LERMONTOV M. YU. (1814–1841) ‘Yunkerskaya poema’ – ‘Ulansha’ [‘The Cadet Poem’ – ‘The Uhlan Girl’] Manuscript copy in an unidentified hand, circa 1834.

Lot 639

1 5002 000

Double leaf, 35x22 cm. Fragments of paper are missing from the side and lower margins without damage to the text. The text of the poem is reproduced with omissions. One of M. Yu. Lermontov’s poems, known in historical and cultural usage as ‘yunkerskie poemy’, represents a phenomenon of risqué ‘school’ poetry intended for the male military academy environment and typically circulated in manuscript form. Testimony of Lermontov’s fellow cadet A. M. Merinsky: ‘Ulansha was the favorite poem among the cadets; probably even now, in the current school, the cherished notebook still passes secretly from hand to hand.’ [translated from Russian] (Merinsky A. M., ‘Reminiscence of Lermontov’, in M. Yu. Lermontov in the Memoirs of His Contemporaries, Moscow, 1989, p. 172.)

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