The creative path of Lermontov the prose writer ends with an unexpected and strange work - either a parody or a mystical hofmaniad. The author of the novel, which stands at the origins of Russian psychological realism, and the “physiological essay” “Caucasian”, who cherished the plans of a historical epic novel, whether due to a simple historical accident or internal laws of evolution, left as a literary testament “an excerpt from an unfinished story”, bearing on imagine all the hallmarks of a romantic story about a mad artist and a fantasy novel about ghosts. It is not surprising that this story, known under the code name "Stoss", attracts and will attract the attention of researchers and gives rise and will give rise to diametrically opposed interpretations, since its deliberate incompleteness opens up wide scope for hypotheses.