A Hero of Our Time
Georgia became a theme in Russian literature as well. In 1829, Russia's greatest poet Alexander Pushkin visited the country and his experience is reflected in several of his lyrics. His younger contemporary, Mikhail Lermontov, was exiled to the Caucasus in 1840. The region appears as a land of exotic adventure in Lermontov's famous novel "A Hero of Our Time" and he also celebrated Georgia's wild, mountainous landscape in the long poem "Mtsyri", about a novice monk who escapes from the strictness of religious discipline to find freedom in nature.