M.Yu. Lermontov’s Mysterious Religiosity

The article reveals the characteristic features of the religious and philosophical worldview of M.Yu. Lermontov, first discovered by Russian thinkers of the Silver Age. Lermontov thinks that the divine principle of being lies in man and represents his deepest essence. A person who has managed to reveal his human essence to the fullest extent becomes a “higher personality”, a divine being with extraordinary power in relation to the world around him. The article shows that the main character of the novel “A Hero of Our Time” Pechorin is such a “higher personality”, he is able to rule over fate and over ordinary people. The special nature of Pechorin’s re­lationship with fate is clearly shown by Lermontov in the last part of the novel, called “The Fatalist”. A detailed analysis of this part of the novel allows us to assert that the dispute between Pechorin and the Serb Vulich essentially expresses the struggle of the wills of two heroes. It is Pechorin, as a more developed “higher personality”, with his will, with his almost divine power, who determines the fate of Vulich and directs him to inevitable death. The article shows that the idea of a person that is present in the novel “A Hero of Our Time” can be found in the story of A.S. Pushkin “The Queen of Spades”; later it becomes the basis of philosophical outlook of F.M. Dostoevsky. Like Lermontov, Dostoevsky believes that God is nothing but the true essence of man, and for the will of a person who has fully re­vealed his essence, there are no restrictions in the world.