Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was a younger contemporary of Pushkin and the second-largest figure in 19th-century Russian poetry. 2014 marked the 200th anniversary of his birth. He was destined to live only 26 years, and only 13 years to make his mark on world literature. Lermontov's creative evolution was rapid. By transcending Romantic rhetoric and summarizing the most important artistic discoveries of his time, Lermontov essentially summed up the golden age of Russian poetry and opened up new horizons.