What did Turgenev do? Other biography options

And van Turgenev was one of the most significant Russian writers of the 19th century. The artistic system he created changed the poetics of the novel both in Russia and abroad. His works were praised and harshly criticized, and Turgenev spent his entire life searching in them for a path that would lead Russia to well-being and prosperity.

“Poet, talent, aristocrat, handsome”

Ivan Turgenev's family came from an old family of Tula nobles. His father, Sergei Turgenev, served in a cavalry regiment and led a very wasteful lifestyle. To improve his financial situation, he was forced to marry an elderly (by the standards of that time), but very wealthy landowner Varvara Lutovinova. The marriage became unhappy for both of them, their relationship did not work out. Their second son, Ivan, was born two years after the wedding, in 1818, in Orel. The mother wrote in her diary: “...on Monday my son Ivan was born, 12 inches tall [about 53 centimeters]”. There were three children in the Turgenev family: Nikolai, Ivan and Sergei.

Until the age of nine, Turgenev lived on the Spasskoye-Lutovinovo estate in the Oryol region. His mother had a difficult and contradictory character: her sincere and heartfelt care for the children was combined with severe despotism; Varvara Turgeneva often beat her sons. However, she invited the best French and German tutors to her children, spoke exclusively French to her sons, but at the same time remained a fan of Russian literature and read Nikolai Karamzin, Vasily Zhukovsky, Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol.

In 1827, the Turgenevs moved to Moscow so that their children could receive a better education. Three years later, Sergei Turgenev left the family.

When Ivan Turgenev was 15 years old, he entered the literature department of Moscow University. It was then that the future writer first fell in love with Princess Ekaterina Shakhovskaya. Shakhovskaya exchanged letters with him, but reciprocated with Turgenev’s father and thereby broke his heart. Later, this story became the basis of Turgenev’s story “First Love.”

A year later, Sergei Turgenev died, and Varvara and her children moved to St. Petersburg, where Turgenev entered the Faculty of Philosophy at St. Petersburg University. Then he became seriously interested in lyricism and wrote his first work - the dramatic poem “Steno”. Turgenev spoke of her like this: “A completely absurd work, in which, with frenzied ineptitude, a slavish imitation of Byron’s Manfred was expressed.”. In total, during his years of study, Turgenev wrote about a hundred poems and several poems. Some of his poems were published by the Sovremennik magazine.

After his studies, 20-year-old Turgenev went to Europe to continue his education. He studied ancient classics, Roman and Greek literature, traveled to France, Holland, and Italy. The European way of life amazed Turgenev: he came to the conclusion that Russia must get rid of incivility, laziness, and ignorance, following the Western countries.

Unknown artist. Ivan Turgenev at the age of 12 years. 1830. State Literary Museum

Eugene Louis Lamy. Portrait of Ivan Turgenev. 1844. State Literary Museum

Kirill Gorbunkov. Ivan Turgenev in his youth. 1838. State Literary Museum

In the 1840s, Turgenev returned to his homeland, received a master's degree in Greek and Latin philology at St. Petersburg University, and even wrote a dissertation - but did not defend it. Interest in scientific activity replaced the desire to write. It was at this time that Turgenev met Nikolai Gogol, Sergei Aksakov, Alexei Khomyakov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Afanasy Fet and many other writers.

“The other day the poet Turgenev returned from Paris. What a man! Poet, talent, aristocrat, handsome, rich, smart, educated, 25 years old - I don’t know what nature denied him?”

Fyodor Dostoevsky, from a letter to his brother

When Turgenev returned to Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, he had an affair with a peasant woman, Avdotya Ivanova, which ended in the girl’s pregnancy. Turgenev wanted to get married, but his mother sent Avdotya to Moscow with a scandal, where she gave birth to a daughter, Pelageya. Avdotya Ivanova’s parents hastily married her off, and Turgenev recognized Pelageya only a few years later.

In 1843, Turgenev’s poem “Parasha” was published under the initials T.L. (Turgenesis-Lutovinov). Vissarion Belinsky appreciated her very highly, and from that moment their acquaintance grew into a strong friendship - Turgenev even became the godfather of the critic’s son.

“This man is unusually smart... It’s gratifying to meet a person whose original and characteristic opinion, when colliding with yours, produces sparks.”

Vissarion Belinsky

In the same year, Turgenev met Polina Viardot. Researchers of Turgenev’s work are still arguing about the true nature of their relationship. They met in St. Petersburg when the singer came to the city on tour. Turgenev often traveled with Polina and her husband, art critic Louis Viardot, around Europe and stayed in their Parisian home. His illegitimate daughter Pelageya was raised in the Viardot family.

Fiction writer and playwright

In the late 1840s, Turgenev wrote a lot for the theater. His plays “The Freeloader”, “The Bachelor”, “A Month in the Country” and “Provincial Woman” were very popular with the public and warmly received by critics.

In 1847, Turgenev’s story “Khor and Kalinich” was published in the Sovremennik magazine, created under the impression of the writer’s hunting travels. A little later, stories from the collection “Notes of a Hunter” were published there. The collection itself was published in 1852. Turgenev called it his “Annibal's Oath” - a promise to fight to the end against the enemy whom he hated since childhood - serfdom.

“Notes of a Hunter” is marked by such a powerful talent that has a beneficial effect on me; understanding nature often appears to you as a revelation.”

Fedor Tyutchev

This was one of the first works that openly spoke about the troubles and harm of serfdom. The censor who allowed “Notes of a Hunter” to be published was, by personal order of Nicholas I, dismissed from service and deprived of his pension, and the collection itself was prohibited from being republished. The censors explained this by saying that Turgenev, although he poeticized the serfs, criminally exaggerated their suffering from landlord oppression.

In 1856, the writer’s first major novel, “Rudin,” was published, written in just seven weeks. The name of the hero of the novel has become a household name for people whose words do not agree with deeds. Three years later, Turgenev published the novel “The Noble Nest,” which turned out to be incredibly popular in Russia: every educated person considered it his duty to read it.

“Knowledge of Russian life, and, moreover, knowledge not from books, but from experience, taken from reality, purified and comprehended by the power of talent and reflection, appears in all of Turgenev’s works...”

Dmitry Pisarev

From 1860 to 1861, excerpts from the novel Fathers and Sons were published in the Russian Messenger. The novel was written on the “spite of the day” and explored the public mood of the time - mainly the views of nihilistic youth. Russian philosopher and publicist Nikolai Strakhov wrote about him: “In Fathers and Sons he showed more clearly than in all other cases that poetry, while remaining poetry... can actively serve society...”

The novel was well received by critics, although it did not receive the support of liberals. At this time, Turgenev's relations with many friends became complicated. For example, with Alexander Herzen: Turgenev collaborated with his newspaper “Bell”. Herzen saw the future of Russia in peasant socialism, believing that bourgeois Europe had outlived its usefulness, and Turgenev defended the idea of ​​strengthening cultural ties between Russia and the West.

Sharp criticism fell on Turgenev after the release of his novel “Smoke”. It was a novel-pamphlet that equally sharply ridiculed both the conservative Russian aristocracy and revolutionary-minded liberals. According to the author, everyone scolded him: “both red and white, and above, and below, and from the side - especially from the side.”

From “Smoke” to “Prose Poems”

Alexey Nikitin. Portrait of Ivan Turgenev. 1859. State Literary Museum

Osip Braz. Portrait of Maria Savina. 1900. State Literary Museum

Timofey Neff. Portrait of Pauline Viardot. 1842. State Literary Museum

After 1871, Turgenev lived in Paris, occasionally returning to Russia. He actively participated in the cultural life of Western Europe and promoted Russian literature abroad. Turgenev communicated and corresponded with Charles Dickens, George Sand, Victor Hugo, Prosper Merimee, Guy de Maupassant, and Gustave Flaubert.

In the second half of the 1870s, Turgenev published his most ambitious novel, Nov, in which he sharply satirically and critically portrayed members of the revolutionary movement of the 1870s.

“Both novels [“Smoke” and “Nov”] only revealed his increasing alienation from Russia, the first with its impotent bitterness, the second with insufficient information and the absence of any sense of reality in the depiction of the powerful movement of the seventies.”

Dmitry Svyatopolk-Mirsky

This novel, like “Smoke,” was not accepted by Turgenev’s colleagues. For example, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote that Nov was a service to the autocracy. At the same time, the popularity of Turgenev’s early stories and novels did not decrease.

The last years of the writer’s life became his triumph both in Russia and abroad. Then a cycle of lyrical miniatures “Poems in Prose” appeared. The book opened with the prose poem “Village”, and ended with “Russian Language” - the famous hymn about faith in the great destiny of one’s country: “In days of doubt, in days of painful thoughts about the fate of my homeland, you alone are my support and support, oh great, powerful, truthful and free Russian language!.. Without you, how not to fall into despair at the sight of everything that is happening at home . But one cannot believe that such a language was not given to a great people!” This collection became Turgenev's farewell to life and art.

At the same time, Turgenev met his last love - actress of the Alexandrinsky Theater Maria Savina. She was 25 years old when she played the role of Verochka in Turgenev's play A Month in the Country. Seeing her on stage, Turgenev was amazed and openly confessed his feelings to the girl. Maria considered Turgenev more of a friend and mentor, and their marriage never took place.

In recent years, Turgenev was seriously ill. Parisian doctors diagnosed him with angina pectoris and intercostal neuralgia. Turgenev died on September 3, 1883 in Bougival near Paris, where magnificent farewells were held. The writer was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovskoye cemetery. The writer's death came as a shock to his fans - and the procession of people who came to say goodbye to Turgenev stretched for several kilometers.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born into a noble family on October 28, 1818. The writer's father served in a cavalry regiment and led a rather wild life. Because of his carelessness, and in order to improve his financial situation, he took Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova as his wife. She was very wealthy and came from the nobility.

Childhood

The future writer had two brothers. He himself was average, but became my mother's favorite.

The father died early and the mother raised his sons. Her character was domineering and despotic. In her childhood, she suffered from beatings from her stepfather and went to live with her uncle, who after his death left her a decent dowry. Despite her difficult character, Varvara Petrovna constantly took care of her children. To give them a good education, she moved from the Oryol province to Moscow. It was she who taught her sons to art, read the works of her contemporaries, and thanks to good teachers gave the children an education, which was useful to them in the future.

Writer's creativity

At the university, the writer studied literature from the age of 15, but due to his relatives moving from Moscow, he transferred to the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg University.

Ivan already from a young age I saw myself as a writer and planned to connect his life with literature. During his student years, he communicated with T.N. Granovsky, a famous historian. He wrote his first poems while studying in his third year, and four years later he was already published in the Sovremennik magazine.

In 1938 Turgenev moves to Germany where he studies the work of Roman and then Greek philosophers. It was there that he met the Russian literary genius N.V. Stankevich, whose work had a great influence on Turgenev.

In 1841, Ivan Sergeevich returned to his homeland. At this time, the desire to engage in science cooled down, and creativity began to take up all my time. Two years later, Ivan Sergeevich wrote the poem “Parasha”, about which Belinsky left a positive review in “Notes of the Fatherland”. From that moment on, a strong friendship began between Turgenev and Belinsky, which lasted for a long time.

Works

The French Revolution made a strong impression on the writer, changing his worldview. The attacks and killings of people prompted the writer to write dramatic works. Turgenev spent a lot of time away from his homeland, but love for Russia always remained in the soul of Ivan Sergeevich and his creations.

• Bezhin meadow;
• Noble Nest;
• Fathers and Sons;
• Mu Mu.

Personal life

Personal life is replete with novels, but officially Turgenev never married.

The writer's biography includes a huge number of hobbies, but the most serious was romance with Pauline Viardot. She was a famous singer and the wife of a theater director in Paris. After meeting the Viardot couple, Turgenev lived in their villa for a long time and even settled his illegitimate daughter there. The complex relationship between Ivan and Polina is still not indicated in any way.

The love of the writer’s last days was actress Maria Savina, who very brightly played Verochka in the production of “A Month in the Country”. But on the part of the actress there was sincere friendship, but not love feelings.

last years of life

Turgenev gained particular popularity in the last years of his life. He was a favorite both at home and in Europe. The developing disease gout prevented the writer from working at full capacity. In recent years he lived in Paris in the winter and in the summer at the Viardot estate in Bougival.

The writer had a presentiment of his imminent death and tried with all his might to fight the disease. But on August 22, 1883, the life of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was cut short. The cause was a malignant tumor of the spine. Despite the fact that the writer died in Bougival, he was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovsky cemetery, according to his last will. There were about four hundred people at the farewell funeral service in France alone. In Russia there was also a farewell ceremony for Turgenev, which was also attended by a lot of people.

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Two days before his death, he dictated a story in French. He died of a serious illness at the age of 65 in Paris. He was buried in St. Petersburg, as was his will.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev wrote six novels, several dozen stories, short stories, plays and many poems. He created unique images of women on paper, thanks to which everyone knows who Turgenev’s girl is. But he himself was never married, although he had an illegitimate daughter and several unsuccessful novels. Because all his life he adored only one woman - opera diva Polina Viardot. In his works, a happy ending rarely happens; the last chord is more often sad.

The writer was popular in Europe and respected at home. He fell into the category of classics during his lifetime. He was called a brilliant novelist, and the great George Sand considered him her teacher. He translated almost all the works of Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy for French, German and Italian readers.

Hunting was his only passion; he traveled hundreds of thousands of kilometers with a gun, not only across Russia, but also across France, Germany and England. At the end of his life, he repented of the countless number of partridges, ducks, woodcocks and black grouse he had killed.

From the noble class, he received a decent inheritance and had more than twenty thousand rubles a year in income from land alone. His fees were significant. He also received a significant bonus from the publication of novels.

Spanked for no reason

Cavalry guard Sergei Turgenev was completely ruined, and he had to marry for convenience. His chosen one was the wealthy noblewoman Varvara Lutovinova, who had a very imperious disposition. In 1816 they got married. The stately, handsome 26-year-old man and the 30-year-old unattractive owner of a large estate in the Oryol province for five thousand souls were not happy.

In the same year, their son Nikolai was born, and two years later - Ivan.

The marriage did not bring happiness to Sergei Nikolaevich, but it helped improve his affairs. He willingly worked with his sons, and they found protection from his mother, who mercilessly flogged both of them for any reason. Little Ivan even tried to run away from home, not understanding why he was being whipped. Her father also could not stand her and after 14 years he ran away from her. His life was cut short at the age of 41, and the children were left entirely in the care of their unbalanced mother.

We must give her credit: she was educated and prescribed French and German tutors for her sons. They were taught literacy, languages, and mathematics. There was a large library in the house and my mother regularly updated it with new items.

When Ivan was nine years old, the family moved to Moscow. The boy entered the boarding school. He became a student at Moscow University at the age of 15. Belinsky studied in the senior courses, with whom they will communicate throughout their lives.

At this age he falls in love for the first time. She is the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya Katenka. The matter is complicated by the fact that at the same time his father was also attracted to her. As a mature writer, Turgenev will remember this story: in the heroine of the story “First Love” the features of Katenka will be clearly visible.

A year later, he and his mother moved to St. Petersburg, where Nikolai, the writer’s older brother, was waiting for them. He entered the artillery school. Ivan chooses the Faculty of Philosophy at St. Petersburg University. The period of study is significant for him; he meets Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Koltsov and a little later Lermontov. The poems that Turgenev writes in his third year are written under the influence of their work. By the end of their studies, two of them were published in the Sovremennik magazine. Turgenev had a dream of becoming a poet since childhood.

He longs to get away from his mother's care. After graduating from university, the 20-year-old boy moves to Germany. At the University of Berlin he attends lectures, studies Roman and Greek literature, learns ancient languages ​​in order to read ancient classics in the original.

He is strongly impressed by European culture. From that time on, he became convinced that Russia was in darkness, in serfdom, and only culture could rescue her from this state. He travels a lot around Europe. Only three years later he returns to the estate.

Here he falls in love with the girl Dunyasha. Passion flares up and ends in pregnancy. The mother creates a scandal and sends Avdotya to Moscow, where her daughter Pelageya is born. And Ivan’s thirst for science suddenly awakens. He leaves for St. Petersburg, where he takes the exam for a master's degree in philology and writes a dissertation.

At the same time, a muse visits him and for 25 years he creates the poem “Parasha”, which is published with a friendly review from Belinsky. From this time on, the friendship of the two famous people began. At the same time, he wrote the poem “Foggy Morning,” which is better known as a romance.

A year later, Turgenev takes up prose, gets carried away, abandons his dissertation and completely immerses himself in a new genre for him. The stories “Breter” and “Three Portraits” are published. In the first, critics find the influence of Lermontov, in the second - the original motives of the author himself. He told in “Three Portraits” the history of the Lutovinov generations and it becomes clear why mother has such an intolerable character.

Abroad will help us

The writer became famous for his stories about hunting - his only passion, which he retained until the end of his days. Without her, there would be no “Notes of a Hunter.” The chapters of this story were published in 1847 by the Sovremennik magazine.

Turgenev writes a lot, including for the theater. His dramas are published, and his theatrical premieres are favorably received by the public. Many images are inspired by Shakespeare and Byron, whose plays Ivan Sergeevich translates.

He often goes abroad: his acquaintance with Pauline Viardot has long grown from the epistolary genre to love.

Having met her at the St. Petersburg opera, he fell in love immediately and forever. He is 25, she is only 22 years old and she is married to the forty-year-old composer and director of the Italian theater in Paris, Louis. This acquaintance will forever connect Turgenev with the Viardot family. He will constantly confess his feelings to her, and she will see him only as a friend. So in 1850, he did not have time for his mother’s funeral, when he once again visited Viardot’s house in Paris.

Varvara Petrovna never justified this relationship, even depriving her son of all financial support. But now he and his brother shared the inheritance: the estate and the house on Ostozhenka Street passed to him. The Turgenev Museum is located in a Moscow mansion. By the way, it was in this house that the events that he transferred to the story “Mumu” ​​took place.

When he was 32 years old, Gogol died. His work was close to Ivan Sergeevich. They met one day abroad. He felt the loss heartily and wrote an obituary. Its publication in the newspaper displeased the censors. Turgenev spoke about him with more sympathy than the state would like. This was the first serious clash with the system, which already had a grudge against the writer for his radical views, protection of serfs from tyranny, and friendship with revolutionaries.

He feared that his “Notes of a Hunter” would never be published as a separate publication due to the close attention to him from censorship. But they are missed. True, the mistake was immediately identified and, by order of the Tsar, the censor was deprived of his position. Two years later, this work will be published in French in Paris, but the author will not be satisfied with the quality of the translation.

After the death of the sovereign, all the novels of Ivan Turgenev will be published as they are written. His fees were considered the highest among writers.

But the writer has not turned to dramaturgy for more than ten years. He considered the productions of his plays unconvincing, and the critics did not say a single kind word in his defense.

He will return to the theater only once, when his Polina needs operetta librettos to stage on her own small stage while they live together in Germany. Europeans, by the way, appreciated his talent as a playwright; his plays were performed in many theaters.

For ten years the writer will live abroad, communicate with European authors: Maupassant, Flaubert, Hugo.

At one time, bachelor “dinners of five” were held in restaurants in Paris. This is what the great French authors Flaubert, Zola, Turgenev and others called their meetings. Once a month they met to discuss various literary topics and talk about the future.

In Europe, plans to write the novel “Smoke” appear. This is a story about the writer’s contemporaries, but it takes place in one of the German resorts where Russian aristocrats vacation. He writes a novel for two years and receives a book as a gift for his fiftieth birthday.

Ten years later, his most voluminous and last novel is published. “New” was written after the abolition of serfdom, the novel again immerses readers in the atmosphere of revolutionary sentiments, but now there is less nobility in the heroes, more despondency - nothing is changing in the country, the government is stupid, the people are poor.

The writer's creativity and contribution to English literature were appreciated at Oxford. The famous university of England declares him an honorary doctor - a title that has not been awarded to any writer in the world.

Family saga

Turgenev met his eight-year-old daughter when he once again came to the estate. The girl was thin and poorly dressed. Avdotya did not deny that Pelageya was his daughter. He was confused, in an emotional outburst he writes a heartbreaking letter to Pauline Viardot and asks for advice. Polina asks to bring the girl to France so that she can be raised in their family. She had just given birth to her fourth child - son Paul - and was not thinking about touring.

He changed her daughter's name to something more harmonious for the French - Polinette. She lived with Viardot until she was 14 years old. I almost forgot Russian. When Turgenev arrived after a six-year separation from her, he saw a negative relationship between his daughter and his lover. He sent her to boarding until his next arrival. Then they lived together in Paris and the girl had governesses.

She married a Frenchman at age 17. He was an entrepreneur, six years older than her, but Turgenev liked him and gave his consent. Polynet received a rich dowry. But she was not happy for long. Her husband went broke, started drinking, and she had no choice but to take her daughter Jeanne and son Georges and leave. For a long time they lived in Switzerland and Turgenev always helped them. He even offered to sell the estate so that his daughter and grandchildren would not need anything, but he did not have time.

After his death, his only and adored Polina turned out to be his heir.

The daughter received nothing from her father's fortune. She tried to restore justice through the court, but was unable to challenge the writer’s will. She lived in poverty, earning money by tutoring. She died in Paris at the age of 77. The cause of death was cancer.

The writer's grandson will die in 1924, and his granddaughter will live until she is eighty. None of Polynet's children will have heirs. So the Turgenev family was interrupted.

Pauline Viardot will bury her husband Louis and friend Ivan in one year. She will live for more than 20 years and become famous as a talented teacher.

Burned out in three years

Turgenev was 62 years old when he was invited to the opening of the monument to Pushkin. His stay in Russia was a triumph. The capital's salons opened their doors for him, noble barkers for dinners. But he preferred to go to Yasnaya Polyana to hunt game with Lev Nikolaevich for the last time. He was already feeling unwell, about which he complained to his friend. Tolstoy advised not to pay attention, they walked, talked, made plans.

Before leaving for Paris, Ivan Sergeevich stopped by the estate, gave some orders and promised to return soon.

In France, he continued to work: he was preparing for publication the cycle “Poems in Prose”, the last chord of which he put “Russian Language” - a declaration of love to his homeland.

He felt very bad and went to Viardot. Doctors diagnosed angina pectoris and even performed surgery. But nothing helped - for several months the writer suffered from pain and took morphine. He died in the late summer of 1883. After an autopsy, it was determined that the cause of death was cancer of the bones of the spine.

The funeral brought together all the famous writers and writers of that time, and ordinary readers also came to say goodbye.

Newspapers were full of articles about the Russian writer, his significance in world literature, realistic pictures of the social life of Russia, and simply and deeply structured thoughts. Through his prose, contemporaries better understood what was happening in the country. The concept of “nihilism” he invented is still in use. He was always on the side of the peasants, felt their moods and advocated the education of society. Several feature films have been made based on his works.

Brief biography of Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a Russian realist writer of the 19th century, poet, translator and corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Turgenev was born on October 28 (November 9), 1818 in the city of Orel into a noble family. The writer's father was a retired officer, and his mother was a hereditary noblewoman. Turgenev spent his childhood on a family estate, where he had personal teachers, tutors, and serf nannies. In 1827, the Turgenev family moved to Moscow in order to give their children a decent education. There he studied at a boarding school, then studied with private teachers. Since childhood, the writer spoke several foreign languages, including English, French and German.

In 1833, Ivan entered Moscow University, and a year later he transferred to St. Petersburg to the literature department. In 1838 he went to Berlin to lecture in classical philology. There he met Bakunin and Stankevich, meetings with whom were of great importance for the writer. During the two years he spent abroad, he managed to visit France, Italy, Germany and Holland. The return to their homeland took place in 1841. At the same time, he begins to actively attend literary circles, where he meets Gogol, Herzen, Aksakov, etc.

In 1843, Turgenev entered service in the office of the Minister of Internal Affairs. In the same year, he met Belinsky, who had a significant influence on the formation of the literary and social views of the young writer. In 1846, Turgenev wrote several works: “Briter”, “Three Portraits”, “Freeloader”, “Provincial Woman”, etc. In 1852, one of the writer’s best stories, “Mumu,” appeared. The story was written while serving exile in Spassky-Lutovinovo. In 1852, “Notes of a Hunter” appeared, and after the death of Nicholas I, 4 of Turgenev’s largest works were published: “On the Eve”, “Rudin”, “Fathers and Sons”, “The Noble Nest”.

Turgenev gravitated towards the circle of Westernized writers. In 1863, together with the Viardot family, he left for Baden-Baden, where he actively participated in cultural life and made acquaintances with the best writers of Western Europe. Among them were Dickens, George Sand, Prosper Merimee, Thackeray, Victor Hugo and many others. Soon he became the editor of foreign translators of Russian writers. In 1878 he was appointed vice-president of the international congress of literature held in Paris. The following year, Turgenev was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. Living abroad, his soul was still drawn to his homeland, which was reflected in the novel “Smoke” (1867). The largest in volume was his novel “New” (1877). I. S. Turgenev died near Paris on August 22 (September 3), 1883. The writer was buried according to his will in St. Petersburg.

Video of a short biography of Ivan Turgenev

Years of life: from 10/28/1818 to 08/22/1883

Russian prose writer, poet, playwright, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences. A master of language and psychological analysis, Turgenev had a significant influence on the development of Russian and world literature.

Ivan Sergeevich was born in Orel. His father came from an old noble family, was extremely handsome, and had the rank of retired colonel. The writer’s mother was the opposite - not very attractive, far from young, but very rich. On the father’s side, it was a typical arranged marriage, and the family life of Turgenev’s parents can hardly be called happy. Turgenev spent the first 9 years of his life on the family estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo. In 1827, the Turgenevs settled in Moscow to educate their children; They bought a house on Samotek. Turgenev first studied at the Weidenhammer boarding school; then he was sent as a boarder to the director of the Lazarevsky Institute, Krause. In 1833, 15-year-old Turgenev entered the literature department of Moscow University. A year later, due to his older brother joining the Guards Artillery, the family moved to St. Petersburg, and Turgenev then moved to St. Petersburg University. At St. Petersburg University, Turgenev met P. A. Pletnev, to whom he showed some of his poetic experiments, which by that time had already accumulated quite a lot. Pletnev, not without criticism, but approved of Turgenev’s work, and two poems were even published in Sovremennik.

In 1836, Turgenev graduated from the course with the degree of a full student. Dreaming of scientific activity, the following year he again took the final exam, received a candidate's degree, and in 1838 he went to Germany. Having settled in Berlin, Ivan took up his studies. While listening to lectures on the history of Roman and Greek literature at the university, he studied the grammar of ancient Greek and Latin at home. The writer returned to Russia only in 1841, and in 1842 he passed the exam for a master's degree in philosophy at St. Petersburg University. To obtain his degree, Ivan Sergeevich had only to write a dissertation, but by that time he had already lost interest in scientific activity, devoting more and more time to literature. In 1843, Turgenev, at the insistence of his mother, entered the civil service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, however, without serving even two years, he resigned. In the same year, Turgenev's first major work appeared in print - the poem "Parasha", which earned high praise from Belinsky (with whom Turgenev later became very friendly). Significant events also occur in the writer’s personal life. After a series of youthful loves, he became seriously interested in the seamstress Dunyasha, who in 1842 gave birth to his daughter. And in 1843, Turgenev met the singer Polina Viardot, whose love the writer carried throughout his life. Viardot was married by that time, and her relationship with Turgenev was rather strange.

By this time, the writer’s mother, irritated by his inability to serve and his incomprehensible personal life, completely deprives Turgenev of material support, the writer lives in debt and from hand to mouth, while maintaining the appearance of well-being. At the same time, since 1845, Turgenev has been wandering all over Europe, either following Viardot or with her and her husband. In 1848, the writer witnessed the French Revolution, during his travels he became closely acquainted with Herzen, George Sand, P. Merimee, and in Russia maintained relations with Nekrasov, Fet, Gogol. Meanwhile, a significant turning point occurred in Turgenev’s work: from 1846 he turned to prose, and from 1847 he wrote practically not a single poem. Moreover, later, when compiling his collected works, the writer completely excluded poetic works from it. The writer’s main work during this period was the stories and novellas that made up “Notes of a Hunter.” Published as a separate book in 1852, Notes of a Hunter attracted the attention of both readers and critics. Also in 1852, Turgenev wrote an obituary for the death of Gogol. St. Petersburg censorship banned the obituary, then Turgenev sent it to Moscow, where the obituary was published in Moskovskie Vedomosti. For this, Turgenev was sent to the village, where he lived for two years, until (mainly through the efforts of Count Alexei Tolstoy) he received permission to return to the capital.

In 1856, Turgenev’s first novel “Rudin” was published and from this year the writer again began to live for a long time in Europe, returning to Russia only occasionally (fortunately, by this time Turgenev had received a significant inheritance after the death of his mother). After the publication of the novel “On the Eve” (1860) and N. A. Dobrolyubov’s article dedicated to the novel, “When will the real day come?” Turgenev breaks up with Sovremennik (in particular, with N.A. Nekrasov; their mutual hostility persisted until the end). The conflict with the “younger generation” was aggravated by the novel “Fathers and Sons.” In the summer of 1861 there was a quarrel with L.N. Tolstoy, which almost turned into a duel (reconciliation in 1878). In the early 60s, relations between Turgenev and Viardot improved again; until 1871 they lived in Baden, then (at the end of the Franco-Prussian War) in Paris. Turgenev is closely associated with G. Flaubert and, through him, with E. and J. Goncourt, A. Daudet, E. Zola, G. de Maupassant. His pan-European fame is growing: in 1878, at the international literary congress in Paris, the writer was elected vice-president; in 1879 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford. In his later years, Turgenev wrote his famous “poems in prose,” which presented almost all the motifs of his work. In the early 80s, the writer was diagnosed with spinal cord cancer (sarcoma) and in 1883, after a long and painful illness, Turgenev died.

Information about the works:

Regarding the obituary on Gogol’s death, the chairman of the St. Petersburg Censorship Committee, Musin-Pushkin, spoke as follows: “It is criminal to speak so enthusiastically about such a writer.”

The shortest work in the history of Russian literature belongs to Ivan Turgenev. His prose poem “Russian Language” consists of only three sentences

Ivan Turgenev's brain, as the physiologically largest one measured in the world (2012 grams), is included in the Guinness Book of Records.

The writer's body, according to his wishes, was brought to St. Petersburg and buried at the Volkovsky cemetery. The funeral took place in front of a huge crowd of people and resulted in a mass procession.

Bibliography

Novels and stories
Andrey Kolosov (1844)
Three Portraits (1845)
Jew (1846)
Breter (1847)
Petushkov (1848)
Diary of an Extra Man (1849)