The article is devoted to analyzing the synthetic genre forms which Lermontov produced at the closing stages of his writing. The contributor provides a substantial theoretical background dealing with the different means of uniting genre structures within a single lyrical entity. The poem Valerik (1840) where the battle scenes are included in the epistle genre is the research material. Arriving at certain conclusions, the author of the article reports the changes in Lermontov's perception of the man and world in the writer's mature lyrics.