In what year was Ivan Alekseevich Bunin born. When was Bunin born and died? Ivan Bunin: years of life

The name of the writer Ivan Bunin is well known not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders. Thanks to his own works, the first Russian laureate in the field of literature earned world fame during his lifetime! To better understand what this person was guided by when creating his unique masterpieces, you should study the biography of Ivan Bunin and his view of many things in life.

Brief biographical sketches from early childhood

The future great writer was born back in 1870, on October 22. Voronezh became his homeland. Bunin's family was not rich: his father became an impoverished landowner, therefore, from early childhood, little Vanya experienced many material deprivations.

The biography of Ivan Bunin is very unusual, and this manifested itself from the earliest period of his life. Even in childhood, he was very proud of the fact that he was born into a noble family. At the same time, Vanya tried not to focus on material difficulties.

As evidenced by the biography of Ivan Bunin, in 1881 he entered the first class. Ivan Alekseevich began his schooling at the Yelets Gymnasium. However, due to the difficult financial situation of his parents, he was forced to leave school already in 1886 and continue to learn the basics of science at home. It is thanks to studying at home that young Vanya gets acquainted with the work of such famous writers as A. V. Koltsov and I. S. Nikitin.

A number of interesting entertaining facts about the beginning of Bunin's career

Ivan Bunin began writing his very first poems at the age of 17. It was then that he made his creative debut, which turned out to be very successful. No wonder the print media published the works of the young author. But then their editors could hardly have imagined how stunning successes in the field of literature awaited Bunin in the future!

At the age of 19, Ivan Alekseevich moved to Orel and got a job in a newspaper with the eloquent name "Orlovsky Vestnik".

In 1903 and 1909, Ivan Bunin, whose biography is presented to the reader's attention in the article, is awarded the Pushkin Prize. And on November 1, 1909, he was elected an honorary academician to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, which specialized in refined literature.

Important events from personal life

The personal life of Ivan Bunin is replete with many interesting points that you should pay attention to. In the life of a great writer, there were 4 women for whom he had tender feelings. And each of them played a certain role in his fate! Let's pay attention to each of them:

1. Varvara Pashchenko - Bunin Ivan Alekseevich met her at the age of 19. This happened in the building of the editorial office of the Orlovsky Vestnik newspaper. But with Varvara, who was one year older than him, Ivan Alekseevich lived in a civil marriage. Difficulties in their relationship began due to the fact that Bunin simply could not provide her with the material standard of living that she aspired to. As a result, Varvara Pashchenko cheated on him with a wealthy landowner.
2. Anna Tsakni in 1898 became the legal wife of a famous Russian writer. He met her in Odessa during the holidays and was simply struck by her natural beauty. However, family life quickly cracked due to the fact that Anna Tsakni always dreamed of returning to her hometown - Odessa. Therefore, the whole Moscow life was a burden for her, and she accused her husband of indifference to her and callousness.
3. Vera Muromtseva is the beloved woman of Bunin Ivan Alekseevich, with whom he lived the longest - 46 years. They formalized their relationship only in 1922 - 16 years after they met. And Ivan Alekseevich met his future wife in 1906, during a literary evening. After the wedding, the writer and his wife moved to live in the southern part of France.
4. Galina Kuznetsova lived next to the writer's wife, Vera Muromtseva, and was not at all embarrassed by this fact, however, like Ivan Alekseevich's wife herself. In total, she lived for 10 years in a French villa.

Political views of the writer

The political views of many people had a significant impact on public opinion. Therefore, certain newspaper publications devoted a lot of time to them.

Even despite the fact that, to a greater extent, Ivan Alekseevich had to do his own work outside of Russia, he always loved his homeland and understood the meaning of the word "patriot". However, Bunin was alien to belonging to any particular party. But in one of his interviews, the writer once mentioned that the idea of ​​a social democratic system is closer to him in spirit.

Personal life tragedy

In 1905, Bunin Ivan Alekseevich experienced a heavy grief: his son Nikolai, whom Anna Tsakni bore to him, died. This fact can definitely be attributed to the personal life tragedy of the writer. However, as follows from the biography, Ivan Bunin held firm, was able to endure the pain of loss and give, despite such a sad event, many literary "pearls" to the whole world! What else is known about the life of the Russian classic?

Ivan Bunin: interesting facts from life

Bunin very much regretted that he graduated from only 4 classes of the gymnasium and could not receive a systematic education. But this fact did not at all prevent him from leaving a considerable mark in the world's literary work.

For a long period of time, Ivan Alekseevich had to stay in exile. And all this time he dreamed of returning to his homeland. Bunin actually cherished this dream until his death, but it remained unrealizable.

At the age of 17, when he wrote his first poem, Ivan Bunin tried to imitate his great predecessors - Pushkin and Lermontov. Perhaps their work had a great influence on the young writer and became an incentive to create his own works.

Now, few people know that in early childhood, the writer Ivan Bunin was poisoned by henbane. Then his nanny saved him from certain death, who gave little Vanya milk to drink in time.

The writer tried to determine the appearance of a person by the limbs, as well as the back of the head.

Bunin Ivan Alekseevich was passionate about collecting various boxes, as well as bottles. At the same time, he fiercely guarded all his “exhibits” for many years!

These and other interesting facts characterize Bunin as an extraordinary person, able not only to realize his talent in the field of literature, but also to take an active part in many fields of activity.

Famous collections and works of Bunin Ivan Alekseevich

The largest works that Ivan Bunin managed to write in his life are the stories "Mitina Lyubov", "Village", "Sukhodol", as well as the novel "Arseniev's Life". It was for the novel that Ivan Alekseevich was awarded the Nobel Prize.

The collection of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin "Dark Alleys" is very interesting for the reader. It contains stories that touch on the theme of love. The writer worked on them in the period from 1937 to 1945, that is, exactly when he was in exile.

Also highly appreciated are the samples of Ivan Bunin's work, which were included in the collection "Cursed Days". It describes the revolutionary events of 1917 and the whole historical aspect that they carried in themselves.

Popular poems by Ivan Alekseevich Bunin

In each of his poems, Bunin clearly expressed certain thoughts. For example, in the famous work "Childhood" the reader gets acquainted with the thoughts of the child with regards to the world around him. A ten-year-old boy reflects on how majestic nature is around and how small and insignificant he is in this universe.

In the verse “Night and Day,” the poet masterfully describes the different times of the day and emphasizes that everything is gradually changing in human life, and only God remains eternal.

Nature is interestingly described in the work “Rafts”, as well as the hard work of those who ferry people to the opposite bank of the river every day.

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize was awarded to Ivan Bunin for his novel "The Life of Arseniev", which actually told about the life of the writer himself. Despite the fact that this book was published in 1930, Ivan Alekseevich tried to “pour out his soul” and his feelings about certain life situations in it.

Officially, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Bunin on December 10, 1933 - that is, 3 years after the release of his famous novel. He received this honorary award from the hands of the Swedish king Gustav V himself.

It is noteworthy that for the first time in history, the Nobel Prize was awarded to a person who is officially in exile. Until that moment, not a single genius who became its owner was in exile. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin just became this "pioneer", who was noted by the world literary community with such valuable encouragement.

In total, the Nobel Prize winners were supposed to receive 715,000 francs in cash. It would seem that a very impressive amount. But the writer Ivan Alekseevich Bunin quickly squandered it, as he provided financial assistance to Russian emigrants, who bombarded him with many different letters.

Writer's death

Death came to Ivan Bunin rather unexpectedly. His heart stopped during sleep, and this sad event happened on November 8, 1953. It was on this day that Ivan Alekseevich was in Paris and could not even imagine his imminent death.

Surely Bunin dreamed of living a long time and one day dying in his native land, among his relatives and a large number of friends. But fate decreed a little differently, as a result of which the writer spent most of his life in exile. However, thanks to his unsurpassed creativity, he actually ensured immortality for his name. The literary masterpieces written by Bunin will be remembered for many more generations of people. A creative person like him gains worldwide fame and becomes a historical reflection of the era in which she created!

Ivan Bunin was buried in one of the cemeteries in France (Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois). Here is such a rich and interesting biography of Ivan Bunin. What is its role in world literature?

The role of Bunin in world literature

We can safely say that Ivan Bunin (1870-1953) left a noticeable mark on world literature. Thanks to such virtues as ingenuity and verbal sensitivity, which the poet possessed, he was excellent at creating the most suitable literary images in his works.

By his nature, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was a realist, but, despite this, he skillfully supplemented his stories with something fascinating and unusual. The uniqueness of Ivan Alekseevich lay in the fact that he did not consider himself to be a member of any well-known literary group and a "trend" that was fundamental in its view.

All of Bunin's best stories were devoted to Russia and told about everything that connected the writer with it. Perhaps it was thanks to these facts that the stories of Ivan Alekseevich were very popular among Russian readers.

Unfortunately, Bunin's work has not been fully explored by our contemporaries. Scientific research into the language and style of the writer is yet to come. His influence on Russian literature of the 20th century has not yet been revealed, perhaps because, like Pushkin, Ivan Alekseevich is unique. There is a way out of this situation: turning again and again to Bunin's texts, to documents, archives, and contemporaries' memories of him.

"A century later he says
Poet - and his syllable rings -
In crimson painted autumn.
And the cemetery is sadly sleeping,
Where he lies in a foreign land.
And sadly looks blue from above ... "
From a poem by Tamara Khanzhina in memory of Bunin

Biography

An amazing fact, but this talented, brilliant, educated and sophisticated person did not receive a good education in his youth. Most of the knowledge and interest in literature, philosophy and psychology was instilled in Ivan Bunin by his older brother, who graduated with honors from the university and worked a lot with the boy. Perhaps it was thanks to his brother Yuliy Bunin that he was able to reveal his literary talent.

Bunin's biography can be read like a novel with a gripping plot. Throughout his life, Bunin changed cities, countries and, which is no secret, women. One thing remained unchanged - his passion for literature. He published his first poem at the age of 16 and already at 25 he shone in the literary circles of both capitals of Russia. Bunin's first wife was a Greek Anna Tsakni, but this marriage did not last long, Bunin's only son died at the age of five, and after a while the writer met the main woman in his life - Vera Muromtseva. It was with her, who later became Bunin's official wife, that the writer emigrated to France, failing to accept Bolshevik power.

While living in France, Bunin continued to write, where he created his best works. But he did not stop thinking about Russia, yearning for her, hard experiencing his renunciation. However, these experiences only benefited his work, it is not without reason that Bunin's stories, poems and stories are today considered the golden heritage of Russian literature. For the skill with which he developed the traditions of Russian classical prose, the eighty-year-old Bunin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature - the first of Russian writers. All the years of emigration, next to Bunin was his wife, Vera, who steadfastly endured both the difficult nature of her husband and his hobbies on the side. Until the very last day, she remained his true friend, and not just his wife.

While in France, Bunin constantly thought about returning to Russia. But seeing what was happening to his compatriots who believed in the benevolence of the Soviet government and returned home, the writer abandoned this idea year after year. Bunin's death came in the 84th year of his life in his modest apartment in Paris. The cause of Bunin's death, according to the doctor, was a whole bunch of diseases - heart failure, cardiac asthma and sclerosis of the lungs. Bunin's funeral was held in a Russian church in Paris, then the body was placed in a zinc coffin in a temporary crypt - Bunin's wife hoped that she could still bury her husband in Russia. But, alas, this was not allowed to happen, and on January 30, 1954, Bunin's funeral took place with the transfer of his coffin from a temporary crypt. Bunin's grave is located in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris.

Bunin's wives - first wife Anna (left) and second wife Vera (right)

life line

October 10, 1870 Date of birth of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin.
1881 Admission to the Yelets gymnasium.
1892 Moving to Poltava, work in the newspapers "Poltava Gubernskie Vedomosti", "Kievlyanin".
1895 Success in the literary society of Moscow and St. Petersburg, acquaintance with Chekhov.
1898 Marriage with Anna Tsakni.
1900 Parting with Tsakni, trip to Europe.
1901 Release of Bunin's collection of poems "Falling Leaves".
1903 Bunin is awarded the Pushkin Prize.
1906 The beginning of a relationship with Vera Muromtseva.
1909 Bunin was awarded the Pushkin Prize, elected an honorary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature.
1915 Publication of Bunin's complete works in an appendix to the Niva magazine.
1918 Moving to Odessa.
1920 Emigration to France, to Paris.
1922 Official marriage with Vera Muromtseva.
1924 Writing of Bunin's story "Mitya's Love".
1933 Bunin is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
1934-1936 Publication of Bunin's collected works in Berlin.
1939 Moving to Grasse.
1945 Return to Paris.
1953 Completion of Bunin's collection of short stories "Dark Alleys".
November 8, 1953 Date of Bunin's death.
November 12, 1953 Funeral service, placing the body in a temporary crypt.
January 30, 1954 Bunin's funeral (reburial).

Memorable places

1. The village of Ozerki, the former estate of the Bunins, where the writer spent his childhood.
2. Bunin's house in Voronezh, where he was born and lived for the first three years of his life.
3. Literary and Memorial Museum of Bunin in Yelets, in the house where Bunin lodged as a high school student.
4. Bunin's house-museum in Efremov, where Bunin periodically lived and worked in 1906-1910. and on which a memorial plaque in memory of Bunin is installed.
5. St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, of which Bunin was elected an honorary academician.
6. Bunin's house in Odessa, where Bunin and Muromtseva lived in 1918-1920. before leaving for France.
7. Bunin's house in Paris, where he periodically lived from 1922 to 1953. and where he died.
8. Bunin's house in Grasse, villa "Jannette", at the entrance to which a memorial plaque in memory of Bunin is installed.
9. Bunin's house in Grasse, Belvedere villa.
10. Monument to Bunin in Moscow.
11. Monument to Bunin in Orel.
12. Monument to Bunin in Voronezh.
13. Cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, where Bunin is buried.

Episodes of life

Bunin possessed not only literary, but also acting talent. He had a very rich facial expression, he moved and danced well, was an excellent rider. It is known that Konstantin Stanislavsky himself invited Bunin to play the role of Hamlet in the theater, but he refused.

The last years of his life, Ivan Bunin lived practically in poverty. The money that he received as a Nobel laureate, the writer immediately spent on parties and receptions, helping emigrants, and then unsuccessfully invested in some business and completely burned out.

It is known that Ivan Bunin, like many writers, kept a diary. He made his last entry on May 2, 1953, a few months before his death, which, apparently, he already foresaw due to deteriorating health: “It is still amazing to the point of tetanus! After some, a very short time, I will not be - and the deeds and fates of everything, everything will be unknown to me!

Covenant

“What a joy it is to exist! Only to see, at least to see only this smoke and this light. If I didn’t have arms and legs and I could only sit on a bench and look at the setting sun, then I would be happy with this. You only need to see and breathe.”

Documentary film dedicated to Ivan Bunin, from the cycle "Geniuses and Villains"

condolences

"The great mountain was Tsar Ivan!"
Don-Aminado (Aminodav Peisakhovich Shpolyansky), satirist poet

“The writer was extraordinary. And he was an extraordinary person."
Mark Aldanov, prose writer, publicist

“Bunin is a rare phenomenon. In our literature, in terms of language, this is the peak above which no one can rise.
Sergei Voronin, prose writer

“All his life Bunin waited for happiness, wrote about human happiness, looked for ways to it. He found it in his poetry, prose, in love for life and for his homeland, and said great words that happiness is given only to those who know. Bunin lived a difficult, sometimes contradictory life. He saw a lot, knew a lot, loved and hated a lot, worked a lot, sometimes he was cruelly mistaken, but all his life his greatest, most tender, unchanging love was his native country, Russia.
Konstantin Paustovsky, writer

Many readers know when Bunin was born and died. And how many remember that it was a great Russian poet and novelist who wrote about the collapse of the Russian nobility? And, probably, few people know that Ivan Alekseevich became the first Russian writer who received the Nobel Prize in 1833. And in order to understand how he achieved such results, you need to familiarize yourself a little with his biography.

Childhood years of the future laureate

In 1870, the future writer Ivan Bunin was born in Voronezh, on the estate of his parents. Ivan Alekseevich's grandfather was a fairly prosperous landowner. But after the death of his wife, he began to waste his fortune senselessly. And the little that remained after him, Bunin's father drank away and lost at the card table. At the turn of the century, the family's fortune was practically exhausted. The future writer Bunin from early childhood witnessed the growing impoverishment of the family.

Ivan Alekseevich spent most of his childhood years in the family estate, where he got acquainted with the life of the peasants. In 1881 he entered the public school in Yelets, but after five years of study was expelled due to the family's financial difficulties and was forced to return home.

Debut in creativity, or New acquaintances

At the age of seventeen, Ivan Alekseevich made his debut as a poet. His poem appeared in the journal of St. Petersburg "Motherland". In 1889 Ivan Bunin followed his older brother, who had a huge influence on him, to Kharkov. There, he first occupies the position of an official, then he is hired as an assistant editor in the local newspaper Orlovsky Vestnik.

Ivan Alekseevich continues to write, and many of his stories have been published in some newspapers and magazines. This period also includes his long relationship with an employee of the newspaper where he worked, Varvara Pashchenko. After some time, they moved together to Poltava. Bunin begins an active correspondence with Anton Chekhov, and over time they become very close friends. And in 1894 Ivan Alekseevich met Leo Tolstoy. He admired the works of Lev Nikolaevich, but their social and moral views were very different.

Huge popularity and public recognition

When Bunin was born and died, of course, you need to know, but it is also interesting to know when his first book was published. And it was published in 1891 in Orel. The book consisted of poems written between 1887 and 1891. Moreover, some of the articles, essays and stories of Ivan Alekseevich, which were previously published in local newspapers and magazines, began to appear in periodicals in St. Petersburg.

By more than a hundred poems published by Ivan, he became quite popular with a wide range of readers. In the same period, the translation of the work "The Song of Hiawatha" was awarded the Pushkin Prize, as well as the gold medal of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Many critics and colleagues appreciated the rarity of his talent, refinement and clarity of thought.

In 1899, Bunin married Anna Nikolaevna Tsakni. She was the daughter of a wealthy Greek from Odessa. Unfortunately, the marriage was short, and the only child died at the age of five. And already in 1906, Ivan Alekseevich lives in a civil marriage with Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva. Not only the facts about when Bunin was born and died are interesting in their meaning, but also information about his personal life and creative path is of great value to those who study the personality of Ivan Bunin.

Transition from poetry to prose

At the turn of the century, Ivan Alekseevich made a great transition from poetry to prose, which began to change in form and texture, became richer lexically. In 1900, the story "Antonov apples" was published, which was later even included in textbooks on literature and was considered Bunin's first real masterpiece.

Contemporaries commented on the work ambiguously. Someone emphasized the exceptional accuracy of the language, a subtle description of nature and a detailed psychological analysis, while others saw in this work some kind of nostalgia for the past of the Russian nobility. Nevertheless, Bunin's prose is becoming very popular.

Famous works, or the history of one's own family

In 1910, Ivan Alekseevich was elected one of the twelve full members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. And the very next year he published his first full-scale novel, The Village, where he describes the gloomy life in the country, which he portrays as complete stupidity, cruelty and violence. And in 1911, his second novel, Sukhodol, was published.

Here he outlines the deplorable state of the Russian rural community. There is also a nostalgic depiction of the decaying Russian nobility based on the true story of his own family. Once again, Bunin's prose divided literary critics in expressing their opinions. The Social Democrats noted his absolute honesty in the works, but many others were very shocked by the author's negativity.

The beginning of the war, or fear for the future of the state

Then Bunin and Muromtseva spent three winters from 1912 to 1914 with Maxim Gorky. There he met Fyodor Chaliapin and Leonid Andreev. Ivan Alekseevich divided his time between being in Moscow and the family estate. He was constantly haunted by anxiety about the future of Russia. Does Ivan Bunin continue to write at this time? Poetry or prose? And how did the revolution affect his work?

Ivan Alekseevich continues to work hard. In the winter of 1914, he completed a new volume of poetry and prose called The Cup of Life. And already at the beginning of the next year it was published and also received wide recognition. In the same year, "The Gentleman from San Francisco" was published. Perhaps the most famous of the stories that Bunin wrote. The years of life spent in Russia were coming to an end. A revolution was approaching that would force the great writer to leave his homeland.

Revolution and Ivan Alekseevich

Ivan Alekseevich witnessed the terror and destruction caused by the communists during the Russian year. In April of that year, he broke all ties with Gorky, which he would never restore, and on May 21, 1918, Ivan Bunin and Muromtseva received official permission to leave Moscow. They moved to Odessa. Here Ivan Alekseevich lived for two years in the hope that the Whites would be able to restore order. But soon revolutionary chaos spread throughout the state.

In February 1920, Bunin emigrated aboard the last French ship leaving Odessa with other anti-communist Russians, finally settling in Grasse, in southern France. Slowly and painfully overcoming psychological stress, Ivan Alekseevich returns to his writing. Ivan Bunin cannot live without pen and paper.

The years of his life that he spent abroad are also marked by his numerous publications and new literary masterpieces. He publishes his pre-revolutionary works, novels, regularly contributes to the Russian emigre press. Nevertheless, he was very hard to get used to the new world and believed that his muse was lost forever.

When was Bunin born and died?

Ivan Alekseevich became the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize in 1933. He received congratulations from a huge number of intellectuals around the world, but not a word from Soviet Russia, where his name and books were banned. During emigration, Bunin wrote a lot of well-known works, among them the Cursed Days, which became quite popular, where the writer describes Soviet power in detail.

Born in 1870, Ivan Alekseevich has come a long way in life. He survived the First World War, the bloody Russian Revolution, the years of the Great Patriotic War and died on November 8, 1953 in his apartment in Paris. He never returned to his homeland.

1. Personal life of Ivan Bunin
2. Interesting Facts

And van Bunin wrote that he did not belong to any literary school. He did not consider himself "neither a decadent, nor a symbolist, nor a romantic, nor a realist" - his work really turned out to be outside the Silver Age. Despite this, Bunin's works received worldwide recognition and became classics. "For the strict artistic talent with which he recreated the typical Russian character in literary prose" Bunin - the first of the Russian writers - received the Nobel Prize.

Literary creativity of Ivan Bunin

Ivan Bunin was born on October 22, 1870 in Voronezh. Three and a half years later, the family moved to the Butyrka family estate in the Oryol province. Here, "in the deepest field silence", the boy got acquainted with folklore. During the day he worked with the peasants in the fields, and in the evenings he stayed with them to listen to folk tales and legends. From the time of the move, Bunin's creative path began. Here, at the age of eight, he composed his first poem, followed by essays and short stories. The young writer imitated in his manner either Alexander Pushkin or Mikhail Lermontov.

In 1881, the Bunin family moved to the Ozerki estate - "a large and rather prosperous village with three landowners' estates sunk in gardens, with several ponds and spacious pastures". In the same year, Ivan Bunin entered the Yelets Men's Gymnasium. The first impressions of life in the county town were bleak: “The transition from a completely free life was also abrupt, from the cares of a mother to life in the city, to the ridiculous strictness in the gymnasium and to the hard life of those philistine and merchant houses where I had to live as a freeloader”.

Bunin studied at the gymnasium for a little over four years: in the winter of 1886, after the holidays, he did not return to classes. At home, he became even more interested in literature. In 1887, Bunin published his poems in the St. Petersburg newspaper Rodina - “Over the grave of S.Ya. Nadson" and "The Village Beggar", and a little later - the stories "Two Wanderers" and "Nefyodka". In his work, he constantly turned to childhood memories.

In 1889 Ivan Bunin moved to Orel, in central Russia, "where the richest Russian language was formed and where almost all the greatest Russian writers came from, led by Turgenev and Tolstoy". Here, the 18-year-old writer entered the service of the provincial newspaper Orlovsky Vestnik, where he worked as a proofreader, wrote theater reviews and articles. In Orel, Bunin's first poetry collection Poems was published, in which the young poet reflected on philosophical topics and described Russian nature.

Ivan Bunin traveled a lot and taught foreign languages ​​on foreign trips. So the writer began to translate poetry. Among the authors were the ancient Greek poet Alkey, Saadi, Francesco Petrarch, Adam Mickiewicz, George Byron, Henry Longfellow. In parallel, he continued to write himself: in 1898 he published the poetry collection Under the Open Air, three years later - the collection of poems Falling Leaves. For Falling Leaves and the translation of The Song of Hiawatha, Henry Longfellow Bunin received the Pushkin Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences. However, in the poetic environment, many considered the poet an "old-fashioned landscape painter."

Being a true and great poet, he stands apart from the general movement in the field of Russian verse.<...>But on the other hand, he has an area in which he has reached the end points of perfection. This is the area of ​​pure painting, brought to the extreme limits that are accessible to the elements of the word.

Maximilian Voloshin

In 1905, the first Russian revolution broke out, devastating peasant riots swept the country. The writer did not support what was happening. After the events of that time, Bunin wrote "a whole series of works that sharply depict the Russian soul, its peculiar interweaving, its light and dark, but almost always tragic foundations".

Among them are the stories "The Village" and "Dry Valley", the stories "Strength", "The Good Life", "The Prince in Princes", "Bastes Shoes".

In 1909, the Academy of Sciences awarded Ivan Bunin the Pushkin Prize for the third volume of the Collected Works and translation of George Byron's mystery drama Cain. Soon after that, the writer received the title of honorary academician in the category of fine literature, and in 1912 he became an honorary member of the Society of Russian Literature Lovers.

Personal life of Ivan Bunin

The first love of Ivan Bunin was Varvara Pashchenko. He met her at the editorial office of the Orlovsky Vestnik newspaper. "Tall, with very beautiful features, in pince-nez", at first she seemed to the young writer arrogant and overly emancipated - but soon Bunin was already writing letters to his brother, in which he painted the mind and talents of his beloved. However, her father did not allow Varvara Pashchenko to officially marry Bunin, and she herself did not think about marriage with an aspiring writer.

I love him very much and appreciate him as an intelligent and good person, but we will never have a family, peaceful life. It's better, no matter how hard, now we disperse than in a year or six months.<...>All this inexpressibly oppresses me, I lose both energy and strength.<...>He says incessantly that I belong to a vulgar environment, that I have both bad tastes and habits rooted - and this is all true, but again it is strange to demand that I discard them like old gloves ... If you knew how it is for me everything is hard!

From a letter from Varvara Pashchenko to Yuli Bunin, brother of Ivan Bunin

In 1894, Varvara Pashchenko left Ivan Bunin and married the wealthy landowner Arseny Bibikov, a friend of Bunin. The writer was very worried - the older brothers even feared for his life. The agony of first love Ivan Bunin later reflected in the last part of the novel "The Life of Arseniev" - "Lika".

The first official wife of the writer was Anna Tsakni. Bunin proposed to her a few days after they met. In 1899 they got married. Tsakni was 19 years old at that time, and Bunin was 27. However, some time passed after the wedding, and family life went wrong. Tsakni blamed her husband for callousness, he blamed her for frivolity.

It is impossible to say that she is a complete fool, but her nature is childishly stupid and self-confident - this is the fruit of my long and most impartial observations. Not one of my words, not one of my opinions about anything - she does not even put it in the market. She is… as undeveloped as a puppy, I repeat to you. And therefore there is no hope that I can develop her poor head in any way, no hope for other interests.

From a letter from Ivan Bunin to his brother Yuliy Bunin

In 1900, Ivan Bunin left Anna Tsakni, who was pregnant at that time. A few years after the birth of the writer's child became seriously ill and died. Ivan Bunin had no more children.

The second and last wife of Ivan Bunin was Vera Muromtseva. The writer met her in 1906 at a literary evening. Together they spent almost every day, went to exhibitions, literary readings. A year later, they began to live together, but they could not legalize their relationship: Anna Tsakni did not give Bunin a divorce.

Ivan Bunin and Vera Muromtseva got married only in 1922, in Paris. Together they lived for almost half a century. Vera Muromtseva became a devoted friend of Bunin for life, together they went through all the hardships of emigration and war.

Life in exile and the Nobel Prize

Bunin perceived the October Revolution and the Civil War as a catastrophe in the life of the country and compatriots. From Petrograd, he moved first to Moscow, then to Odessa. In parallel, he kept a diary in which he wrote a lot about the destructive power of the Russian revolution and the power of the Bolsheviks. Later, a book with these memories was published abroad under the title Cursed Days.

"Having drunk the cup of unspeakable mental suffering", in early 1920, Bunin left Russia. Together with his wife, he sailed on a Greek steamer from Odessa to Constantinople, from there - via Sofia and Belgrade - to Paris. At that time, Russian emigrant journalists and exiled writers lived in the French capital, which is why it was often called the "district of Russian literature."

Everything that remained in the USSR seemed alien and hostile to the writer. Abroad, he began to conduct social and political activities and soon became one of the main figures of the emigrant opposition. In 1920, Bunin became a member of the Paris Union of Russian Writers and Journalists, wrote to the political and literary newspaper Vozrozhdenie and called for the fight against Bolshevism. At home, for his anti-Soviet position, the writer was nicknamed the White Guard.

Abroad, Bunin began to publish collections of his pre-revolutionary works. European critics have accepted these books cordially.

Bunin is a real Russian talent, bleeding, uneven, and at the same time courageous and big. His book contains several stories that are worthy of Dostoevsky in strength.

French monthly art and literature magazine La Nervie, December 1921

During the years of emigration, Bunin worked hard, his books were published almost every year. He wrote the stories "The Rose of Jericho", "Mitina's Love", "Sunstroke", "God's Tree". In his works, Bunin sought to combine poetic and prose language, so figurative details of the second plan occupied an important place in them. For example, in "Sunstroke" the author picturesquely described the white-hot Volga landscape.

In 1933, Ivan Bunin completed the most significant work of the foreign period of creativity - the novel "The Life of Arseniev". It was for him that Bunin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in the same year. The name of the author became world famous, but his fame was overshadowed by the fact that in Soviet Russia this achievement was hushed up, and his works were not published.

The funds received from the Swedish Academy did not make Bunin rich. He gave a significant part of the prize to those in need.

As soon as I received the prize, I had to give away about 120,000 francs. Yes, I don't know how to handle money. Now this is especially difficult. Do you know how many letters I received asking for help? In the shortest time, up to 2000 such letters came.

Ivan Bunin

The last years of life and the death of Bunin

The Second World War found the Bunins in the French city of Grasse. By that time, the money from the Nobel Prize had ended, and the family had to live from hand to mouth.

Cracked fingers from the cold, no bathing, no washing of feet, nauseating soups from white turnips I was "rich" - now, by the will of fate, I suddenly became poor, like Job. Was "famous all over the world" - now no one in the world needs it - the world is not up to me!

Ivan Bunin

Meanwhile, Bunin continued to work. The 74-year-old writer noted in his diary: “Lord, prolong my strength for my lonely, poor life in this beauty and work!” In 1944, he completed the collection Dark Alleys, which included 38 stories. Among them - "Clean Monday", "Ballad", "Muse", "Business cards". Later, nine years later, he supplemented the collection with two more stories, "In the Spring, in Judea" and "Overnight". The author himself considered the story “Dark Alleys” to be his best work.

The war reconciled the writer with the hated Bolshevik regime. Everything went by the wayside, the motherland came to the fore. Bunin bought a map of the world and noted on it the course of hostilities, which he read about in the newspapers. He celebrated the defeat of the Nazi army at Stalingrad as a personal victory, and during the days of the Tehran meeting, surprised at himself, he wrote in his diary: “No, you think what it has come to - Stalin is flying to Persia, and I am trembling so that God forbid something happens to him on the road”. At the end of the war, the writer often thought about returning to his homeland.

In May 1945, the Bunins arrived in Paris, where they celebrated the day of victory over Nazi Germany. Here, in 1946, they learned about their restoration of citizenship of the USSR and even wanted to return. In a letter to prose writer Mark Aldanov, Bunin wrote: “But here, too, a beggarly, painful, anxious existence awaits us. So, after all, there is only one thing left: home. This, as you can hear, they really want and promise mountains of gold in every sense. But how do you decide? Wait, I'll think..." But after the Decree “On the magazines“ Zvezda ”and“ Leningrad ”of 1946, in which the Central Committee of the USSR criticized the work of Mikhail Zoshchenko and Anna Akhmatova, the writer changed his mind about returning.

Ivan Bunin died in Paris on November 8, 1953. The writer was buried in the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery.

1. In his youth, Ivan Bunin was a Tolstoyan. He dreamed “about a clean, healthy, “kind” life among nature, by one’s own labors, in simple clothes”. The writer visited the settlements of the followers of the Russian classic near Poltava. In 1894 he met Leo Tolstoy himself. This meeting produced on Bunin "amazing experience". Tolstoy advised the young writer not to "take it easy", but always act according to his conscience: “Do you want to live a simple, working life? It’s good, just don’t force yourself, don’t make a uniform out of it, in any life you can be a good person. ”.

2. Bunin loved to travel. He traveled all over the South of Russia, was in many eastern countries, knew Europe well, wandered around Ceylon and Africa. On his trips "occupied with psychological, religious, historical issues", he "sought to survey the faces of the world and leave in it the minting of his soul". Bunin created some of his works under the influence of travel impressions. For example, while traveling on a steamer from Italy, he had the idea for the story "The Gentleman from San Francisco", and after a trip to Ceylon, he composed the story "Brothers".

3. Bunin was outraged by city writers who spoke about the countryside in their works. Many of them had never been to the countryside and did not understand what they were writing about.

One well-known poet ... said in his poems that he was walking, “dismantling the ears of millet”, while such a plant does not exist in nature: there is, as you know, millet, the grain of which is millet, and the ears (more precisely, panicles) grow so low that it is impossible to disassemble them by hand on the go; another (Balmont) compared the harrier, an evening bird of the breed of owls, with gray-haired plumage, mysteriously quiet, slow and completely silent during flights, with passion (“and the passion left like a flying harrier”), admired the flowering of the plantain (“the plantain is all in bloom!”), although the plantain, which grows on the field roads with small green leaves, never blooms.

Ivan Bunin

4. In 1918, a decree “On the introduction of a new spelling” was issued, which changed the spelling rules and excluded several letters from the Russian alphabet. Bunin did not accept this reform and continued to write in accordance with the old spelling. He insisted that "Dark Alleys" be published according to pre-revolutionary rules, but the publisher released the book according to new ones and confronted the author with a fait accompli. The writer even refused the American publishing house named after Chekhov to publish his books in the new spelling.

5. Ivan Bunin was very sensitive to his appearance. Writer Nina Berberova in her autobiography recalled how Bunin argued that he was more beautiful than Alexander Blok. And Vladimir Nabokov noted that Bunin was very worried about age-related changes: “When I met him, he was painfully occupied with his own aging. From the very first words we said to each other, he noted with pleasure that he was holding himself straighter than me, although he was thirty years older..

6. Ivan Bunin had an unloved letter - "f". He tried to use it as little as possible, so in his books there were almost no heroes in whose name this letter would be present. The literary chronicler Alexander Bakhrakh recalled how Bunin told him: “You know, they almost called me Philip. What could still happen - "Philip Bunin". How vile that sounds! I probably wouldn't publish it.".

7. In the USSR, the first after the revolution, the five-volume Collected Works of Bunin, shortened and cleaned out by censorship, was published only in 1956. It did not include "Cursed Days", letters and diaries of the writer - this journalism was the main reason for hushing up the author's work in his homeland. It was only during perestroika that the author's forbidden works were published in full.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin - the last classic of pre-revolutionary Russia and the first Russian winner of the main literary award - the Prize. Alfred Nobel. His works, which have become the golden fund of artistic culture, have been translated into all European languages ​​and filmed many times. Among them: "The Life of Arsenyev", "Mitya's Love", "Sunstroke", "The Gentleman from San Francisco", "Antonov's Apples".

Childhood

The future literary genius was born on October 22, 1870 in Voronezh. His father, impoverished due to lack of business qualities, addiction to the card game and alcohol, belonged to an old noble family, which gave the homeland many outstanding minds, including the coryphaeus of the Russian word Vasily Zhukovsky. Alexey Nikolaevich Bunin was a generous and artistically gifted person.

Mother, Lyudmila Alexandrovna Chubarova, came from a princely family (according to family legend), she was distinguished by a compliant, poetic and gentle nature, as opposed to a quick-tempered and gambling spouse.

In total, the couple had 9 children, but four survived: Julius, Zhenya, Maria and Ivan. When Vanya was 4 years old, the family had to return for financial reasons to their impoverished "noble nest" - Butyrka in the Oryol region.

Vanechka was known as his mother's favorite, possessing a similar subtle and impressionable nature. He learned to read early, amazed with his imagination, curiosity, he composed his first verse at the age of 7-8.

In 1881 he was sent to the Yelets Gymnasium, where he studied for 5 years without earning a certificate: the young man was so homesick that he studied poorly and was eventually sent home.

Subsequently, the lack of formal education depressed him, but did not prevent him from being known as a great writer. The young man comprehended the gymnasium program under the guidance of his 10-year-old elder brother Julius, who graduated with honors from the university and had a special influence on the formation of his brother's personality. Among Ivan's literary idols were Pushkin, Fet, Tyutchev, Lermontov, Semyon Nadson.

The beginning of the way

In 1887, Bunin's literary path began. In the publication "Rodina" his poems "Over the grave of S. Ya. Nadson" and "The Village Beggar" were published. In 1889, he left the estate, having received an offer from Orel to take the place of the head of the local newspaper. Previously, he went to Kharkov to his brother Julius, where he worked in a zemstvo institution, and then visited the south in the Crimea.

During his collaboration with Orlovsky Vestnik, he published his debut poetic book, Poems, published in the Observer, Niva, Vestnik Evropy publications, earning favorable reviews from eminent writers, including Chekhov.

Ivan Bunin - Poems

In 1892, the writer moved to Poltava, where, under the patronage of Yulia, he got a job in the statistical department of the provincial self-government body. He talked a lot with freethinkers-populists, visited Tolstoy settlements, in 1894 he met with their founder Leo Tolstoy, reflecting his ideas in the story "At the Dacha".

Creative accomplishments

A year later, he entered the literary circles of St. Petersburg, then Moscow, became close to Alexander Kuprin, Valery Bryusov, Konstantin Balmont, met Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Teleshov, and worked fruitfully. Among his close friends there were also many artists, musicians, including Sergei Rachmaninov. Art has always attracted Ivan Alekseevich. Since childhood, he was endowed with increased sensitivity and susceptibility to sounds, colors, which affected the features of creativity, its expressive picturesqueness.

In 1896, his translation of Henry Longfellow's Song of Geyawat was published, and is still recognized as unsurpassed. Later he translated Saadi, T. Shevchenko, F. Petrarch, A. Mickiewicz. In 1900, "Epitaph" and the famous "Antonov apples" appeared, which provided him with real literary fame. Falling Leaves was also warmly received, bringing in 1903 the prestigious Pushkin Prize of the Academy of Sciences (or rather, half of it, being awarded together with Peter Weinberg).

Ivan Bunin - Falling leaves

After 6 years, the writer was again awarded this literary award (for volumes 3 and 4 of the Collected Works in 5 volumes), sharing it this time with Alexander Kuprin. Almost simultaneously, he became the youngest (39-year-old) holder of the academic title "honorary academician" in the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

Development of creative activity

After the revolutionary events of 1905, the prevailing theme of the works of the master of the pen, instead of the "requiem" of manor life, was the drama of the historical part of the country. But he remained true to his style and the precepts of great literature, rejecting any avant-garde and modernism - he still wrote realistically, concisely, poetically reflecting nature and revealing the psychological subtleties of characters. The undisputed masterpieces of this period include “The Village”, “Dry Valley”, where the author shocked readers with terrifying pictures of peasant life without embellishment, as well as stories filled with philosophical meaning: “The Good Life”, “Brothers”, “John Rydalets”, “Mr. Francisco", "Cup of Life", "Grammar of Love".

In 1907, the writer and his wife made their cherished first "wandering", visiting Egypt. Later, he traveled with pleasure a lot to different countries (Turkey, Ceylon, Romania, Italy, Syria, Palestine). Colleagues participating in the literary and artistic circle "Wednesday", of which he became a member, even gave him the nickname "fidget". The impressions from the trips were reflected in the book "Shadow of a Bird", published in 1931 in Paris.

He did not favor the Bolsheviks and their leaders, he perceived the coup as the beginning of the death of his native state and as a personal tragedy, capturing the ongoing terror in his diary book Cursed Days. In 1918 he left Moscow, moving to Odessa, and two years later he was forced to leave his homeland forever.

Abroad

In 1920, the writer settled in France, spending the warm season in the southeast of the country in the medieval town of Grasse, and the winter months in Paris. Separation from his native land and mental suffering paradoxically had a positive effect on his work.

In exile, he wrote ten new books, true gems of world literature. Among them: "The Rose of Jericho", which included poetry and prose works created based on travels to the East, "Mitina's Love" about a young man who died from unhappy love, "Sunstroke", which described passion that arose as an obsession and insight. His short novels, included in the collection "God's Tree", also became unique works.

"Mitya's love" - ​​I. Bunin

In 1933, the writer who reached the literary Olympus received the Alfred Nobel award. The choice of the Committee was largely influenced by the appearance of his brilliant work "The Life of Arseniev", where he lyrically, boldly and deeply recreated his past and his homeland.

During the Second World War, the writer lived in Grasse, suffering from financial problems. He did not support the ideas of a certain part of the Russian emigration, ready to welcome the Nazis, capable of destroying Bolshevism, on the contrary, he welcomed the accomplishments of the Soviet armed forces. In 1943, the collection of short stories "Dark Alleys" about thoughts, feelings and love, tinged with sadness, was published, recognized as the pinnacle of the writer's short prose.

After the war, the writer again moved to Paris, where he received an offer from the head of the Soviet embassy A. Bogomolov to leave for the USSR. According to K. Simonov, the writer really wanted to go, but his age and attachment to France stopped him.

Personal life of Ivan Bunin

The writer's half-childish love was Emilia, a young governess of the neighbors. He devoted several chapters to the description of this feeling in The Life of Arseniev. And his first common-law wife was Varya Pashchenko, the daughter of a fairly well-to-do doctor, a graduate of the Yelets gymnasium, a proofreader for the Oryol Bulletin. She conquered 19-year-old Ivan with her intelligence and beauty. But the girl wanted to have a more wealthy life partner nearby, and in 1894 she left him.

The next muse, the Greek Anna Tsakni, the daughter of the Odessa owner of the "Southern Review", the writer met in 1898. They got married, but the cohabitation of the young did not work out. He wanted to create in Moscow, and his wife decided to return to her native Odessa. When she, already pregnant, left, the writer suffered greatly. In 1900, their son Kolenka was born, who passed away at the age of 5 from scarlet fever.

Another chosen one of the writer was Vera Muromtseva, a highly educated beauty, the niece of the head of the State Duma. The young people met in Moscow in 1906. Since Tsakni initially did not agree to give a divorce, they were able to marry only in 1922, and lived together for 46 years. She called her husband Jan, loved him very much and even forgave infidelity.

The last lover of the writer was the Russian poetess Galina Kuznetsova. Their stormy romance began in 1926. A year later, the young passion left her husband and began to live in the Bunin family, shocking the society of Russian emigrants. But in 1933, she brought another surprise to those around her - she entered into a love affair with Margarita, the sister of the philosopher and literary critic Fyodor Stepunov. In connection with this turn of events, the writer, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries, was in a state of absolute despair.

The writer died at the age of 84. He was buried in the cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.