Grigory Pechorin

Born in St. Petersburg . According to him, "training bored him quickly." Having got rid of parental care, he immediately began to enjoy all the charms of life, but he quickly got tired of them. After that, he joined the army. After a while, he was exiled for a duel in the Caucasus , in the army. It is this period of Pechorin's life that is covered in the novel. He hoped to dispel boredom on the battlefield, but after a month he got used to the whistle of bullets and the proximity of death.

In the first chronological chapter of the novel Taman, Pechorin stumbles upon a gang of smugglers and destroys their modus operandi . In this chapter the idea comes to him that to all he brings only misfortunes. After that, Pechorin goes to the waters in Kislovodsk , where he meets his acquaintance cunker Grushnitsky , the acquaintance Vera, who is in love with him, and Princess Mary.

During his stay in Kislovodsk and Pyatigorsk Pechorin falls in love with Princess Mary and quarrels with Grushnitsky. He kills Grushnitsky in a duel and refuses Princess Mary. On suspicion of a duel, he is again exiled, this time to the fortress. There he meets Maxim Maksimych.

It is believed that the author named his character in honor of the northern Pechora River . Researchers compare him with another character named after this principle - Pushkin's Eugene Onegin . Onega flows smoothly to the sea, Pechora is a stormy mountain river ^[1] .

Mikhail Lermontov developed the Pushkin character. In his 1840 article, Belinsky called Pechorin "Onegin of our time." According to him, "their dissimilarity between themselves is much less than the distance between Onega and Pechora" ^[2] . Pushkin, discovering Onegin in the reality surrounding him, began to criticize her; Lermontov also exposed the selfish hero ^[3] .

Tatyana Aleksandrovna Ivanova, the author of a number of books dedicated to Lermontov, believes that when he wrote “The Hero of Our Time”, Onegin was standing before his eyes. She indicates a slip in the manuscript - instead of the name of the hero of his novel, he wrote "Eugene", and subsequently corrected the mistake ^[4] .

Thaddeus Bulgarin believed that Pechorin was not typical of Russian society, and the West blamed the formation of such egoists. Similar assessments were given to the hero by Stepan Shevyrev and Osip Senkovsky ^[5] . Such critics considered Pechorin a depraved person. In their opinion, calling him a “hero of our time” was tantamount to insulting Russia. Vissarion G. Belinsky held a completely different point of view. In his opinion, the protagonist was a reflection of the tragedy of “advanced people” of the 40s of the XIX century. The critic saw in Pechorin the echoes of the author, who could not completely separate from him and correctly evaluate him. When meeting with Lermontov, Belinsky became convinced of the similarity of the character of the writer with the character of the character. It, according to him, consisted of a “rational, chilled outlook on life and people” ^[6] .

In 1913, “Bela” was filmed by the studio of Alexander Khanzhonkov , the role of Pechorin was played by the film director A. Gromov . In 1926 - 1927, Vladimir Barsky at the Goskinprom Georgia studio based on the work produced three films - Princess Mary, Bela and Maxim Maksimych with Nikolai Prozorovsky in the title role . Although the film received negative reviews from critics ^{[ what? ]} , Prozorovsky’s game was rated positively by them . After the appearance of sound cinema, the novel was repeatedly filmed by the studio named after M. Gorky . In 1955, the color film “Princess Mary” was directed and directed by Isidor Annensky , the main role in it went to Anatoly Verbitsky. In 1967, the “Hero of Our Time” was released, consisting of three short stories (“Bela”, “Taman” and “Maxim Maksimych”), filmed by Stanislav Rostotsky . Pechorin was played by Vladimir Ivashov . According to Soviet critics ^{[ what? ]} , due to the illustrative nature of the picture, its authors failed to recreate the character and reveal the inner world of the hero . In 1975, the Central Television put on the television performance “ Pages of Pechorin Magazine ”. The director was Anatoly Efros , and the performer of the role of Pechorin was Oleg Dal ^[7] . In the 8-episode television series Alexander Kott “Hero of Our Time” (2006), which was rather coolly received by critics ^{[ what? ]} , the role of Pechorin was played by actor Igor Petrenko , whose game was recognized ^{[by whom? ]} successful .