Citing the poet's relatives Akim Shan-Girey and Akim Khastatov, biographer Pavel Viskovatov suggested the following version of the poem's background:While travelling along the old Georgian Military Road and collecting the local tales and legends (which later have been incorporated into the new version of the Demon poem), Lermontov in Mtskheta came across an old Beri, a Georgian monk, a guardian and the last surviving member of the local monastery that had been closed earlier. Lermontov had a conversation with him and learned that he was a highlander imprisoned by General Yermolov during the latter's Caucasian campaign. The boy fell ill and the general left him for local monks to take care for. Here he grew up but couldn't get used to his new home and made several attempts to escape. One such attempt proved to be all but fatal: he fell severely ill, nearly died and after that apparently submitted to his fate and even became friends with an elderly Georgian monk. This emotional tale impressed Lermontov. He used parts of his earlier poems, "The Confession" and "Boyarin Orsha", merged them into one, added new details and took the story from Spain and (in case of Orsha) Lithuania to Georgia, making the best of this chance to extol the free and daring spirit of Caucasian highlanders he admired, and to praise the beauty of the Caucasian mountains that he loved.