Шотландские корни Лермонтова
статья по английскому языку (11 класс) на тему

                            Lermontov’s Scottish Roots  

Mikhail  Yuryevich Lermontov is considered to be one of the greatest poets of Russia. We’re going to celebrate his 200 th birthday on the 15th of October. He is believed to be descendant from a Scot- George Learmonth , an adventure  who fought for the Polish army and was thought to have been captured by the Russian forces in the 17th century.

Learmonth was one of many Scotsmen who travelled to Russia at the time, with many, possibly hundreds of thousands, settling permanently there. Learmonth is  thought  to have swapped sides and settled in Russia, changing his name to fit it, and marrying a Russian woman.

The Scottish surname Learmonth was first mentioned in the 13th century, in Berwickshire, where the family probably settled before  the Norman Conquest and the arrival  of Duke William at Hastings in 1066.

By the 16th century, the Learmonths were a powerful seafaring and trading clan in the East Scotland. At that time the eldest son inherited everything, so younger  sons had to find another way of making  their fortune. Many of them became soldiers and went overseas to fight with the Prussian and Polish armies. Some of them, obviously, made it to Russia.

The Learmonth heraldic crest,first registered in Scotland in 1672, has very  similar characteristics to the Lermontov crest, which first appeared in 1782. George’s descendants are likely to have changed their name to fit in with Russian society.

Russia has now thousands of Lermontovs. The Lermontov Society, founded 15 years ago, believes they are descendants from George Learmonth.

Russia’s most famous Lermontov is Mikhail Yuryevich  Lermontov (1814-1841) who became one of Russia’s foremost poets and literature’s most tragic characters, popularly termed by biographers as “Byron of Russia”. He was born in Moscow to a respective family.

Mikhail Lermontov was interested in his origins, and in 1831 devoted the poem Zhelanie(Wish) to his Scottish ancestors. In his youth ,Lermontov was enchanted with  a legend of another Lermont, a mysterious Scottish minstrel mentioned by Sir Walter Scott.

Following his exile for penning a controversial poem alluding to high-level complicity in the death  of his friend Pushkin, Lermontov became famous for his semi-biographical novel “A Hero of Our Time”. He was killed in a duel.