✒️ On this day in 1814, Mikhail Lermontov was born. One of Russia’s most celebrated poets and novelists, he is best known for A Hero of Our Time, a landmark of Russian prose, as well as his Romantic poetry, including The Demon and Mtsyri. But did you know that Lermontov had Scottish roots? His paternal family traced its ancestry to George Learmonth, a Scottish soldier who entered Russian service in the early 17th century. The family’s Scottish origins are associated with Fife. Lermontov’s fascination with his Scottish heritage found expression in two poems, The Grave of Ossian and The Wish, both written in 1830. In my beloved Scottish highlands, Under a curtain of cold mists, Between the sky of storms and dry sands, The grave of Ossian exists. My dreaming heart flies to its stone To breathe in native air puffs And take from it the priceless loan — The treasure of the second life. In 2015, a bronze bust of the poet was unveiled in the town of Earlston in southeast Scotland, which used to be home of the legendary Scottish bard Thomas the Rhymer, who also belonged to the ancient Clan of Learmonth.