Where he studied with Turgenev. Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich - biography

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

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. Portrait by Repin

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

In early 1827, the Turgenevs moved to Moscow to raise their children. Turgenev was placed in the private pension of Weidenhammer, then was soon transferred from there to the director of the Lazarev Institute, with whom he lived as a boarder. In 1833, having only 15 years of age, Turgenev entered Moscow University in the Faculty of Languages, but a year later, with the family moving to St. Petersburg, he moved to St. Petersburg University. Having completed the course in 1836 with the title of a full student and having passed the exam for the degree of a candidate the following year, Turgenev, with the low level of Russian university science at that time, could not but be aware of the complete insufficiency of the university education he had received and therefore went to complete his studies abroad. To this end, in 1838 he went to Berlin, where for two years he studied ancient languages, history and philosophy, mainly the Hegelian system under the guidance of Professor Werder. In Berlin, Turgenev became close friends with Stankevich, Granovsky, Frolov, Bakunin, who together with him listened to the lectures of Berlin professors.

However, not only scientific interests prompted him to go abroad. Possessing by nature a sensitive and receptive soul, which he saved among the groans of the unanswered "subjects" of the landowners-masters, among the "beatings and tortures" of the serf situation, which inspired him from the very first days conscious life invincible horror and deep disgust, Turgenev felt a strong need to escape from his native Palestine, at least for a while. As he himself wrote later in his memoirs, he had to “either submit and humbly wander along the common rut, along the beaten path, or turn away at once, recoil from himself“ everyone and everything ”, even risking losing much that was dear and close to my heart. I did just that ... I threw myself headlong into the "German sea", which was supposed to cleanse and revive me, and when I finally emerged from its waves, I nevertheless found myself a "Westerner" and remained so forever.

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

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

Soon Turgenev became close to a circle of writers who were grouped around Otechestvennye Zapiski and attracted him to participate in this journal, and took an outstanding place among them as a person with a broad philosophical education, familiar with Western European science and literature from primary sources. After Parasha, Turgenev wrote two more poems in verse: Conversation (1845) and Andrei (1845). His first prose work was the one-act dramatic essay "Carelessness" ("Notes of the Fatherland", 1843), followed by the story "Andrei Kolosov" (1844), the humorous poem "The Landowner" and the stories "Three Portraits" and "Breter" (1846) . These first literary experiences did not satisfy Turgenev, and he was already ready to quit his literary career, when Panaev, embarking on the publication of Sovremennik together with Nekrasov, asked him to send something for the first book of the updated magazine. Turgenev sent short story“Khor and Kalinich”, which was placed by Panaev in the modest department of “mixture” under the heading “From the notes of a hunter” invented by him, which created unfading glory for our famous writer.

This story, which immediately aroused everyone's attention, begins new period literary activity of Turgenev. He completely abandons the writing of poetry and turns exclusively to the story and the story, primarily from the life of the serf peasantry, imbued with a humane feeling and compassion for the enslaved masses of the people. The Hunter's Notes soon became a big name; their rapid success forced the author to abandon his previous decision to part with literature, but could not reconcile him with the difficult conditions of Russian life. An increasingly aggravated sense of dissatisfaction with them finally led him to the decision to finally settle abroad (1847). “I saw no other way before me,” he later wrote, recalling the internal crisis that he was going through at that time. “I could not breathe the same air, stay close to what I hated; for this, I probably lacked reliable endurance, firmness of character. I needed to move away from my enemy in order to attack him more strongly from my distance. In my eyes, this enemy had a certain image, bore a well-known name: this enemy was - serfdom. Under this name, I collected and concentrated everything against which I decided to fight to the end - with which I swore never to reconcile ... This was my Annibal oath ... I went to the West in order to better fulfill it. Personal motives joined this main motive - hostile relations with his mother, who was dissatisfied with the fact that her son chose a literary career, and Ivan Sergeevich's attachment to the famous singer Viardo-Garcia and her family, with whom he lived almost inseparably for 38 years, a bachelor all his life.

Ivan Turgenev and Pauline Viardot. More than love

In 1850, in the year of his mother's death, Turgenev returned to Russia to arrange his affairs. All the yard peasants of the family estate, which he inherited with his brother, he set free; he transferred those who wished to quitrent and in every possible way contributed to the success of the general liberation. In 1861, at the time of redemption, he conceded a fifth of everything everywhere, and in the main estate he did not take anything for the estate land, which was quite a large sum. In 1852, Turgenev issued a separate edition of the Hunter's Notes, which finally strengthened his fame. But in official spheres, where serfdom was considered an inviolable foundation of social order, the author of the Hunter's Notes, who, moreover, had lived abroad for a long time, was in very bad shape. An insignificant occasion was enough for the official disgrace against the author to take concrete form. This occasion was Turgenev's letter, caused by Gogol's death in 1852 and placed in Moskovskie Vedomosti. For this letter, the author was imprisoned for a month on the "moving out", where, among other things, he wrote the story "Mumu", and then, by administrative procedure, was sent to live in his village of Spasskoye, "without the right to leave." Turgenev was released from this exile only in 1854 through the efforts of the poet Count A. K. Tolstoy, who interceded for him before the heir to the throne. The forced stay in the village, according to Turgenev himself, gave him the opportunity to get acquainted with those aspects of peasant life that had previously eluded his attention. There he wrote the novels "Two Friends", "Calm", the beginning of the comedy "A Month in the Country" and two critical articles. Since 1855, he again connected with his foreign friends, with whom he was separated by exile. Since that time, the most famous fruits of his artistic creativity- " Rudin" (1856), "Asya" (1858), " Noble Nest" (1859), "On the Eve" and "First Love" (1860). [Cm. Turgenev's novels and heroes, Turgenev - lyrics in prose.]

Retiring again abroad, Turgenev listened attentively to everything that was happening in his homeland. At the first rays of the dawn of the renaissance that was taking over Russia, Turgenev felt in himself a new surge of energy, which he wanted to give a new application. He wanted to add to his mission as a sensitive contemporary artist the role of a publicist-citizen, at one of the most important moments in the socio-political development of his homeland. During this period of preparing reforms (1857 - 1858), Turgenev was in Rome, where many Russians then lived, including Prince. V. A. Cherkassky, V. N. Botkin, gr. Ya. I. Rostovtsev. These persons arranged meetings among themselves, at which the question of the emancipation of the peasants was discussed, and the result of these meetings was a project for the founding of a journal, the program of which was entrusted to develop Turgenev. In his explanatory note to the program, Turgenev proposed calling on all the living forces of society to assist the government in the ongoing liberation reform. The author of the note recognized Russian science and literature as such forces. The projected magazine was supposed to devote "exclusively and specifically to the development of all issues related to the actual device peasant life and the consequences that flow from them. This attempt, however, was recognized as "premature" and did not receive practical implementation.

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

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

But the artist's need for creativity was too great for him to dwell on his decision for a long time. In 1867, the novel Smoke appeared, which also brought accusations against the author of backwardness and misunderstanding of Russian life. Turgenev reacted much more calmly to the new attacks. "Smoke" was his last work, which appeared on the pages of "Russian Messenger". Since 1868, it has been published exclusively in the journal Vestnik Evropy, which was then born. At the beginning of the Franco-Prussian war, Turgenev moved from Baden-Baden to Paris with Viardot and lived in the house of his friends in the winter, and moved to his dacha in Bougival (near Paris) in the summer. In Paris, he became close friends with the most prominent representatives of French literature, was on friendly terms with Flaubert, Daudet, Ogier, Goncourt, patronized Zola and Maupassant. As before, he continued to write a story or story every year, and in 1877 Turgenev's largest novel, Nov, appeared. Like almost everything that came out of the novelist's pen, his new work - and this time, perhaps with more reason than ever - aroused a lot of the most diverse interpretations. The attacks resumed with such ferocity that Turgenev returned to his old idea of ​​ending his literary activity. And, indeed, for 3 years he did not write anything. But during this time, events occurred that completely reconciled the writer with the public.

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

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 talents of the Russian peasant, the poetry of nature. In the socio-psychological novels "Rudin" (1856), " Noble Nest"(1859), "On the Eve" (1860), "Fathers and Sons" (1862), the stories "Asya" (1858), "Spring Waters" (1872) created images of the outgoing noble culture and new heroes of the era commoners and democrats, images of selfless Russian women. In the novel "Smoke" (1867) and "Nov" (1877) he depicted the life of Russian peasants abroad, the populist movement in Russia. In his later years he created the lyric-philosophical "Poems in Prose" (1882). and psychological analysis.Turgenev had a significant impact on the development of Russian and world literature.

Biography

Born October 28 (November 9 n.s.) in Orel in a noble family. Father, Sergei Nikolaevich, a retired hussar officer, came from an old noble family; mother, Varvara Petrovna, from a wealthy landowning family of the Lutovinovs. Turgenev's childhood passed in the family estate of Spasskoe-Lutovinovo. He grew up in the care of "tutors and teachers, Swiss and Germans, homegrown uncles and serf nannies."

With the family moving to Moscow in 1827 future writer was sent to a boarding school, spent about two and a half years there. Further education continued under the guidance of private teachers. Since childhood, he knew French, German, English.

In the autumn 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 philosophical faculty.

In May 1838 he went to Berlin to listen to lectures on classical philology and philosophy. He 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 long trips: 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 the master's exams and attended literary circles and salons: he met Gogol, Aksakov, Khomyakov. On one of the trips to St. Petersburg with Herzen.

In 1842, he successfully passed the master's exams, hoping to get a professorship at Moscow University, but since philosophy was taken under suspicion by the Nikolaev government, the departments of philosophy were abolished at Russian universities, and it was not possible to become a professor.

In 1843, Turgenev entered the service of an official in the "special office" of the Minister of the Interior, 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, story. 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 an essay "Khor and Kalinich" to Sovremennik, which was a resounding success. The following essays from folk life published in the same journal for five years. In 1852 they came out as a separate book called Notes of a Hunter.

In 1850, the writer returned to Russia, as an author and critic he collaborated in Sovremennik, which became a kind of center of Russian literary life.

Impressed by Gogol's death in 1852, he published an obituary banned by the censors. For this he was arrested for a month, and then sent to his estate under the supervision of the police 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 the "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 "Inn" (1852) on a "peasant" theme. However, he was increasingly occupied with the life of the Russian intelligentsia, to whom the story "Diary extra person"(1850); "Yakov Pasynkov" (1855); "Correspondence" (1856). Work on the stories facilitated the transition to the novel.

In the summer of 1855, the novel "Rudin" was written in Spassky, and in subsequent years, 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 the reform began, giving rise to numerous plans for the upcoming reorganization. Turgenev took an active part in this process, became Herzen's unspoken collaborator, sending accusatory material to the Kolokol magazine, and collaborated with Sovremennik, which gathered around itself the main forces of advanced literature and journalism. At first, writers of different trends acted as a united front, but sharp disagreements soon appeared. There was a break between Turgenev and the Sovremennik magazine, the cause of 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 such an interpretation of the novel and asked Nekrasov not to publish this article. Nekrasov took the side of Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky, and Turgenev left Sovremennik. By 1862 1863 he had a polemic with Herzen on the question of the further paths of development of Russia, which led to a divergence between them. Pinning 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 Vestnik Evropy, in which all his subsequent major works were published, including his last novel, Nov (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 public upsurge of the 1870s in Russia, connected with the attempts of the populists to find a revolutionary way out of the crisis, the writer met with interest, became close to the leaders of the movement, and provided financial assistance in the publication of the collection Vperyod. rekindled his longstanding interest in folk theme, returned to the "Notes of a Hunter", supplementing them with new essays, wrote the novels "Punin and Baburin" (1874), "Hours" (1875), etc.

A social revival began among the student youth, among the general strata of society. Turgenev's popularity, once shaken by his break with Sovremennik, has now recovered again and is growing rapidly. In February 1879, when he arrived in Russia, he was honored on literary evenings and gala dinners, strenuously inviting them to stay at home. Turgenev was even inclined to stop his voluntary exile, but this intention was not carried out. In the spring of 1882, the first signs of a serious illness appeared, which deprived the writer of the opportunity to move (cancer of the spine).

On 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.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a Russian writer and poet, playwright, publicist, critic and translator. He was born on October 28, 1818 in the city of Orel. His works are remembered for their vivid descriptions of nature, vivid images and characters. Critics especially highlight the cycle of stories "Notes of a Hunter", which reflects the best moral qualities of a simple peasant. There were many strong and selfless women in Turgenev's stories. The poet had a strong influence on the development of world literature. He died on August 22, 1883 near Paris.

Childhood and education

Turgenev was born into a noble family. His father was a retired officer. The writer's mother, Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova, was of noble origin. Ivan's childhood was spent in the hereditary estate of her family. Parents did everything to ensure a comfortable existence for their son. He was taught by the best teachers and tutors, and at a young age, Ivan and his family moved to Moscow to receive higher education. From childhood, the guy studied foreign languages, he was fluent in English, French and German.

The move to Moscow took place in 1827. There Ivan studied at the boarding house of Weidenhammer, he also studied with private teachers. Five years later, the future writer became a student of the verbal department of the prestigious Moscow University. In 1834, Turgenev transferred to the Faculty of Philosophy in St. Petersburg, as his family moved to this city. It was then that Ivan began to write his first poems.

In three years he created more than a hundred lyrical works, including the poem "Steno". Professor Pletnev P.A., who taught Turgenev, immediately noticed the undoubted talent of the young man. Thanks to him, the publication of Ivan's poems "To the Venus of Medicine" and "Evening" in the journal "Contemporary".

In 1838, two years after graduating from university, he went to Berlin to listen to philological lectures. At that time, Turgenev managed to get a Ph.D. In Germany, the young man continues his studies, he studies the grammar of the ancient Greek language and Latin. He was also interested in studying Roman and Greek literature. At the same time, Turgenev makes acquaintance with Bakunin and Stankevich. For two years he travels, visiting France, Italy and Holland.

Homecoming

Ivan returned to Moscow in 1841, at the same time he meets Gogol, Herzen and Aksakov. The poet greatly appreciated the acquaintance with each of his colleagues. Together they attend literary circles. The following year, Turgenev asks for admission to the exam for a master's degree in philosophy.

In 1843, for some time, the writer went to work in the ministerial office, but the official's monotonous activity did not bring him satisfaction. At the same time, his poem "Parasha" was published, which was highly appreciated by V. Belinsky. The year 1843 was also remembered by the writer for his acquaintance with French singer Pauline Viardot. After that, Turgenev decides to devote himself entirely to creativity.

In 1846, the novels Three Portraits and Bretter were published. Some time after this, the writer creates other famous works, including "Breakfast at the leader", "Provincial", "Bachelor", "Mumu", "A month in the village" and others. A collection of short stories, Notes of a Hunter, was published by Turgenev in 1852. At the same time, his obituary dedicated to Nikolai Gogol was published. This work was banned in St. Petersburg, but published in Moscow. For his radical views, Ivan Sergeevich was exiled to Spasskoe.

Later, he wrote four more works, which later became the largest in his work. In 1856, the book "Rudin" was published, three years after that, the prose writer wrote the novel "The Noble Nest". 1860 was marked by the release of the work "On the Eve". One of the most famous writings author, "Fathers and Sons", dates from 1862.

This period of life was also marked by a break in the poet's relationship with the Sovremennik magazine. This happened after Dobrolyubov's article entitled "When will the real day come?", Which was filled with negativity about the novel "On the Eve". Turgenev spent the next few years of his life in Baden-Baden. The city inspired his most voluminous novel, Nov, published in 1877.

last years of life

The writer was especially interested in Western European cultural trends. He entered into correspondence with famous writers, among whom were Maupassant, George Sand, Victor Hugo and others. Thanks to their communication, literature was enriched. In 1874, Turgenev organized dinners with Zola, Flaubert, Daudet and Edmond Goncourt. In 1878, an international literary congress is held in Paris, during which Ivan is elected vice president. At the same time, he becomes a respected doctor at Oxford University.

Despite the fact that the prose writer lived far from Russia, his works were known in his homeland. In 1867, the novel "Smoke" was published, dividing compatriots into two oppositions. Many criticized him, while others were sure that the work opens a new literary era.

In the spring of 1882, for the first time, a physical ailment called microsarcoma manifested itself, which caused Turgenev terrible pain. It was because of him that the writer later died. He fought the pain until the very end. latest work Ivan became "Poems in Prose", released a few months before his death. On September 3 (according to the old style on August 22), 1883, Ivan Sergeevich died in Bougival. He was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovskoye cemetery. The funeral was attended by many people who wanted to say goodbye to a talented writer.

Personal life

The first love of the poet was Princess Shakhovskaya, who was in a relationship with his father. They met in 1833, and only in 1860 Turgenev was able to describe his feelings in the story "First Love". Ten years after meeting Princess Ivan meets Pauline Viardot, whom he falls in love with almost immediately. He accompanies her on tour, it is with this woman that the prose writer subsequently moves to Baden-Baden. After some time, the couple had a daughter who was brought up in Paris.

Problems in relations with the singer began due to the distance, her husband Louis also acted as an obstacle. Turgenev starts an affair with a distant relative. They were even planning to get married. In the early sixties, the prose writer again becomes close to Viardot, they live together in Baden-Baden, then move to Paris. IN last years life, Ivan Sergeevich is fond of the young actress Maria Savina, who reciprocates his feelings.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev - famous Russian writer, poet, translator, member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1860).

Orel city

Lithography. 1850s

“On October 28, 1818, on Monday, the son Ivan was born, 12 inches tall, in Orel, in his house, at 12 o’clock in the morning,” Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva made such an entry in her memorial book.
Ivan Sergeevich was her second son. The first - Nikolai - was born two years earlier, and in 1821 another boy appeared in the Turgenev family - Sergey.

Parents
It is difficult to imagine more dissimilar people than the parents of the future writer.
Mother - Varvara Petrovna, nee Lutovinova - a domineering, intelligent and sufficiently educated woman, did not shine with beauty. She was small, squat, with a broad face, spoiled by smallpox. And only the eyes were good: large, dark and shiny.
Varvara Petrovna was already thirty years old when she met the young officer Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev. He came from an old noble family, which, however, had already become impoverished by that time. From the former wealth, only a small estate remained. Sergei Nikolaevich was handsome, graceful, smart. And it is not surprising that he made an irresistible impression on Varvara Petrovna, and she made it clear that if Sergei Nikolayevich wooed, then there would be no refusal.
The young officer thought for a moment. And although the bride was six years older than him and did not differ in attractiveness, however, the vast lands and thousands of serf souls that she owned determined the decision of Sergei Nikolayevich.
At the beginning of 1816, the marriage took place, and the young people settled in Orel.
Varvara Petrovna idolized and feared her husband. She gave him complete freedom and did not restrict anything. Sergei Nikolaevich lived the way he wanted, not burdening himself with worries about his family and household. In 1821, he retired and moved with his family to the estate of his wife, Spasskoe-Lutovinovo, seventy miles from Orel.

The childhood of the future writer passed in Spassky-Lutovinovo near the city of Mtsensk, Oryol province. With this family estate of his mother Varvara Petrovna, a stern and domineering woman, much is connected in the work of Turgenev. In the estates and estates described by him, the features of his native "nest" are invariably visible. Turgenev considered himself indebted to the Oryol region, its nature and inhabitants.

The Turgenev estate Spasskoe-Lutovinovo was located in a birch grove on a gentle hill. Around a spacious two-story master's house with columns, to which semicircular galleries adjoined, a huge park was laid out with linden alleys, orchards and flower beds.

Years of study
Raising children in early age Varvara Petrovna was mainly engaged. Outbursts of solicitude, attention and tenderness gave way to attacks of bitterness and petty tyranny. On her orders, children were punished for the slightest misconduct, and sometimes for no reason. “I have nothing to remember my childhood,” Turgenev said many years later. “Not a single bright memory. I was afraid of my mother like fire. I was punished for every trifle - in a word, they drilled me like a recruit.
In the Turgenevs' house it was quite a big library. Huge cabinets kept the works of ancient writers and poets, the works of French encyclopedists: Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, novels by V. Scott, de Stael, Chateaubriand; works of Russian writers: Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Karamzin, Dmitriev, Zhukovsky, as well as books on history, natural science, botany. Soon the library became for Turgenev the most favorite place in the house, where he sometimes spent whole days. To a large extent, the boy's interest in literature was supported by his mother, who read quite a lot and knew French literature and Russian poetry of the late 18th - early 19th centuries.
At the beginning of 1827, the Turgenev family moved to Moscow: it was time to prepare the children for admission to educational establishments. First, Nikolai and Ivan were placed in the private Winterkeller boarding house, and then in the Krause boarding house, later called the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages. Here the brothers did not study for long - only a few months.
Their further education was entrusted to home teachers. With them they studied Russian literature, history, geography, mathematics, foreign languages ​​- German, French, English - drawing. Russian history was taught by the poet I. P. Klyushnikov, and the Russian language was taught by D. N. Dubensky, a well-known researcher of The Tale of Igor's Campaign.

University years. 1833-1837.
Turgenev was not yet fifteen years old when, having successfully passed the entrance exams, he became a student of the verbal department of Moscow University.
Moscow University at that time was the main center of progressive Russian thought. Among the young people who came to the university in the late 1820s and early 1830s, the memory of the Decembrists, who opposed the autocracy with weapons in their hands, was sacredly kept. Students closely followed the events taking place then in Russia and in Europe. Turgenev later said that it was during these years that “very free, almost republican convictions” began to take shape in him.
Of course, Turgenev had not yet developed a coherent and consistent worldview in those years. He was barely sixteen years old. It was a period of growth, a period of search and doubt.
Turgenev studied at Moscow University for only one year. After his older brother Nikolai entered the guards artillery stationed in St. Petersburg, his father decided that the brothers should not be separated, and therefore, in the summer of 1834, Turgenev applied for a transfer to the philological department of the philosophical faculty of St. Petersburg University.
No sooner had the Turgenev family settled in the capital than Sergei Nikolaevich suddenly died. The death of his father deeply shocked Turgenev and made him think for the first time seriously about life and death, about the place of man in the eternal movement of nature. The thoughts and experiences of the young man were reflected in a number of lyrical poems, as well as in the dramatic poem "Steno" (1834). Turgenev's first literary experiments were created under the strong influence of the then dominant romanticism in literature, and above all Byron's poetry. The hero of Turgenev is an ardent, passionate, full of enthusiastic aspirations man who does not want to put up with the world of evil around him, but cannot find application for his powers and eventually dies tragically. Later, Turgenev was very skeptical about this poem, calling it "an absurd work in which, with childish ineptitude, a slavish imitation of Byron's Manfred was expressed."
However, it should be noted that the poem "Steno" reflected the thoughts of the young poet about the meaning of life and the purpose of a person in it, that is, questions that many great poets of that time tried to resolve: Goethe, Schiller, Byron.
After the Moscow Metropolitan University, Turgenev seemed colorless. Here everything was different: there was no atmosphere of friendship and comradeship to which he was accustomed, there was no desire for lively communication and disputes, few people were interested in questions public life. And the composition of the students was different. Among them were many young men from aristocratic families who had little interest in science.
Teaching at St. Petersburg University was carried out according to a rather broad program. But students did not receive serious knowledge. There were no interesting teachers. Only the professor of Russian literature Pyotr Aleksandrovich Pletnev turned out to be closer to Turgenev than others.
During his studies at the university, Turgenev showed a deep interest in music and theater. He often visited concerts, opera and drama theaters.
After graduating from university, Turgenev decided to continue his education and in May 1838 went to Berlin.

Studying abroad. 1838-1940.
After St. Petersburg, Berlin seemed to Turgenev a prim and a little boring city. “What do you want to say about the city,” he wrote, “where they get up at six o’clock in the morning, have dinner at two and go to bed before chickens, about the city where at ten o’clock in the evening only melancholy watchmen laden with beer roam the deserted streets ...”
But the university classrooms at the University of Berlin were always crowded. The lecture was attended not only by students, but also by volunteers - officers, officials, who aspired to join science.
Already the first classes at the University of Berlin revealed gaps in Turgenev's education. Later he wrote: “I studied philosophy, ancient languages, history and studied Hegel with particular zeal ... and at home I was forced to cram Latin grammar and Greek, which I knew poorly. And I wasn't one of the worst candidates."
Turgenev diligently comprehended the wisdom of German philosophy, and in free time attended theaters and concerts. Music and theater became a true need for him. He listened to the operas of Mozart and Gluck, the symphonies of Beethoven, watched the dramas of Shakespeare and Schiller.
Living abroad, Turgenev did not stop thinking about his homeland, about his people, about their present and future.
Even then, in 1840, Turgenev believed in the great destiny of his people, in their strength and steadfastness.
Finally, the course of lectures at the University of Berlin ended, and in May 1841 Turgenev returned to Russia and in the most serious way began to prepare himself for scientific activity. He dreamed of becoming a professor of philosophy.

Return to Russia. Service.
Passion for philosophical sciences is one of the characteristic features of the social movement in Russia in the late 1830s and early 1840s. The progressive people of that time tried with the help of abstract philosophical categories to explain the world around them and the contradictions of Russian reality, to find answers to the burning questions of the present that worried them.
However, Turgenev's plans changed. He became disillusioned with idealistic philosophy and gave up hope with its help to solve the questions that worried him. In addition, Turgenev came to the conclusion that science was not his vocation.
At the beginning of 1842, Ivan Sergeevich filed a petition addressed to the Minister of Internal Affairs to enroll him in the service and was soon accepted as an official for special assignments in the office under the command of V. I. Dahl, famous writer and ethnographer. However, Turgenev did not serve long, and in May 1845 he retired.
Being in the public service gave him the opportunity to collect a lot of vital material, connected primarily with the tragic situation of the peasants and with the destructive power of serfdom, since in the office where Turgenev served, cases of punishment of serfs, all kinds of abuses of officials, etc. n. It was at this time that Turgenev developed a sharply negative attitude towards the bureaucratic orders prevailing in state institutions, towards the callousness and selfishness of St. Petersburg officials. In general, Petersburg life made a depressing impression on Turgenev.

Creativity I. S. Turgenev.
The first work I. S. Turgenev can be considered the dramatic poem "Steno" (1834), which he wrote in iambic pentameter as a student, and in 1836 showed it to his university teacher P. A. Pletnev.
The first publication in print was a small review of the book by A. N. Muravyov "Journey to Russian Holy Places" (1836). Many years later, Turgenev explained the appearance of this first printed work in this way: “I had just passed seventeen years then, I was a student at St. Petersburg University; my relatives, in order to ensure my future career, introduced me to Serbinovich, the then publisher of the Journal of the Ministry of Education. Serbinovich, whom I saw only once, probably wanting to test my abilities, handed me ... Muravyov's book so that I could take it apart; I wrote something about it - and now, almost forty years later, I find out that this "something" has been embossed.
His first works were poetic. His poems, starting from the end of the 1830s, began to appear in the magazines Sovremennik and Domestic notes". They clearly heard the motifs of the then dominant romantic trend, echoes of the poetry of Zhukovsky, Kozlov, Benediktov. Most of the poems are elegiac reflections about love, about a wasted youth. They, as a rule, were permeated with motives of sadness, sadness, longing. Turgenev himself was later very skeptical about his poems and poems written at this time, and never included them in collected works. “I feel a positive, almost physical antipathy to my poems...,” he wrote in 1874, “I would give dearly if they didn’t exist at all.”
Turgenev was unfair when he spoke so harshly about his poetic experiments. Among them you can find many talentedly written poems, many of which were highly appreciated by readers and critics: "Ballad", "One Again, One...", "Spring Evening", "Misty Morning, Gray Morning..." and others . Some of them were later set to music and became popular romances.
The beginning of his literary activity Turgenev considered 1843 the year when his poem Parasha appeared in print, which opened whole line works dedicated to debunking romantic hero. Parasha met with a very sympathetic review from Belinsky, who saw in the young author "an extraordinary poetic talent", "true observation, deep thought", "a son of our time, carrying all his sorrows and questions in his chest."
First prose work I. S. Turgenev - essay "Khor and Kalinych" (1847), published in the journal "Sovremennik" and opened a whole cycle of works under the general title "Notes of a Hunter" (1847-1852). "Notes of a Hunter" were created by Turgenev at the turn of the forties and early fifties and appeared in print in the form of separate stories and essays. In 1852, they were combined by the writer into a book that became a major event in Russian social and literary life. According to M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, "Notes of a hunter" "laid the foundation entire literature which has as its object the people and their needs.
"Hunter's Notes"- This is a book about people's life in the era of serfdom. The images of peasants, distinguished by a sharp practical mind, a deep understanding of life, a sober look at the world around them, capable of feeling and understanding the beautiful, responding to someone else's grief and suffering, rise up alive from the pages of the Hunter's Notes. Before Turgenev, no one portrayed a people like this in Russian literature. And it is no coincidence that after reading the first essay from the Hunter's Notes - "Khor and Kalinich", "Belinsky noticed that Turgenev "came to the people from such a side, from which no one had come before him."
Turgenev wrote most of the "Notes of a Hunter" in France.

Works by I. S. Turgenev
Stories: a collection of short stories "Notes of a Hunter" (1847-1852), "Mumu" (1852), "The Story of Father Alexei" (1877), etc.;
Tales:"Asya" (1858), "First Love" (1860), "Spring Waters" (1872) and others;
Novels: Rudin (1856), Noble Nest (1859), On the Eve (1860), Fathers and Sons (1862), Smoke (1867), New (1877);
Plays:"Breakfast at the leader" (1846), "Where it is thin, there it breaks" (1847), "Bachelor" (1849), "Provincial" (1850), "A month in the country" (1854) and others;
Poetry: the dramatic poem "The Wall" (1834), poems (1834-1849), the poem "Parasha" (1843) and others, the literary and philosophical "Poems in Prose" (1882);
Translations Byron D., Goethe I., Whitman W., Flaubert G.
As well as criticism, journalism, memoirs and correspondence.

Love through life
Turgenev met the famous French singer Polina Viardot back in 1843, in St. Petersburg, where she came on tour. The singer performed a lot and successfully, Turgenev attended all her performances, told everyone about her, praised her everywhere, and quickly separated from the crowd of her countless fans. Their relationship developed and soon reached a climax. The summer of 1848 (like the previous one, like the next one) he spent in Courtavenel, on the estate of Pauline.
Love for Polina Viardot remained both happiness and torment for Turgenev until his last days: Viardot was married, she was not going to divorce her husband, but Turgenev was not driven either. He felt tied. but he was powerless to break the thread. For more than thirty years, the writer, in fact, has become a member of the Viardot family. Pauline's husband (a man, apparently, of angelic patience), Louis Viardot, he survived by only three months.

Sovremennik magazine
Belinsky and his like-minded people have long dreamed of having their own printed organ. This dream came true only in 1846, when Nekrasov and Panaev managed to rent the Sovremennik magazine, founded at one time by A. S. Pushkin and published by P. A. Pletnev after his death. Turgenev took a direct part in the organization of the new journal. According to P. V. Annenkov, Turgenev was “the soul of the whole plan, its organizer ... Nekrasov consulted with him every day; The journal was filled with his works.
In January 1847, the first issue of the updated Sovremennik was published. Turgenev published several works in it: a cycle of poems, a review of the tragedy by N.V. Kukolnik "Lieutenant General Patkul ...", "Modern Notes" (together with Nekrasov). But the real decoration of the first book of the magazine was the essay “Khor and Kalinich”, which opened a whole cycle of works under the general title “Notes of a Hunter”.

Recognition in the West
Beginning in the 60s, the name of Turgenev became widely known in the West. With many Western European writers, Turgenev maintained close friendly relations. He was well acquainted with P. Mérimée, J. Sand, G. Flaubert, E. Zola, A. Daudet, Guy de Maupassant, and knew many figures of English and German culture closely. All of them considered Turgenev an outstanding realist artist and not only highly appreciated his works, but also learned from him. Addressing Turgenev, J. Sand said: “Teacher! “We all have to go through your school!”
Turgenev spent almost his entire life in Europe, only occasionally visiting Russia. He was a prominent figure in the literary life of the West. He closely communicated with many French writers, and in 1878 he even chaired (together with Victor Hugo) the International Literary Congress in Paris. It is no coincidence that it was with Turgenev that the worldwide recognition of Russian literature began.
Turgenev's greatest merit was that he was an active propagandist of Russian literature and culture in the West: he himself translated the works of Russian writers into French and German, edited the translations of Russian authors, and in every possible way contributed to the publication of the works of his compatriots in different countries Western Europe, introduced the Western European public to the works of Russian composers and artists. About this side of his activity, Turgenev, not without pride, said: “I consider it a great happiness of my life that I brought my fatherland somewhat closer to the perception of the European public.”

Connection with Russia
Almost every spring or summer, Turgenev came to Russia. Each of his visits became a whole event. The writer was a welcome guest everywhere. He was invited to speak at all kinds of literary and charity evenings, at friendly meetings.
At the same time, Ivan Sergeevich retained the "lordly" habits of a native Russian nobleman until the end of his life. The very appearance betrayed its origin to the inhabitants of European resorts, despite the impeccable ownership foreign languages. In the best pages of his prose, there is much from the silence of the estate life of landlord Russia. Hardly any of the writers - contemporaries of Turgenev's Russian language is so pure and correct, capable, as he himself used to say, "perform miracles in capable hands." Turgenev often wrote his novels "on the topic of the day."
The last time Turgenev visited his homeland was in May 1881. To his friends, he repeatedly "expressed his determination to return to Russia and settle there." However, this dream did not come true. In early 1882, Turgenev fell seriously ill, and there was no question of moving. But all his thoughts were at home, in Russia. He thought about her, bedridden serious illness, about its future, about the glory of Russian literature.
Shortly before his death, he expressed a wish to be buried in St. Petersburg, at the Volkov cemetery, next to Belinsky.
last will the writer was done

"Poems in Prose".
"Poems in prose" are rightly considered the final chord of the writer's literary activity. They reflected almost all the themes and motives of his work, as if re-felt by Turgenev in his declining years. He himself considered "Poems in Prose" only sketches of his future works.
Turgenev called his lyrical miniatures "Selenia" ("Old Man"), but the editor of "Bulletin of Europe" Stasyulevich replaced it with another one that remained forever - "Poems in Prose". In his letters, Turgenev sometimes called them "Zigzags", thereby emphasizing the contrast of themes and motives, images and intonations, and the unusual nature of the genre. The writer was afraid that "the river of time in its course" "will carry away these light sheets." But "Poems in Prose" met with the most cordial reception and forever entered the golden fund of our literature. No wonder P. V. Annenkov called them "a fabric of the sun, rainbows and diamonds, women's tears and the nobility of men's thought", expressing the general opinion of the reading public.
"Poems in Prose" is an amazing fusion of poetry and prose into a kind of unity that allows you to fit the "whole world" into the grain of small reflections, called by the author "the last breaths ... of an old man." But these "sighs" have conveyed to our days the inexhaustibility vital energy writer.

Monuments to I. S. 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, and even to schoolchildren, because his works are included in the course of 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, he served in the Russian army as an officer. Mother came from a family of wealthy landowners.

Turgenev family estate - Spasskoe-Lutovino. It was here that the childhood of the future famous Russian writer passed. On the estate, Ivan was brought up mainly 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 is trained for about two years. In subsequent years, Ivan Turgenev studied at home, listening to the lessons of 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 go to Germany to Berlin, where he will listen to lectures by famous professors in philosophy and philology. In Germany, he spent a year and a half, and during this time he managed to get acquainted with 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 Russian Empire. Living in Moscow, he is preparing for the 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. In the civil service, he worked for a short time, only two years. But during this time he managed to make friends with Belinsky and other members of the circle of a famous publicist and writer.

After his dismissal from the civil service, Turgenev went abroad for a while. Shortly before his departure, his essay "Khor and Kalinich" is published in Russia. Upon returning, he begins working in 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 for his authorship, there are such works (stories, plays, novels) as: “The Bachelor”, “A Month in the Village”, “The Freeloader”, “Provincial Girl”.

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 the censors. For free-thinking, he was arrested and imprisoned for a month.

After Ivan Sergeevich was exiled to a 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 will write: "Rudin", "Noble Nest", "Fathers and Sons", "On the Eve".

Later, in the life of the writer there was a break with the journal Sovremennik and with Herzen. Turgenev considered the revolutionary, socialist ideas of Herzen unviable. Ivan Sergeevich, one of the many writers who, at the beginning of their career, were critical of royal power, and their minds were shrouded in revolutionary romance.

When the personality of Turgenev was fully realized, Ivan Sergeevich refused his thoughts and camaraderie with personalities like Herzen. Similar experiences were, for example, in Pushkin and Dostoevsky.

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, sympathized with the movement of the Narodnaya Volya. At the end of the decade he came to his homeland, where he was solemnly welcomed. Soon Ivan Sergeevich fell seriously ill, and in August 1883 he died. Turgenev, with his work, left a big mark on the development of Russian culture and literature.