Lermontov, Feofan

Born Sept. 27 (Oct. 10), 1847, in the village of Mishino, Vologda Province; died Dec. 11 (23), 1878, in St. Petersburg. Russian Narodnik (Populist), revolutionary.

The son of serf peasants, Lermontov entered the St. Petersburg Technological Institute in 1869 but did not complete his studies there. From 1871 to 1872 he was a member of the Chaikovskii circle, and from 1873 to 1874 he headed a circle of “insurgents.” Lermontov had ties with M. A. Bakunin. He carried on propaganda among workers and participated in the preparations for the Going to the People movement. In 1873 he went abroad to Berlin and Prague to organize the shipment of literature to Russia. He was arrested in January 1874 in St. Petersburg. Lermontov was tried in the “Trial of the 193” during 1877–78. He died while imprisoned in the Litovsk Lithuanian Castle before he could be sent into exile.