Woe from Wit
Later critics noticed that both "Menschen und Leidenschaften" and "A Strange Man" had certain resemblances to Vissarion Belinsky's early drama "Dmitry Nikitin" (1831). The two young writers, though, unacquainted at the time, were working on their respective plays almost simultaneously. An obvious point of reference for both might have been Alexander Griboyedov's comedy "Woe from Wit", unpublished at the time but a popular salon read, circulating in handwritten copies. The similarity of some episodes of "A Strange Man" and "Dmitry Nikitin" could be explained by the fact that the two families, Lermontovs and the Belinskys, were neighbours in Tchembarsky Uyezd of Penza Governorate, according to Pavel Viskovatov.