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# There is a legend that Mikhail Lermontov began learning English by reading Byron's poetry in the original
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/est-takaia-legenda-chto-mikhail-lermontov-nachal-uchit-angliiskii-iazyk-chitaia-stikhi-bairona-v-podlinnike/
- Published: 2022-07-25T11:47:06.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:38:15.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Books, Mores, Education, People

There is a legend that Mikhail Lermontov began learning English by reading Byron's poetry in the original. And within a few months the fifteen-year-old Mikhail Yuryevich was supposedly a fine master of English, or at least understood it remarkably well.

Like all legends, this tale sounds very handsome, but it is hard to believe.

It is known that young Misha had an English tutor, Fyodor Fyodorovich Vinson (Windson), who received a substantial three thousand roubles for a governor, lived in a separate outbuilding on Malaya Molchanovka with his wife, a Russified German, and remained Lermontov's friend for many years. With a personal tutor at his disposal, it is unlikely that Mikhail Yuryevich would have had to learn English from books.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_7118@25-07-2022_14-47-06.jpg)