Biography of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. Ivan Turgenev: biography, life path and creativity

aliases: .....въ; -e-; I.S.T.; I.T.; L.; Nedobobov, Jeremiah; T.; T…; T.L.; T......v; ***

Russian realist writer, poet, publicist, playwright, translator, one of the classics of Russian literature

Ivan Turgenev

short biography

Outstanding Russian writer, classic of world literature, poet, publicist, memoirist, critic, playwright, translator, corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences - born on November 9 (October 28, old style) 1818 in the city of Orel. His father, Sergei Nikolaevich, was a retired officer, his mother Varvara Petrovna was a representative of a wealthy noble family. It was on her estate in the village of Spasskoye-Lutovinovo that Ivan Turgenev spent his childhood years.

There he received his primary education, and in order for it to be continued in a dignified manner, in 1827 the Turgenev family bought a house in Moscow and moved there. Then the parents went abroad, and Ivan was brought up in a boarding school - first at Weidenhammer, later at Krause. In 1833, young Turgenev became a student at Moscow State University, Faculty of Literature. After his older brother joined the Guards Artillery, the Turgenevs moved to St. Petersburg and to the local university, but Ivan was also transferred to the Faculty of Philosophy, graduating in 1837.

His debut in the literary field dates back to the same period of his biography. His first attempts at writing were several lyrical poems written in 1834 and the dramatic poem “Wall”. P.A. Pletnev, a professor of literature and his teacher, noticed the germs of undoubted talent. By 1837, the number of short poems written by Turgenev approached one hundred. In 1838, Turgenev’s poems “Evening” and “To the Venus of Medicine” were published in the Sovremennik magazine, edited after the death of Pushkin by P. A. Pletnev.

To become an even more educated person, the future writer in the spring of 1838 went to Germany, to Berlin, and attended university lectures on Greek and Roman literature. Returning briefly to Russia in 1839, he left it again in 1840, living in Germany, Austria, and Italy. Turgenev returned to his estate in 1841, and the following year he petitioned Moscow University to be allowed to take the exam for the degree of Master of Philosophy.

In 1843, Turgenev became an official in the ministerial office, but his ambitious impulses quickly cooled down and interest in the service was quickly lost. The poem “Parasha” published in the same 1843 and its approval by V. Belinsky led Turgenev to the decision to devote all his energies to literature. The same year was also significant for Turgenev’s biography due to his acquaintance with Pauline Viardot, an outstanding French singer who came to St. Petersburg on tour. Having seen her at the opera house, the writer was introduced to her on November 1, 1843, but then she did not pay much attention to the still little-known writer. After the end of the tour, Turgenev, despite his mother’s disapproval, went with the Viardots to Paris, since then for several years accompanying them on tours abroad.

In 1846, Ivan Sergeevich took an active part in updating the Sovremennik magazine, Nekrasov became his best friend. During 1850-1852. Russia and abroad alternately become Turgenev’s place of residence. Published in 1852, a series of short stories, united under the title “Notes of a Hunter,” was written mainly in Germany and made Turgenev a world-famous writer; in addition, the book largely influenced the further development of national literature. In the next decade, the most significant works in Turgenev’s creative heritage were published: “Rudin”, “The Noble Nest”, “On the Eve”, “Fathers and Sons”. The break with Sovremennik and Nekrasov due to Dobrolyubov’s article “When will the real day come?” dates back to this same period. with impartial criticism of Turgenev and his novel “On the Eve”. Having given Nekrasov an ultimatum as a publisher, Turgenev turned out to be a loser.

In the early 60s. Turgenev moves to live in Baden-Baden and becomes an active participant in Western European cultural life. He corresponds or maintains relationships with many celebrities, for example Charles Dickenson, Thackeray, T. Gautier, Anatole France, Maupassant, George Sand, Victor Hugo, and turns into a promoter of Russian literature abroad. On the other hand, thanks to him, Western authors become closer to his reading compatriots. In 1874 (by this time Turgenev had moved to Paris), he, together with Zola, Daudet, Flaubert, Edmond Goncourt, organized the famous “bachelor dinners of five” in the capital's restaurants. For some period, Ivan Sergeevich turns into the most famous, popular and widely read Russian writer on the European continent. The International Literary Congress, held in Paris in 1878, elected him vice-president, and since 1877 Turgenev has been an honorary doctor of the University of Oxford.

Living outside of Russia did not mean that Turgenev moved away from her life and problems. The novel “Smoke,” written in 1867, caused a huge resonance in its homeland; the novel was subjected to fierce criticism from parties occupying opposite positions. In 1877, the largest novel in terms of volume, Nov, was published, summing up the writer’s reflections of the 70s.

In the spring of 1882, a serious illness, which became fatal for Turgenev, appeared for the first time. When physical suffering subsided, Turgenev continued to compose; literally a few months before his death, the first part of his “Poems in Prose” was published. Myxosarcoma claimed the life of the great writer on September 3 (August 22, O.S.), 1883. Relatives carried out the will of Turgenev, who died near Paris in the town of Bougival, and transported his body to St. Petersburg, to the Volkovo cemetery. The classic was accompanied on his final journey by a considerable number of admirers of his talent.

Biography from Wikipedia

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev(November 9, 1818, Orel, Russian Empire - September 3, 1883, Bougival, France) - Russian realist writer, poet, publicist, playwright, translator. One of the classics of Russian literature who made the most significant contribution to its development in the second half of the 19th century. Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of Russian language and literature (1860), honorary doctor of Oxford University (1879), honorary member of Moscow University (1880).

The artistic system he created influenced the poetics of not only Russian, but also Western European novels of the second half of the 19th century. Ivan Turgenev was the first in Russian literature to begin to study the personality of the “new man” - the sixties, his moral qualities and psychological characteristics, thanks to him the term “nihilist” began to be widely used in the Russian language. He was a promoter of Russian literature and drama in the West.

The study of the works of I. S. Turgenev is a mandatory part of general education school programs in Russia. The most famous works are the cycle of stories “Notes of a Hunter”, the story “Mumu”, the story “Asya”, the novels “The Noble Nest”, “Fathers and Sons”.

Origin and early years

The family of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev came from an ancient family of Tula nobles, the Turgenevs. In a memorial book, the mother of the future writer wrote: “ On Monday, October 28, 1818, a son, Ivan, 12 inches tall, was born in Orel, in his home, at 12 o’clock in the morning. Baptized on the 4th of November, Feodor Semenovich Uvarov with his sister Fedosya Nikolaevna Teplova».

Ivan's father Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev (1793-1834) served at that time in a cavalry regiment. The carefree lifestyle of the handsome cavalry guard upset his finances, and to improve his position, in 1816 he entered into a marriage of convenience with the very wealthy Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova (1787-1850). In 1821, my father retired with the rank of colonel of a cuirassier regiment. Ivan was the second son in the family. The mother of the future writer, Varvara Petrovna, came from a wealthy noble family. Her marriage to Sergei Nikolaevich was not happy. In 1830, the father left the family and died in 1834, leaving three sons - Nikolai, Ivan and Sergei, who died early from epilepsy. The mother was a domineering and despotic woman. She herself lost her father at an early age, suffered from the cruel attitude of her mother (whom her grandson later portrayed as an old woman in the essay “Death”), and from a violent, drinking stepfather, who often beat her. Due to constant beatings and humiliation, she later moved in with her uncle, after whose death she became the owner of a magnificent estate and 5,000 souls.

Varvara Petrovna was a difficult woman. Feudal habits coexisted in her with being well-read and educated; she combined concern for raising children with family despotism. Ivan was also subjected to maternal beatings, despite the fact that he was considered her beloved son. The boy was taught literacy by frequently changing French and German tutors. In Varvara Petrovna’s family, everyone spoke exclusively French to each other, even prayers in the house were said in French. She traveled widely and was an enlightened woman who read a lot, but also mainly in French. But her native language and literature were not alien to her: she herself had excellent, figurative Russian speech, and Sergei Nikolaevich demanded that the children write letters to him in Russian during their father’s absences. The Turgenev family maintained connections with V. A. Zhukovsky and M. N. Zagoskin. Varvara Petrovna followed the latest literature, was well informed about the works of N. M. Karamzin, V. A. Zhukovsky, A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov and N. V. Gogol, whom she readily quoted in letters to her son.

A love of Russian literature was also instilled in young Turgenev by one of the serf valets (who later became the prototype of Punin in the story “Punin and Baburin”). Until he was nine years old, Ivan Turgenev lived on his mother’s hereditary estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, 10 km from Mtsensk, Oryol province. In 1822, the Turgenev family made a trip to Europe, during which four-year-old Ivan almost died in Bern, falling from the railing of a moat with bears (Berengraben); His father saved him by catching him by the leg. In 1827, the Turgenevs, in order to give their children an education, settled in Moscow, buying a house on Samotek. The future writer studied first at the Weidenhammer boarding school, then at the boarding school of the director of the Lazarevsky Institute, I. F. Krause.

Education. Beginning of literary activity

In 1833, at the age of 15, Turgenev entered the literature department of Moscow University. At the same time, A. I. Herzen and V. G. Belinsky studied here. A year later, after Ivan’s older brother joined the Guards Artillery, the family moved to St. Petersburg, where Ivan Turgenev transferred to the Faculty of Philosophy at St. Petersburg University. At the university, T. N. Granovsky, the future famous scientist-historian of the Western school, became his friend.

Ivan Turgenev in his youth. Drawing by K. A. Gorbunov, 1838

At first, Turgenev wanted to become a poet. In 1834, as a third-year student, he wrote the dramatic poem “Stheno” in iambic pentameter. The young author showed these samples of writing to his teacher, professor of Russian literature P. A. Pletnev. During one of his lectures, Pletnev quite strictly analyzed this poem, without revealing its authorship, but at the same time also admitted that there was “something in the author.” These words prompted the young poet to write a number of more poems, two of which Pletnev published in 1838 in the Sovremennik magazine, of which he was the editor. They were published under the signature “…..въ”. The debut poems were “Evening” and “To the Venus of Medicine”.

Turgenev's first publication appeared in 1836 - in the Journal of the Ministry of Public Education, he published a detailed review of A. N. Muravyov's “On a Journey to Holy Places.” By 1837, he had already written about a hundred short poems and several poems (the unfinished “The Old Man’s Tale,” “Calm on the Sea,” “Phantasmagoria on a Moonlit Night,” “Dream”).

After graduation. Abroad.

In 1836, Turgenev graduated from the university with the degree of a full student. Dreaming of scientific activity, the following year he passed the final exam and received a candidate's degree. In 1838 he went to Germany, where he settled in Berlin and took up his studies seriously. At the University of Berlin he attended lectures on the history of Roman and Greek literature, and at home he studied the grammar of ancient Greek and Latin. Knowledge of ancient languages ​​allowed him to read the ancient classics fluently. During his studies, he became friends with the Russian writer and thinker N.V. Stankevich, who had a noticeable influence on him. Turgenev attended lectures by the Hegelians and became interested in German idealism with its teaching about world development, about the “absolute spirit” and about the high calling of the philosopher and poet. In general, the entire way of Western European life made a strong impression on Turgenev. The young student came to the conclusion that only the assimilation of the basic principles of universal human culture can lead Russia out of the darkness in which it is immersed. In this sense, he became a convinced “Westerner.”

In the 1830-1850s, an extensive circle of literary acquaintances of the writer was formed. Back in 1837, there were fleeting meetings with A.S. Pushkin. At the same time, Turgenev met V. A. Zhukovsky, A. V. Nikitenko, A. V. Koltsov, and a little later - with M. Yu. Lermontov. Turgenev had only a few meetings with Lermontov, which did not lead to a close acquaintance, but Lermontov’s work had a certain influence on him. He tried to master the rhythm and stanza, stylistics and syntactic features of Lermontov's poetry. Thus, the poem “The Old Landowner” (1841) is in some places close in form to Lermontov’s “Testament,” and in “The Ballad” (1841) the influence of “Song about the Merchant Kalashnikov” is felt. But the most tangible connection with Lermontov’s work is in the poem “Confession” (1845), the accusatory pathos of which brings it closer to Lermontov’s poem “Duma.”

In May 1839, the old house in Spassky burned down, and Turgenev returned to his homeland, but already in 1840 he went abroad again, visiting Germany, Italy and Austria. Impressed by his meeting with a girl in Frankfurt am Main, Turgenev later wrote the story “Spring Waters.” In 1841, Ivan returned to Lutovinovo.

Turgenev's poems prominently featured in a famous magazine, 1843, No. 9

At the beginning of 1842, he submitted a request to Moscow University for admission to the exam for the degree of Master of Philosophy, but at that time there was no full-time professor of philosophy at the university, and his request was rejected. Unable to find a job in Moscow, Turgenev satisfactorily passed the exam for a master's degree in Greek and Latin philology in Latin at St. Petersburg University and wrote a dissertation for the literature department. But by this time, the craving for scientific activity had cooled, and literary creativity began to attract more and more. Having refused to defend his dissertation, he served until 1844 with the rank of collegiate secretary in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In 1843, Turgenev wrote the poem “Parasha”. Not really hoping for a positive review, he nevertheless took the copy to V.G. Belinsky. Belinsky praised Parasha, publishing his review in Otechestvennye zapiski two months later. From that time on, their acquaintance began, which later grew into a strong friendship; Turgenev was even godfather to Belinsky’s son, Vladimir. The poem was published in the spring of 1843 as a separate book under the initials “T. L." (Turgenev-Lutovinov). In the 1840s, in addition to Pletnev and Belinsky, Turgenev met with A. A. Fet.

In November 1843, Turgenev created the poem “On the Road (Foggy Morning),” set to music over the years by several composers, including A.F. Gedicke and G.L. Catoire. The most famous, however, is the romance version, originally published under the signature “Music of Abaza”; its affiliation with V.V. Abaza, E.A. Abaza or Yu.F. Abaza has not been definitively established. After its publication, the poem was perceived as a reflection of Turgenev's love for Pauline Viardot, whom he met at this time.

In 1844, the poem “Pop” was written, which the writer himself characterized rather as fun, devoid of any “deep and significant ideas.” Nevertheless, the poem attracted public interest for its anti-clerical nature. The poem was truncated by Russian censorship, but was published in its entirety abroad.

In 1846, the stories “Breter” and “Three Portraits” were published. In “The Breter,” which became Turgenev’s second story, the writer tried to imagine the struggle between Lermontov’s influence and the desire to discredit posturing. The plot for his third story, “Three Portraits,” was drawn from the Lutovinov family chronicle.

Creativity flourishes

Since 1847, Ivan Turgenev participated in the transformed Sovremennik, where he became close to N. A. Nekrasov and P. V. Annenkov. The magazine published his first feuilleton, “Modern Notes,” and began publishing the first chapters of “Notes of a Hunter.” In the very first issue of Sovremennik, the story “Khor and Kalinich” was published, which opened countless editions of the famous book. The subtitle “From the Notes of a Hunter” was added by editor I. I. Panaev to attract the attention of readers to the story. The success of the story turned out to be enormous, and this gave Turgenev the idea of ​​writing a number of others of the same kind. According to Turgenev, “Notes of a Hunter” was the fulfillment of his Hannibal oath to fight to the end against the enemy whom he hated since childhood. “This enemy had a certain image, bore a well-known name: this enemy was serfdom.” To fulfill his intention, Turgenev decided to leave Russia. “I could not,” Turgenev wrote, “breathe the same air, stay close to what I hated. I needed to move away from my enemy so that from my very distance I could attack him more strongly.”

In 1847, Turgenev and Belinsky went abroad and in 1848 lived in Paris, where he witnessed revolutionary events. Having witnessed the murder of hostages, many attacks, the construction and fall of the barricades of the February French Revolution, he forever endured a deep disgust for revolutions in general. A little later, he became close to A. I. Herzen and fell in love with Ogarev’s wife N. A. Tuchkova.

Dramaturgy

The late 1840s - early 1850s became the time of Turgenev's most intense activity in the field of drama and a time of reflection on issues of history and theory of drama. In 1848 he wrote such plays as “Where it is thin, there it breaks” and “Freeloader”, in 1849 - “Breakfast at the Leader” and “Bachelor”, in 1850 - “A Month in the Country”, in 1851 -m - “Provincial”. Of these, “Freeloader”, “Bachelor”, “Provincial Woman” and “A Month in the Country” enjoyed success thanks to excellent stage performances. The success of “The Bachelor” was especially dear to him, which became possible largely thanks to the performing skills of A. E. Martynov, who played in four of his plays. Turgenev formulated his views on the situation of Russian theater and the tasks of dramaturgy back in 1846. He believed that the crisis in the theatrical repertoire observed at that time could be overcome by the efforts of writers committed to Gogol's dramaturism. Turgenev also counted himself among the followers of Gogol the playwright.

To master the literary techniques of drama, the writer also worked on translations of Byron and Shakespeare. At the same time, he did not try to copy Shakespeare’s dramatic techniques, he only interpreted his images, and all attempts by his contemporaries-playwrights to use Shakespeare’s work as a role model and to borrow his theatrical techniques only caused Turgenev irritation. In 1847 he wrote: “Shakespeare’s shadow looms over all dramatic writers; they cannot rid themselves of memories; These unfortunates read too much and lived too little.”

1850s

Burning of “Notes of a Hunter”, caricature by L. N. Vaksel. 1852. The writer in a hunting suit, with shackles on his feet. Musin-Pushkin points to the prison; he has the selected manuscripts and Turgenev’s gun. Behind Turgenev is a fire with manuscripts. In the lower left corner there is a cat clutching a nightingale in its paws

In 1850, Turgenev returned to Russia, but he never saw his mother, who died that same year. Together with his brother Nikolai, he shared his mother’s large fortune and, if possible, tried to ease the hardships of the peasants he inherited.

In 1850-1852 he lived either in Russia or abroad, and saw N.V. Gogol. After Gogol's death, Turgenev wrote an obituary, which St. Petersburg censorship did not allow. The reason for her dissatisfaction was that, as the chairman of the St. Petersburg Censorship Committee M. N. Musin-Pushkin put it, “it is criminal to speak so enthusiastically about such a writer.” Then Ivan Sergeevich sent the article to Moscow, V.P. Botkin, who published it in Moskovskie Vedomosti. The authorities saw a rebellion in the text, and the author was placed in a moving house, where he spent a month. On May 18, Turgenev was exiled to his native village, and only thanks to the efforts of Count A.K. Tolstoy, two years later the writer again received the right to live in the capitals.

There is an opinion that the real reason for the exile was not Gogol’s obituary, but the excessive radicalism of Turgenev’s views, manifested in sympathy for Belinsky, suspiciously frequent trips abroad, sympathetic stories about serfs, and a laudatory review of Turgenev by the emigrant Herzen. In addition, it is necessary to take into account V.P. Botkin’s warning to Turgenev in a letter on March 10, so that he should be careful in his letters, referring to third-party transmitters of advice to be more careful (the said letter from Turgenev is completely unknown, but its excerpt - from a copy in the file of the III Department - contains a harsh review of M. N. Musin-Pushkin). The enthusiastic tone of the article about Gogol only filled the gendarmerie's patience, becoming an external reason for punishment, the meaning of which was thought out by the authorities in advance. Turgenev feared that his arrest and exile would interfere with the publication of the first edition of Notes of a Hunter, but his fears were not justified - in August 1852 the book passed censorship and was published.

However, the censor V.V. Lvov, who allowed “Notes of a Hunter” to be published, was, by personal order of Nicholas I, dismissed from service and deprived of his pension (“The highest forgiveness” followed on December 6, 1853). Russian censorship also imposed a ban on the re-publication of “Notes of a Hunter,” explaining this step by the fact that Turgenev, on the one hand, poeticized the serfs, and on the other hand, depicted “that these peasants are oppressed, that the landowners behave indecently and It’s illegal... finally, for a peasant to live more freely.”

Employees of the Sovremennik magazine. Top row: L. N. Tolstoy, D. V. Grigorovich; bottom row: I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, A. V. Druzhinin, A. N. Ostrovsky. Photo by S. L. Levitsky, February 15, 1856

During his exile in Spassky, Turgenev went hunting, read books, wrote stories, played chess, listened to Beethoven’s “Coriolanus” performed by A.P. Tyutcheva and her sister, who lived in Spassky at that time, and from time to time was subjected to raids by the police officer .

In 1852, while still in exile in Spassky-Lutovinovo, he wrote the now textbook story “Mumu”. Most of the “Notes of a Hunter” were created by the writer in Germany. “Notes of a Hunter” was published in Paris in a separate edition in 1854, although at the beginning of the Crimean War this publication was in the nature of anti-Russian propaganda, and Turgenev was forced to publicly express his protest against the poor quality French translation by Ernest Charrière. After the death of Nicholas I, four of the writer’s most significant works were published one after another: “Rudin” (1856), “The Noble Nest” (1859), “On the Eve” (1860) and “Fathers and Sons” (1862). The first two were published in Nekrasov’s Sovremennik, the other two were published in M. N. Katkov’s Russky Vestnik.

Sovremennik employees I. S. Turgenev, N. A. Nekrasov, I. I. Panaev, M. N. Longinov, V. P. Gaevsky, D. V. Grigorovich sometimes gathered in the “warlocks” circle organized by A. V. Druzhinin. The humorous improvisations of the “warlocks” sometimes went beyond censorship, so they had to be published abroad. Later, Turgenev took part in the activities of the “Society for Benefiting Needy Writers and Scientists” (Literary Fund), founded on the initiative of the same A.V. Druzhinin. From the end of 1856, the writer collaborated with the magazine “Library for Reading,” published under the editorship of A. V. Druzhinin. But his editorship did not bring the expected success to the publication, and Turgenev, who in 1856 hoped for close magazine success, in 1861 called the “Library,” edited by A.F. Pisemsky by that time, “a dead hole.”

In the autumn of 1855, Turgenev's circle of friends was replenished by Leo Tolstoy. In September of the same year, Tolstoy’s story “Cutting the Forest” was published in Sovremennik with a dedication to I. S. Turgenev.

1860s

Turgenev took an active part in the discussion of the upcoming Peasant Reform, participated in the development of various collective letters, draft addresses addressed to Emperor Alexander II, protests, etc. From the first months of publication of Herzen’s “Bell,” Turgenev was his active collaborator. He himself did not write for Kolokol, but helped in collecting materials and preparing them for publication. An equally important role of Turgenev was to mediate between A.I. Herzen and those correspondents from Russia who, for various reasons, did not want to be in direct relations with the disgraced London emigrant. In addition, Turgenev sent detailed review letters to Herzen, information from which, without the author’s signature, was also published in Kolokol. At the same time, Turgenev every time spoke out against the harsh tone of Herzen’s materials and excessive criticism of government decisions: “Please don’t scold Alexander Nikolayevich, - otherwise he is already cruelly scolded by all the reactionaries in St. Petersburg, - why bother him like that from both sides , - this way he will probably lose his spirit.”

In 1860, Sovremennik published an article by N. A. Dobrolyubov, “When will the real day come?”, in which the critic spoke very flatteringly about the new novel “On the Eve” and Turgenev’s work in general. Nevertheless, Turgenev was not satisfied with Dobrolyubov’s far-reaching conclusions that he made after reading the novel. Dobrolyubov connected the idea of ​​Turgenev’s work with the events of the approaching revolutionary transformation of Russia, which the liberal Turgenev could not reconcile with. Dobrolyubov wrote: “Then a complete, sharply and vividly outlined image of the Russian Insarov will appear in literature. And we won’t have to wait long for him: this is guaranteed by the feverish, painful impatience with which we await his appearance in life.<…>This day will finally come! And, in any case, the eve is not far from the next day: just some night separates them!...” The writer gave N.A. Nekrasov an ultimatum: either he, Turgenev, or Dobrolyubov. Nekrasov preferred Dobrolyubov. After this, Turgenev left Sovremennik and stopped communicating with Nekrasov, and subsequently Dobrolyubov became one of the prototypes for the image of Bazarov in the novel Fathers and Sons.

Turgenev gravitated towards the circle of Westernized writers who professed the principles of “pure art”, opposed to the tendentious creativity of the common revolutionaries: P. V. Annenkov, V. P. Botkin, D. V. Grigorovich, A. V. Druzhinin. For a short time Leo Tolstoy also joined this circle. For some time, Tolstoy lived in Turgenev’s apartment. After Tolstoy’s marriage to S.A. Bers, Turgenev found a close relative in Tolstoy, but even before the wedding, in May 1861, when both prose writers were visiting A.A. Fet on the Stepanovo estate, a serious quarrel occurred between them, almost which ended in a duel and spoiled the relationship between the writers for 17 long years. For some time, the writer developed complex relationships with Fet himself, as well as with some other contemporaries - F. M. Dostoevsky, I. A. Goncharov.

In 1862, good relations with former friends of Turgenev’s youth began to become complicated - A. I. Herzen and M. A. Bakunin. From July 1, 1862 to February 15, 1863, Herzen’s “Bell” published a series of articles “Ends and Beginnings” consisting of eight letters. Without naming the addressee of Turgenev’s letters, Herzen defended his understanding of the historical development of Russia, which, in his opinion, should move along the path of peasant socialism. Herzen contrasted peasant Russia with bourgeois Western Europe, whose revolutionary potential he considered already exhausted. Turgenev objected to Herzen in private letters, insisting on the commonality of historical development for different states and peoples.

At the end of 1862, Turgenev was involved in the trial of the 32 in the case of “persons accused of having relations with London propagandists.” After the authorities ordered an immediate appearance at the Senate, Turgenev decided to write a letter to the sovereign, trying to convince him of the loyalty of his convictions, “completely independent, but conscientious.” He asked for the interrogation points to be sent to him in Paris. In the end, he was forced to go to Russia in 1864 for Senate interrogation, where he managed to avert all suspicions from himself. The Senate found him not guilty. Turgenev’s appeal personally to Emperor Alexander II caused Herzen’s bilious reaction in The Bell. Much later, this moment in the relationship between the two writers was used by V.I. Lenin to illustrate the difference between the liberal vacillations of Turgenev and Herzen: “When the liberal Turgenev wrote a private letter to Alexander II with assurance of his loyal feelings and donated two gold pieces for the soldiers wounded during the pacification of the Polish uprising , “The Bell” wrote about “the gray-haired Magdalene (masculine), who wrote to the sovereign that she did not know sleep, tormented, that the sovereign did not know about the repentance that had befallen her.” And Turgenev immediately recognized himself.” But Turgenev’s hesitation between tsarism and revolutionary democracy manifested itself in another way.

I. S. Turgenev at the dacha of the Milyutin brothers in Baden-Baden, 1867

In 1863, Turgenev settled in Baden-Baden. The writer actively participated in the cultural life of Western Europe, establishing acquaintances with the greatest writers of Germany, France and England, promoting Russian literature abroad and introducing Russian readers to the best works of contemporary Western authors. Among his acquaintances or correspondents were Friedrich Bodenstedt, William Thackeray, Charles Dickens, Henry James, George Sand, Victor Hugo, Charles Saint-Beuve, Hippolyte Taine, Prosper Mérimée, Ernest Renan, Théophile Gautier, Edmond Goncourt, Emile Zola, Anatole France , Guy de Maupassant, Alphonse Daudet, Gustave Flaubert.

Despite living abroad, all of Turgenev’s thoughts were still connected with Russia. He wrote the novel “Smoke” (1867), which caused a lot of controversy in Russian society. According to the author, everyone scolded the novel: “both red and white, and above, and below, and from the side - especially from the side.”

In 1868, Turgenev became a permanent contributor to the liberal magazine “Bulletin of Europe” and broke ties with M. N. Katkov. The breakup did not go easily - the writer began to be persecuted in the Russky Vestnik and in the Moskovskie Vedomosti. The attacks especially intensified at the end of the 1870s, when, regarding the ovation that Turgenev received, the Katkovsky newspaper assured that the writer was “tumbling” in front of progressive youth.

1870s

Feast of the classics. A. Daudet, G. Flaubert, E. Zola, I. S. Turgenev

Since 1874, the famous bachelor “dinners of the five” - Flaubert, Edmond Goncourt, Daudet, Zola and Turgenev - were held in the Parisian restaurants of Riche or Pellet. The idea belonged to Flaubert, but Turgenev was given the main role in them. Luncheons took place once a month. They raised various topics - about the features of literature, about the structure of the French language, told stories and simply enjoyed delicious food. Dinners were held not only at Parisian restaurateurs, but also at the homes of the writers themselves.

I. S. Turgenev, 1871

I. S. Turgenev acted as a consultant and editor for foreign translators of Russian writers, wrote prefaces and notes to translations of Russian writers into European languages, as well as to Russian translations of works by famous European writers. He translated Western writers into Russian and Russian writers and poets into French and German. This is how translations of Flaubert’s works “Herodias” and “The Tale of St. Julian the Merciful" for Russian readers and Pushkin's works for French readers. For some time, Turgenev became the most famous and most read Russian author in Europe, where criticism ranked him among the first writers of the century. In 1878, at the international literary congress in Paris, the writer was elected vice-president. On June 18, 1879, he was awarded the title of honorary doctor of the University of Oxford, despite the fact that the university had never given such an honor to any fiction writer before him.

The fruit of the writer’s thoughts in the 1870s was the largest of his novels in terms of volume - “Nov” (1877), which was also criticized. For example, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin regarded this novel as a service to the autocracy.

Turgenev was friends with the Minister of Education A.V. Golovnin, with the Milyutin brothers (comrade of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Minister of War), N.I. Turgenev, and was closely acquainted with the Minister of Finance M.H. Reitern. At the end of the 1870s, Turgenev became closer friends with the leaders of revolutionary emigration from Russia; his circle of acquaintances included P. L. Lavrov, P. A. Kropotkin, G. A. Lopatin and many others. Among other revolutionaries, he put German Lopatin above everyone else, admiring his intelligence, courage and moral strength.

In April 1878, Leo Tolstoy invited Turgenev to forget all the misunderstandings between them, to which Turgenev happily agreed. Friendly relations and correspondence were resumed. Turgenev explained the significance of modern Russian literature, including Tolstoy's work, to Western readers. In general, Ivan Turgenev played a big role in promoting Russian literature abroad.

However, Dostoevsky in his novel “Demons” portrayed Turgenev as the “great writer Karmazinov” - a loud, petty, well-worn and practically mediocre writer who considers himself a genius and is holed up abroad. Such an attitude towards Turgenev by the always needy Dostoevsky was caused, among other things, by Turgenev’s secure position in his noble life and the very high literary fees for those times: “To Turgenev for his “Noble Nest” (I finally read it. Extremely well) Katkov himself (from whom I I ask for 100 rubles per sheet) I gave 4000 rubles, that is, 400 rubles per sheet. My friend! I know very well that I write worse than Turgenev, but not too much worse, and finally, I hope to write not worse at all. Why am I, with my needs, taking only 100 rubles, and Turgenev, who has 2000 souls, 400?”

Turgenev, without hiding his hostility towards Dostoevsky, in a letter to M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in 1882 (after Dostoevsky’s death) also did not spare his opponent, calling him “the Russian Marquis de Sade.”

In 1880, the writer took part in Pushkin celebrations dedicated to the opening of the first monument to the poet in Moscow, organized by the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature.

Last years

Photo by I. S. Turgenev

Poems in prose. "Bulletin of Europe", 1882, December. From the editorial introduction it is clear that this is a magazine title, not an author's one.

The last years of Turgenev's life became for him the pinnacle of fame both in Russia, where the writer again became everyone's favorite, and in Europe, where the best critics of the time (I. Taine, E. Renan, G. Brandes, etc.) ranked him among the first writers of the century. His visits to Russia in 1878-1881 were real triumphs. All the more alarming in 1882 was the news of a severe exacerbation of his usual gouty pain. In the spring of 1882, the first signs of the disease were discovered, which soon turned out to be fatal for Turgenev. With temporary relief from the pain, he continued to work and a few months before his death he published the first part of “Poems in Prose” - a cycle of lyrical miniatures, which became his kind of farewell to life, homeland and art. The book opened with the prose poem “Village”, and ended with “Russian Language” - a lyrical hymn in which the author invested his faith in the great destiny of his 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 can I not 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!

Parisian doctors Charcot and Jacquot diagnosed the writer with angina pectoris; Soon she was joined by intercostal neuralgia. The last time Turgenev was in Spassky-Lutovinovo was in the summer of 1881. The sick writer spent the winters in Paris, and in the summer he was transported to Bougival to the Viardot estate.

By January 1883 the pain had become so severe that he could not sleep without morphine. He had surgery to remove a neuroma in the lower abdomen, but the surgery helped little because it did not relieve the pain in the thoracic region of the spine. The disease progressed; in March and April the writer suffered so much that those around him began to notice momentary cloudings of reason, caused in part by taking morphine. The writer was fully aware of his imminent death and came to terms with the consequences of the disease, which deprived him of the ability to walk or simply stand.

Death and funeral

The confrontation between " an unimaginably painful illness and an unimaginably strong body"(P.V. Annenkov) ended on August 22 (September 3), 1883 in Bougival near Paris. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev died from myxosarcoma (a malignant tumor of the bones of the spine), at the age of 65. Doctor S.P. Botkin testified that the true cause of death was clarified only after an autopsy, during which his brain was also weighed by physiologists. As it turned out, among those whose brains were weighed, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev had the largest brain (2012 grams, which is almost 600 grams more than the average weight).

Turgenev's death was a great shock for his admirers, resulting in a very impressive funeral. The funeral was preceded by mourning celebrations in Paris, in which over four hundred people took part. Among them were at least a hundred Frenchmen: Edmond Abu, Jules Simon, Emile Ogier, Emile Zola, Alphonse Daudet, Juliette Adam, artist Alfred Dieudonnet (Russian) French, composer Jules Massenet. Ernest Renan addressed the mourners with a heartfelt speech. In accordance with the will of the deceased, on September 27, his body was brought to St. Petersburg.

Even from the border station of Verzhbolovo, memorial services were held at stops. On the platform of the St. Petersburg Warsaw Station there was a solemn meeting between the coffin and the body of the writer. Senator A.F. Koni recalled the funeral at the Volkovskoye cemetery:

The reception of the coffin in St. Petersburg and its passage to the Volkovo cemetery presented unusual spectacles in their beauty, majestic character and complete, voluntary and unanimous observance of order. A continuous chain of 176 deputations from literature, from newspapers and magazines, scientists, educational and educational institutions, from zemstvos, Siberians, Poles and Bulgarians occupied a space of several miles, attracting the sympathetic and often moved attention of the huge public, crowding the sidewalks - carried by deputations graceful, magnificent wreaths and banners with meaningful inscriptions. So, there was a wreath “To the Author of “Mumu”” from the Animal Welfare Society... a wreath with the inscription “Love is stronger than death” from women’s pedagogical courses...

- A.F. Koni, “Turgenev’s Funeral,” Collected Works in eight volumes. T. 6. M., Legal literature, 1968. Pp. 385-386.

There were some misunderstandings. The day after the funeral of Turgenev’s body in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on Daru Street in Paris, on September 19, the famous emigrant populist P. L. Lavrov published in the Paris newspaper “Justice” (Russian) French, edited by the future socialist Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau a letter in which he reported that I. S. Turgenev, on his own initiative, transferred 500 francs to Lavrov annually for three years to facilitate the publication of the revolutionary emigrant newspaper “Forward”.

Russian liberals were outraged by this news, considering it a provocation. The conservative press represented by M. N. Katkov, on the contrary, took advantage of Lavrov’s message to posthumously persecute Turgenev in the Russky Vestnik and Moskovskiye Vedomosti in order to prevent the honoring in Russia of the deceased writer, whose body “without any publicity, with special caution” should was to arrive in the capital from Paris for burial. The trace of Turgenev's ashes greatly worried the Minister of Internal Affairs D. A. Tolstoy, who feared spontaneous rallies. According to the editor of Vestnik Evropy, M. M. Stasyulevich, who accompanied Turgenev’s body, the precautions taken by officials were as inappropriate as if he were accompanying the Nightingale the Robber, and not the body of the great writer.

Personal life

The first romantic interest of young Turgenev was falling in love with the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya - Ekaterina (1815-1836), a young poetess. The estates of their parents in the Moscow region bordered, they often exchanged visits. He was 15, she was 19. In letters to her son, Varvara Turgenev called Ekaterina Shakhovskaya a “poet” and a “villain”, since Sergei Nikolaevich himself, Ivan Turgenev’s father, could not resist the charms of the young princess, to whom the girl reciprocated, which broke the heart of the future writer . The episode much later, in 1860, was reflected in the story “First Love,” in which the writer endowed the heroine of the story, Zinaida Zasekina, with some of the traits of Katya Shakhovskaya.

In 1841, during his return to Lutovinovo, Ivan became interested in the seamstress Dunyasha (Avdotya Ermolaevna Ivanova). A romance began between the young couple, which ended in the girl’s pregnancy. Ivan Sergeevich immediately expressed a desire to marry her. However, his mother made a serious scandal about this, after which he went to St. Petersburg. Turgenev's mother, having learned about Avdotya's pregnancy, hastily sent her to Moscow to her parents, where Pelageya was born on April 26, 1842. Dunyasha was married off, leaving her daughter in an ambiguous position. Turgenev officially recognized the child only in 1857.

Tatiana Bakunina. Portrait by Evdokia Bakunina, mid-19th century.

Soon after the episode with Avdotya Ivanova, Turgenev met Tatyana Bakunina (1815-1871), the sister of the future emigrant revolutionary M.A. Bakunin. Returning to Moscow after his stay in Spassky, he stopped at the Bakunin estate Premukhino. The winter of 1841-1842 was spent in close communication with the circle of Bakunin brothers and sisters. All of Turgenev's friends - N.V. Stankevich, V.G. Belinsky and V.P. Botkin - were in love with Mikhail Bakunin's sisters, Lyubov, Varvara and Alexandra.

Tatyana was three years older than Ivan. Like all young Bakunins, she was passionate about German philosophy and perceived her relationships with others through the prism of Fichte’s idealistic concept. She wrote letters to Turgenev in German, full of lengthy reasoning and self-analysis, despite the fact that the young people lived in the same house, and she also expected from Turgenev an analysis of the motives of her own actions and reciprocal feelings. “The ‘philosophical’ novel,” as G. A. Byaly noted, “in the vicissitudes of which the entire younger generation of Premukha’s nest took an active part, lasted several months.” Tatyana was truly in love. Ivan Sergeevich did not remain completely indifferent to the love he awakened. He wrote several poems (the poem “Parasha” was also inspired by communication with Bakunina) and a story dedicated to this sublimely ideal, mostly literary and epistolary hobby. But he could not respond with serious feelings.

Among the writer’s other fleeting hobbies, there were two more that played a certain role in his work. In the 1850s, a fleeting romance broke out with a distant cousin, eighteen-year-old Olga Alexandrovna Turgeneva. The love was mutual, and the writer was thinking about marriage in 1854, the prospect of which at the same time frightened him. Olga later served as the prototype for the image of Tatyana in the novel “Smoke”. Turgenev was also indecisive with Maria Nikolaevna Tolstoy. Ivan Sergeevich wrote about Leo Tolstoy’s sister to P.V. Annenkov: “His sister is one of the most attractive creatures I have ever met. Sweet, smart, simple - I couldn’t take my eyes off her. In my old age (I turned 36 on the fourth day) - I almost fell in love.” For the sake of Turgenev, twenty-four-year-old M.N. Tolstaya had already left her husband; she mistook the writer’s attention to herself for true love. But Turgenev limited himself to a platonic hobby, and Maria Nikolaevna served him as a prototype for Verochka from the story “Faust”.

In the fall of 1843, Turgenev first saw Pauline Viardot on the stage of the opera house, when the great singer came on tour to St. Petersburg. Turgenev was 25 years old, Viardot was 22 years old. Then, while hunting, he met Polina’s husband, the director of the Italian Theater in Paris, a famous critic and art critic, Louis Viardot, and on November 1, 1843, he was introduced to Polina herself. Among the mass of fans, she did not particularly single out Turgenev, who was better known as an avid hunter rather than a writer. And when her tour ended, Turgenev, together with the Viardot family, left for Paris against the will of his mother, still unknown to Europe and without money. And this despite the fact that everyone considered him a rich man. But this time his extremely cramped financial situation was explained precisely by his disagreement with his mother, one of the richest women in Russia and the owner of a huge agricultural and industrial empire.

For affection for " damn gypsy“His mother didn’t give him money for three years. During these years, his lifestyle bore little resemblance to the stereotype of the life of a “rich Russian” that had developed about him. In November 1845, he returned to Russia, and in January 1847, having learned about Viardot’s tour in Germany, he left the country again: he went to Berlin, then to London, Paris, a tour of France and again to St. Petersburg. Without an official marriage, Turgenev lived in the Viardot family " on the edge of someone else's nest", as he himself said. Polina Viardot raised Turgenev's illegitimate daughter. In the early 1860s, the Viardot family settled in Baden-Baden, and with them Turgenev (“Villa Tourgueneff”). Thanks to the Viardot family and Ivan Turgenev, their villa became an interesting musical and artistic center. The war of 1870 forced the Viardot family to leave Germany and move to Paris, where the writer also moved.

The true nature of the relationship between Pauline Viardot and Turgenev is still a matter of debate. There is an opinion that after Louis Viardot was paralyzed as a result of a stroke, Polina and Turgenev actually entered into a marital relationship. Louis Viardot was twenty years older than Polina; he died the same year as I. S. Turgenev.

The writer's last love was the actress of the Alexandrinsky Theater Maria Savina. Their meeting took place in 1879, when the young actress was 25 years old and Turgenev was 61 years old. The actress at that time played the role of Verochka in Turgenev’s play “A Month in the Village.” The role was played so vividly that the writer himself was amazed. After this performance, he went to the actress backstage with a large bouquet of roses and exclaimed: “ Did I really write this Verochka?!“Ivan Turgenev fell in love with her, which he openly admitted. The rarity of their meetings was compensated by regular correspondence, which lasted four years. Despite Turgenev's sincere relationship, for Maria he was more of a good friend. She was planning to marry someone else, but the marriage never took place. Savina’s marriage to Turgenev was also not destined to come true - the writer died in the circle of the Viardot family.

"Turgenev girls"

Turgenev's personal life was not entirely successful. Having lived for 38 years in close contact with the Viardot family, the writer felt deeply lonely. Under these conditions, Turgenev’s depiction of love was formed, but love that was not entirely characteristic of his melancholy creative manner. There is almost no happy ending in his works, and the last chord is often sad. But nevertheless, almost none of the Russian writers paid so much attention to the depiction of love; no one idealized a woman to such an extent as Ivan Turgenev.

The characters of the female characters in his works of the 1850s - 1880s - the images of integral, pure, selfless, morally strong heroines in total formed the literary phenomenon " Turgenev's girl" - a typical heroine of his works. Such are Liza in the story “The Diary of an Extra Person”, Natalya Lasunskaya in the novel “Rudin”, Asya in the story of the same name, Vera in the story “Faust”, Elizaveta Kalitina in the novel “The Noble Nest”, Elena Stakhova in the novel “On the Eve”, Marianna Sinetskaya in novel "Nov" and others.

L.N. Tolstoy, noting the merits of the writer, said that Turgenev wrote amazing portraits of women, and that Tolstoy himself later observed Turgenev’s women in life.

Offspring

Turgeneva Pelageya (Polina, Polynet) Ivanovna. Photo by E. Karzh, 1870s

Turgenev never started his own family. The writer's daughter from the seamstress Avdotya Ermolaevna Ivanova Pelageya Ivanovna Turgeneva, married to Brewer (1842-1919), from the age of eight was raised in the family of Pauline Viardot in France, where Turgenev changed her name from Pelageya to Polina (Polinet, Paulinette), which seemed to him more euphonious. Ivan Sergeevich arrived in France only six years later, when his daughter was already fourteen. Polinette almost forgot the Russian language and spoke exclusively French, which touched her father. At the same time, he was upset that the girl had a difficult relationship with Viardot herself. The girl was hostile to her father's beloved, and soon this led to the fact that the girl was sent to a private boarding school. When Turgenev next came to France, he took his daughter from the boarding school, and they moved in together, and a governess from England, Innis, was invited for Polynet.

At the age of seventeen, Polynette met the young entrepreneur Gaston Brewer (1835-1885), who made a pleasant impression on Ivan Turgenev, and he agreed to his daughter’s marriage. As a dowry, my father gave a considerable amount for those times - 150 thousand francs. The girl married Brewer, who soon went bankrupt, after which Polynette, with the assistance of her father, hid from her husband in Switzerland. Since Turgenev's heir was Polina Viardot, after his death his daughter found herself in a difficult financial situation. She died in 1919 at the age of 76 from cancer. Polynet's children - Georges-Albert and Jeanne - had no descendants. Georges-Albert died in 1924. Zhanna Brewer-Turgeneva never married; She lived by giving private lessons for a living, as she was fluent in five languages. She even tried herself in poetry, writing poems in French. She died in 1952 at the age of 80, and with her the family branch of the Turgenevs along the line of Ivan Sergeevich ended.

Passion for hunting

I. S. Turgenev was at one time one of the most famous hunters in Russia. The love of hunting was instilled in the future writer by his uncle Nikolai Turgenev, a recognized expert in horses and hunting dogs in the area, who raised the boy during his summer holidays in Spassky. He also taught hunting to the future writer A.I. Kupfershmidt, whom Turgenev considered his first teacher. Thanks to him, Turgenev could already call himself a gun hunter in his youth. Even Ivan’s mother, who had previously looked at hunters as slackers, became imbued with her son’s passion. Over the years, the hobby grew into a passion. It happened that he would not let go of his gun for whole seasons, walking thousands of miles across many provinces of central Russia. Turgenev said that hunting is generally characteristic of Russian people, and that Russian people have loved hunting since time immemorial.

In 1837, Turgenev met the peasant hunter Afanasy Alifanov, who later became his frequent hunting companion. The writer bought it for a thousand rubles; he settled in the forest, five miles from Spassky. Afanasy was an excellent storyteller, and Turgenev often came to sit with him over a cup of tea and listen to hunting stories. The story “About Nightingales” (1854) was recorded by the writer from the words of Alifanov. It was Afanasy who became the prototype of Ermolai from “Notes of a Hunter”. He was also known for his talent as a hunter among the writer’s friends - A. A. Fet, I. P. Borisov. When Afanasy died in 1872, Turgenev was very sorry for his old hunting companion and asked his manager to provide possible assistance to his daughter Anna.

In 1839, the writer’s mother, describing the tragic consequences of the fire that occurred in Spassky, did not forget to say: “ your gun is intact, but the dog has gone crazy" The fire that occurred accelerated Ivan Turgenev’s arrival in Spasskoye. In the summer of 1839, he first went hunting in the Teleginsky swamps (on the border of Bolkhovsky and Oryol districts), visited the Lebedyansk fair, which was reflected in the story “Swan” (1847). Varvara Petrovna purchased five packs of greyhounds, nine pairs of hounds and horses with saddles especially for him.

In the summer of 1843, Ivan Sergeevich lived at his dacha in Pavlovsk and also hunted a lot. That year he met Polina Viardot. The writer was introduced to her with the words: “ This is a young Russian landowner. A good hunter and a bad poet" The actress's husband Louis was, like Turgenev, a passionate hunter. Ivan Sergeevich invited him more than once to go hunting in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. They repeatedly went hunting with friends to the Novgorod province and Finland. And Polina Viardot gave Turgenev a beautiful and expensive yagdtash.

« I. S. Turgenev on the hunt", (1879). N. D. Dmitriev-Orenburgsky

At the end of the 1840s, the writer lived abroad and worked on “Notes of a Hunter.” The writer spent 1852-1853 in Spassky under police supervision. But this exile did not depress him, since a hunt awaited him in the village again, and it was quite successful. And the next year he went on hunting expeditions 150 miles from Spassky, where, together with I.F. Yurasov, he hunted on the banks of the Desna. This expedition served as material for Turgenev to work on the story “A Trip to Polesie” (1857).

In August 1854, Turgenev, together with N.A. Nekrasov, came to hunt at the estate of titular adviser I.I. Maslov Osmino, after which both continued to hunt in Spassky. In the mid-1850s, Turgenev met the family of Count Tolstoy. L.N. Tolstoy's elder brother, Nikolai, also turned out to be an avid hunter and, together with Turgenev, made several hunting trips around the outskirts of Spassky and Nikolsko-Vyazemsky. Sometimes they were accompanied by M.N. Tolstoy’s husband, Valerian Petrovich; some traits of his character were reflected in the image of Priimkov in the story “Faust” (1855). In the summer of 1855, Turgenev did not hunt due to a cholera epidemic, but in subsequent seasons he tried to make up for lost time. Together with N.N. Tolstoy, the writer visited Pirogovo, the estate of S.N. Tolstoy, who preferred to hunt with greyhounds and had beautiful horses and dogs. Turgenev, on the other hand, preferred to hunt with a gun and a gun dog, and mainly for feathered game.

Turgenev kept a kennel of seventy hounds and sixty greyhounds. Together with N.N. Tolstoy, A.A. Fet and A.T. Alifanov, he made a number of hunting expeditions in the central Russian provinces. In 1860-1870, Turgenev mainly lived abroad. He also tried to recreate the rituals and atmosphere of Russian hunting abroad, but from all this only a distant similarity was obtained, even when he, together with Louis Viardot, managed to rent quite decent hunting grounds. In the spring of 1880, having visited Spasskoye, Turgenev made a special trip to Yasnaya Polyana with the goal of persuading L.N. Tolstoy to take part in the Pushkin celebrations. Tolstoy refused the invitation because he considered gala dinners and liberal toasts inappropriate in the face of the starving Russian peasantry. Nevertheless, Turgenev fulfilled his old dream - he hunted with Leo Tolstoy. A whole hunting circle even formed around Turgenev - N. A. Nekrasov, A. A. Fet, A. N. Ostrovsky, N. N. and L. N. Tolstoy, artist P. P. Sokolov (illustrator of “Notes of a Hunter”) . In addition, he had the opportunity to hunt with the German writer Karl Müller, as well as with representatives of the reigning houses of Russia and Germany - Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich and the Prince of Hesse.

Ivan Turgenev, with a gun on his back, walked into the Oryol, Tula, Tambov, Kursk, and Kaluga provinces. He was well acquainted with the best hunting grounds of England, France, and Germany. He wrote three specialized works devoted to hunting: “On the notes of the gun hunter of the Orenburg province S. T. Aksakov,” “Notes of the gun hunter of the Orenburg province” and “Fifty shortcomings of a gun hunter or fifty shortcomings of a pointing dog.”

Towards the end of his life, the decrepit Ivan Turgenev repented on his deathbed of killing woodcocks, black grouse, great snipes, ducks, partridges and other wild birds while hunting.

Characteristics and writer's life

Address to Turgenev from the editors of Sovremennik, watercolor by D. V. Grigorovich, 1857

Biographers of Turgenev noted the unique features of his life as a writer. From his youth, he combined intelligence, education, and artistic talent with passivity, a tendency toward introspection, and indecision. All together, in a bizarre way, it was combined with the habits of the little baron, who had been dependent for a long time on his domineering, despotic mother. Turgenev recalled that at the University of Berlin, while studying Hegel, he could give up his studies when he needed to train his dog or set it on rats. T. N. Granovsky, who came to his apartment, found the philosophy student playing card soldiers with a serf servant (Porfiry Kudryashov). The childishness smoothed out over the years, but internal duality and immaturity of views made themselves felt for a long time: according to A. Ya. Panaeva, young Ivan wanted to be accepted both in literary society and in secular drawing rooms, while in secular society Turgenev was ashamed to admit about his literary earnings, which spoke of his false and frivolous attitude towards literature and the title of writer at that time.

The writer’s cowardice in his youth is evidenced by an episode in 1838 in Germany, when during a trip there was a fire on a ship, and the passengers miraculously managed to escape. Turgenev, who feared for his life, asked one of the sailors to save him and promised him a reward from his rich mother if he managed to fulfill his request. Other passengers testified that the young man plaintively exclaimed: “ To die so young!”, while pushing women and children away from the rescue boats. Fortunately, the shore was not far. Once on the shore, the young man was ashamed of his cowardice. Rumors of his cowardice permeated society and became the subject of ridicule. The event played a certain negative role in the subsequent life of the author and was described by Turgenev himself in the short story “Fire at Sea.”

Researchers note another character trait of Turgenev, which brought him and those around him a lot of trouble - his optionality, “all-Russian negligence” or “Oblomovism,” as E. A. Solovyov writes. Ivan Sergeevich could invite guests to his place and soon forget about it, going somewhere else on his own business; he could have promised a story to N.A. Nekrasov for the next issue of Sovremennik, or even taken an advance from A.A. Kraevsky and not delivered the promised manuscript in a timely manner. Ivan Sergeevich himself later warned the younger generation against such annoying little things. A victim of this optionality once became the Polish-Russian revolutionary Arthur Benny, who was slanderously accused in Russia of being an agent of Section III. This accusation could only be dispelled by A. I. Herzen, to whom Benny wrote a letter and asked him to convey it with the opportunity to I. S. Turgenev in London. Turgenev forgot about the letter, which had lain unsent for over two months. During this time, rumors of Benny's betrayal reached catastrophic proportions. The letter, which reached Herzen very late, could not change anything in Benny’s reputation.

The reverse side of these flaws was spiritual gentleness, breadth of nature, a certain generosity, gentleness, but his kindness had its limits. When, during his last visit to Spasskoye, he saw that the mother, who did not know how to please her beloved son, lined up all the serfs along the alley to greet the barchuk “ loud and joyful", Ivan became angry with his mother, immediately turned around and left back for St. Petersburg. They did not see each other again until her death, and even lack of money could not shake his decision. Among Turgenev's character traits, Ludwig Pietsch singled out his modesty. Abroad, where his work was still poorly known, Turgenev never boasted to those around him that in Russia he was already considered a famous writer. Having become the independent owner of his mother's inheritance, Turgenev did not show any concern for his grains and harvests. Unlike Leo Tolstoy, he did not have any mastery in him.

He calls himself " the most careless of Russian landowners" The writer did not delve into the management of his estate, entrusting it either to his uncle, or to the poet N.S. Tyutchev, or even to random people. Turgenev was very wealthy, he had no less than 20 thousand rubles a year in income from the land, but at the same time he always needed money, spending it very unscrupulously. The habits of the broad Russian gentleman made themselves felt. Turgenev's literary fees were also very significant. He was one of the highest paid writers in Russia. Each edition of “Notes of a Hunter” provided him with 2,500 rubles of net income. The right to publish his works cost 20-25 thousand rubles.

The meaning and evaluation of creativity

Extra people in the image of Turgenev

“The Noble Nest” on the stage of the Maly Theater, Lavretsky - A. I. Sumbatov-Yuzhin, Lisa - Elena Leshkovskaya (1895)

Despite the fact that the tradition of depicting “extra people” arose before Turgenev (Chatsky A. S. Griboedova, Evgeny Onegin A. S. Pushkin, Pechorin M. Yu. Lermontova, Beltov A. I. Herzen, Aduev Jr. in “Ordinary History "I. A. Goncharova), Turgenev has priority in defining this type of literary characters. The name “The Extra Man” was established after the publication of Turgenev’s story “The Diary of an Extra Man” in 1850. “Superfluous people” were, as a rule, distinguished by the general features of intellectual superiority over others and at the same time passivity, mental discord, skepticism towards the realities of the outside world, and a discrepancy between word and deed. Turgenev created a whole gallery of similar images: Chulkaturin (“Diary of an Extra Man,” 1850), Rudin (“Rudin,” 1856), Lavretsky (“Nest of the Nobles,” 1859), Nezhdanov (“Nov,” 1877). Turgenev’s novels and stories “Asya”, “Yakov Pasynkov”, “Correspondence” and others are also devoted to the problem of the “superfluous person”.

The main character of “The Diary of an Extra Man” is marked by the desire to analyze all his emotions, to record the slightest shades of the state of his own soul. Like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the hero notices the unnaturalness and tension of his thoughts, the lack of will: “ I analyzed myself to the last thread, compared myself with others, recalled the slightest glances, smiles, words of people... Entire days passed in this painful, fruitless work" Self-analysis, which corrodes the soul, gives the hero unnatural pleasure: “ Only after my expulsion from the Ozhogins’ house did I painfully learn how much pleasure a person can derive from the contemplation of his own misfortune" The failure of apathetic and reflective characters was further emphasized by the images of Turgenev’s integral and strong heroines.

The result of Turgenev’s thoughts about heroes of the Rudin and Chulkaturin type was the article “Hamlet and Don Quixote” (1859). The least “hamletic” of all Turgenev’s “superfluous people” is the hero of “The Noble Nest” Lavretsky. One of its main characters, Alexei Dmitrievich Nezhdanov, is called the “Russian Hamlet” in the novel “Nov”.

Simultaneously with Turgenev, the phenomenon of the “superfluous man” continued to be developed by I. A. Goncharov in the novel “Oblomov” (1859), N. A. Nekrasov - Agarin (“Sasha”, 1856), A. F. Pisemsky and many others. But, unlike Goncharov’s character, Turgenev’s heroes were subject to greater typification. According to the Soviet literary critic A. Lavretsky (I.M. Frenkel), “If we had all the sources for studying the 40s. If there was only one “Rudin” or one “Noble Nest” left, then it would still be possible to establish the character of the era in its specific features. According to Oblomov, we are not able to do this.”

Later, the tradition of depicting Turgenev’s “superfluous people” was ironically played up by A.P. Chekhov. The character of his story "Duel" Laevsky is a reduced and parodic version of Turgenev's superfluous man. He tells his friend von Koren: “ I'm a loser, an extra person" Von Koren agrees that Laevsky is “ chip from Rudin" At the same time, he speaks of Laevsky’s claim to be “an extra person” in a mocking tone: “ Understand this, they say, that it is not his fault that government packages lie unopened for weeks and that he himself drinks and gets others drunk, but Onegin, Pechorin and Turgenev are to blame for this, who invented a loser and an extra person" Later critics brought Rudin's character closer to the character of Turgenev himself.

On the stage

Set design sketch for “A Month in the Country”, M. V. Dobuzhinsky, 1909

By the mid-1850s, Turgenev became disillusioned with his calling as a playwright. Critics declared his plays unstageable. The author seemed to agree with the opinion of the critics and stopped writing for the Russian stage, but in 1868-1869 he wrote four French operetta librettos for Pauline Viardot, intended for production at the Baden-Baden theater. L.P. Grossman noted the validity of many critics’ reproaches against Turgenev’s plays for the lack of movement in them and the predominance of the conversational element. Nevertheless, he pointed out the paradoxical vitality of Turgenev's productions on stage. Ivan Sergeevich's plays have not left the repertoire of European and Russian theaters for over one hundred and sixty years. Famous Russian performers played in them: P. A. Karatygin, V. V. Samoilov, V. V. Samoilova (Samoilova 2nd), A. E. Martynov, V. I. Zhivokini, M. P. Sadovsky, S. V. Shumsky, V. N. Davydov, K. A. Varlamov, M. G. Savina, G. N. Fedotova, V. F. Komissarzhevskaya, K. S. Stanislavsky, V. I. Kachalov, M. N. Ermolova and others.

Turgenev the playwright was widely recognized in Europe. His plays were successful on the stages of the Antoine Theater in Paris, the Vienna Burgtheater, the Munich Chamber Theater, Berlin, Königsberg and other German theaters. Turgenev's dramaturgy was in the selected repertoire of outstanding Italian tragedians: Ermete Novelli, Tommaso Salvini, Ernesto Rossi, Ermete Zacconi, Austrian, German and French actors Adolf von Sonnenthal, Andre Antoine, Charlotte Voltaire and Franziska Elmenreich.

Of all his plays, the greatest success was A Month in the Country. The performance debuted in 1872. At the beginning of the 20th century, the play was staged at the Moscow Art Theater by K. S. Stanislavsky and I. M. Moskvin. The set designer for the production and the author of the sketches for the costumes of the characters was the world art artist M. V. Dobuzhinsky. This play has not left the stage of Russian theaters to this day. Even during the author’s lifetime, theaters began to stage his novels and stories with varying degrees of success: “The Noble Nest”, “King Lear of the Steppes”, “Spring Waters”. This tradition is continued by modern theaters.

In the assessments of contemporaries of the 19th century

Caricature by A. M. Volkov on Turgenev’s novel “Smoke.”
"Spark". 1867. No. 14.
- What an unpleasant smell - fi!
- The smoke of dying fame, the smoke of smoldering talent...
- Shh, gentlemen! And Turgenev’s smoke is sweet and pleasant to us!

Contemporaries gave Turgenev's work a very high rating. Critics V. G. Belinsky, N. A. Dobrolyubov, D. I. Pisarev, A. V. Druzhinin, P. V. Annenkov, Apollon Grigoriev, V. P. Botkin, N. N. made a critical analysis of his works. Strakhov, V. P. Burenin, K. S. Aksakov, I. S. Aksakov, N. K. Mikhailovsky, K. N. Leontyev, A. S. Suvorin, P. L. Lavrov, S. S. Dudyshkin, P. N. Tkachev, N. I. Solovyov, M. A. Antonovich, M. N. Longinov, M. F. De-Pule, N. V. Shelgunov, N. G. Chernyshevsky and many others.

Thus, V. G. Belinsky noted the writer’s extraordinary skill in depicting Russian nature. According to N.V. Gogol, Turgenev had the most talent in Russian literature of that time. N.A. Dobrolyubov wrote that as soon as Turgenev touched upon any issue or new aspect of social relations in his story, these problems arose in the consciousness of an educated society, appearing before everyone’s eyes. M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin stated that Turgenev’s literary activity was of equal importance to society as the activities of Nekrasov, Belinsky and Dobrolyubov. According to the Russian literary critic of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, S. A. Vengerov, the writer managed to write so realistically that it was difficult to grasp the line between literary fiction and real life. His novels were not only read, but his heroes were imitated in life. In each of his major works there is a character in whose mouth the subtle and apt wit of the writer himself is put.

Turgenev was also well known in contemporary Western Europe. His works were translated into German back in the 1850s, and in the 1870s-1880s he became the most beloved and most read Russian writer in Germany, and German critics rated him as one of the most significant modern short story writers. Turgenev's first translators were August Wiedert, August Boltz and Paul Fuchs. The translator of many of Turgenev’s works into German, the German writer F. Bodenstedt, in the introduction to “Russian Fragments” (1861), argued that Turgenev’s works are equal to the works of the best modern short story writers in England, Germany and France. Chancellor of the German Empire Clovis Hohenlohe (1894-1900), who called Ivan Turgenev the best candidate for the post of Prime Minister of Russia, spoke of the writer as follows: “ Today I spoke with the smartest man in Russia».

Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter” were popular in France. Guy de Maupassant called the writer " great man" And " a brilliant novelist", and George Sand wrote to Turgenev: " Teacher! We all must go through your school" His work was also well known in English literary circles - “Notes of a Hunter”, “The Noble Nest”, “On the Eve” and “New” were translated in England. Western readers were captivated by the moral purity in the depiction of love, the image of a Russian woman (Elena Stakhova); I was struck by the figure of the militant democrat Bazarov. The writer managed to show European society the true Russia, he introduced foreign readers to the Russian peasant, to the Russian commoners and revolutionaries, to the Russian intelligentsia and revealed the image of the Russian woman. Thanks to Turgenev’s work, foreign readers absorbed the great traditions of the Russian realistic school.

Leo Tolstoy gave the following characterization to the writer in a letter to A.N. Pypin (January 1884): “Turgenev is a wonderful person (not very deep, very weak, but a kind, good person), who always says exactly what he thinks and feels "

In the encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron

Novel "Fathers and Sons". Published 1880, Leipzig, Germany

According to the Brockhaus and Efron encyclopedia, “Notes of a Hunter,” in addition to the usual readership success, played a certain historical role. The book made a strong impression even on the heir to the throne, Alexander II, who a few years later carried out a number of reforms to abolish serfdom in Russia. Many representatives of the ruling classes were also impressed by the Notes. The book carried a social protest, denouncing serfdom, but serfdom itself was directly touched upon in “Notes of a Hunter” with restraint and caution. The content of the book was not fictitious; it convinced readers that people should not be deprived of the most basic human rights. But, in addition to protest, the stories also had artistic value, carrying a soft and poetic flavor. According to the literary critic S. A. Vengerov, the landscape painting of “Notes of a Hunter” became one of the best in Russian literature of that time. All the best qualities of Turgenev’s talent were vividly expressed in his essays. " The great, powerful, truthful and free Russian language“, to which the last of his “Poems in Prose” (1878-1882) is dedicated, received its most noble and elegant expression in “Notes”.

In the novel “Rudin” the author managed to successfully portray the generation of the 1840s. To some extent, Rudin himself is the image of the famous Hegelian agitator M.A. Bakunin, whom Belinsky spoke of as a person “ with blush on your cheeks and no blood in your heart" Rudin appeared in an era when society dreamed of “business.” The author's version of the novel was not passed by the censors due to the episode of Rudin's death at the June barricades, and therefore was understood by critics in a very one-sided way. According to the author, Rudin was a richly gifted man with noble intentions, but at the same time he was completely lost in the face of reality; he knew how to passionately appeal and captivate others, but at the same time he himself was completely devoid of passion and temperament. The hero of the novel has become a household name for those people whose words do not agree with deeds. The writer generally did not particularly spare his favorite heroes, even the best representatives of the Russian noble class of the mid-19th century. He often emphasized passivity and lethargy in their characters, as well as traits of moral helplessness. This demonstrated the realism of the writer, who depicted life as it is.

But if in “Rudin” Turgenev spoke only against the idle chattering people of the generation of the forties, then in “The Noble Nest” his criticism fell against his entire generation; without the slightest bitterness he gave preference to young forces. In the person of the heroine of this novel, a simple Russian girl, Lisa, a collective image of many women of that time is shown, when the meaning of a woman’s whole life was reduced to love, having failed in which, a woman was deprived of any purpose of existence. Turgenev foresaw the emergence of a new type of Russian woman, which he placed at the center of his next novel. Russian society of that time lived on the eve of radical social and state changes. And the heroine of Turgenev’s novel “On the Eve”, Elena became the personification of the vague desire for something good and new, characteristic of the first years of the reform era, without a clear idea of ​​​​this new and good. It was no coincidence that the novel was called “On the Eve” - in it Shubin ends his elegy with the question: “ When will our time come? When will we have people?"To which his interlocutor expresses hope for the best: " Give it time,” answered Uvar Ivanovich, “they will" On the pages of Sovremennik, the novel received an enthusiastic assessment in Dobrolyubov’s article “When will the real day come.”

In the next novel, “Fathers and Sons,” one of the most characteristic features of Russian literature of that time was most fully expressed - the closest connection of literature with the real currents of public sentiment. Turgenev managed better than other writers to capture the moment of unanimity of public consciousness, which in the second half of the 1850s buried the old Nicholas era with its lifeless reactionary isolation, and the turning point of the era: the subsequent confusion of innovators who singled out from their midst moderate representatives of the older generation with their vague hopes for a better future - for the “fathers”, and for the younger generation, thirsty for fundamental changes in the social order - the “children”. The magazine “Russian Word”, represented by D.I. Pisarev, even recognized the hero of the novel, the radical Bazarov, as its ideal. At the same time, if you look at the image of Bazarov from a historical point of view, as a type reflecting the mood of the sixties of the 19th century, then it is rather not fully revealed, since socio-political radicalism, quite strong at that time, is almost absent from the novel. was affected.

While living abroad, in Paris, the writer became close to many emigrants and foreign youth. He again had a desire to write about the topic of the day - about the revolutionary “going to the people”, as a result of which his largest novel, Nov, appeared. But, despite his efforts, Turgenev failed to grasp the most characteristic features of the Russian revolutionary movement. His mistake was that he made the center of the novel one of the weak-willed people typical of his works, who could be characteristic of the generation of the 1840s, but not of the 1870s. The novel did not receive high praise from critics. Of the writer’s later works, the “Song of Triumphant Love” and “Prose Poems” attracted the most attention.

XIX-XX century

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, critics and literary scholars S. A. Vengerov, Yu. I. Aikhenvald, D. S. Merezhkovsky, D. N. Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky, A. I. Nezelenov, turned to the work of I. S. Turgenev, Yu. N. Govorukha-Otrok, V. V. Rozanov, A. E. Gruzinsky, E. A. Solovyov-Andreevich, L. A. Tikhomirov, V. E. Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky, A. F. Koni, A. G. Gornfeld, F. D. Batyushkov, V. V. Stasov, G. V. Plekhanov, K. D. Balmont, P. P. Pertsov, M. O. Gershenzon, P. A. Kropotkin, R. V. Ivanov-Razumnik and others.

According to the literary scholar and theater critic Yu. I. Aikhenvald, who gave his assessment of the writer at the beginning of the century, Turgenev was not a deep writer, he wrote superficially and in light tones. According to the critic, the writer took life lightly. Knowing all the passions, possibilities and depths of human consciousness, the writer, however, did not have true seriousness: “ A tourist of life, he visits everything, looks everywhere, does not stop anywhere for long, and at the end of his road he laments that the journey is over, that there is nowhere else to go. Rich, meaningful, varied, it does not, however, have pathos or true seriousness. His softness is his weakness. He showed reality, but first took out its tragic core" According to Aikhenvald, Turgenev is easy to read, easy to live with, but he does not want to worry himself and does not want his readers to worry. The critic also reproached the writer for the monotony in the use of artistic techniques. But at the same time he called Turgenev “ patriot of Russian nature"for his celebrated landscapes of his native land.

The author of an article about I. S. Turgenev in the six-volume “History of Russian Literature of the 19th Century” (1911) edited by Professor D. N. Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky, A. E. Gruzinsky explains the critics’ claims to Turgenev as follows. In his opinion, in Turgenev’s work, most of all, they were looking for answers to the living questions of our time, the formulation of new social problems. " This element of his novels and stories alone was, in fact, taken seriously and carefully by the guiding criticism of the 50s and 60s; it was considered obligatory in Turgenev’s work" Having not received answers to their questions in the new works, the critics were dissatisfied and reprimanded the author “ for failure to fulfill his public duties" As a result, the author was declared exhausted and wasting his talent. Gruzinsky calls this approach to Turgenev’s work one-sided and erroneous. Turgenev was not a writer-prophet, a writer-citizen, although he connected all his major works with important and burning themes of his turbulent era, but most of all he was an artist-poet, and his interest in public life was, rather, in the nature of careful analysis .

Critic E. A. Solovyov joins this conclusion. He also draws attention to the mission of Turgenev as a translator of Russian literature for European readers. Thanks to him, soon almost all the best works of Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy were translated into foreign languages. " No one, we note, was better suited to this high and difficult task than Turgenev.<…>By the very essence of his talent, he was not only Russian, but also a European, world-wide writer"- writes E. A. Solovyov. Dwelling on the way of depicting the love of Turgenev’s girls, he makes the following observation: “ Turgenev's heroines fall in love immediately and love only once, and this is for the rest of their lives. They are obviously from the tribe of poor Azdras, for whom love and death were equivalent<…>Love and death, love and death are his inseparable artistic associations" In the character of Turgenev, the critic also finds much of what the writer portrayed in his hero Rudin: “ Undoubted chivalry and not particularly high vanity, idealism and a tendency towards melancholy, a huge mind and a broken will».

The representative of decadent criticism in Russia, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, had an ambivalent attitude towards Turgenev’s work. He did not appreciate Turgenev’s novels, preferring “small prose” to them, especially the so-called “mysterious stories and tales” of the writer. According to Merezhkovsky, Ivan Turgenev is the first impressionist artist, the forerunner of the later symbolists: “ The value of Turgenev the artist for the literature of the future<…>in the creation of an impressionistic style, which represents an artistic formation unrelated to the work of this writer as a whole».

Symbolist poet and critic Maximilian Voloshin wrote that Turgenev, thanks to his artistic sophistication, which he learned from French writers, occupies a special place in Russian literature. But unlike French literature with its fragrant and fresh sensuality, the feeling of living and loving flesh, Turgenev bashfully and dreamily idealized a woman. In Voloshin’s contemporary literature, he saw a connection between Ivan Bunin’s prose and Turgenev’s landscape sketches.

Subsequently, the topic of Bunin's superiority over Turgenev in landscape prose will be repeatedly raised by literary critics. Even L.N. Tolstoy, according to the recollections of pianist A.B. Goldenweiser, said about the description of nature in Bunin’s story: “it is raining,” and it is written so that Turgenev would not have written like that, and there is nothing to say about me.” Both Turgenev and Bunin were united by the fact that both were writer-poets, writers-hunters, writers-nobles and authors of “noble” stories. Nevertheless, the singer of the “sad poetry of ruined noble nests,” Bunin, according to the literary critic Fyodor Stepun, “as an artist is much more sensual than Turgenev.” “The nature of Bunin, for all the realistic accuracy of his writing, is still completely different from that of our two greatest realists - Tolstoy and Turgenev. Bunin’s nature is more unstable, more musical, more psychic and, perhaps, even more mystical than the nature of Tolstoy and Turgenev.” Nature in Turgenev’s depiction is more static than in Bunin’s, says F.A. Stepun, despite the fact that Turgenev has more purely external picturesqueness and picturesqueness.

Russian language

From "Poems in Prose"

In days of doubt, in days of painful thoughts about the fate of my homeland, you alone are my support and support, oh great, mighty, truthful and free Russian language! Without you, how can one not 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!

In the Soviet Union, Turgenev’s work was paid attention not only by critics and literary scholars, but also by the leaders and leaders of the Soviet state: V. I. Lenin, M. I. Kalinin, A. V. Lunacharsky. Scientific literary criticism largely depended on the ideological guidelines of “party” literary criticism. Among those who contributed to Turgen studies are G. N. Pospelov, N. L. Brodsky, B. L. Modzalevsky, V. E. Evgeniev-Maksimov, M. B. Khrapchenko, G. A. Byaly, S. M. Petrov, A. I. Batyuto, G. B. Kurlyandskaya, N. I. Prutskov, Yu. V. Mann, Priyma F. Ya., A. B. Muratov, V. I. Kuleshov, V. M. Markovich, V. G. Fridlyand, K. I. Chukovsky, B. V. Tomashevsky, B. M. Eikhenbaum, V. B. Shklovsky, Yu. G. Oksman A. S. Bushmin, M. P. Alekseev and etc.

Turgenev was repeatedly quoted by V.I. Lenin, who especially highly valued him “ great and mighty" language. M.I. Kalinin said that Turgenev’s work had not only artistic, but also socio-political significance, which gave artistic brilliance to his works, and that the writer showed in the serf peasant a man who, like all people, deserves to have human rights. A.V. Lunacharsky, in his lecture dedicated to the work of Ivan Turgenev, called him one of the creators of Russian literature. According to A. M. Gorky, Turgenev left an “excellent legacy” to Russian literature.

According to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the artistic system created by the writer influenced the poetics of not only Russian, but also Western European novels of the second half of the 19th century. It largely served as the basis for the “intellectual” novel by L. N. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky, in which the fate of the central characters depends on their solution to an important philosophical question of universal significance. The literary principles laid down by the writer were developed in the works of many Soviet writers - A. N. Tolstoy, K. G. Paustovsky and others. His plays became an integral part of the repertoire of Soviet theaters. Many of Turgenev's works were filmed. Soviet literary scholars paid great attention to the creative heritage of Turgenev - many works were published devoted to the life and work of the writer, to the study of his role in the Russian and world literary process. Scientific studies of his texts were carried out, and commented collected works were published. Turgenev museums were opened in the city of Orel and the former estate of his mother, Spassky-Lutovinovo.

According to the academic “History of Russian Literature”, Turgenev became the first in Russian literature who managed in his work, through pictures of everyday village life and various images of ordinary peasants, to express the idea that the enslaved people constitute the root, the living soul of the nation. And the literary critic Professor V.M. Markovich said that Turgenev was one of the first to try to portray the inconsistency of the people’s character without embellishment, and he was the first to show the same people worthy of admiration, admiration and love.

Soviet literary critic G.N. Pospelov wrote that Turgenev’s literary style can be called realistic, despite its emotional and romantic elation. Turgenev saw the social weakness of the advanced people from the nobility and looked for another force capable of leading the Russian liberation movement; he later saw such strength in the Russian democrats of 1860-1870.

Foreign criticism

I. S. Turgenev is an honorary doctor of the University of Oxford. Photo by A. Liber, 1879

Of the emigrant writers and literary critics, V.V. Nabokov, B.K. Zaitsev, and D.P. Svyatopolk-Mirsky turned to Turgenev’s work. Many foreign writers and critics also left their reviews of Turgenev’s work: Friedrich Bodenstedt, Emile Oman, Ernest Renan, Melchior de Vogüe, Saint-Beuve, Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, Edmond de Goncourt, Emile Zola, Henry James, John Galsworthy, George Sand, Virginia Woolf, Anatole France, James Joyce, William Rolston, Alphonse Daudet, Theodore Storm, Hippolyte Taine, Georg Brandes, Thomas Carlyle and so on.

The English prose writer and Nobel Prize winner in literature John Galsworthy considered Turgenev's novels to be the greatest example of prose art and noted that Turgenev helped " bring the proportions of the novel to perfection" For him Turgenev was “ the most sophisticated poet who ever wrote novels", and the Turgenev tradition was important for Galsworthy.

Another British writer, literary critic and representative of modernist literature of the first half of the 20th century, Virginia Woolf, noted that Turgenev’s books not only touch with their poetry, but also seem to belong to today’s time, so they have not lost the perfection of form. She wrote that Ivan Turgenev is characterized by a rare quality: a sense of symmetry and balance, which give a generalized and harmonious picture of the world. At the same time, she made a reservation that this symmetry triumphs not at all because he is such a great storyteller. On the contrary, Woolf believed that some of his stories were rather poorly told, since they contained loops and digressions, confusing, unintelligible information about great-grandparents (as in “The Noble Nest”). But she pointed out that Turgenev’s books are not a sequence of episodes, but a sequence of emotions emanating from the central character, and it is not objects that are connected in them, but feelings, and when you finish reading the book, you experience aesthetic satisfaction. Another famous representative of modernism, Russian and American writer and literary critic V.V. Nabokov, in his “Lectures on Russian Literature,” spoke of Turgenev not as a great writer, but called him “ cute" Nabokov noted that Turgenev’s landscapes were good, “Turgenev’s girls” were charming, and he spoke approvingly of the musicality of Turgenev’s prose. And he called the novel “Fathers and Sons” one of the most brilliant works of the 19th century. But he also pointed out the writer’s shortcomings, saying that he “ gets bogged down in disgusting sweetness" According to Nabokov, Turgenev was often too straightforward and did not trust the reader’s intuition, himself trying to dot the i’s. Another modernist, the Irish writer James Joyce, especially singled out “Notes of a Hunter” from the entire work of the Russian writer, which, in his opinion, “ penetrate deeper into life than his novels" Joyce believed that it was from them that Turgenev developed as a great international writer.

According to researcher D. Peterson, the American reader was struck by Turgenev’s work “ manner of narration... far from both Anglo-Saxon moralizing and French frivolity" According to the critic, the model of realism created by Turgenev had a great influence on the formation of realistic principles in the work of American writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

XXI Century

In Russia, much attention is paid to the study and memory of Turgenev’s work in the 21st century. Every five years, the State Literature Museum of I. S. Turgenev in Orel, together with Oryol State University and the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, holds major scientific conferences that have international status. As part of the “Turgenev Autumn” project, the museum annually hosts Turgenev readings, in which researchers of the writer’s work from Russia and abroad take part. Turgenev anniversaries are also celebrated in other cities of Russia. In addition, his memory is celebrated abroad. Thus, in the Ivan Turgenev Museum in Bougival, which opened on the 100th anniversary of the writer’s death on September 3, 1983, so-called music salons are held annually, where the music of composers from the times of Ivan Turgenev and Pauline Viardot is heard.

Statements of Turgenev

“No matter what a person prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer boils down to the following: “Great God, make sure that two and two do not become four!”

Illustrators of works

Jacob the Turk sings (“The Singers”). Illustration by B. M. Kustodiev for “Notes of a Hunter”, 1908

Over the years, the works of I. S. Turgenev were illustrated by illustrators and graphic artists P. M. Boklevsky, N. D. Dmitriev-Orenburgsky, A. A. Kharlamov, V. V. Pukirev, P. P. Sokolov, V. M. Vasnetsov, D. N. Kardovsky, V. A. Taburin, K. I. Rudakov, V. A. Sveshnikov, P. F. Stroev, N. A. Benois, B. M. Kustodiev, K. V. Lebedev and others. The imposing figure of Turgenev is captured in the sculpture of A. N. Belyaev, M. M. Antokolsky, Zh. A. Polonskaya, S. A. Lavrentieva, in the drawings of D. V. Grigorovich, A. A. Bakunin, K. A. Gorbunov, I. N. Kramsky, Adolf Menzel, Pauline Viardot, Ludwig Pietsch, M. M. Antokolsky, K. Shamro, in caricatures by N. A. Stepanov, A. I. Lebedev, V. I. Porfiryev, A. M. Volkov , in the engraving of Yu. S. Baranovsky, in the portraits of E. Lamy, A. P. Nikitin, V. G. Perov, I. E. Repin, Ya. P. Polonsky, V. V. Vereshchagin, V. V. Mate , E. K. Lipgart, A. A. Kharlamov, V. A. Bobrova. The works of many painters “based on Turgenev” are known: Ya. P. Polonsky (plots by Spassky-Lutovinov), S. Yu. Zhukovsky (“Poetry of an old noble nest”, “Night”), V. G. Perov, (“Old parents at his son's grave"). Ivan Sergeevich himself drew well and was an auto-illustrator of his own works.

Film adaptations

Many films and television films have been made based on the works of Ivan Turgenev. His works formed the basis for paintings created in different countries of the world. The first film adaptations appeared at the beginning of the 20th century (the era of silent films). The film “The Freeloader” was filmed twice in Italy (1913 and 1924). In 1915, the films “The Noble Nest”, “After Death” (based on the story “Klara Milich”) and “Song of Triumphant Love” (with the participation of V.V. Kholodnaya and V.A. Polonsky) were shot in the Russian Empire. The story “Spring Waters” was filmed 8 times in different countries. Four films were made based on the novel “The Noble Nest”; based on stories from “Notes of a Hunter” - 4 films; based on the comedy “A Month in the Country” - 10 TV films; based on the story “Mumu” ​​- 2 feature films and a cartoon; based on the play “Freeloader” - 5 paintings. The novel “Fathers and Sons” served as the basis for 4 films and a television series, the story “First Love” formed the basis for nine feature films and television films.

The image of Turgenev was used in cinema by director Vladimir Khotinenko. In the 2011 television series Dostoevsky, the role of the writer was played by actor Vladimir Simonov. In the film “Belinsky” by Grigory Kozintsev (1951), the role of Turgenev was played by actor Igor Litovkin, and in the film “Tchaikovsky” directed by Igor Talankin (1969), the writer was played by actor Bruno Freundlich.

Addresses

In Moscow

Biographers count over fifty addresses and memorable places in Moscow associated with Turgenev.

• 1824 - house of state councilor A.V. Kopteva on Bolshaya Nikitskaya (not preserved);
• 1827 - city estate, Valuev's property - Sadovaya-Samotyochnaya street, 12/2 (not preserved - rebuilt);
• 1829 - Krause boarding house, Armenian Institute - Armenian Lane, 2;
• 1830 - Steingel House - Gagarinsky Lane, building 15/7;
• 1830s - House of General N.F. Alekseeva - Sivtsev Vrazhek (corner of Kaloshin Lane), building 24/2;
• 1830s - House of M. A. Smirnov (not preserved, now a building built in 1903) - Verkhnyaya Kislovka;
• 1830s - House of M. N. Bulgakova - in Maly Uspensky Lane;
• 1830s - House on Malaya Bronnaya Street (not preserved);
• 1839-1850 - Ostozhenka, 37 (corner of 2nd Ushakovsky Lane, now Khilkov Lane). It is generally accepted that the house where I. S. Turgenev visited Moscow belonged to his mother, but N. M. Chernov, a researcher of Turgenev’s life and work, indicates that the house was rented from the surveyor N. V. Loshakovsky;
• 1850s - house of Nikolai Sergeevich Turgenev’s brother - Prechistenka, 26 (not preserved)
• 1860s - The house where I. S. Turgenev repeatedly visited the apartment of his friend, the manager of the Moscow appanage office, I. I. Maslov - Prechistensky Boulevard, 10;

In St. Petersburg

• End of summer 1839 - January 1841 - Efremova's house - Gagarinskaya street 12;
• October 1850 - April 1851 - Lopatin's house - Nevsky Prospekt, 68;
• December 1851 - May 1852 - Guillerme apartment building - Gorokhovaya street, 8, apt. 9;
• December 1853 - end of November 1854 - Povarsky Lane, 13;
• end of November 1854 - July 1856 - Stepanov's apartment building - embankment of the Fontanka River, 38;
• November 1858 - April 1860 - apartment building of F. K. Weber - Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street, 13;
• 1861; 1872; 1874; 1876 ​​- Hotel "Demut" - Moika River embankment, 40;
• January 4, 1864-1867 - Hotel "France" - Bolshaya Morskaya Street, 6;
• 1867 - V.P. Botkin’s apartment in Fedorov’s apartment building - Karavannaya Street, 14;
• May-June 1877 - furnished rooms at Bouillet - Nevsky Prospekt, 22;
• February-March 1879 - European Hotel - Bolshaya Italianskaya Street, 7.
• January-April 1880 - Kverner's furnished rooms - Nevsky Prospekt, No. 11/Malaya Morskaya Street, No. 2/Kirpichny Lane, No. 2

Memory

The following objects are named after Turgenev.

Toponymy

• Streets and squares of Turgenev in many cities of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia.
• Moscow metro station "Turgenevskaya".

Public institutions

• Oryol State Academic Theater.
• Library-reading room named after I. S. Turgenev in Moscow.
• School of Russian language and Russian culture named after Turgenev (Turin, Italy).
• Russian Public Library named after I. S. Turgenev (Paris, France).
• Oryol State University named after I. S. Turgenev

Museums

• Museum of I. S. Turgenev (“ Mumu's house") - (Moscow, Ostozhenka St., 37).
• State Literary Museum of I. S. Turgenev (Oryol).
• Museum-reserve "Spasskoye-Lutovinovo" estate of I. S. Turgenev (Oryol region).
• Street and museum "I. S. Turgenev's Dacha" in Bougival, France.

Monuments

In honor of I. S. Turgenev the following were installed:

• monument in Moscow (in Bobrov Lane).
• monument in St. Petersburg (on Italianskaya street).
• Eagle:
  • Monument in Orel;
  • Bust of Turgenev on the "Noble Nest".

Other objects

• The name of Turgenev was borne by the branded train of JSC FPK Moscow - Simferopol - Moscow (No. 029/030) in common traffic with Moscow - Orel - Moscow (No. 33/34)
• In 1979, a crater on Mercury was named in honor of Turgenev.

In philately

• The writer is depicted on several Soviet stamps, as well as on a 1978 Bulgarian postage stamp.

Bibliography

Collected works

• Turgenev I. S. Collected works in 11 volumes. - M.: Pravda, 1949.
• Turgenev I. S. Collected works in 12 volumes. - M.: Fiction, 1953-1958.
• Turgenev I. S. Collected works in 15 volumes. - L.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1960-1965.
• Turgenev I. S. Complete collection of works and letters in twenty-eight volumes. - M. - L.: Science, 1960-1968.
  • Works in fifteen volumes

Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich, whose stories, tales and novels are known and loved by many today, was born on October 28, 1818 in the city of Orel, into an old noble family. Ivan was the second son of Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva (née Lutovinova) and Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev.

Turgenev's parents

His father served in the Elisavetgrad cavalry regiment. After his marriage, he retired with the rank of colonel. Sergei Nikolaevich belonged to an old noble family. His ancestors are believed to have been Tatars. Ivan Sergeevich’s mother was not as well-born as his father, but she surpassed him in wealth. The vast lands located in belonged to Varvara Petrovna. Sergei Nikolaevich stood out for his elegance of manners and secular sophistication. He had a subtle soul and was handsome. The mother's character was not like that. This woman lost her father early. She had to experience a terrible shock in adolescence, when her stepfather tried to seduce her. Varvara ran away from home. Ivan's mother, who experienced humiliation and oppression, tried to take advantage of the power given to her by law and nature over her sons. This woman was distinguished by her willpower. She loved her children despotically, and was cruel to the serfs, often punishing them with flogging for minor offenses.

Case in Bern

In 1822, the Turgenevs went on a trip abroad. In Bern, a Swiss city, Ivan Sergeevich almost died. The fact is that the father put the boy on the railing of the fence that surrounded a large pit with city bears entertaining the public. Ivan fell off the railing. Sergei Nikolaevich grabbed his son by the leg at the last moment.

Introduction to fine literature

The Turgenevs returned from their trip abroad to Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, their mother’s estate, located ten miles from Mtsensk (Oryol province). Here Ivan discovered literature for himself: one of the servants from his mother’s serfs read the poem “Rossiada” by Kheraskov to the boy in the old manner, in a chanting and measured manner. Kheraskov in solemn verses sang the battles for Kazan of the Tatars and Russians during the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich. Many years later, Turgenev, in his 1874 story “Punin and Baburin,” endowed one of the heroes of the work with a love for the Rossiade.

First love

The family of Ivan Sergeevich was in Moscow from the late 1820s to the first half of the 1830s. At the age of 15, Turgenev fell in love for the first time in his life. At this time, the family was at the Engel dacha. They were neighbors with their daughter, Princess Catherine, who was 3 years older than Ivan Turgenev. First love seemed captivating and beautiful to Turgenev. He was in awe of the girl, afraid to admit the sweet and languid feeling that had taken possession of him. However, the end to joys and torments, fears and hopes came suddenly: Ivan Sergeevich accidentally learned that Catherine was his father’s beloved. Turgenev was haunted by pain for a long time. He will give his love story for a young girl to the hero of the 1860 story “First Love.” In this work, Catherine became the prototype of Princess Zinaida Zasekina.

Studying at universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg, death of father

The biography of Ivan Turgenev continues with a period of study. In September 1834, Turgenev entered Moscow University, the Faculty of Literature. However, he was not happy with his studies at the university. He liked Pogorelsky, a mathematics teacher, and Dubensky, who taught Russian. Most teachers and courses left student Turgenev completely indifferent. And some teachers even caused obvious antipathy. This especially applies to Pobedonostsev, who talked tediously and for a long time about literature and was unable to advance in his passions further than Lomonosov. After 5 years, Turgenev will continue his studies in Germany. About Moscow University he will say: “It is full of fools.”

Ivan Sergeevich studied in Moscow for only a year. Already in the summer of 1834 he moved to St. Petersburg. Here his brother Nikolai served in military service. Ivan Turgenev continued to study at His father died in October of the same year from kidney stones, right in Ivan’s arms. By this time he was already living apart from his wife. Ivan Turgenev's father was amorous and quickly lost interest in his wife. Varvara Petrovna did not forgive him for his betrayal and, exaggerating her own misfortunes and illnesses, presented herself as a victim of his heartlessness and irresponsibility.

Turgenev left a deep wound in his soul. He began to think about life and death, about the meaning of existence. Turgenev at this time was attracted by powerful passions, bright characters, tossing and struggling of the soul, expressed in an unusual, sublime language. He reveled in the poems of V. G. Benediktov and N. V. Kukolnik, and the stories of A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky. Ivan Turgenev wrote, in imitation of Byron (the author of "Manfred"), his dramatic poem called "The Wall". More than 30 years later, he will say that this is “a completely ridiculous work.”

Writing poetry, republican ideas

Turgenev in the winter of 1834-1835. seriously ill. He had weakness in his body and could not eat or sleep. Having recovered, Ivan Sergeevich changed greatly spiritually and physically. He became very stretched out, and also lost interest in mathematics, which had attracted him before, and began to become more and more interested in fine literature. Turgenev began to compose many poems, but still imitative and weak. At the same time, he became interested in republican ideas. He felt the serfdom that existed in the country as a shame and the greatest injustice. Turgenev’s feeling of guilt towards all the peasants strengthened, because his mother treated them cruelly. And he vowed to himself to do everything to ensure that there would be no class of “slaves” in Russia.

Meeting Pletnev and Pushkin, publication of the first poems

Student Turgenev in his third year met P. A. Pletnev, a professor of Russian literature. This is a literary critic, poet, friend of A. S. Pushkin, to whom the novel “Eugene Onegin” is dedicated. At the beginning of 1837, at a literary evening with him, Ivan Sergeevich encountered Pushkin himself.

In 1838, two poems by Turgenev were published in the Sovremennik magazine (first and fourth issues): “To the Venus of Medicine” and “Evening.” Ivan Sergeevich published poems after that. The first samples of the pen that were printed did not bring him fame.

Continuing your studies in Germany

In 1837, Turgenev graduated from St. Petersburg University (literature department). He was not satisfied with the education he received, feeling gaps in his knowledge. German universities were considered the standard of that time. And so in the spring of 1838, Ivan Sergeevich went to this country. He decided to graduate from the University of Berlin, where Hegel's philosophy was taught.

Abroad, Ivan Sergeevich became friends with the thinker and poet N.V. Stankevich, and also became friends with M.A. Bakunin, who later became a famous revolutionary. He held conversations on historical and philosophical topics with T. N. Granovsky, the future famous historian. Ivan Sergeevich became a convinced Westerner. Russia, in his opinion, should follow the example of Europe, getting rid of lack of culture, laziness, and ignorance.

Civil service

Turgenev, returning to Russia in 1841, wanted to teach philosophy. However, his plans were not destined to come true: the department to which he wanted to enter was not restored. Ivan Sergeevich was enlisted in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in June 1843. At that time, the issue of liberating the peasants was being studied, so Turgenev reacted to the service with enthusiasm. However, Ivan Sergeevich did not serve long in the ministry: he quickly became disillusioned with the usefulness of his work. He began to feel burdened by the need to follow all the instructions of his superiors. In April 1845, Ivan Sergeevich retired and was never again in public service.

Turgenev becomes famous

Turgenev in the 1840s began to play the role of a socialite in society: always well-groomed, neat, with the manners of an aristocrat. He wanted success and attention.

In 1843, in April, the poem “Parasha” by I. S. Turgenev was published. Its plot is the touching love of a landowner’s daughter for a neighbor on the estate. The work is a kind of ironic echo of Eugene Onegin. However, unlike Pushkin, in Turgenev’s poem everything ends happily with the marriage of the heroes. Nevertheless, happiness is deceptive, doubtful - it is just ordinary well-being.

The work was highly appreciated by V. G. Belinsky, the most influential and famous critic of that time. Turgenev met Druzhinin, Panaev, Nekrasov. Following "Parasha" Ivan Sergeevich wrote the following poems: in 1844 - "Conversation", in 1845 - "Andrey" and "Landowner". Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich also created short stories and tales (in 1844 - “Andrei Kolosov”, in 1846 - “Three Portraits” and “Breter”, in 1847 - “Petushkov”). In addition, Turgenev wrote the comedy "Lack of Money" in 1846, and the drama "Carelessness" in 1843. He followed the principles of the “natural school” of writers, to which Grigorovich, Nekrasov, Herzen, and Goncharov belonged. Writers belonging to this trend depicted “non-poetic” subjects: people’s everyday life, everyday life, and paid primary attention to the influence of circumstances and environment on a person’s fate and character.

"Notes of a Hunter"

In 1847, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev published the essay “Khor and Kalinich,” created under the impression of hunting trips in 1846 through the fields and forests of the Tula, Kaluga and Oryol provinces. The two heroes in it - Khor and Kalinich - are presented not just as Russian peasants. These are individuals with their own complex inner world. On the pages of this work, as well as other essays by Ivan Sergeevich, published in the book “Notes of a Hunter” in 1852, the peasants have their own voice, different from the manner of the narrator. The author recreated the customs and life of landowners and peasants in Russia. His book was assessed as a protest against serfdom. Society received her with enthusiasm.

Relationship with Pauline Viardot, death of mother

In 1843, a young opera singer from France, Pauline Viardot, arrived on tour. She was greeted enthusiastically. Ivan Turgenev was also delighted with her talent. He was captivated by this woman for his entire life. Ivan Sergeevich followed her and her family to France (Viardot was married) and accompanied Polina on a tour of Europe. His life was now divided between France and Russia. Ivan Turgenev's love has stood the test of time - Ivan Sergeevich waited two years for his first kiss. And only in June 1849 Polina became his lover.

Turgenev's mother was categorically against this connection. She refused to give him the funds received from the income from the estates. Their death reconciled: Turgenev’s mother was dying hard, suffocating. She died in 1850 on November 16 in Moscow. Ivan was notified of her illness too late and did not have time to say goodbye to her.

Arrest and exile

In 1852, N.V. Gogol died. I. S. Turgenev wrote an obituary on this occasion. There were no reprehensible thoughts in him. However, it was not customary in the press to recall the duel that led to and also to recall the death of Lermontov. On April 16 of the same year, Ivan Sergeevich was put under arrest for a month. Then he was exiled to Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, without being allowed to leave the Oryol province. At the request of the exile, after 1.5 years he was allowed to leave Spassky, but only in 1856 was he given the right to go abroad.

New works

During the years of exile, Ivan Turgenev wrote new works. His books became increasingly popular. In 1852, Ivan Sergeevich created the story "The Inn". In the same year, Ivan Turgenev wrote “Mumu,” one of his most famous works. In the period from the late 1840s to the mid-1850s, he created other stories: in 1850 - "The Diary of an Extra Man", in 1853 - "Two Friends", in 1854 - "Correspondence" and "Quiet" , in 1856 - “Yakov Pasynkova”. Their heroes are naive and lofty idealists who fail in their attempts to benefit society or find happiness in their personal lives. Criticism called them "superfluous people." Thus, the creator of a new type of hero was Ivan Turgenev. His books were interesting for their novelty and relevance of issues.

"Rudin"

The fame acquired by Ivan Sergeevich by the mid-1850s was strengthened by the novel "Rudin". The author wrote it in 1855 in seven weeks. Turgenev, in his first novel, attempted to recreate the type of ideologist and thinker, modern man. The main character is an “extra person” who is depicted as both weak and attractive at the same time. The writer, creating him, endowed his hero with the features of Bakunin.

"The Noble Nest" and new novels

In 1858, Turgenev’s second novel, “The Noble Nest,” appeared. Its themes are the history of an old noble family; the love of a nobleman, hopeless due to circumstances. Poetry of love, full of grace and subtlety, careful depiction of the characters’ experiences, spiritualization of nature - these are the distinctive features of Turgenev’s style, perhaps most clearly expressed in “The Noble Nest.” They are also characteristic of some stories, such as “Faust” of 1856, “A Trip to Polesie” (years of creation - 1853-1857), “Asya” and “First Love” (both works written in 1860). "The Nobles' Nest" was received kindly. He was praised by many critics, in particular Annenkov, Pisarev, Grigoriev. However, a completely different fate awaited Turgenev's next novel.

"The day before"

In 1860, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev published the novel “On the Eve”. Its summary is as follows. In the center of the work is Elena Stakhova. This heroine is a brave, determined, devotedly loving girl. She fell in love with the revolutionary Insarov, a Bulgarian who dedicated his life to liberating his homeland from the power of the Turks. The story of their relationship ends, as usual with Ivan Sergeevich, tragically. The revolutionary dies, and Elena, who became his wife, decides to continue the work of her late husband. This is the plot of the new novel created by Ivan Turgenev. Of course, we described its brief content only in general terms.

This novel caused conflicting assessments. Dobrolyubov, for example, in an instructive tone in his article reprimanded the author where he was wrong. Ivan Sergeevich became furious. Radical democratic publications published texts with scandalous and malicious allusions to the details of Turgenev’s personal life. The writer broke off relations with Sovremennik, where he published for many years. The younger generation stopped seeing Ivan Sergeevich as an idol.

"Fathers and Sons"

In the period from 1860 to 1861, Ivan Turgenev wrote “Fathers and Sons,” his new novel. It was published in the Russian Bulletin in 1862. Most readers and critics did not appreciate it.

"Enough"

In 1862-1864. a miniature story “Enough” was created (published in 1864). It is imbued with motives of disappointment in the values ​​of life, including art and love, so dear to Turgenev. In the face of inexorable and blind death, everything loses its meaning.

"Smoke"

Written in 1865-1867. The novel "Smoke" is also imbued with a gloomy mood. The work was published in 1867. In it, the author tried to recreate the picture of modern Russian society and the ideological sentiments that prevailed in it.

"Nove"

Turgenev's last novel appeared in the mid-1870s. It was published in 1877. Turgenev presented in it the populist revolutionaries who are trying to convey their ideas to the peasants. He assessed their actions as a sacrificial feat. However, this is a feat of the doomed.

The last years of the life of I. S. Turgenev

Since the mid-1860s, Turgenev lived abroad almost constantly, visiting his homeland only on short visits. He built himself a house in Baden-Baden, near the house of the Viardot family. In 1870, after the Franco-Prussian War, Polina and Ivan Sergeevich left the city and settled in France.

In 1882, Turgenev fell ill with spinal cancer. The last months of his life were difficult, and his death was also difficult. The life of Ivan Turgenev was cut short on August 22, 1883. He was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovsky cemetery, near Belinsky’s grave.

Ivan Turgenev, whose stories, tales and novels are included in the school curriculum and are known to many, is one of the greatest Russian writers of the 19th century.

Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich, famous writer, was born on December 28, 1818 in Orel, into a wealthy landowner family that belonged to an ancient noble family. [Cm. also the article Turgenev, life and work.] Turgenev’s father, Sergei Nikolaevich, married Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova, who had neither youth nor beauty, but inherited enormous property - purely for convenience. Soon after the birth of his second son, the future novelist, S. N. Turgenev, with the rank of colonel, left the military service in which he had been until then, and moved with his family to his wife’s estate, Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, near the city of Mtsensk, Oryol province . Here the new landowner quickly developed the violent nature of an unbridled and depraved tyrant, who became a threat not only to the serfs, but also to members of his own family. Turgenev's mother, who even before her marriage experienced a lot of grief in the house of her stepfather, who pursued her with vile proposals, and then in the house of her uncle, to whom she fled, was forced to silently endure the wild antics of her despot husband and, tormented by the pangs of jealousy, did not dare to reproach him loudly him in unworthy behavior that offended her feelings as a woman and wife. Hidden resentment and years of accumulated irritation embittered and embittered her; this was fully revealed when, after the death of her husband (1834), having become the sovereign mistress of her estates, she gave free rein to her evil instincts of unrestrained landowner tyranny.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. Portrait by Repin

In this suffocating atmosphere, saturated with all the miasma of serfdom, the first years of Turgenev’s childhood passed. According to the prevailing custom in the landowner life of that time, the future famous novelist was brought up under the guidance of tutors and teachers - Swiss, Germans and serf uncles and nannies. The main attention was paid to the French and German languages, learned by Turgenev in childhood; the native language was suppressed. According to the author of “Notes of a Hunter” himself, the first person who interested him in Russian literature was his mother’s serf valet, who secretly, but with extraordinary solemnity, read to him somewhere in the garden or in a remote room from Kheraskov’s “Rossiada”.

At the beginning of 1827, the Turgenevs moved to Moscow to raise their children. Turgenev was placed in a private boarding house of Weidenhammer, then was soon transferred from there to the director of the Lazarev Institute, with whom he lived as a boarder. In 1833, being only 15 years old, Turgenev entered Moscow University in the literature department, but a year later, with the family moving to St. Petersburg, he moved to St. Petersburg University. Having completed the course in 1836 with the title of full student and passing the examination for a candidate's degree the following year, Turgenev, given the low level of Russian university science of that time, could not help but realize the complete insufficiency of the university education he received and therefore went to complete his studies abroad. To this end, in 1838 he went to Berlin, where for two years he studied ancient languages, history and philosophy, mainly the Hegelian system under the guidance of Professor Werder. In Berlin, Turgenev became close friends with Stankevich, Granovsky, Frolov, Bakunin, who together with him listened to lectures by Berlin professors.

However, it was not just scientific interests that prompted him to go abroad. Possessing by nature a sensitive and receptive soul, which he preserved among the groans of the unrequited “subjects” of the landowners-lords, among the “beatings and tortures” of the serfdom, which instilled in him from the very first days of his adult life invincible horror and deep disgust, Turgenev felt a strong need to at least temporarily flee from their native Palestine. As he himself later wrote in his memoirs, he could either submit and humbly wander along the common path, along the beaten path, or turn away at once, push “everyone and everything” away from him, even at the risk of losing much that was dear and close to my heart. That’s what I did... I threw myself headfirst into the “German sea,” which was supposed to cleanse and revive me, and when I finally emerged from its waves, I still found myself a “Westerner” and remained one forever.”

The beginning of Turgenev's literary activity dates back to the time preceding his first trip abroad. While still a 3rd year student, he submitted for Pletnev’s consideration one of the first fruits of his inexperienced muse, a fantastic drama in verse, “Stenio” - this is a completely absurd, according to the author himself, work, in which, with childish ineptitude, a slavish imitation of Byron’s was expressed. Manfred." Although Pletnev scolded the young author, he still noticed that there was “something” in him. These words prompted Turgenev to take him several more poems, two of which were published a year later in " Contemporary" Upon returning from abroad in 1841, Turgenev went to Moscow with the intention of taking the exam for a Master of Philosophy; This turned out to be impossible, however, due to the abolition of the philosophy department at Moscow University. In Moscow, he met the luminaries of the Slavophilism that was emerging at that time - Aksakov, Kireevsky, Khomyakov; but the convinced “Westernizer” Turgenev reacted negatively to the new trend of Russian social thought. On the contrary, he became very close friends with the hostile Slavophiles Belinsky, Herzen, Granovsky and others.

In 1842, Turgenev left for St. Petersburg, where, due to a disagreement with his mother, who severely limited his funds, he was forced to follow the “common track” and enter service in the office of the Minister of Internal Affairs Perovsky. “Registered” in this service for a little over two years, Turgenev was not so much engaged in official affairs as in reading French novels and writing poetry. Around the same time, starting in 1841, in " Domestic Notes“His small poems began to appear, and in 1843 the poem “Parasha” was published, signed by T. L., which was very sympathetically received by Belinsky, with whom he soon met and remained in close friendly relations until the end of his days. The young writer made a very strong impression on Belinsky. “This man,” he wrote to his friends, “is unusually smart; conversations and arguments with him took my soul away.” Turgenev later recalled these disputes with love. Belinsky had a considerable influence on the further direction of his literary activity. (See Turgenev's early work.)

Turgenev soon became close to the circle of writers who grouped around Otechestvennye Zapiski and attracted him to participate in this magazine, and took an outstanding place among them as a person with a broad philosophical education, familiar with Western European science and literature from primary sources. After “Parasha”, Turgenev wrote two more poems in verse: “Conversation” (1845) and “Andrey” (1845). His first prose work was a one-act dramatic essay “Carelessness” (“Otechestvennye Zapiski”, 1843), followed by the story “Andrei Kolosov” (1844), the humorous poem “The Landowner” and the stories “Three Portraits” and “Briter” (1846) . These first literary experiments did not satisfy Turgenev, and he was ready to give up literary activity when Panaev, starting with Nekrasov to publish Sovremennik, turned to him with a request to send something for the first book of the updated magazine. Turgenev sent a short story “Khor and Kalinich”, which was placed by Panaev in the modest “mixture” section under the title “From the Notes of a Hunter”, which he invented, which created unfading fame for our famous writer.

This story, which immediately aroused everyone's attention, begins a new period of Turgenev's literary activity. He completely abandons the writing of poetry and turns exclusively to stories and stories, primarily from the life of the serf peasantry, imbued with a humane feeling and compassion for the enslaved masses. “Notes of a Hunter” soon became famous; their rapid success forced the author to abandon his previous decision to part with literature, but could not reconcile him with the difficult conditions of Russian life. An ever-increasing sense of dissatisfaction with them finally led him to the decision to finally settle abroad (1847). “I didn’t see any other way in front of me,” he wrote later, recalling the internal crisis that he was experiencing at that time. “I couldn’t breathe the same air, stay close to what I hated; For this I probably lacked reliable endurance and strength of character. I needed to move away from my enemy in order to attack him more strongly from my distance. In my eyes, this enemy had a certain image, bore a well-known name: this enemy was serfdom. Under this name I collected and concentrated everything that I decided to fight against to the end - with which I vowed never to reconcile... This was my Annibal oath... I also went to the West in order to better fulfill it.” This main motive was also joined by personal motives - a hostile relationship with his mother, dissatisfied with the fact that her son chose a literary career, and Ivan Sergeevich’s affection for the famous singer Viardot-Garcia and her family, with whom he lived almost inseparably for 38 years. single all my life.

Ivan Turgenev and Polina Viardot. More than love

In 1850, the year of his mother’s death, Turgenev returned to Russia to organize his affairs. He released all the courtyard peasants of the family estate that he and his brother had inherited; He transferred those who wished to quit rent and contributed in every possible way to the success of the general liberation. In 1861, during the redemption, he gave up a fifth of everything, but in the main estate he did not take anything for the estate land, which was quite a large sum. In 1852, Turgenev published “Notes of a Hunter” as a separate edition, which finally strengthened his fame. But in official spheres, where serfdom was considered an inviolable foundation of public order, the author of “Notes of a Hunter,” who also lived abroad for a long time, was in very bad standing. An insignificant reason was enough for the official disgrace against the author to take a concrete form. This reason was Turgenev’s letter, caused by Gogol’s death in 1852 and published in Moskovskie Vedomosti. For this letter, the author was sent to prison for a month, where, by the way, he wrote the story “Mumu”, and then, by administrative order, he was sent to live in his village of Spasskoye, “without the right to leave.” Turgenev was released from this exile only in 1854 through the efforts of the poet Count A.K. Tolstoy, who interceded for him with the heir to the throne. A forced stay in the village, as Turgenev himself admitted, gave him the opportunity to become acquainted with those aspects of peasant life that had previously eluded his attention. There he wrote the stories “Two Friends”, “The Calm”, the beginning of the comedy “A Month in the Country” and two critical articles. From 1855 he reconnected with his foreign friends, from whom exile had separated him. From this time on, the most famous fruits of his artistic work began to appear - “Rudin” (1856), “Asya” (1858), “The Noble Nest” (1859), “On the Eve” and “First Love” (1860). [Cm. Novels and heroes of Turgenev, Turgenev - lyrics in prose.]

Having retired abroad again, Turgenev listened sensitively to everything that was happening in his homeland. At the first rays of the dawn of revival that was breaking over Russia, Turgenev felt in himself a new surge of energy, which he wanted to give a new use to. To his mission as a sensitive artist of our time, he wanted to add the role of a publicist-citizen, at one of the most important moments in the socio-political development of his homeland. During this period of preparation for reforms (1857 - 1858), Turgenev was in Rome, where many Russians then lived, including Prince. V. A. Cherkassky, V. N. Botkin, gr. Ya. I. Rostovtsev. These individuals organized meetings among themselves at which the issue of liberating the peasants was discussed, and the result of these meetings was a project for the founding of a magazine, the program of which Turgenev was entrusted with developing. In his explanatory note to the program, Turgenev proposed calling on all the living forces of society to assist the government in the liberation reform being undertaken. The author of the note recognized Russian science and literature with such forces. The projected magazine was supposed to be devoted “exclusively and specifically to the development of all issues related to the actual organization of peasant life and the consequences arising from them.” This attempt, however, was considered “premature” and was not put into practice.

In 1862, the novel “Fathers and Sons” appeared (see its full text, summary and analysis), which had unprecedented success in the literary world, but also brought many difficult moments to the author. A whole hail of sharp reproaches rained down on him both from the conservatives, who accused him (pointing to the image of Bazarov) of sympathizing with “nihilists”, of “tumbling in front of the youth,” and from the latter, who accused Turgenev of slandering the younger generation and of treason.” cause of freedom." By the way, “Fathers and Sons” led Turgenev to break with Herzen, who insulted him with a harsh review of this novel. All these troubles had such a hard effect on Turgenev that he seriously thought about abandoning further literary activity. The lyrical story “Enough,” written by him shortly after the troubles he experienced, serves as a literary monument to the gloomy mood that the author was in at that time.

Fathers and Sons. Feature film based on the novel by I. S. Turgenev. 1958

But the need for creativity in the artist was too great for him to dwell on his decision for a long time. In 1867, the novel “Smoke” appeared, which also brought upon the author accusations of backwardness and lack of understanding of Russian life. Turgenev reacted much more calmly to the new attacks. “Smoke” was his last work to appear on the pages of the Russian Messenger. Since 1868, he published exclusively in the then emerging journal “Bulletin of Europe”. At the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War, Turgenev moved from Baden-Baden to Paris with Viardot and lived in the house of his friends in the winter, and in the summer he moved to his dacha in Bougival (near Paris). In Paris, he became close friends with the most prominent representatives of French literature, was on friendly terms with Flaubert, Daudet, Ogier, Goncourt, and patronized Zola and Maupassant. As before, he continued to write a novel or short story every year, and in 1877 Turgenev’s largest novel, Nov, appeared. Like almost everything that came from the pen of the novelist, his new work - and this time, perhaps with more reason than ever - aroused many different rumors. The attacks were renewed with such ferocity that Turgenev returned to his old idea of ​​stopping his literary activity. And, indeed, for 3 years he did not write anything. But during this time events occurred that completely reconciled the writer with the public.

In 1879 Turgenev came to Russia. His arrival gave rise to a whole series of warm applause at his address, in which young people took a particularly active part. They testified to how strong the sympathy of the Russian intelligentsia for the novelist was. On his next visit in 1880, this ovation, but on an even more grandiose scale, was repeated in Moscow during the “Pushkin days”. Since 1881, alarming news about Turgenev’s illness began to appear in newspapers. Gout, from which he had been suffering for a long time, grew worse and at times caused him severe suffering; for almost two years, at short intervals, she kept the writer chained to a bed or chair, and on August 22, 1883, she put an end to his life. Two days after his death, Turgenev's body was transported from Bougival to Paris, and on September 19 it was sent to St. Petersburg. The transfer of the ashes of the famous novelist to the Volkovo cemetery was accompanied by a grandiose procession, unprecedented in the annals of Russian literature.

The father of the writer Ivan Sergeevich came from an old family of Tula and Orel nobles. His great-grandfather was a cavalry guard in 1726 and later a brigadier, and his father served in the Semenovsky regiment. Sergei Turgenev was born on the family estate with. Turgenev, Chernsky district, Tula province, 18 versts from the village. Spassky-Lutovinov; his father had only 140 peasant souls.

Medal "In Memory of the Patriotic War of 1812." In 1810, sixteen-year-old Sergei Turgenev enlisted as a cadet in the Cavalry Regiment, and a year later he was promoted to cadet cadet. He took part in the Battle of Borodino, where he “bravely crashed into the enemy and struck him with fearlessness,” and was “wounded in the hand by buckshot,” and was awarded the insignia of the Military Order. Sergei did not take part in the campaign of 1813; he remained in Russia with the reserve squadrons, which were then formed by General Kologrivov. During this time he was promoted (October 21, 1812) to cornet, and a year later to lieutenant.

In March 1814, with a reserve squadron, Sergei Turgenev was sent abroad to join the regiment. He met the regiment only on June 30 in Saxony on the return trip from France and together with the regiment returned to Russia.

In November 1815, Turgenev was sent on leave to the Oryol province and here, two months later, he married Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova, a wealthy owner of populated estates in the provinces of Kursk, Kaluga, Oryol, Tula and Tambov, which she inherited from her uncle, who had previously died suddenly, with whom she lived since 1810.

Sergei was only 23 years old at that time; “He was very handsome: amazing dark eyes, bold and courageous... a kind of mermaid look, bright and mysterious; sensual lips and a barely noticeable grin.” One German ruling princess once told Varvara Petrovna that “after Emperor Alexander I, she had not seen anyone more beautiful than her husband.”

Lutovinova was 6 years older than her husband. Short, stooped, dark brunette with a large nose, gray in age, with a face marred by smallpox, she was very unattractive: large black eyes, lighting up with an evil shine, not only did not brighten up her face, but gave it an even unpleasant expression. But she was the only heir to Lutovinova’s large fortune, which consisted of several thousand serf souls, and she well understood that her husband loved not her, but her fortune, that she was a profitable match for him... Despite her ugly appearance, Lutovinova also had a very difficult character , although they say she was “smart and charming” when she wanted it.

After his marriage, Sergei Turgenev, having overstayed his leave, returned to the regiment and on August 9, 1817 he was promoted to staff captain, a year later to captain, and on October 20, 1819 he was transferred as a lieutenant colonel in excess of the ranks to the Ekaterinoslav Cuirassier Regiment, stationed in the south.

In 1816, on November 4, the Turgenevs' eldest son, Nikolai, was born; October 28, 1818 - second, Ivan, future writer; third and last son, Sergei, born March 18, 1821 (epileptic; he died at 18). In the same year, S. N. Turgenev retired as a colonel and settled with his family in the village. Spassky-Lutovinovo, Mtsensk district.

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Life in Lutovinovo proceeded in the same way as in most of the rich “nests of the nobility” of that time: numerous servants, its own orchestra, its own singers and theater, frequent guests from all over the district and constantly changing tutors for the children - all sorts of Swiss and Germans of dubious quality. .. Ivan Turgenev learned French from them early, but learned and fell in love with Russian literature only thanks to his mother’s serf valet, who enthusiastically read Kheraskov’s Rossiyada. All members of the household, starting with the children, suffered a lot from Varvara Petrovna’s cruelty and Sergei Nikolaevich’s temper. Having long observed scenes of his mother’s despotism over the serfs, Ivan Turgenev remembered the impressions of his youth all his life and admitted that he “grew up among beatings and torture.” “They beat me up,” he said, “for all sorts of trifles almost every day...” Sergei Nikolaevich was little interested in this; life in Spassky brought much more pleasure to the husband than to the wife: she knew his inclinations well. Ivan Turgenev did not often remember his father, but when this happened, he determined with complete sincerity the prevailing trait of his character: “My father was a great fisher before the Lord...”

At the beginning of 1827, the Turgenevs moved to Moscow, where they bought themselves a house on Samotek. Probably, Sergei Nikolaevich’s health required constant treatment, and besides, the children were growing up and had to be placed in educational institutions. It is known that Ivan Turgenev was first sent to the Weidenhammer boarding school, then lived with the director of the Krause Institute, and finally, in 1833, entered Moscow University.

This summer the Turgenevs lived in a dacha near the Donskoy Monastery, opposite the Neskuchny Garden, at least that’s what Turgenev says in his story “First Love”; In the hero of the story, the writer portrayed his father, and, according to the author, in this story “there is not a single line that was invented.”

Meanwhile, the Turgenevs' eldest son Nikolai entered military service in St. Petersburg; the whole family moved there at the beginning of 1834. “Six months later, my father,” says Ivan Turgenev in the story “First Love,” “died of a stroke in St. Petersburg, where he had just moved with his mother and me.”

In addition to the above, other information about S.N. There is no information about Turgenev as a person, and therefore it will not be superfluous to look at exactly how the son-writer tried to portray his father in his story.

Tall, handsome, strong and brave, despising timid people, an excellent horseman, he was a man full of strength, thirsty and in a hurry to live and able to enjoy the blessings of life... “Take what you can yourself,” he told his son, “and in don't give in, belong to yourself - that's the whole point of life... Do you know what can give freedom to a person? Will, one's own will; and it will give power, which is better than freedom. Know how to want - and you will be free, and you will command ..." If Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev was really the way the hero of the story is depicted, he was the complete opposite of his famous son, who precisely lacked what, according to his father, was the whole "thing of life" ...

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a famous Russian prose writer, poet, classic of world literature, playwright, critic, memoirist and translator. He is the author of many outstanding works. The fate of this great writer will be discussed in this article.

Early childhood

Turgenev's biography (brief in our review, but very rich in reality) began in 1818. The future writer was born on November 9 in the city of Orel. His dad, Sergei Nikolaevich, was a combat officer in a cuirassier regiment, but retired soon after Ivan’s birth. The boy’s mother, Varvara Petrovna, was a representative of a wealthy noble family. It was on the family estate of this powerful woman - Spasskoye-Lutovinovo - that the first years of Ivan’s life passed. Despite her difficult, unbending disposition, Varvara Petrovna was a very enlightened and educated person. She managed to instill in her children (in the family, besides Ivan, his older brother Nikolai was raised) a love of science and Russian literature.

Education

The future writer received his primary education at home. So that it could continue in a dignified manner, the Turgenev family moved to Moscow. Here Turgenev’s biography (short) took a new turn: the boy’s parents went abroad, and he was kept in various boarding houses. First he lived and was brought up in Weidenhammer's establishment, then in Krause's. At the age of fifteen (in 1833), Ivan entered Moscow State University at the Faculty of Literature. After the eldest son Nikolai joined the Guards cavalry, the Turgenev family moved to St. Petersburg. Here the future writer became a student at a local university and began studying philosophy. In 1837, Ivan graduated from this educational institution.

Trying out the pen and further education

For many, Turgenev’s work is associated with writing prose works. However, Ivan Sergeevich initially planned to become a poet. In 1934, he wrote several lyrical works, including the poem “The Wall,” which was appreciated by his mentor, P. A. Pletnev. Over the next three years, the young writer has already composed about a hundred poems. In 1838, several of his works (“To the Venus of Medicine,” “Evening”) were published in the famous Sovremennik. The young poet felt inclined towards scientific activity and in 1838 went to Germany to continue his education at the University of Berlin. Here he studied Roman and Greek literature. Ivan Sergeevich quickly became imbued with the Western European way of life. A year later, the writer returned to Russia briefly, but already in 1840 he left his homeland again and lived in Italy, Austria and Germany. Turgenev returned to Spasskoye-Lutovinovo in 1841, and a year later he turned to Moscow State University with a request to allow him to take the exam for a master's degree in philosophy. This was denied to him.

Pauline Viardot

Ivan Sergeevich managed to obtain a scientific degree at St. Petersburg University, but by that time he had already lost interest in this type of activity. In search of a worthy career in life, in 1843 the writer entered the service of the ministerial office, but his ambitious aspirations quickly faded away. In 1843, the writer published the poem “Parasha,” which impressed V. G. Belinsky. Success inspired Ivan Sergeevich, and he decided to devote his life to creativity. In the same year, Turgenev’s (brief) biography was marked by another fateful event: the writer met the outstanding French singer Pauline Viardot. Having seen the beauty at the St. Petersburg Opera House, Ivan Sergeevich decided to meet her. At first, the girl did not pay attention to the little-known writer, but Turgenev was so amazed by the singer’s charm that he followed the Viardot family to Paris. For many years he accompanied Polina on her foreign tours, despite the obvious disapproval of his relatives.

Creativity flourishes

In 1946, Ivan Sergeevich actively took part in updating the Sovremennik magazine. He meets Nekrasov, and he becomes his best friend. For two years (1950-1952) the writer was torn between abroad and Russia. During this period, Turgenev's creativity began to gain serious momentum. The series of stories “Notes of a Hunter” was almost entirely written in Germany and made the writer famous throughout the world. In the next decade, the classic author created a number of outstanding prose works: “The Noble Nest”, “Rudin”, “Fathers and Sons”, “On the Eve”. During the same period, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev quarreled with Nekrasov. Their controversy over the novel “On the Eve” ended in a complete break. The writer leaves Sovremennik and goes abroad.

Abroad

Turgenev's life abroad began in Baden-Baden. Here Ivan Sergeevich found himself in the very center of Western European cultural life. He began to maintain relationships with many world literary celebrities: Hugo, Dickens, Maupassant, France, Thackeray and others. The writer actively promoted Russian culture abroad. For example, in 1874 in Paris, Ivan Sergeevich, together with Daudet, Flaubert, Goncourt and Zola, organized the now famous “bachelor dinners at five” in the capital’s restaurants. Turgenev's characterization during this period was very flattering: he turned into the most popular, famous and read Russian writer in Europe. In 1878, Ivan Sergeevich was elected vice-president of the International Literary Congress in Paris. Since 1877, the writer has been an honorary doctor of Oxford University.

Creativity of recent years

Turgenev's biography - short but vivid - indicates that the long years spent abroad did not alienate the writer from Russian life and its pressing problems. He still writes a lot about his homeland. So, in 1867, Ivan Sergeevich wrote the novel “Smoke,” which caused a large-scale public outcry in Russia. In 1877, the writer composed the novel “New,” which became the result of his creative reflections in the 1870s.

Demise

For the first time, a serious illness that interrupted the writer’s life made itself felt in 1882. Despite severe physical suffering, Ivan Sergeevich continued to create. A few months before his death, the first part of the book “Poems in Prose” was published. The great writer died in 1883, on September 3, in the suburbs of Paris. Relatives carried out the will of Ivan Sergeevich and transported his body to his homeland. The classic was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkov cemetery. He was accompanied on his last journey by numerous admirers.

This is the biography of Turgenev (short). This man devoted his entire life to his favorite work and forever remained in the memory of posterity as an outstanding writer and famous public figure.