The grandmother did her utmost to give him the best education possible at that time, and to make him a brilliant society man.

The early foreign influence over Pushkin was, as we have seen, French.

That over Lermontoff was rather English, which was then becoming fashionable.

But like many another young Russian of that day, Lermontoff wrote his first poems in French, imitating Pushkin's "The Fountain of Baktchesarai" and Byron's "The Prisoner of Chillon." He finished the preparatory school with the first prize for composition and history, and entered the University, which he was soon compelled to leave, in company with a number of others, because of a foolish prank they had played on a professor.

In those days, when every one was engrossed in thoughts of military service and a career, and when the few remaining paths which were open to a poor young man had thus been closed to him, but one thing was left for him to do--enter the army.
Accordingly, in 1832, Lermontoff entered the Ensigns' School in St.
Petersburg; but during his two years there he did not abandon verse-making, and here he first began to imitate Byron.