A shortened biography of Turgenev. Biography of Turgenev
19th century. He lived in the heyday of Russian culture, and his works became an adornment of Russian literature. Today, the name of the writer Turgenev is known to many, even schoolchildren, because his works are included in the compulsory school curriculum in literature.
Ivan Turgenev was born in the Oryol province of the Russian Empire, in the glorious city of Orel in October 1818. His father was a hereditary nobleman, served as an officer in the Russian army. Mother came from a family of wealthy landowners.
The Turgenev family estate is Spasskoye-Lutovino. It was here that the future famous Russian writer spent his entire childhood. On the estate, Ivan’s upbringing was mainly carried out by various teachers and tutors, both local and foreign.
In 1827 the family moved to Moscow. Here the boy is sent to a boarding school, where he undergoes training for about two years. In subsequent years, Ivan Turgenev studied at home, listening to lessons from private teachers.
At the age of 15, in 1833, Ivan Sergeevich entered Moscow University. A year later he will continue his studies in the capital of the Russian Empire, at St. Petersburg University. In 1836, studies at the university will be completed.
Two years later, Ivan Turgenev will travel to Berlin, Germany, where he will listen to lectures by famous professors on philosophy and philology. He spent a year and a half in Germany, and during this time he managed to meet Stankevich and Bakunin. Acquaintance with two famous cultural figures left a big imprint on the further development of the biography of Ivan Sergeevich.
In 1841, Turgenev returned to the Russian Empire. Living in Moscow, he is preparing for his master's exams. Here he met Khomyakov, Gogol and Aksakov, and later met Herzen.
In 1843, Ivan Sergeevich entered the public service. His new place of work was the “special office” under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He did not work in the civil service for long, only two years. But during this time he managed to make friends with Belinsky and other members of the circle of the famous publicist and writer.
After leaving the civil service, Turgenev went abroad for some time. Shortly before his departure, his essay “Khor and Kalinich” was published in Russia. Having returned, he begins to work at the Sovremennik magazine.
In 1852, a book was published - a collection of Turgenev’s works with the title “Notes of a Hunter”. In addition to the works included in the collection by him, there are such works (stories, plays, novels) as: “Bachelor”, “A Month in the Country”, “Freeloader”, “Provincial Woman”.
In the same year Nikolai Gogol dies. The sad event made a strong impression on Ivan Turgenev. He writes an obituary, which was banned by censorship. He was arrested for freethinking and imprisoned for a month.
Afterwards, Ivan Sergeevich was exiled to the family estate in the Oryol province. A year later he was allowed to return to the capital. During the time spent in exile in the Oryol province, Turgenev wrote his most famous work - the story “Mumu”. In subsequent years he would write: “Rudin”, “The Noble Nest”, “Fathers and Sons”, “On the Eve”.
Subsequently, in the writer’s life there was a break with the Sovremennik magazine and with Herzen. Turgenev considered Herzen's revolutionary, socialist ideas unviable. Ivan Sergeevich, one of many writers who, at the beginning of their creative career, were critical of the tsarist power, and their minds were shrouded in revolutionary romance.
When Turgenev’s personality was fully established, Ivan Sergeevich abandoned his thoughts and partnership with personalities like Herzen. Pushkin and Dostoevsky, for example, had similar experiences.
Beginning in 1863, Ivan Turgenev lived and worked abroad. In the next decade of the 19th century, he again remembered the ideas of his youth and sympathized with the Narodnaya Volya movement. At the end of the decade he came to his homeland, where he was solemnly welcomed. Soon Ivan Sergeevich became seriously ill, and died in August 1883. Turgenev with his creativity left a big mark on the development of Russian culture and literature.
×Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev born on August 22, 1818 in the city of Orel, Oryol region. Father, Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev (1793-1834), was a retired cuirassier colonel. Mother, Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva (before Lutovinov’s marriage) (1787-1850), came from a wealthy noble family.
Family Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev came from an ancient family of Tula nobles, the Turgenevs. It is curious that the great-grandfathers were involved in the events of the times of Ivan the Terrible: the names of such representatives of this family as Ivan Vasilyevich Turgenev, who was Ivan the Terrible’s nursery (1550-1556); Dmitry Vasilyevich was a governor in Kargopol in 1589. And in the Time of Troubles, Pyotr Nikitich Turgenev was executed at the Execution Ground in Moscow for denouncing False Dmitry I; great-grandfather Alexei Romanovich Turgenev was a participant in the Russian-Turkish war under Catherine II.
Up to 9 years Ivan Turgenev lived in the hereditary estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, 10 km from Mtsensk, Oryol province. In 1827, the Turgenevs, in order to give their children an education, settled in Moscow, in a house bought on Samotyok.
The first romantic interest of young Turgenev was falling in love with the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya, Ekaterina. The estates of their parents in the Moscow region bordered, they often exchanged visits. He is 14, she is 18. In letters to her son, V.P. Turgenev called E.L. Shakhovskaya a “poet” and a “villain,” since Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev himself, his son’s happy rival, could not resist the charms of the young princess. The episode was revived much later, in 1860, in the story “First Love.”
After his parents went abroad, Ivan Sergeevich first studied at the Weidenhammer boarding school, then he was sent as a boarder to the director of the Lazarevsky Institute, Kruse. In 1833, 15-year-old Turgenev entered the literature department of Moscow University. Herzen and Belinsky studied here at that time. A year later, after Ivan’s older brother joined the Guards Artillery, the family moved to St. Petersburg, and Ivan Turgenev then moved to the Faculty of Philosophy at St. Petersburg University. Timofey Granovsky became his friend.
While Turgenev I saw myself in the poetic field. In 1834 he wrote the dramatic poem “Steno” and several lyric poems. The young author showed these samples of writing to his teacher, professor of Russian literature P. A. Pletnev. Pletnev called the poem a weak imitation of Byron, but noted that the author “has something.” By 1837, he had already written about a hundred small poems. At the beginning of 1837, an unexpected and short meeting took place with A.S. Pushkin. In the first issue of the Sovremennik magazine for 1838, which after Pushkin’s death was published under the editorship of P. A. Pletnev, Turgenev’s poem “Evening” was published with the caption “- - -v”, which is the author’s debut.
In 1836, Turgenev graduated from the course with the degree of a full student. Dreaming of scientific activity, the following year he again took the final exam, received a candidate's degree, and in 1838 he went to Germany. During the trip, a fire broke out on the 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 lifeboats. 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.” Having settled in Berlin, Ivan took up his studies. While listening to lectures at the university on the history of Roman and Greek literature, at home he studied the grammar of ancient Greek and Latin. Here he became close to Stankevich. In 1839 he returned to Russia, but already in 1840 he again left for 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. He became interested in the seamstress Dunyasha, who in 1842 gave birth to his daughter Pelageya. Dunyasha was married off, leaving her daughter in an ambiguous position.
At the beginning of 1842, Ivan Sergeevich submitted a request to Moscow University for admission to the exam for the degree of Master of Philosophy. At the same time he began his literary activity.
The largest printed work of this time was the poem “Parasha”, written in 1843. Not hoping for positive criticism, he took the copy to V. G. Belinsky at Lopatin’s house, leaving the manuscript with the critic’s servant. Belinsky praised Parasha, publishing a positive review in Otechestvennye zapiski two months later. From that moment their acquaintance began, which over time grew into a strong friendship.
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. 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, without money and still unknown to Europe. 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.
In 1846 he took part in updating Sovremennik. Nekrasov is his best friend. With Belinsky he travels abroad in 1847 and in 1848 lives in Paris, where he witnesses revolutionary events. He becomes close to Herzen and falls in love with Ogarev's wife Tuchkova. In 1850-1852 he lived either in Russia or abroad. Most of the “Notes of a Hunter” were created by the writer in Germany.
Without an official marriage, Turgenev lived in the Viardot family. Polina Viardot raised Turgenev's illegitimate daughter. Several meetings with Gogol and Fet date back to this time.
In 1846, the stories “Breter” and “Three Portraits” were published. Later he wrote such works as “The Freeloader” (1848), “The Bachelor” (1849), “Provincial Woman”, “A Month in the Village”, “Quiet” (1854), “Yakov Pasynkov” (1855), “Breakfast at the Leader’s "(1856), etc. He wrote "Mumu" in 1852, while in exile in Spassky-Lutovinovo because of the obituary on the death of Gogol, which, despite the ban, he published in Moscow.
In 1852, a collection of Turgenev’s short stories was published under the general title “Notes of a Hunter,” which was released in Paris in 1854. After the death of Nicholas I, four major works of the writer 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 next two are in the “Russian Bulletin” by M. N. Katkov. Leaving Sovremennik marked a break with the radical camp of N. G. Chernyshevsky and N. A. Dobrolyubov.
Turgenev gravitates towards the circle of Westernized writers who profess the principles of “pure art”, opposing 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, who lived for some time in Turgenev’s apartment, also joined this circle. 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 the two writers, barely which did not end in a duel and spoiled the relationship between the writers for 17 long years.
From the beginning of the 1860s, Turgenev settled in Baden-Baden. The writer actively participates in the cultural life of Western Europe, making 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 are Friedrich Bodenstedt, Thackeray, Dickens, Henry James, George Sand, Victor Hugo, Saint-Beuve, Hippolyte Taine, Prosper Mérimée, Ernest Renan, Théophile Gautier, Edmond Goncourt, Emile Zola, Anatole France, Guy de Maupassant , Alphonse Daudet, Gustave Flaubert. In 1874, the famous bachelor dinners of the five began in the Parisian restaurants of Riche or Pellet: Flaubert, Edmond Goncourt, Daudet, Zola and Turgenev.
I. S. Turgenev acts as a consultant and editor for foreign translators of Russian writers; he himself writes prefaces and notes to translations of Russian writers into European languages, as well as to Russian translations of works of famous European writers. He translates 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 the Russian reader and Pushkin's works for the French reader. For some time, Turgenev became the most famous and most widely read Russian author in Europe. In 1878, at the international literary congress in Paris, the writer was elected vice-president; in 1879 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford.
Despite living abroad, all of Turgenev’s thoughts were still connected with Russia. He writes the novel “Smoke” (1867), which caused a lot of controversy in Russian society. According to the author, everyone criticized the novel: “both red and white, and above, and below, and from the side - especially from the side.” The fruit of his intense thoughts in the 1870s was the largest in volume of Turgenev’s novels, Nov (1877).
Turgenev was friends with the Milyutin brothers (fellow Minister of Internal Affairs and Minister of War), A.V. Golovnin (Minister of Education), M.H. Reitern (Minister of Finance).
At the end of his life, Turgenev decides to reconcile with Leo Tolstoy; he explains the significance of modern Russian literature, including Tolstoy’s work, to the Western reader. 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. The writer died in Bougival near Paris on August 22 (September 3), 1883 from myxosarcoma. Turgenev's body was, according to his wishes, brought to St. Petersburg and buried at the Volkovsky cemetery in front of a large crowd of people.
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Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818-1883)
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev came from a wealthy noble family. He was born on October 28, 1818 in the city of Orel. The writer's father was a guards officer, an educated and kind man. After retirement he lived in the village, but died young in 1834.
Mother, Varvara Petrovna, was the owner of huge estates not only in Oryol, but also in neighboring provinces. She came from an old family of Lutovinovs and, like her ancestors, was distinguished by her cruelty towards serfs.
Little Ivan spent his childhood on his mother’s family estate, in the village of Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, Oryol province. The boy had to observe his mother’s capricious and despotic treatment of the serfs and the landowner’s arbitrariness every day. This left a deep imprint on his soul, and later much of what he saw was reflected in his works. Serf nannies and uncles were the first educators of the future writer; later they were replaced by foreign tutors.
In 1827, the Turgenevs moved to Moscow. The children's education continued in a private boarding school, but later they were taught at home with the help of the best teachers. Such attention to the education of children led to the fact that already at the age of 15 Turgenev was ready to enter a higher educational institution. In 1833, he successfully passed the exams at Moscow University in the verbal department.
A year later, the family moved to St. Petersburg, and Ivan, having successfully completed his first year, transferred to the philological department of the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg University. Turgenev’s favorite teacher was Pushkin’s friend, Professor P.A. Pletnev, whom the young student, in his own words, revered as a demigod.
Turgenev's creative activity began during his student years. His first works (lyric poems “Evening”, “Ballad”, etc., dramatic poem “Wall”) were distinguished by romanticism and at the same time immaturity. They clearly showed the influence of the poems of Pushkin and Byron, the romantic works of popular Russian writers of the 1830s. However, the real talent of the young writer was already noticeable here, and in 1838 some of his youthful poems were published in the Sovremennik magazine.
Turgenev graduated from the university in the fall of 1837, after which he left to study philosophy in Germany. He returned to Russia in the spring of 1841, lived alternately in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and spent the summer in Spassky.
He was actively preparing for scientific work, but gradually literature became more and more important to him. For some time, Turgenev served as an official of special assignments in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but in 1845 he retired.
Works written and published in 1842-1846. (poems “Parasha”, “Landowner”, stories “Andrei Kolosov”, “Breter”, “Three Portraits”), indicate that the writer began to move away from romanticism and increasingly established himself in the positions of realism.
In the spring of 1843, Turgenev met Belinsky, and their friendship began. They became especially close in the summer of 1847, while in Salzburg, where the critic was being treated. Turgenev lived abroad since the spring of 1847 in the family of the French singer Pauline Viardot, who was a friend of the writer until his death. In Paris he witnessed the French Revolution
1848. His impressions of this event were reflected in the essays “Our People Sent!” and "The Man with Gray Glasses."
In the fall of 1850, the writer's mother died, and he received a substantial inheritance. Turgenev wrote: “... I immediately released the servants; He transferred the peasants who wished to the quitrent, contributed in every possible way to the success of the general liberation, and at the time of ransom everywhere he gave up a fifth part...” In 1852, Gogol died.
Shocked, Turgenev wrote a note about his death for St. Petersburg Vedomosti, but censorship forbade its publication. Turgenev asked his friends to publish a note in Moskovskie Vedomosti, and before the ban came, it appeared in print.
The result was Turgenev’s arrest, followed by a link: “Send him to live in his homeland, under supervision.” However, the main reason for the arrest and exile was the dissatisfaction of officials with the Notes of a Hunter.
The writer was in exile for about a year and a half. At the end of 1853 he was allowed to leave the village, but he still remained under police surveillance. Returning to St. Petersburg, Turgenev began to work actively in the editorial office of Sovremennik. In the 1850s, such works as “The Noble Nest”, “Rudin”, “On the Eve” were created, and in early August 1860.
Turgenev began writing the novel “Fathers and Sons,” which he completed in July 1861. Turgenev spent the last fifteen years of his life mainly in Paris.
He was known in Europe. Galsworthy argued that Turgenev influenced the West more than the West influenced him. Thus, in 1878, together with V. Hugo, I. Turgenev was the chairman of the international literary congress in Paris.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born into a noble family in 1818. It must be said that almost all the major Russian writers of the 19th century came from this environment. In this article we will look at the life and work of Turgenev.
Parents
It is noteworthy that Ivan’s parents met. In 1815, a young and handsome cavalry guard, Sergei Turgenev, came to Spasskoye. He made a strong impression on Varvara Petrovna (the writer’s mother). According to a contemporary close to her circle, Varvara ordered Sergei to be told through friends to make a formal proposal, and she would happily agree. For the most part, it was Turgenev who belonged to the noble class and was a war hero, and Varvara Petrovna had a large fortune.
Relations in the new family were strained. Sergei did not even try to argue with the sovereign mistress of their entire fortune. There was only alienation and barely restrained mutual irritation in the house. The only thing the spouses agreed on was the desire to give their children the best education. And they spared no effort or money on this.
Moving to Moscow
That is why the whole family moved to Moscow in 1927. At that time, wealthy nobles sent their children exclusively to private educational institutions. So young Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was sent to a boarding school at the Armenian Institute, and a few months later he was transferred to the Weidenhammer boarding school. Two years later, he was expelled from there, and his parents no longer made attempts to place their son in any institution. The future writer continued to prepare for entering university at home with tutors.
Studies
Having entered Moscow University, Ivan studied there for only a year. In 1834, he moved with his brother and father to St. Petersburg and transferred to a local educational institution. Young Turgenev graduated two years later. But in the future he always mentioned Moscow University more often, giving it the greatest preference. This was explained by the fact that the St. Petersburg Institute was known for its strict government supervision of students. In Moscow there was no such control, and the freedom-loving students were very happy.
First works
We can say that Turgenev's creativity began from his university bench. Although Ivan Sergeevich himself did not like to remember the literary experiments of that time. He considered the 40s to be the beginning of his writing career. Therefore, most of his university works have never reached us. If we consider Turgenev to be a discerning artist, then he did the right thing: the available examples of his works of that time belong to the category of literary apprenticeship. They may be of interest only to literary historians and those who want to understand where Turgenev’s work began and how his literary talent was formed.
Passion for philosophy
In the mid and late 30s, Ivan Sergeevich wrote a lot to hone his writing skills. He received a critical review from Belinsky for one of his works. This event had a great influence on Turgenev's work, which is briefly described in this article. After all, the point was not only that the great critic corrected the mistakes of the inexperienced taste of the “green” writer. Ivan Sergeevich changed his views not only on art, but also on life itself. Through observations and analysis, he decided to study reality in all its forms. Therefore, in addition to literary studies, Turgenev became interested in philosophy, and so seriously that he was thinking about becoming a professor at the department of some university. The desire to improve this area of knowledge led him to his third university - Berlin. He spent about two years there, with long interruptions, and studied the works of Hegel and Feuerbach very well.
First success
In the years 1838-1842, Turgenev’s work was not characterized by vigorous activity. He wrote little and mostly only lyrics. The poems he published did not attract the attention of either critics or readers. In this regard, Ivan Sergeevich decided to devote more time to such genres as drama and poetry. His first success in this field came to him in April 1843, when Porosha was published. And a month later, Belinsky’s laudatory review of it was published in Otechestvennye Zapiski.
In fact, this poem was not original. It became extraordinary only thanks to Belinsky’s review. And in the review itself, he spoke not so much about the poem as about Turgenev’s talent. But still, Belinsky was not mistaken; he definitely saw outstanding writing abilities in the young author.
When Ivan Sergeevich himself read the review, it did not cause him joy, but rather embarrassment. The reason for this was doubts about the correctness of choosing his vocation. They have plagued the writer since the early 40s. Nevertheless, the article encouraged him and forced him to raise the bar of requirements for his activities. From that time on, Turgenev’s creativity, briefly described in the school curriculum, received an additional incentive and went uphill. Ivan Sergeevich felt a responsibility to critics, readers and, above all, himself. So he worked hard to improve his writing skills.
Arrest
Gogol died in 1852. This event greatly influenced the life and work of Turgenev. And the point here is not at all about emotional experiences. Ivan Sergeevich wrote a “hot” article on this occasion. The censorship committee of St. Petersburg banned it, calling Gogol a “lackey” writer. Then Ivan Sergeevich sent the article to Moscow, where, through the efforts of his friends, it was published. An investigation was immediately ordered, during which Turgenev and his friends were declared to be the perpetrators of the state unrest. Ivan Sergeevich received a month of imprisonment followed by deportation to his homeland under supervision. Everyone understood that the article was just a pretext, but the order came from the very top. By the way, during the writer’s “imprisonment” one of his best stories was published. On the cover of each book there was an inscription: “Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev “Bezhin Meadow”.
After his release, the writer went into exile in the village of Spasskoye. There he spent almost a year and a half. At first, nothing could captivate him: neither hunting nor creativity. He wrote very little. Ivan Sergeevich’s letters at that time were replete with complaints about loneliness and requests to come visit him at least for a while. He asked fellow craftsmen to visit him, as he felt a strong need for communication. But there were also positive moments. As the chronological table of Turgenev’s work says, it was at that time that the writer conceived the idea of writing “Fathers and Sons.” Let's talk about this masterpiece.
"Fathers and Sons"
After its publication in 1862, this novel caused a very heated controversy, during which most readers dubbed Turgenev a reactionary. This controversy frightened the writer. He believed that he would no longer be able to find mutual understanding with young readers. But it was to them that the work was addressed. In general, Turgenev’s work experienced difficult times. “Fathers and Sons” was the reason for this. As at the beginning of his writing career, Ivan Sergeevich doubted his own calling.
At this time, he wrote the story “Ghosts,” which perfectly conveyed his thoughts and doubts. Turgenev reasoned that the writer's imagination is powerless before the secrets of the people's consciousness. And in the story “Enough,” he generally doubted the fruitfulness of the activities of an individual for the benefit of society. It seemed that Ivan Sergeevich no longer cares about success with the public, and he is thinking about ending his career as a writer. Pushkin’s work helped Turgenev change his decision. Ivan Sergeevich read the great poet’s reasoning regarding the opinion of the public: “It is fickle, multifaceted and subject to fashion trends. But a true poet always addresses the audience given to him by fate. His duty is to awaken good feelings in her.”
Conclusion
We examined the life and work of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. Since those times, Russia has changed a lot. Everything that the writer brought to the fore in his works remains in the distant past. Most of the manorial estates found on the pages of the author’s works no longer exist. And the theme of evil landowners and nobility no longer has social relevance. And the Russian village is completely different now.
Nevertheless, the fates of the heroes of that time continue to arouse genuine interest in the modern reader. It turns out that everything that Ivan Sergeevich hated is hated by us too. And what seemed good to him is also good from our point of view. Of course, one can disagree with the writer, but hardly anyone will argue with the fact that Turgenev’s work is timeless.
Two days before his death, he dictated a story in French. He died of a serious illness at the age of 65 in Paris. He was buried in St. Petersburg, as was his will.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev wrote six novels, several dozen stories, short stories, plays and many poems. He created unique images of women on paper, thanks to which everyone knows who Turgenev’s girl is. But he himself was never married, although he had an illegitimate daughter and several unsuccessful novels. Because all his life he adored only one woman - opera diva Polina Viardot. In his works, a happy ending rarely happens; the last chord is more often sad.
The writer was popular in Europe and respected at home. He fell into the category of classics during his lifetime. He was called a brilliant novelist, and the great George Sand considered him her teacher. He translated almost all the works of Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy for French, German and Italian readers.
Hunting was his only passion; he traveled hundreds of thousands of kilometers with a gun, not only across Russia, but also across France, Germany and England. At the end of his life, he repented of the countless number of partridges, ducks, woodcocks and black grouse he had killed.
From the noble class, he received a decent inheritance and had more than twenty thousand rubles a year in income from land alone. His fees were significant. He also received a significant bonus from the publication of novels.
Spanked for no reason
Cavalry guard Sergei Turgenev was completely ruined, and he had to marry for convenience. His chosen one was the wealthy noblewoman Varvara Lutovinova, who had a very imperious disposition. In 1816 they got married. The stately, handsome 26-year-old man and the 30-year-old unattractive owner of a large estate in the Oryol province for five thousand souls were not happy.
In the same year, their son Nikolai was born, and two years later - Ivan.
The marriage did not bring happiness to Sergei Nikolaevich, but it helped improve his affairs. He willingly worked with his sons, and they found protection from his mother, who mercilessly flogged both of them for any reason. Little Ivan even tried to run away from home, not understanding why he was being whipped. Her father also could not stand her and after 14 years he ran away from her. His life was cut short at the age of 41, and the children were left entirely in the care of their unbalanced mother.
We must give her credit: she was educated and prescribed French and German tutors for her sons. They were taught literacy, languages, and mathematics. There was a large library in the house and my mother regularly updated it with new items.
When Ivan was nine years old, the family moved to Moscow. The boy entered the boarding school. He became a student at Moscow University at the age of 15. Belinsky studied in the senior courses, with whom they will communicate throughout their lives.
At this age he falls in love for the first time. She is the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya Katenka. The matter is complicated by the fact that at the same time his father was also attracted to her. As a mature writer, Turgenev will remember this story: in the heroine of the story “First Love” the features of Katenka will be clearly visible.
A year later, he and his mother moved to St. Petersburg, where Nikolai, the writer’s older brother, was waiting for them. He entered the artillery school. Ivan chooses the Faculty of Philosophy at St. Petersburg University. The period of study is significant for him; he meets Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Koltsov and a little later Lermontov. The poems that Turgenev writes in his third year are written under the influence of their work. By the end of their studies, two of them were published in the Sovremennik magazine. Turgenev had a dream of becoming a poet since childhood.
He longs to get away from his mother's care. After graduating from university, the 20-year-old young man moves to Germany. At the University of Berlin he attends lectures, studies Roman and Greek literature, learns ancient languages in order to read ancient classics in the original.
He is strongly impressed by European culture. From that time on, he became convinced that Russia was in darkness, in serfdom, and only culture could rescue her from this state. He travels a lot around Europe. Only three years later he returns to the estate.
Here he falls in love with the girl Dunyasha. Passion flares up and ends in pregnancy. The mother creates a scandal and sends Avdotya to Moscow, where her daughter Pelageya is born. And Ivan’s thirst for science suddenly awakens. He leaves for St. Petersburg, where he takes the exam for a master's degree in philology and writes a dissertation.
At the same time, a muse visits him and for 25 years he creates the poem “Parasha”, which is published with a friendly review from Belinsky. From this time on, the friendship of the two famous people began. At the same time, he wrote the poem “Foggy Morning,” which is better known as a romance.
A year later, Turgenev takes up prose, gets carried away, abandons his dissertation and completely immerses himself in a new genre for him. The stories “Breter” and “Three Portraits” are published. In the first, critics find the influence of Lermontov, in the second - the original motives of the author himself. He told in “Three Portraits” the history of the Lutovinov generations and it becomes clear why mother has such an intolerable character.
Abroad will help us
The writer became famous for his stories about hunting - his only passion, which he retained until the end of his days. Without her, there would be no “Notes of a Hunter.” The chapters of this story were published in 1847 by the Sovremennik magazine.
Turgenev writes a lot, including for the theater. His dramas are published, and his theatrical premieres are favorably received by the public. Many images are inspired by Shakespeare and Byron, whose plays Ivan Sergeevich translates.
He often goes abroad: his acquaintance with Pauline Viardot has long grown from the epistolary genre to love.
Having met her at the St. Petersburg opera, he fell in love immediately and forever. He is 25, she is only 22 years old and she is married to the forty-year-old composer and director of the Italian theater in Paris, Louis. This acquaintance will forever connect Turgenev with the Viardot family. He will constantly confess his feelings to her, and she will see him only as a friend. So in 1850, he did not have time for his mother’s funeral, when he once again visited Viardot’s house in Paris.
Varvara Petrovna never justified this relationship, even depriving her son of all financial support. But now he and his brother shared the inheritance: the estate and the house on Ostozhenka Street passed to him. The Turgenev Museum is located in a Moscow mansion. By the way, it was in this house that the events that he transferred to the story “Mumu” took place.
When he was 32 years old, Gogol died. His work was close to Ivan Sergeevich. They met one day abroad. He felt the loss heartily and wrote an obituary. Its publication in the newspaper displeased the censors. Turgenev spoke about him with more sympathy than the state would like. This was the first serious clash with the system, which already had a grudge against the writer for his radical views, protection of serfs from tyranny, and friendship with revolutionaries.
He feared that his “Notes of a Hunter” would never be published as a separate publication due to the close attention to him from censorship. But they are missed. True, the mistake was immediately identified and, by order of the Tsar, the censor was deprived of his position. Two years later, this work will be published in French in Paris, but the author will not be satisfied with the quality of the translation.
After the death of the sovereign, all the novels of Ivan Turgenev will be published as they are written. His fees were considered the highest among writers.
But the writer has not turned to dramaturgy for more than ten years. He considered the productions of his plays unconvincing, and the critics did not say a single kind word in his defense.
He will return to the theater only once, when his Polina needs operetta librettos to stage on her own small stage while they live together in Germany. Europeans, by the way, appreciated his talent as a playwright; his plays were performed in many theaters.
For ten years the writer will live abroad, communicate with European authors: Maupassant, Flaubert, Hugo.
At one time, bachelor “dinners of five” were held in restaurants in Paris. This is what the great French authors Flaubert, Zola, Turgenev and others called their meetings. Once a month they met to discuss various literary topics and talk about the future.
In Europe, plans to write the novel “Smoke” appear. This is a story about the writer’s contemporaries, but it takes place in one of the German resorts where Russian aristocrats vacation. He writes a novel for two years and receives a book as a gift for his fiftieth birthday.
Ten years later, his most voluminous and last novel is published. “New” was written after the abolition of serfdom, the novel again immerses readers in the atmosphere of revolutionary sentiments, but now there is less nobility in the heroes, more despondency - nothing is changing in the country, the government is stupid, the people are poor.
The writer's creativity and contribution to English literature were appreciated at Oxford. The famous university of England declares him an honorary doctor - a title that has not been awarded to any writer in the world.
Family saga
Turgenev met his eight-year-old daughter when he once again came to the estate. The girl was thin and poorly dressed. Avdotya did not deny that Pelageya was his daughter. He was confused, in an emotional outburst he writes a heartbreaking letter to Pauline Viardot and asks for advice. Polina asks to bring the girl to France so that she can be raised in their family. She had just given birth to her fourth child - son Paul - and was not thinking about touring.
He changed her daughter's name to something more harmonious for the French - Polinette. She lived with Viardot until she was 14 years old. I almost forgot Russian. When Turgenev arrived after a six-year separation from her, he saw a negative relationship between his daughter and his lover. He sent her to boarding until his next arrival. Then they lived together in Paris and the girl had governesses.
She married a Frenchman at age 17. He was an entrepreneur, six years older than her, but Turgenev liked him and gave his consent. Polynet received a rich dowry. But she was not happy for long. Her husband went broke, started drinking, and she had no choice but to take her daughter Jeanne and son Georges and leave. For a long time they lived in Switzerland and Turgenev always helped them. He even offered to sell the estate so that his daughter and grandchildren would not need anything, but he did not have time.
After his death, his only and adored Polina turned out to be his heir.
The daughter received nothing from her father's fortune. She tried to restore justice through the court, but was unable to challenge the writer’s will. She lived in poverty, earning money by tutoring. She died in Paris at the age of 77. The cause of death was cancer.
The writer's grandson will die in 1924, and his granddaughter will live until she is eighty. None of Polynet's children will have heirs. So the Turgenev family was interrupted.
Pauline Viardot will bury her husband Louis and friend Ivan in one year. She will live for more than 20 years and become famous as a talented teacher.
Burned out in three years
Turgenev was 62 years old when he was invited to the opening of the monument to Pushkin. His stay in Russia was a triumph. The capital's salons opened their doors for him, noble barkers for dinners. But he preferred to go to Yasnaya Polyana to hunt game with Lev Nikolaevich for the last time. He was already feeling unwell, about which he complained to his friend. Tolstoy advised not to pay attention, they walked, talked, made plans.
Before leaving for Paris, Ivan Sergeevich stopped by the estate, gave some orders and promised to return soon.
In France, he continued to work: he was preparing for publication the cycle “Poems in Prose”, the last chord of which he put “Russian Language” - a declaration of love to his homeland.
He felt very bad and went to Viardot. Doctors diagnosed angina pectoris and even performed surgery. But nothing helped - for several months the writer suffered from pain and took morphine. He died in the late summer of 1883. After an autopsy, it was determined that the cause of death was cancer of the bones of the spine.
The funeral brought together all the famous writers and writers of that time, and ordinary readers also came to say goodbye.
Newspapers were full of articles about the Russian writer, his significance in world literature, realistic pictures of the social life of Russia, and simply and deeply structured thoughts. Through his prose, contemporaries better understood what was happening in the country. The concept of “nihilism” he invented is still in use. He was always on the side of the peasants, felt their moods and advocated the education of society. Several feature films have been made based on his works.
