Mikhail Lermontov

Gorbachev became involved in the conflict because he did not want to get into an arms race with the United States that he could not afford. President Reagan became involved in the conflict because he wanted to destroy communism. Reagan’s goal was to spread freedom around the world by opposing the spread of Soviet-backed Marxist regimes and stopping containment of Soviet communism (Reagan Doctrine). The strategy was simple: “We win and they lose.” Reagan did not believe in co existing with…

with them had an important place in the life of the medieval man (Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais)”. These over the top events won over the people’s hearts in the Renaissance and in the Middle Ages. During Carnival festivities, rules were thrown out the window and laugher was the focus point. “A boundless world of humorous forms and manifestations opposed the official and serious tone of medieval ecclesiastical and feudal culture (Mikhail Bakhtin)”. Laughter was not won so easily, effort had to be…

and Reagan on the Fall of Communism and the End of the Cold War The collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991 was a complex historical event, influenced by multiple leaders and movements. This essay will look at the influences of the Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the American president Ronald Reagan. The importance and influence of the two on the fall of Communism is still a debated topic. A short overview of the ideas that academics have about the duo will be given and a new perspective…

Known as the ‘Russian Byron’, Mikhail Lermontov is revered for his radical interpretation of the Romantic antihero in A Hero of Our Time. He sought to fashion “a portrait built up from the vices of our whole generation” (Lermontov, preface), to create a character who would embody the spirit of the contemporary Russian man. In what would be his only prose work, Lermontov employs traits commonly associated with the Byronic hero as the basis for the character of his protagonist, Pechorin, such as…

Throughout his novel, A Hero of Our Time, Mikhail Lermontov reveals his protagonist’s journey through the stages of enchantment, disenchantment, and re enchantment though his relationships with the three main females in the novel, Bela, Princess Mary, and Vera. During his relationship with Vera Pechoin was enchanted, but after they split he becomes disenchanted, as demonstrated by Lermontov though Pechorin’s relationship with Princess Mary, and lastly Pechoin attempts re enchantment with Bela,…

Poetry is often written with some hidden meaning within the poems themselves, this meaning often coming in multiple layers of depth, in order to suggest or prompt an ideology, value, or action to an audience. Such cases often being seen in English Romantic Period poems and novels; these works of literature often having themes about the power and beauty of nature and how humans are just a small part of a bigger picture created by god. Though some authors take it to a step beyond such themes; an…

In Russia, serfdom was a system under which the peasants were theoretically free tenants, but were actually in a state of vassalage to, and dependence on, the landowners. Russian peasants were a completely separate class from the landowners and nobility, many of whom must have considered their underlings less than human. Some people condemn feudalism, stating that it was a corrupt system of labor as it exploited serfs, but without the use of the serfs, the entire economy of Europe would have…

“I can’t believe that I have to eat, sleep, and breathe on this college campus. The people are so bizarre. Can I just lay in my bed and not go to class?” contemplated Paul, as he lay awake in his bed the first Monday morning of the semester. Paul had walked around James Madison University’s campus during FROG week with the feeling of dread; James Madison University had not been his first choice (he had his eyes set on Harvard), but it was the only college that he got an acceptance letter from.…