Georges Oney is a mysterious woman. One in Russia
N. I. TURGENEV.
A half-century fighter for the liberation of Russia from the yoke of serfdom, who, like the elder Semeon, saw with his own eyes the bright day of its saving revival, and had the good fortune to survive this era for a whole decade, N. I. Turgenev died the other day in his villa Verbois, in the outskirts of Paris. Further details of his death have not yet reached us.
82-year-old Turgenev will long be remembered by everyone who wants to establish timely freedom and well-intentioned enlightenment in Russia. Such a figure is worth a full biography, as an instruction to his contemporaries and posterity. We will say here only the little that we know and remember about him. In order to properly depict his entire life in its entirety, we have neither the author’s talent for such work, nor sufficient time, nor even at hand those sources that will probably be found and collected.
N.I. was born in the late 80s of the last century. His father, Ivan Petrovich, was the director of Moscow University, and entrusted all his 4 sons, Andrei, who died young, Alexander, famous in Europe, this same Nikolai and Sergei, who died in the prime of life and was an adviser to our Constantinople mission, to the professor Antonsky, who raised them in Moscow. university boarding school, together with Zhukovsky, Dashkov and other persons more or less known in Russia for their merits or literary talents. The Turgenevs then completed their education in Göttingen. When the famous Baron Stein, the sworn enemy of Napoleon the 1st, sought and found refuge from his persecution by joining the Russian service, Nikolai Turgenev followed him at the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th to Germany and with this statesman , who served so much for the revival of Prussia and all German freedom, our ardent young man learned to passionately and ardently love his fatherland, and to love not only it, but all of humanity and to defend and defend its eternal rights. Returning as a young man, he attracted the attention of the government and society with his book, entitled Theory of Taxes (1815). Under the leadership of Speransky, he worked in the Law Drafting Commission on various legislative projects in a freedom-loving spirit, and at the same time actively served in the rank of assistant to the state -Secretary of the State Council for Departments. laws, where N.S. Mordvinov, who distinguished him, presided; and besides all this, Turgenev also had special instructions for the Ministry of Finance. Baron Stein was the main figure in the abolition of serfdom in Prussia. Our Turgenev was perhaps the first of all, even before the 20s of the century, to publicly, with enthusiastic audacity, begin his preaching of the liberation of Russian peasants, submitted projects and formed an open society, which was unsuccessful for the first time, from a few influential landowners who wanted to apply themselves an example of freeing one's serfs. Emperor Alexander found such a society untimely. Baron Stein was one of the founders of a secret society in Germany, known under the name Tugendbund "a. Turgenev, pursued by one cherished thought to achieve the liberation of the peasants at all costs, joined the secret northern society at its very first formation. When Nikita Muravyov, restoring the disintegrating union prosperity and with it a secret northern society, established a Duma to govern it, its first members were, in addition to Muravyov himself, Prince Evgeny Obolensky and N. I. Turgenev. The latter, however, did not accept new members, being distinguished by particular moderation, expressing more than once that his main goal was to achieve freedom for the landowner peasants, the spread of public education and a free press in Russia. When leaving abroad in April 1824, Turgenev broke off all his relations with society and considered himself to have left it, as stated on page 430 of volume VI of the History of Emperor Alexander, the work of Bogdanovich, where the author in his notes refers to Nikita’s testimony Muravyov and Pestel and a note about the participation in the secret society of Nikolai Ivanovich himself (appendices to the same volume, p. 56, note 25).
The writer of these lines, having never met Turgenev, knew about him from hearsay and learned briefly from his correspondence with his brother Alexander. We will not dwell on the investigation and the Supreme Criminal Court, known to everyone, on the charges of the former and the verdicts of the latter, with which Turgenev, who was absent but did not appear when called to answer from foreign lands, was first accused and then convicted. He wrote about all this in detail himself in his book La Russie et les Russes. Let us dwell on the personality of Turgenev himself.
I met him for the first time in the autumn of 1833 in Geneva, a week before his marriage. Turgenev knew me from the stories and letters of his brother Alexander. I found in him a man with small years old under 40, slightly limping, but much less worldly, brilliant, handsome, as his elder brother Alexander always was, and at the same time, more serious, deeper scientist, rarely cheerful, sometimes gloomy and thoughtful. This is how he introduced himself to me happy moment of his life, a few days before his wedding to the daughter of the Piedmontese exile General Viaris, like him deprived of his fatherland, and on top of THAT (which did not happen with Turgenev, thanks to brotherly friendship) deprived in old age of all means of life.
His involuntary stay abroad was unbearably difficult. He could not settle in Charles X's France for long. All our fellow countrymen traveling and staying in Paris, with very rare exceptions, ran away from him as if from an infection, but he still lived in Russia with soul and heart and breathed only its spirit. He could not even go to the Russian embassy churches, which, according to popular law, are legally located on Russian soil, using the so-called le droit d "exterriterritoirilé: there all visitors would inevitably greet his appearance with hostile glances, and what good, he thought, and legal persecution The embassy church, the only one in Paris of our confession, was inaccessible to him even for the performance of ordinary fasting. For this reason, he could not get married in our embassy church in Bern, but had to turn to the Greek hieromonk, who was temporarily staying, to perform the sacrament over him in Geneva. It was not easy for him and his brother to find legal witnesses to the upcoming wedding. In my presence, these difficulties were discussed more than once between both of them, but no direct invitation was made to me to witness the marriage. I took advantage of their silence, and I admit in my heart I was glad, that in this way I could get rid of them decently, because according to my then ideas about Nikolai Turgenev, I saw in him state criminal, legally deprived of all rights of the state. In 1833, I was still under the influence of that environment in our society, which mercilessly condemned the recent unrest in St. Petersburg. Fortunately, two young Vikulin brothers volunteered to witness the marriage, but I left Geneva before the wedding and went with my wife to live in Vienna. Just before my departure from Geneva, I spent the whole day arguing with my fiancé Turgenev about emancipation, which I did not quite understand at the time and was afraid of the possibility of fulfillment. Having described this first meeting of yours, I turn back. Throughout the investigation and trial of him, N. Turgenev lived in Paris. I went there on a date with him little brother Sergey; the elder Alexander suspected signs of insanity in Sergei, which is clear
from a letter from Zhukovsky to E. G. Pushkina from Leipzig in April 1827 (In the 19th Century, book 1, p. 411.) Also in 1827, on June 2, Sergei Turgenev died in Paris in the arms of Zhukovsky and his brothers. Alexander, stricken with new grief, was consoled by Svechina and Countess Razumovskaya. Both Turgenev brothers were in England at the beginning of 1828 and visited Walter Scott in Edinburgh in his historical castle. As far as we know, Nikolai Turgenev remained in England until the July Revolution and returned to Paris for permanent residence shortly after the expulsion of its rightful king from France, after which (par des circonstances à jamais déplorables, as it was said in the autograph letter of Emperor Nicholas to the new king) Louis Philippe began to reign. Both Turgenevs were drawn to the Orléanist party by the moderation of its policy, the middle ground between legitimists who had learned nothing and had forgotten nothing, and desperate republicans, about whose leader, one of the meekest among them, General Lafayette, Emperor Alexander I once expressed himself in the following words: C "est une vieille lampe qui put toujours.
The future, which promised so much to both brothers, was destroyed. One lived in exile, the other suffered for him, innocently convicted; In vain, throughout his entire life from 1826 to 1845, Alexander Turgenev waged a daily struggle with government officials and society, seeking by all means his brother’s justification before his contemporaries and posterity. Still deluding himself with hopes, he left for a while the service in which he had so many successes; he lived in Paris with Nikolai for half of the year, devoting the other to taking care of their estate for him; for his constant concern for his brother, already a family member, was to arrange for him an independent state.
Our enlightened society needs to have detailed and full biography both brothers, united by such a tender, inextricable friendship, despite the fact that they were separated by fate and so often separated from each other by vast space. From the biography of Alexander, compiled from his journal, we could learn the Berlin, London, Vienna and especially Parisian Society years of restoration and Louis Philippe. From his journal, kept daily, detailed information would be revealed to us about the Bible societies, about the mystics of that time, Labzin, Golitsyn, Mrs. Krudner and Tatarinova, as well as about the mortal struggle with them of the fanatics Shishkov and Photius, etc. Having become acquainted with With the papers of N. Turgenev, of which, as I know, there are many left, we would learn even more briefly and in more detail than from his books his attitude towards the Decembrists and his opinions about their actions.
I did not have enough time during my stay in Paris to begin working on N.I.’s portfolios, but from the frequent and frank stories of both brothers to me, I have every right to assert in good conscience (together with Bogdanovich) that N. Turgenev really tore apart the any relationship with society and considered himself to have already left it: for at that time, I will add his own words, he was completely convinced that all these secret societies could not do anything and would never begin to clearly implement their plans, which he however, he did not condemn them, considering them dreamy and unrealistic. We have some right to assume that many of the Decembrists did not and do not recognize Turgenev’s decisive break with society, reproached and reproach him for double-mindedness, blamed and blamed him for not appearing when summoned to trial in order to share with they bear all the burden of 30 years of exile. But to appear in court in 1826, under all the then conditions of extreme bitterness against the Decembrists and the government and society, would have been such quixoticism, to the manifestation of which one would have stuck by itself. famous phrase: “du sublime au ridicule il n"y a qu"un pas.” “Qu"allait il faire dans cette galère?”, they would say about him. similar cases Society has more intelligence than Voltaire (le monde a plus d "esprit que Voltaire lui-même). But to ask for trial and stand before it when extreme irritation began to subside both from above and in the public environment, he repeatedly desired and asked for volume N.I., which is proven both by the reference to the exculpatory note written for Emperor Nikolai by Zhukovsky included in Bogdanovich’s notes, and by petitions for his arrival in St. Petersburg for an answer from his brother Alexander. Moreover, we know from one of N.I.’s brochures , that once Count Benckendorff (or already Orlov) asked Nikolai Pavlovich to allow Turgenev to come to Russia. The Emperor, with such a report, thought about it and, remaining indecisive for a long time, said, as if unwillingly: “No, let him stay.” N. Turgenev, giving this answer, despite all the past, knew how to honor him with his deep, sincere gratitude. Even the loving A. Turgenev, until his death, would not have been at enmity with one of his old friends if he had not been sure of brother’s innocence, if the mistake that crept into the report of the investigative commission and was not corrected due to sheer stubbornness, thereby later finally turned into slander, irrefutably proven later by Turgenev himself, both in his book and in one of his last brochures.
And again I put my hand in the opinion of both Turgenevs that no important consequences would have come out of all these secret societies if it had not overtaken the members sudden death Emperor Alexander, and would not have been followed by those fatal three weeks, the entire time of which can rightly be called, in some respects, some kind of interregnum full of turmoil. From the as yet unpublished Notes of one of the most good-natured Decembrists, whom I therefore have no right to name, they will soon learn that even Pestel himself despaired of fulfilling his plans to such an extent that he decided to go to Taganrog and personally tell Emperor Alexander all the secrets of the conspiracy and persuade him to change his way of government. and Pestel was, as you know, the soul and head of all the conspirators. The compiler of the Notes I mentioned was his colleague and friend, and he testifies that he convinced Pestel to refrain from such a desperate intention, asking him to convene the closest members of southern society and consult with them about this. It was decided by everyone to refrain from such an act. Consequently, if there were no interregnum, there would be no rebellion. History, like everything human, changes; her judgment over events has its own progressive course; the roles played by the engines of society are presented in a different light, not only from contemporaries to posterity, but also from one generation to another. The Napoleon of Thiers, the ruler of France, bears no resemblance to the Napoleon depicted by Lanfret, that ruler's envoy to the Swiss Union. Thiers, with his multi-volume history, made it easier for Napoleon III to capture France; Lanfré finally destroyed the charm of the glory of Napoleon I that hovered over France and erected one of the most solid barricades preventing the return of Napoleon III with all possible Napoleonids; and yet both are still alive and active.
When, upon receiving the highest review with advice to stay, the last ray of hope for justification and return to the fatherland faded, Nikolai Ivanovich began collecting materials for the publication of his famous work, La Russie et les Russes. In St. Petersburg they soon learned that he had the intention of writing about Russia, and after that he received quite clear hints from influential people to abandon this work. He was made to feel that, in all likelihood, forgiveness could follow for such silence. He answered the impressive women that, considering himself right, he did not need forgiveness, and he would not publish his work during the life of his brother Alexander, so as not to harm him, who was in the service (under the chief postmaster, Prince A. N. Golitsyn) . Alexander Turgenev served and lived from time to time in Russia only because he had the opportunity to turn his real estate into money and transfer all capital to his brother’s name. For a long time he struggled with the idea of transferring his ancient, family estate (in the Simbirsk province) into the wrong hands and cried bitter tears, signing the bill of sale, somewhat reassuring himself that his beloved Russian peasants in general, and his own peasants even more so, were passing through the fortress into the same Turgenev family, and that the buyer, his cousin, gave him honestly love and favor them. Nikolai Ivanovich, also reluctantly and not without tears, obeyed such an order from his brother and benefactor, and thus volens nolens took advantage of quite significant capital proceeds from this sale. When Nikolai Ivanovich used to talk to me about all the peasants dear to him in general and grieved about his corrupt ones, he never failed, when speaking about the emancipation of the peasants, to sharply condemn the Baltic landowners for liberating their Latvians and Estonians without land, 50 years ago. He forgot that at that time he himself rejoiced with all his heart at such liberation, and set him up as an example to us, the landowners of inner Russia. I, sparing his passionate tenderness for the peasantry, did not even once have the courage to recall the alienation of their family Turgenev estate by sale, but defended the Ostsee people from his attacks, by the statute of limitations of half a century of liberation, justifying them, moreover, with the concepts of that time, in which the idea of the need to endow the peasants with land rarely occurred to anyone. More than once, in the last 20 years, it has happened to me to meet with landowners who often bought and sold, evicted, resettled, and even exiled peasants, and suddenly, anticipating the free spring air, as if by some magical delusion rods, became in the first ranks of emancipators; These gentlemen, who have such unsteady convictions, are not worth dwelling on for a long time. The inconsistency, in this case, of the honest Turgenev brothers was also regrettable for me.
At the end of 1845, A.I. Turgenev died in Moscow, in the cramped mezzanine of the small house of his cousin Nefedyeva, cluttered with briefcases and books. He was excessively stingy for himself and saved every ruble for his brother’s family, to whom he managed to transfer all his capital in Paris. Nikolai Ivanovich exchanged them with great profit, as an experienced financier, for foreign funds; He bought a house for 600,000 francs, lived in it quite generously, and spent the summer at his pretty dacha in the outskirts of Paris.
To this article of mine, superficial and hasty, which I dedicate to the memory of Turgenev, I will add a few more last words about his friend and brother. Alexander Ivanovich made many sacrifices to his dear exile, gave him his whole life, depriving himself in his old age of all the comforts necessary for old age. He endured material hardships laughingly, but his impressionable heart did not easily receive the insults to his pride that he often encountered. He distanced himself from almost all his contemporaries and comrades in his previous service, who, in the rank of members of the State Council or senators, had to sign the death warrant for his brother, and the inevitability of meeting them in the St. Petersburg salons (without which he could not live anywhere) was forced forced him to prefer the capital city to the capital city. In order not to be completely inactive in his official career, so as not to be only with the person worthy of the Sovereign, Prince A. N. Golitsyn, he invented an occupation that suited his heart, abroad: an assignment to pick out in libraries and museums precious for Russia written monuments. But even here, having performed with great success The work he had undertaken, not without internal embarrassment, he received an unexpected reward from his service for presenting to the Sovereign a collection of rare Vatican documents: in the rank of Privy Councilor, he was given the Order of Stanislav, 1st degree, while he had already worn the Star of Vladimir for more than 20 years 2 th class.
I consider it unnecessary to mention the major work of Nikolai Ivanovich, La Russie et le Russes; it, known to everyone, was published by him shortly after the death of his brother Alexander.
The few fellow countrymen who visited Nikolai Ivanovich in Paris, after the death of Emperor Nicholas, when the dawn of liberation was just beginning to appear on our horizon, told me that tense mood, which he could not dispel and from which he could almost not escape for a single hour. At this time, he expected every minute news of great reforms and transformations, and he was so filled with one thought, one eternal hope, that the young travelers, who had not come to Paris to talk only about Russia and the Russians, ran away from him, or finally they were forced to shorten their rare visits so as not to offend the old man by yawning and dozing. However, a passionate, perhaps to the point of excess, patriot was so from his youth, and no doubt remained until the end of his life. At a cordial meeting with any of the Russians, more or less capable of conducting a sensible and serious conversation, Nikolai Ivanovich’s Russian speech spilled out in his small, cozy living room from lunch until midnight. And in vain, his worthy wife, who had not mastered our language, involuntarily listening to sounds incomprehensible to her, begged her husband to turn to French, which the interlocutor almost always owned. Nikolai Ivanovich had, simply to say, an exorbitant passion for everything Russian. He spoke French fluently, Russian excellently, captivatingly, passionately, with a kind of strict, always logical, eloquence. His French speech, despite the 30 years spent in Paris, retained the shade of some innate Russian accent; You could even hear Russianisms in it. And he himself admitted that he never tried, or rather, never wanted to shine in their language in conversations with Parisians, but on the contrary, he always wanted not one of them to forget that he was a true Russian.
And such and such a patriot was condemned by evil fate to exile for the rest of his life, either through captivity or by coincidence. It's easy to say from 1824 to 1871! And such and such a person is judged and blamed by many of us: why, why didn’t he move to Russian soil, as soon as it became available to him? Don’t look for reasons, don’t rummage through someone else’s conscience. Who knows, who will recognize the heartfelt longing, the deep sorrow for the homeland of this old man!
When in 1856 our ad hoc ambassador plenipotentiary, Prince A.F. Orlov, arrived at the world congress in Paris, Nikolai Ivanovich, who once knew him in St. Petersburg and was in close ties with his brother Mikhail Orlov, explained to him in detail his previous relations with secret societies and convinced him of his final break with them, back in 1824. Prince Orlov presented all this to the Emperor, and soon Turgenev was restored to all rights, as completely justified: his former rank of full state councilor was returned to him, along with insignia. In the night of 1857, he took advantage of the opportunity to set foot on Russian soil for the first time after a long exile. I spent several days with him in St. Petersburg at this time and witnessed his happiness. Having spent no more than a week on the banks of the Neva, together with his son and daughter, he went to his beloved, according to his memories, the heart of Russia (Turgenev sympathetically called for this new nickname for Moscow), and there he entered into the legal rights of the inheritance that he inherited from the Turgenev family estate. the death of his cousin Nefedyeva, whose mother was nee Turgeneva, his own aunt. During the division with the heirs, he received, at his request, a small family estate of his sister in Kashira district, Tula province, about 200 souls with land of less than 1000 acres, the village of Starodub, where there was a dilapidated manor house with an old manor, and a church nearby. His first concern was to demonstrate in practice his boundless love for the Russian peasant. Rumors were already circulating about emancipation, but there were no known rescripts to Adjutant General Nazimov yet. Nikolai Ivanovich, wanting to immediately free the peasants, of course with land, offered them all sorts of concessions on the spot, but it seems he did not receive their consent. At the same time, wanting to have a settled place there, and perhaps dreaming of the opportunity to settle there, he began to build himself, instead of the dilapidated one, new house, without forgetting to arrange for the peasants, right next to the church, a school, a hospital and an almshouse, and together provide comfortable existence church clergy He rejoiced at this arrangement of a new property, never before seen in his life, like a small child, and, returning to Paris, he was mainly occupied with it alone.
Here I think it would be useful to tell one incident that is unimportant, but in my opinion quite interesting. When, before the solemn prayer service, the all-merciful manifesto of February 19, 1861 was read in the embassy Parisian church, and our ambassador Count Kiselev with the officials of the mission, the Decembrist Prince Volkonsky, who looked askance at Turgenev, despite his there was hostility in him, he loudly suggested that Nikolai Ivanovich, in front of everyone, venerate the cross first, as the person who initiated this holy work.
There is no need to say that Turgenev brought to his estate the published regulations on peasants with all sorts of benefits for them, ceded to them, to his obvious disadvantage, all the nearby land, the rest was his own, gave them a long-term lease for an incredibly cheap den, 1 ½ rubles per tithe. Only Turgenev could have shown such generosity to those being released, both because of his noble passion for freedom, and also because, having large financial capital, he lived comfortably. His Kashirskoe estate, which he, so to speak, fell in love with, did not bring him income, but, compared with its real value, a large loss. In the first years after emancipation, he again visited his beloved Russian corner with his eldest son, obtained a charter of nobility for himself and entered his two sons into the noble genealogy book of the Tula province. It would seem that the whole goal of his life had been achieved, and the time had come for his indomitable patriotism to calm down. Against. In March 1863, having visited Nikolai Ivanovich in Paris for a short time, I found him in new anxiety. His wife and children greeted me with the fact that he had already been ill for 10 days, he was in extremely dangerous irritation and, despite the magnificent spring weather, he not only refused his daily country walks on horseback, but also did not go out into the sun to breathe the warm air in your front garden in the courtyard of the house. They forcefully persuaded him to go out for a ride in a carriage, and then under the pretext of showing me the wonderful new Paris, which I had not seen since 1826. To such a degree of irritation he was indignant at that time about the rebellion of Poland, rumors about European intrigues against us and fear that we would not make concessions to its influence and would not give up the Kingdom of Poland. Judging by all this, I am almost convinced that N.I. last days In his life, he harbored within himself the hope of one day settling in Russia, despite all the circumstances created by fate that so strongly prevented him from doing so.
He had, however, no reason to be dissatisfied with his stay in Paris. Once all his rights were returned to him, the Russians no longer avoided him. Often, he attended intimate dinners of our hospitable ambassador Kiselyov; He gathered at his place all those compatriots who strove for him, as for a celebrity of his kind. He lived on friendly terms with many of them who lived in Paris. His wife and daughter did not like to whirl in the whirlwind of Paris big world, and Turgenev himself, from the first years of his youth, moved away from him everywhere. The whole family was limited to a small circle of educated people. The doors to their welcoming home were opened wide to a select few. At their dinners, in the winter of 1870, I often met the most pleasant, varied company. And our archpriest, and Father Gagarin, and pastors Présanse and Martin Pacho, and the learned German who settled in Paris, academician Mol and his wife, and the orientalist Khanykov were often my companions with the Turgenevs. In the early evening, on Saturdays, the ladies gathered with other wonderful foreigners and rare French visitors. Among the latter, I remember three: the old Protestant Bonchose (the author of the history of the Hussites), the ardent republican Tachard, a member of the legislative assembly, and finally, Odillion Barot, who was the minister of justice during it.
If not last war, then some kind of terrible storm in France, Nikolai Ivanovich predicted among his constant activities: reading Russian newspapers and magazines and analyzing his and his brother’s papers. I don’t know what happened to him and his family before the war, which was insanely raised by the ex-emperor. But he managed to retire to England before the German siege of Paris, and had the misfortune of returning to it before the monstrous commune. We looked for him from here for a long time, and finally we learned all his troubles from his last letter to us, an excerpt of which I quote here as a conclusion.
“Vert-Bois July 2/14, 1871 “We have lived through a difficult time. Last year we somehow hurried to leave here, and this year we hurried to return here. We lived in England for 7 months. About England I can only say that we received such a kind reception there that we could never have expected. All old acquaintances and new ones showered you with invitations and offers of services of all kinds. But the sad situation in which we found ourselves did not allow you to take advantage of this English cordiality and goodwill. My wife went out in the morning to visit her old friends. I almost never left the house. Because of this, our friends visited us every day. Your small living room was filled with visitors every day, before lunch. But in the evening we were almost always alone. I also met our priest; this is the most worthy of all our priests known to me. I deeply respect him, both as a priest and as a person. At the beginning of March, after the end of the war, both the wife and children wanted to return. Albert (the eldest son) was already in Paris, having arrived there on one of the huge trains bringing food to the starving inhabitants of Paris from the Lord Mayor of London. 10 days after our return, an internecine war broke out. The incessant cannon fire, especially at night, irritated my nerves. Towards the end the fires started. Our street (Rue de Lille, near the legislative building) suffered especially from them. Our house remained undamaged. As soon as we could leave Paris, we moved to the dacha. The house in which we live was devastated by the Prussians, our other house, a small one, was shot, and the entire garden there was cut down. The situation of the land in which fate brought me to live and die is very sad. I can't help but sympathize with her plight. A government that was vile in every way brought these disasters upon France. But the Germans increased them to the extreme, unnecessarily and without benefit to themselves, and even to their detriment. I have always respected the Germans, considered them the most educated people in the world. Circumstances affecting me personally made me not only respect, but love the Germans. The memory of the Gottingen professors, and most of all the memory of Stein, the memory of the favor that we found in the Germans when native land we were persecuted (you will see this in my brother’s letters, which I am typing now), all this tied us to Germany, and I always wanted its unification and saw in a united Germany the guarantee of European peace. Now I see the opposite. The Germans are imitating Napoleon I, whom they always rightly cursed! Such disappointment is truly sad for me!”
From a letter from the widow of N.I. Turgenev, received here on November 8th, I am writing down the details of his death. Two days before his death, he took his usual 2-hour horseback ride, fell ill with heartburn and demanded chalk, saying that this medicine was Russian, and when the doctor suggested replacing this medicine with milk, he remembered that it was in Moscow Usually one of his friends (my wife) is treated. A few hours before his death, he passionately talked with the doctor about the upcoming reform of public education in France. After such a conversation, the doctor reassured his eldest son by saying that in the patient he found amazing energy, fortitude and full mental abilities for an 82-year-old man. The doctor's conversation ended at 9 pm. At midnight from the 9th to the 10th of November. With. N.I. died quietly, surrounded by his own people.
Turgenev left a wife, two sons and a daughter, a girl.
D. Sverbeev.
Alexander Ivanovich
Brother of N. I. and S. I. Turgenev, a student of the Noble boarding school at Moscow University and the University of Gottingen, public figure, archaeographer and writer, director of the Department of Spiritual Affairs of Foreign Denominations, chamberlain since February 1819. Collected documents on ancient history Russia in foreign archives. Author of letters about European life 1827-1845 "Chronicle of the Russian" and diaries.
In the life of Pushkin, whom he knew since childhood, Turgenev played a prominent role. On his advice, Pushkin was assigned to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, Turgenev visited Pushkin at the Lyceum and followed his developing literary talent.
After the uprising on December 14, 1825, the trial of the participants and the conviction of N.I. Turgenev’s brother, A.I. Turgenev’s sentiments acquired an oppositional character. He breaks with some of his former friends who took part in the trial, and spends his life in constant trouble for his brother; lives abroad for years.
Pushkin and Turgenev met regularly in Moscow and had conversations about Peter I and Russian history, European affairs and Polish events of 1830 - 1831. “The History of Pugachev” was also discussed.
In 1836, Pushkin attracted Turgenev to participate in Sovremennik, where he published his foreign letters under the title “Chronicle of the Russian.” The last period of their communication (from November 26, 1836 to January 1837) was the most intense. Turgenev, recalling this period, wrote: “He somehow fell in love with me more, and I found in him a treasure of talent, observations and erudition about Russia.” Thanks to their close proximity, they constantly visited each other, but Turgenev knew nothing about the upcoming duel. After the duel, Turgenev spent many hours in the apartment of the dying poet, accompanied his body to the Svyatogorsk Monastery and described the sad events in letters to his contemporaries.
Nikolay Ivanovich
Brother of A.I. and S.I. Turgenev. A graduate of Moscow and Göttingen universities, statesman and public figure, Decembrist, one of the leaders of the Union of Welfare and a prominent member of Northern society. Economist, author of the book “An Experience in the Theory of Taxes” and other works. The main essay is “Russia and the Russians.” From 1824 he was abroad, and was sentenced in absentia to death penalty and became a political emigrant. Turgenev and his brothers knew Pushkin as children in Moscow. Personal communication began in the post-lyceum period of the poet’s life in St. Petersburg.
At the same time, there is also a known case of Pushkin’s quarrel with Turgenev, when Nikolai Ivanovich “scolded” Pushkin at home for his “latest epigrams against the government.” The poet, having lost his temper, challenged Turgenev to a duel, but then asked him for an apology in writing. In the official note "About public education“Pushkin noted Turgenev’s “political fanaticism” and at the same time his “true enlightenment and positive knowledge.”
Sergey Ivanovich
Brother of A. I. and N. I. Turgenev, a graduate of the University of Gottingen, an official of the diplomatic mission under the commander of the Russian occupation corps M. S. Vorontsov in France, second adviser to the Russian mission in Constantinople (January 1820 - September 1821); was close to the Decembrists. Most lived and died his life abroad. Turgenev knew Pushkin as a child in Moscow, communicating with his father and uncle V.L. Pushkin. In letters to Turgenev, his brothers reported about Pushkin, his literary studies And political views(1817-1826). “They write to me again about Pushkin as a developing talent,” Turgenev wrote in his diary on December 1, 1817: “Oh, let them hasten to breathe liberalism into him and instead of mourning himself, let his first song be: Freedom.”
