By the late 1830s Lermontov became so disgusted with his own early infatuation with Romanticism as to ridicule it in "Tambov Treasurer's Wife" (1838), a close relative to Pushkin's "Count Nulin", performed in stomping "Yevgeny Onegin" rhyme. Even so, it is his 1812 War historical epic "Borodino" (1837), a 25th Anniversary hymn to the victorious Russian spirit, related in simple language a tired war veteran, and "Valerik" (defined by Mirsky as a missing link between the "Copper Rider" and the "War and Peace" battle scenes) that are seen by critics as the two peaks of Lermontov's realism. This newly found clarity of vision allowed him to handle a Romantic theme with Pushkin's laconic precision most impressively in "The Fugitive". Tellingly, while Pushkin (whose poem "Tazit"'s plotline was here used) saw the European influence as a healthy alternative to the patriarchal ways of Caucasian natives, Lermontov tended to idealize the local communities' centuries-proven customs, their morality codex and the will to fight for freedom and independence to the bitter end.