The article deals with the death motif development in Lermontov’s lyrics. In the 1828–1832s the motif linked with the sense of the insurmountable fear of death. In the 1833–1836s Lermontov was gradually distancing himself of the phenomenon of death, he no longer attributed the fear of non-existence to his personal experiences, hence the perspective of the implementing this motif in the final period of the poet’s works was outlined. In the 1837–1841s death became a philosophical category. Death of a person was being perceived as the peaceful end of the earthly path, that made relevant a person’s inner life and related to a person’s feelings. Consequently, the final period of Lermontov’s works differs from the previous lyrics, where the key aspect was the physi­cal death of a person.