Written Fates: The Life and Death of Mikhail Lermontov
When fiction and reality merge
Published in
13 min readNov 13, 2023
The date is February 8th, 1837. A cold wind blows over the banks of the Black River outside a darkening Saint Petersburg.
Evening approaches as two men walk through the snow towards each other, pistols in hand. On one side advances Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d’Anthès, a 25-year-old debonair French aristocrat. Opposing him is 37-year-old Alexander Pushkin. A rumored affair between the Frenchman and Pushkin’s wife was the duel’s justification.
