death," and was considered controversial because it referred to Pushkin's death in a way that was uncomplimentary to the nobility of the time. During this exile he met Aleksander Belinsky and other exiled Decembrists.

In 1838 Lermontov returned from exile and published many more of his works. In 1840 he was in a duel with the son of a French ambassador, and was arrested and exiled again. He participated in military activies there, surprising the Caucasians with his courage.

In 1841 on July 15th, Lermontov participated in another duel with an old acquaintance of his. Some say he was provoked into this duel on purpose, so that he would be killed. He was fatally shot, cremated, and buried in a cemetary in Pyatigorsk, Kavkaz. In 1842, however, his ashes were reburied in his family cemetary at Tarkchany.