- Fiction writer and playwright
- From “Smoke” to “Prose Poems”
And Van Turgenev was one of the most important Russians writers of the 19th century century. Created by him art system changed the poetics of the novel both in Russia and abroad. His works were praised and harshly criticized, and Turgenev spent his entire life searching in them for a path that would lead Russia to well-being and prosperity.
“Poet, talent, aristocrat, handsome”
Ivan Turgenev's family came from an old family of Tula nobles. His father, Sergei Turgenev, served in a cavalry regiment and led a very wasteful lifestyle. To improve his financial situation, he was forced to marry an elderly (by the standards of that time), but very wealthy landowner Varvara Lutovinova. The marriage became unhappy for both of them, their relationship did not work out. Their second son, Ivan, was born two years after the wedding, in 1818, in Orel. The mother wrote in her diary: “...on Monday my son Ivan was born, 12 vershoks [about 53 centimeters] tall”. There were three children in the Turgenev family: Nikolai, Ivan and Sergei.
Until he was nine years old, Turgenev lived on the Spasskoye-Lutovinovo estate in the Oryol region. His mother had a difficult and contradictory character: her sincere and heartfelt care for the children was combined with severe despotism; Varvara Turgeneva often beat her sons. However, she invited the best French and German tutors to her children, spoke exclusively French to her sons, but at the same time remained a fan of Russian literature and read Nikolai Karamzin, Vasily Zhukovsky, Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol.
In 1827, the Turgenevs moved to Moscow so that their children could receive a better education. Three years later, Sergei Turgenev left the family.
When Ivan Turgenev was 15 years old, he entered the literature department of Moscow University. It was then that the future writer first fell in love with Princess Ekaterina Shakhovskaya. Shakhovskaya exchanged letters with him, but reciprocated with Turgenev’s father and thereby broke his heart. Later, this story became the basis of Turgenev’s story “First Love.”
A year later, Sergei Turgenev died, and Varvara and her children moved to St. Petersburg, where Turgenev entered the Faculty of Philosophy at St. Petersburg University. Then he became seriously interested in lyricism and wrote his first work - the dramatic poem “Steno”. Turgenev spoke of her like this: “A completely absurd work, in which, with frenzied ineptitude, a slavish imitation of Byron’s Manfred was expressed.”. In total, during his years of study, Turgenev wrote about a hundred poems and several poems. Some of his poems were published by the Sovremennik magazine.
After his studies, 20-year-old Turgenev went to Europe to continue his education. He studied ancient classics, Roman and Greek literature, traveled through France, Holland, Italy. The European way of life amazed Turgenev: he came to the conclusion that Russia must get rid of incivility, laziness, and ignorance, following the Western countries.
Unknown artist. Ivan Turgenev at the age of 12 years. 1830. State Literary Museum
Eugene Louis Lamy. Portrait of Ivan Turgenev. 1844. State Literary Museum
Kirill Gorbunkov. Ivan Turgenev in his youth. 1838. State Literary Museum
In the 1840s, Turgenev returned to his homeland, received a master's degree in Greek and Latin philology at St. Petersburg University, and even wrote a dissertation - but did not defend it. Interest in scientific activity replaced the desire to write. It was at this time that Turgenev met Nikolai Gogol, Sergei Aksakov, Alexei Khomyakov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Afanasy Fet and many other writers.
“The other day the poet Turgenev returned from Paris. What a man! Poet, talent, aristocrat, handsome, rich, smart, educated, 25 years old - I don’t know what nature denied him?”
Fyodor Dostoevsky, from a letter to his brother
When Turgenev returned to Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, he had an affair with a peasant woman, Avdotya Ivanova, which ended in the girl’s pregnancy. Turgenev wanted to get married, but his mother sent Avdotya to Moscow with a scandal, where she gave birth to a daughter, Pelageya. Avdotya Ivanova’s parents hastily married her off, and Turgenev recognized Pelageya only a few years later.
In 1843, Turgenev’s poem “Parasha” was published under the initials T.L. (Turgenev-Lutovinov). Vissarion Belinsky appreciated her very highly, and from that moment their acquaintance grew into a strong friendship - Turgenev even became the godfather of the critic’s son.
“This man is unusually smart... It’s gratifying to meet a person whose original and characteristic opinion, when colliding with yours, produces sparks.”
Vissarion Belinsky
In the same year, Turgenev met Polina Viardot. About true character Researchers of Turgenev’s work are still arguing about their relationship. They met in St. Petersburg when the singer came to the city on tour. Turgenev often traveled with Polina and her husband, art critic Louis Viardot, around Europe and stayed in their Parisian home. His illegitimate daughter Pelageya was raised in the Viardot family.
Fiction writer and playwright
In the late 1840s, Turgenev wrote a lot for the theater. His plays “The Freeloader”, “The Bachelor”, “A Month in the Country” and “Provincial Woman” were very popular with the public and warmly received by critics.
In 1847, Turgenev’s story “Khor and Kalinich” was published in the Sovremennik magazine, created under the impression of the writer’s hunting travels. A little later, stories from the collection “Notes of a Hunter” were published there. The collection itself was published in 1852. Turgenev called it his “Annibal's Oath” - a promise to fight to the end against the enemy whom he hated since childhood - serfdom.
“Notes of a Hunter” is marked by such a powerful talent that has a beneficial effect on me; understanding nature often appears to you as a revelation.”
Fedor Tyutchev
This was one of the first works that openly spoke about the troubles and harm of serfdom. The censor who allowed “Notes of a Hunter” to be published was, by personal order of Nicholas I, dismissed from service and deprived of his pension, and the collection itself was prohibited from being republished. The censors explained this by saying that Turgenev, although he poeticized the serfs, criminally exaggerated their suffering from landlord oppression.
In 1856, the writer’s first major novel, “Rudin,” was published, written in just seven weeks. The name of the hero of the novel has become a household name for people whose words do not agree with deeds. Three years later, Turgenev published the novel “The Noble Nest,” which turned out to be incredibly popular in Russia: everyone educated person I considered it my duty to read it.
“Knowledge of Russian life, and moreover, knowledge not from books, but from experience, taken from reality, purified and comprehended by the power of talent and reflection, appears in all of Turgenev’s works...”
Dmitry Pisarev
From 1860 to 1861, excerpts from the novel Fathers and Sons were published in the Russian Messenger. The novel was written on the topic of the day and explored the public mood of the time - mainly the views of nihilistic youth. Russian philosopher and publicist Nikolai Strakhov wrote about him: “In Fathers and Sons he showed more clearly than in all other cases that poetry, while remaining poetry... can actively serve society...”
The novel was well received by critics, although it did not receive the support of liberals. At this time, Turgenev's relations with many friends became complicated. For example, with Alexander Herzen: Turgenev collaborated with his newspaper “Bell”. Herzen saw the future of Russia in peasant socialism, believing that bourgeois Europe had outlived its usefulness, and Turgenev defended the idea of strengthening cultural ties between Russia and the West.
Sharp criticism fell upon Turgenev after the release of his novel “Smoke”. It was a novel-pamphlet that equally sharply ridiculed both the conservative Russian aristocracy and revolutionary-minded liberals. According to the author, everyone scolded him: “both red and white, and above, and below, and from the side - especially from the side.”
From “Smoke” to “Prose Poems”
Alexey Nikitin. Portrait of Ivan Turgenev. 1859. State Literary Museum
Osip Braz. Portrait of Maria Savina. 1900. State Literary Museum
Timofey Neff. Portrait of Pauline Viardot. 1842. State Literary Museum
After 1871, Turgenev lived in Paris, occasionally returning to Russia. He actively participated in cultural life Western Europe, promoted Russian literature abroad. Turgenev communicated and corresponded with Charles Dickens, George Sand, Victor Hugo, Prosper Merimee, Guy de Maupassant, and Gustave Flaubert.
In the second half of the 1870s, Turgenev published his most ambitious novel, Nov, in which he sharply satirically and critically portrayed members of the revolutionary movement of the 1870s.
“Both novels [“Smoke” and “Nov”] only revealed his increasing alienation from Russia, the first with its impotent bitterness, the second with insufficient information and the absence of any sense of reality in the depiction of the powerful movement of the seventies.”
Dmitry Svyatopolk-Mirsky
This novel, like “Smoke,” was not accepted by Turgenev’s colleagues. For example, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote that Nov was a service to the autocracy. At the same time, the popularity of Turgenev’s early stories and novels did not decrease.
The last years of the writer’s life became his triumph both in Russia and abroad. Then a cycle of lyrical miniatures “Poems in Prose” appeared. The book opened with the prose poem “Village”, and ended with “Russian Language” - the famous hymn about faith in the great destiny of one’s country: “In days of doubt, in days of painful thoughts about the fate of my homeland, you alone are my support and support, oh great, powerful, truthful and free Russian language!.. Without you, how not to fall into despair at the sight of everything that is happening at home . But one cannot believe that such a language was not given to a great people!” This collection became Turgenev's farewell to life and art.
At the same time, Turgenev met his last love - actress of the Alexandrinsky Theater Maria Savina. She was 25 years old when she played the role of Verochka in Turgenev's play A Month in the Country. Seeing her on stage, Turgenev was amazed and openly confessed his feelings to the girl. Maria considered Turgenev more of a friend and mentor, and their marriage never took place.
IN recent years Turgenev was seriously ill. Parisian doctors diagnosed him with angina pectoris and intercostal neuralgia. Turgenev died on September 3, 1883 in Bougival near Paris, where magnificent farewells were held. The writer was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovskoye cemetery. The writer's death came as a shock to his fans - and the procession of people who came to say goodbye to Turgenev stretched for several kilometers.
More than 2,200 years ago, the great Carthaginian commander Hannibal was born. When he was nine years old, he swore that he would always resist Rome, with which Carthage had been at war for many years at that time. And he followed his word, devoting his entire life to struggle. What does Turgenev’s short biography have to do with it? - you ask. Read on and you will certainly understand everything.
Hannibal's oath
The writer was a great humanist and did not understand how a living person could be deprived of the most necessary rights and freedoms. And in his time it was even more common than it is now. Then the Russian analogue of slavery flourished: serfdom. He hated him, and he dedicated his fight to him.
Ivan Sergeevich was not as brave as the Carthaginian commander. He would not fight a bloody war with his enemy. Yet he found a way to fight and win.
Sympathizing with the serfs, Turgenev writes his “Notes of a Hunter,” with which he draws public attention to this problem. Emperor Alexander I. himself, having read these stories, became imbued with the seriousness of this problem and after about 10 years abolished serfdom. Of course, it cannot be said that the reason for this was only “Notes of a Hunter,” but it is also incorrect to deny their influence.
This is how big a role a simple writer can play.
Childhood
On November 9, 1818, Ivan Turgenev was born in the city of Orel.. The writer's biography begins from this moment. The parents were hereditary nobles. His mother had a greater influence on him, since his father, who had married for convenience, left the family early. Ivan was then a 12-year-old child.
Varvara Petrovna (that was the name of the writer’s mother) was of a difficult character, since she had a difficult childhood - a drinking stepfather, beatings, an overbearing and demanding mother. Now her sons were about to experience a difficult childhood.
However, she also had advantages: an excellent education and security in funds. What is worth mentioning is the fact that in their family it was customary to speak exclusively French, according to the fashion of that time. As a result, Ivan received an excellent education.
He was taught by tutors until he was nine years old, and then the family moved to Moscow. Moscow at that time was not the capital, but the educational institutions there were first-class, and getting there from the Oryol province was three times closer than to the capital St. Petersburg.
Turgenev studied at the boarding houses of Weidenhammer and the director of the Lazarev Institute Ivan Krause, and at the age of fifteen he entered the literature department of Moscow University. A year later, he entered the capital’s university at the Faculty of Philosophy: his family moved to St. Petersburg.
At that time, Turgenev was fond of poetry and soon attracted the attention of university professor Pyotr Pletnev to his creations. In 1838, he published the poems “Evening” and “To the Venus of Medicine” in the Sovremennik magazine, where he was editor. This was the first publication artistic creativity Ivan Turgenev. However, two years earlier it had already been published: then it was a review of Andrei Muravyov’s book “On a Journey to Holy Places.”
Ivan Sergeevich attached great importance to his activities as a critic and subsequently wrote many more reviews. He often combined them with his activities as a translator. He wrote critical works on the Russian translation of Goethe's Faust and Schiller's William Tell.
Your best critical articles the writer published the first volume of his collected works, published in 1880.
Academic life
In 1836 he graduated from the university, a year later he passed the exam and received academic degree candidate of the university. This means graduated with honors and, in modern terms, received a master's degree.
In 1838, Turgenev traveled to Germany and attended lectures there at the University of Berlin on the history of Greek and Roman literature.
In 1842, he passed the exam for a master's degree in Greek and Latin philology, wrote a dissertation, but did not defend it. His interest in this activity is cooling.
Sovremennik magazine
In 1836, Alexander Pushkin organized the production of a magazine called Sovremennik. It was dedicated, of course, to literature. It contained both works by contemporary Russian authors of that time, as well as journalistic articles. There were also translations of foreign works. Unfortunately, even during Pushkin’s lifetime the magazine was not very successful. And with his death in 1837, it gradually fell into decay, although not immediately. In 1846, Nikolai Nekrasov and Ivan Panaev bought it.
And from that moment on, Ivan Turgenev, brought by Nekrasov, joined the magazine. The first chapters of “Notes of a Hunter” are published in Sovremennik. By the way, this title was originally the subtitle of the first story, and Ivan Panaev came up with it in the hope of interest the reader. The hope was justified: the stories were extremely popular. This is how Ivan Turgenev’s dream began to come true - to change public consciousness, introduce into it the idea that serfdom is inhumane.
These stories were published in the magazine one at a time, and the censorship was lenient towards them. However, when they were published as a whole collection in 1852, the official who authorized the printing was fired. This was justified by the fact that when the stories are collected all together, they direct the reader’s thoughts in a reprehensible direction. Meanwhile, Turgenev never called for any revolutions and tried to be in harmony with the authorities.
But sometimes his works were misinterpreted, and this led to problems. Thus, in 1860, Nikolai Dobrolyubov wrote and published a laudatory review of Turgenev’s new book “On the Eve” in Sovremennik. In it, he interpreted the work in such a way that the writer was supposedly looking forward to the revolution. Turgenev adhered to liberal views and was offended by this interpretation. Nekrasov did not take his side and Ivan Sergeevich left Sovremennik.
Turgenev was not a supporter of revolutions for good reason. The fact is that he was in France in 1848 when the revolution began there. Ivan Sergeevich saw with his own eyes all the horrors of the military coup. Of course, he did not want a repetition of this nightmare in his homeland.
Seven women in Turgenev’s life are known:
We cannot ignore the relationship between Ivan Turgenev and Pauline Viardot. He first saw her on stage in 1840. She performed the main role in the opera production of The Barber of Seville. Turgenev was captivated by her and passionately wanted to get to know her. The occasion presented itself three years later, when she went on tour again.
While hunting, Ivan Sergeevich met her husband, a famous art critic and theater director in Paris. Then he was introduced to Polina. Seven years later, he wrote to her in a letter that the memories associated with her were the most precious in his life. And one of them is how he first spoke to her on Nevsky Prospekt, in the house opposite Alexandrinsky Theater.
Daughter
Ivan and Polina became very close friends. Polina raised Turgenev's daughter from Avdotya. Ivan was in love with Avdotya in 1941, he even wanted to marry, but his mother did not give her blessing, and he backed down. He went to Paris, where he lived for a long time with Polina and her husband Louis. And when he arrived home, a surprise awaited him: his eight-year-old daughter. It turns out that she was born on April 26, 1842. His mother was unhappy with his passion for Polina, did not help him financially, and did not even inform him about the birth of her daughter.
Turgenev decided to take care of the fate of his child. He agreed with Polina that she would raise her, and for this occasion he changed his daughter’s name to French - Polinette.
However, the two Polinas did not get along with each other and after some time Polinette went to a private boarding school, and then began to live with her father, which she was very happy about. She loved her father very much and he loved her too, although he never missed an opportunity to write to her in letters of instructions and comments about her shortcomings.
Polynette had two children:
- Georges-Albert;
- Zhanna.
Death of a Writer
After the death of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, all of his property, including intellectual property, went to Pauline Viardot in his will. Turgenev's daughter was left with nothing and had to work hard to provide for herself and her two children. Apart from Polinette, Ivan had no children. When she (like her father - from cancer) and her two children died, there were no descendants of Turgenev left.
He died on September 3, 1883. Next to him was his beloved Polina. Her husband died four months before Turgenev, having been paralyzed after a stroke for the last almost ten years of his life. They saw off Ivan Turgenev to last path There are many people in France, among them was Emile Zola. Turgenev was buried, according to his wishes, in St. Petersburg, next to his friend Vissarion Belinsky.
The most significant works
- "Nobles' Nest";
- "Notes of a Hunter";
- "Asya";
- "Ghosts";
- « Spring waters»;
- "A month in the village."
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born on October 28 (November 9), 1818 in the city of Orel. His family, both on his mother’s and father’s sides, belonged to the noble class.
The first education in Turgenev’s biography was received at the Spassky-Lutovinovo estate. The boy was taught literacy by German and French teachers. Since 1827, the family moved to Moscow. Turgenev then studied in private boarding schools in Moscow, and then at Moscow University. Without graduating, Turgenev transferred to the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg University. He also studied abroad and then traveled around Europe.
The beginning of a literary journey
While studying in his third year at the institute, in 1834 Turgenev wrote his first poem called “Wall”. And in 1838, his first two poems were published: “Evening” and “To the Venus of Medicine.”
In 1841, having returned to Russia, he was engaged in scientific activities, wrote a dissertation and received a master's degree in philology. Then, when the craving for science cooled, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev served as an official in the Ministry of Internal Affairs until 1844.
In 1843, Turgenev met Belinsky, they struck up a friendly relationship. Under the influence of Belinsky, new poems by Turgenev, poems, stories were created and published, including: “Parasha”, “Pop”, “Breter” and “Three Portraits”.
Creativity flourishes
Other famous works of the writer include: the novels “Smoke” (1867) and “Nov” (1877), novels and short stories “Diary extra person"(1849), "Bezhin Meadow" (1851), "Asya" (1858), "Spring Waters" (1872) and many others.
In the fall of 1855, Turgenev met Leo Tolstoy, who soon published the story “Cutting the Forest” with a dedication to I. S. Turgenev.
Recent years
In 1863 he went to Germany, where he met outstanding writers of Western Europe and promoted Russian literature. He works as an editor and consultant, himself translating from Russian into German and French and vice versa. He becomes the most popular and read Russian writer in Europe. And in 1879 he received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University.
It was thanks to the efforts of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev that the best works of Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy were translated.
It is worth briefly noting that in the biography of Ivan Turgenev in the late 1870s - early 1880s, his popularity quickly increased, both at home and abroad. And critics began to rank him among the best writers century.
Since 1882, the writer began to be overcome by illnesses: gout, angina pectoris, neuralgia. As a result of a painful illness (sarcoma), he died on August 22 (September 3), 1883 in Bougival (a suburb of Paris). His body was brought to St. Petersburg and buried at the Volkovsky cemetery.
Chronological table
Other biography options
- In his youth, Turgenev was frivolous and spent a lot of his parents' money on entertainment. For this, his mother once taught him a lesson, sending him bricks in a parcel instead of money.
- The writer’s personal life was not very successful. He had many affairs, but none of them ended in marriage. The greatest love in his life was opera singer Polina Viardot. For 38 years, Turgenev knew her and her husband Louis. He traveled all over the world for their family, lived with them in different countries. Louis Viardot and Ivan Turgenev died in the same year.
- Turgenev was a clean man and dressed neatly. The writer loved to work in cleanliness and order - without this he never began to create.
- see all
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (October 28 (November 9) 1818, Orel, Russian Empire- August 22 (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 the University of Oxford (1879).
The artistic system he created influenced the poetics of not only Russians, but also Western European novel second half of the 19th century 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. Most famous works- a series of stories “Notes of a Hunter”, a story “Mumu”, a story “Asya”, novels “The Noble Nest”, “Fathers and Sons”.
I.S. Turgenev at the age of 20.
Artist K. Gorbunov. 1838-1839 Watercolor
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 October 28, 1818, on Monday, a son, Ivan, 12 inches tall, was born in Orel, in his house, at 12 o’clock in the morning. Baptized on the 4th of November, Feodor Semenovich Uvarov and 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 middle-aged, unattractive, but 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. The father 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.
Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev, father of the writer
Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova, mother of the writer
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.
I.S. Turgenev at the age of 7 years.
Unknown artist. 1825 Watercolor
I.S. Turgenev at the age of 12 years.
Artist I.Pirks. 1830 Watercolor
Love for Russian literature to young Turgenev It was also instilled 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 first studied at the Weidenhammer boarding school, then became a boarder with the director of the Lazarev Institute I. F. Krause
Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, Artist Nikolai Bodarevsky
Spasskoye-Lutovinovo
Spasskoye Lutovinovo - Sorokina Olga Aleksandrovna
Education. Beginning of literary activity
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
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.
Timofey Granovsky (1813-1855), Russian historian
Pyotr Zakharov-Chechen
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 examined this poem quite strictly, without revealing its authorship, but at the same time also admitted that “there is 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”.
Portrait of Pyotr Pletnev (1836). Pushkin Museum in St. Petersburg.
Alexey Tyranov
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 small poems and several poems (the unfinished “The Old Man’s Tale”, “Calm on the Sea”, “Phantasmagoria on a Moonlit Night”, “Dream”)
Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov, chamberlain of the Russian imperial court; Orthodox spiritual writer and Church historian, pilgrim and traveler; playwright, poet. Honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1836).
P.Z.Zakharova-Chechen, 1838
After graduating from university. 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.”
Nikolai Vladimirovich Stankevich (1813-1840), public figure, philosopher, writer
Humboldt University in Berlin, 19th century
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.”
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin
Orest Adamovich Kiprensky
Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov
Zabolotsky, Pyotr Efimovich
In May 1839 old house in Spassky it 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.
"Spring Waters"
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 at 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.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Eugene Louis Lamy (1800-1890)
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.
Vissarion Belinsky
In November 1843, Turgenev created the poem “Foggy Morning,” which was set to music over the years by several composers, including A. F. Gedicke and G. L. Catuar. 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.
Portrait of singer Pauline Viardot
Karl Bryullov
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.
Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov
Pavel Vasilievich 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 had 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,” wrote Turgenev, “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.”
"Khor and Kalinich." Illustration by Elisabeth Böhm. 1883
Illustration for the story by I.S. Turgenev “Lgov” (from the series “Notes of a Hunter”).
Petr Petrovich Sokolov
Illustration for the story by I.S. Turgenev “The Swan” (from the series “Notes of a Hunter”).
Petr Petrovich Sokolov
Illustration for the story by I.S. Turgenev “Peter Petrovich Karataev” (from the series “Notes of a Hunter”).
Petr Petrovich Sokolov
Illustration for the story by I.S. Turgenev “Office” (from the series “Notes of a Hunter”).
Petr Petrovich Sokolov
In 1847, Turgenev and Belinsky went abroad and in 1848 lived in Paris, where he witnessed revolutionary events. Having witnessed the killing of hostages, many attacks, the construction and fall of barricades in 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.
Alexander Ivanovich Herzen
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 “The Freeloader”, in 1849 - “Breakfast with the Leader” and “The 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.
"In the box. 1909", Kustodiev
To master literary devices In dramaturgy, 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
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.
Nikolai Sergeevich Turgenev, brother of the writer
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.
Botkin Vasily Petrovich
Portrait of the writer Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy
Ilya Repin
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 is 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 cup of 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.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
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, that it’s more comfortable for a peasant to live in freedom.”
Franz Kruger
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“Notes of a Hunter” was created by a 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 in M. N. Katkov’s Russky Vestnik.
Illustrations for I.S. Turgenev’s story “Mumu”
Rudakov Konstantin Ivanovich - illustrations for the novel by I.S. Turgenev "Noble Nest"
Illustrations for the novel by I.S. Turgenev “Fathers and Sons”
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 fall of 1855, Turgenev's circle of friends was replenished with 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.
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
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 Nikolaevich, - otherwise all the reactionaries in St. Petersburg are cruelly scolding him anyway, - why bother him like that from both sides “He’ll probably lose his spirit.”
Portrait of Emperor Alexander II. 1874. State Historical Museum
Alexey Kharlamov
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.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
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
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy
Dmitry Vasilievich Grigorovich
Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy
“Portrait of the poet Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet.”
Ilya Efimovich Repin
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
Vasily Perov.
Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov
In 1862 things began to get complicated good relationship with former friends of Turgenev’s youth - 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 historical development 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.
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin
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.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
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 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.
I. S. Turgenev at the dacha of the Milyutin brothers in Baden-Baden, 1867
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
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 assigned to them main role. Luncheons took place once a month. They were raised on them different topics- about the features of literature, about the structure French, told stories and simply enjoyed delicious food. Dinners were held not only at Parisian restaurateurs, but also at the homes of the writers themselves.
A feast of the classics. A. Daudet, G. Flaubert, E. Zola, I. S. Turgenev
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 widely 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.
Photo by I.S. Turgenev (from the collection of A.F. Onegin in Paris). Filmed in Baden-Baden, 1871. The photograph was first published in print on August 25, 1913.
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.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, 1872
Vasily Perov
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 highest 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?”
Nikolay Dmitriev-Orenburgsky
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 would 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!
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, 1879
Ilya Repin
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.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Ilya Repin
Death and funeral
The confrontation between “an unimaginably painful illness and an unimaginably strong organism” (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). 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 most big 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 Abou, Jules Simon, Emile Ogier, Emile Zola, Alphonse Daudet, Juliette Adam, artist Alfred Dieudonnet (French) Russian, 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
Ivan Turgenev on his deathbed. A drawing sketched in Bougival, on the day of the death of the great writer, by the artist E. Lipgardt
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 “Mum”” from the Animal Welfare Society... a wreath with the inscription “Love 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” (French) Russian, 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 had accompanied the Nightingale the Robber, and not the body of the great writer
Tombstone bust of Turgenev at Volkovskoye Cemetery
Monument to I. S. Turgenev
Bust of I. S. Turgenev
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turgenev,_Ivan_Sergeevich
Russian writer, corresponding member of the Puturburg Academy of Sciences (1880). In the cycle of stories “Notes of a Hunter” (1847 52) he showed the high spiritual qualities and talent of the Russian peasant, the poetry of nature. In the socio-psychological novels "Rudin" (1856), "The Noble Nest" (1859), "On the Eve" (1860), "Fathers and Sons" (1862), the stories "Asya" (1858), "Spring Waters" (1872 ) images of the passing noble culture and new heroes of the era - commoners and democrats, images of selfless Russian women were created. In the novels "Smoke" (1867) and "Nov" (1877) he depicted the life of Russian peasants abroad and the populist movement in Russia. In his later years he created the lyrical and philosophical “Poems in Prose” (1882). Master of Language and psychological analysis. Turgenev had a significant influence on the development of Russian and world literature.
Biography
Born on October 28 (November 9 n.s.) in Orel into a noble family. Father, Sergei Nikolaevich, a retired hussar officer, came from an old noble family; mother, Varvara Petrovna, from the wealthy landowner family of the Lutovinovs. Turgenev spent his childhood on the family estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo. He grew up in the care of “tutors and teachers, Swiss and Germans, home-grown uncles and serf nannies.”
When the family moved to Moscow in 1827, the future writer was sent to a boarding school and spent about two and a half years there. He continued his further education under the guidance of private teachers. Since childhood, he knew French, German, and English.
In the fall of 1833, before reaching the age of fifteen, he entered Moscow University, and the following year he transferred to St. Petersburg University, from which he graduated in 1936 in the verbal department of the Faculty of Philosophy.
In May 1838 he went to Berlin to attend lectures on classical philology and philosophy. I met and became friends with N. Stankevich and M. Bakunin, meetings with whom were of much greater importance than the lectures of Berlin professors. He spent more than two academic years abroad, combining studies with extensive travel: he traveled around Germany, visited Holland and France, and lived in Italy for several months.
Returning to his homeland in 1841, he settled in Moscow, where he prepared for master's exams and attended literary clubs and salons: he met Gogol, Aksakov, and Khomyakov. On one of the trips to St. Petersburg with Herzen.
In 1842 he successfully passed his master's exams, hoping to get a position as a professor at Moscow University, but since philosophy was taken under suspicion by the Nicholas government, philosophy departments were abolished in Russian universities, and he did not succeed in becoming a professor.
In 1843, Turgenev entered the service as an official of the “special office” of the Minister of Internal Affairs, where he served for two years. In the same year, an acquaintance with Belinsky and his entourage took place. Turgenev's social and literary views during this period were determined mainly by the influence of Belinsky. Turgenev published his poems, poems, dramatic works, and stories. The critic guided his work with his assessments and friendly advice.
In 1847 Turgenev went abroad for a long time: love for the famous French singer Pauline Viardot, whom he met in 1843 during her tour in St. Petersburg, took him away from Russia. He lived for three years in Germany, then in Paris and on the estate of the Viardot family. Even before leaving, he submitted the essay “Khor and Kalinich” to Sovremennik, which was a resounding success. The following essays from folk life published in the same magazine for five years. In 1852 it was published as a separate book called “Notes of a Hunter.”
In 1850, the writer returned to Russia and collaborated as an author and critic with Sovremennik, which became a kind of center of Russian literary life.
Impressed by Gogol's death in 1852, he published an obituary, prohibited by censorship. For this he was arrested for a month, and then sent to his estate under police supervision without the right to travel outside the Oryol province.
In 1853 it was allowed to come to St. Petersburg, but the right to travel abroad was returned only in 1856.
Along with “hunting” stories, Turgenev wrote several plays: “The Freeloader” (1848), “The Bachelor” (1849), “A Month in the Country” (1850), “Provincial Girl” (1850). During his arrest and exile, he created the stories “Mumu” (1852) and “The Inn” (1852) on a “peasant” theme. However, he was increasingly occupied by the life of the Russian intelligentsia, to whom the stories “The Diary of an Extra Man” (1850) are dedicated; "Yakov Pasynkov" (1855); "Correspondence" (1856). Working on the stories made the transition to the novel easier.
In the summer of 1855, the novel “Rudin” was written in Spassky, and in subsequent years the novels: in 1859 “The Noble Nest”; in 1860 “On the Eve”, in 1862 “Fathers and Sons”.
The situation in Russia was changing rapidly: the government announced its intention to free the peasants from serfdom, preparations for reform began, giving rise to numerous plans for the upcoming reorganization. Turgenev took an active part in this process, became an unofficial collaborator of Herzen, sending incriminating material to the magazine Kolokol, and collaborated with Sovremennik, which gathered around itself the main forces of advanced literature and journalism. Writers of different trends initially acted as a united front, but sharp disagreements soon emerged. There was a break between Turgenev and the Sovremennik magazine, the reason for which was Dobrolyubov’s article “When will the real day come?”, dedicated to Turgenev’s novel “On the Eve”, in which the critic predicted the imminent appearance of the Russian Insarov, the approaching day of the revolution. Turgenev did not accept this interpretation of the novel and asked Nekrasov not to publish this article. Nekrasov took the side of Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky, and Turgenev left Sovremennik. His polemic with Herzen on the issue of further paths of development of Russia dates back to 1862 1863, which led to a divergence between them. Placing hopes on reforms “from above,” Turgenev considered Herzen’s faith in the revolutionary and socialist aspirations of the peasantry unfounded.
Since 1863, the writer settled with the Viardot family in Baden-Baden. At the same time he began to collaborate with the liberal-bourgeois “Bulletin of Europe”, which published all his subsequent major works, including his last novel “New” (1876).
Following the Viardot family, Turgenev moved to Paris. During the days of the Paris Commune he lived in London, after its defeat he returned to France, where he remained until the end of his life, spending the winters in Paris and the summer months outside the city, in Bougival, and making short trips to Russia every spring.
The writer met the social upsurge of the 1870s in Russia, associated with the Narodniks’ attempts to find a revolutionary way out of the crisis, with interest, became close to the leaders of the movement, and provided financial assistance in the publication of the collection “Forward.” His long-standing interest in folk theme, returned to “Notes of a Hunter,” supplementing them with new essays, wrote the stories “Punin and Baburin” (1874), “The Clock” (1875), etc.
Social revival began among students and among broad sections of society. Turgenev's popularity, at one time shaken by his break with Sovremennik, has now recovered again and began to grow rapidly. In February 1879, when he arrived in Russia, he was honored at literary evenings and gala dinners, with strong invitations to stay in his homeland. Turgenev was even inclined to end his voluntary exile, but this intention was not carried out. In the spring of 1882, the first signs of a serious illness were discovered, which deprived the writer of the ability to move (cancer of the spine).
August 22 (September 3, n.s.) 1883 Turgenev died in Bougival. According to the writer's will, his body was transported to Russia and buried in St. Petersburg.
