# Russian Roulette

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-roulette/265>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [October 27, 1999, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-roulette/265 "1999-10-27T00:00:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dlv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dlv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dlv)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 1999, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/russian-roulette/265/1 "1999-10-27T00:00:00Z")

</div>

[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/991022.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/991022.html)

**In fact, the only reference to anything like Russian  
roulette I could find in Russian literature was in the book _A Hero of Our Time_ by Mikhail Lermontov (1840, translated by Vladimir  
Nabokov in 1958).**

Surely this wasn’t the first English translation!

I read an article some years ago how the English translation of Lermontov’s story reached the West Point in the 1870’s. Russian Roulette became a fad there, resulting in the deaths of several cadets. Sorry I don’t have the reference.

By the way, Lermontov himself wasn’t exactly Russian himself. He was descended from George Learmont, a Scottish officer who entered Russian service and Russified his name.

Also, you can find the English translation of the _hero_ at ftp://ftp.books.com/eBooks/Fiction/Authors/L/Lermontov/fatalist.htm