A Novel about the Transient and the Eternal: Of Social History and General Humanity in ‘A Hero of Our Time’. Article 2
In the ﬁrst Russian social-philosophical novel no particular social-historical, nor even political problems are discussed (the main character Pechorin is not interested in them at all). But the author clearly emphasizes the moral decline of the Russian noble society in the 1830s as a result of their losing their high ideals and accepting the ‘down-to-earth approach’ in their lives. At the same time the reason why Pechorin suffers and dies early is the conﬂict between his active character and the illusory life, a ‘dream’, with which he has been substituting his real life since he was young. In the work the universal problems of happiness, mutual understanding, an active life position, free will, resistance to the fate etc. in the literary work of Lermontov are discussed.