Lermontov in a military pelisse of the Hussar Life Guards Regiment, 1837. Public domain
The Russian Investigative Committee has denied reports that it has opened a fresh investigation into the circumstances surrounding the 1841 death of Russian romantic writer Mikhail Lermontov, state-owned news agency TASS reported on Thursday.
The Investigative Committee’s denial followed a report by state-owned news agency RIA Novosti earlier on Thursday quoting State Duma Deputy Nikolay Burlyaev as saying that in response to a request he made, the Investigative Committee had agreed to revisit the writer’s death, promising to “give progress reports and announce our findings”.
In January, Burlyaev, who represents the nominally opposition party A Just Russia — For Truth in Russia’s lower house of parliament, told state-affiliated news outlet Gazeta.ru that the investigation into Lermontov’s death in 1841 could have been flawed, and that he believed that the writer hadn’t been shot in a duel at all, but had died as the result of what he called a “Russophobic conspiracy”.
Lermontov died in the town of Pyatigorsk in the Russian North Caucasus in a duel with his friend Nikolay Martynov at the age of 26. Second only to Alexander Pushkin in Russia’s 19th century literary pantheon, he is best-known for his novel A Hero of Our Time, which was published in 1840.
Prior to launching his political career, Burlyaev was an actor, director and screenwriter whose interest in Lermontov is long standing, having played the writer in the 1986 film Lermontov, which he also directed, business daily Kommersant reported. The film was never released, however, which Burlyaev reportedly also blamed on a conspiracy.
