Turgenev biography family. Ivan Turgenev: biography, life path and creativity

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a well-known Russian writer, poet, publicist and translator. He created his own artistic system, which influenced the poetics of the novel in the second half of the 19th century.

Brief biography of Turgenev

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born on November 9, 1818 in Orel. He was brought up in an old noble family and was the second son of his parents.

His father, Sergei Nikolaevich, served in the army and retired with the rank of colonel of a cuirassier regiment. Mother, Varvara Petrovna, came from a wealthy noble family.

It is worth noting that this marriage was not happy, since Turgenev's father married for convenience, and not for love.

Childhood and youth

When Ivan was 12 years old, his father decided to leave the family, leaving his wife and three children. By that time, the youngest son Serezha had died of epilepsy.

Ivan Turgenev in his youth, 1838

As a result, the upbringing of both boys, Nikolai and Ivan, fell on the shoulders of the mother. By nature, she was an overly strict woman with a bad temper.

This is largely due to the fact that she was abused as a child, both by her mother and by her stepfather, who often beat her. As a result, the girl had to run away from home to her uncle.

Soon, Turgenev's mother married a second time. Despite the fact that she was strict with her sons, she managed to instill good qualities and manners in them.

She was a literate woman and spoke exclusively in French with all family members.

She also maintained friendly relations with writers and Mikhail Zagoskin. No wonder she wanted to give her sons a good education.

Both boys were taught by some of the best teachers in Europe, on whom she spared no expense.

Turgenev's education

During the winter holidays, he went to Italy, which charmed the future writer with its beauty and unique architecture.

Returning to Russia in 1841, Ivan Sergeevich successfully passed the exams and received a master's degree in philosophy from St. Petersburg University.

After 2 years, he was entrusted with a position in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which could completely change his biography.

However, interest in writing took precedence over the benefits of a bureaucratic position.

Creative biography of Turgenev

When a well-known critic read it (see), he appreciated the talent of the novice writer and even wanted to meet him. As a result, they became good friends.

Later, Ivan Sergeevich had the honor to meet Nikolai Nekrasov (see), with whom he also had a good relationship.

Turgenev's next works were Andrey Kolosov, Three Portraits and Breter.

He claimed that his name was not worthy of mention in society, and also called him a "lackey writer." Musin-Pushkin immediately wrote a report to Tsar Nicholas 1, describing the incident in every detail.

Due to frequent trips abroad, Turgenev was under suspicion, because there he communicated with the disgraced Belinsky and. And now, because of the obituary, his situation has worsened even more.

It was then that problems began in Turgenev's biography. He was detained and imprisoned for a month, after which he was under house arrest for another 3 years without the right to travel abroad.

Works by Turgenev

At the end of his imprisonment, he published the book "Notes of a Hunter", which included such stories as "Bezhin Meadow", "Biryuk" and "Singers". Censorship saw serfdom in the works, but this did not lead to any serious consequences.

Turgenev wrote for both adults and children. Once, after spending some time in the village, he composed the famous story "Mumu", which received wide popularity in society.

In the same place, from his pen came such novels as "The Nest of Nobles", "On the Eve" and "Fathers and Sons". The last work caused a real sensation in society, since Ivan Sergeevich was able to masterfully convey the problem of the relationship between fathers and children.

In the late 1950s he visited several European countries where he continued his writing activity. In 1857, he wrote the famous story "Asya", which was subsequently translated into many languages.

According to some biographers, his illegitimate daughter Pauline Brewer became the prototype of the main character.

Turgenev's lifestyle was criticized by many of his colleagues. They condemned him for spending most of his time abroad, while considering himself a patriot of Russia.

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

So, for example, he was in a serious confrontation with, and. Despite this, Ivan Sergeevich's talent as a novelist was recognized by many famous writers.

Among them were the Goncourt brothers, Emile Zola and Gustave Flaubert, who later became his close friend.

In 1879, 61-year-old Turgenev arrived in St. Petersburg. He was very warmly received by the younger generation, although the authorities still treated him with suspicion.

In the same year, the prose writer went to Britain, where he received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University.

When Ivan Sergeevich learned that the opening of the monument to Alexander Pushkin would take place in Moscow, he also attended this solemn event.

Personal life

The only love in Turgenev's biography was the singer Pauline Viardot. The girl did not possess beauty, but rather, on the contrary, disgusted many men.

She was stooped and had rough features. Her mouth was disproportionately large, and her eyes protruded from their sockets. Heinrich Heine even compared it to a landscape that was "both monstrous and exotic".

Turgenev and Viardot

But when Viardot began to sing, she immediately captivated the audience. It was in this image that Turgenev saw Polina, and immediately fell in love with her. All the girls with whom he had a close relationship before meeting the singer immediately ceased to interest him.

However, there was a problem - the writer's beloved was married. Nevertheless, Turgenev did not deviate from the goal and did everything possible to see Viardot more often.

As a result, he managed to settle in the house where Polina and her husband Louis lived. The singer's husband looked through his fingers at the relationship of the "guest" with his wife.

A number of biographers believe that the reason for this was the considerable sums that the Russian master left in the house of his mistress. Also, some researchers believe that the real father of Paul, the child of Polina and Louis, is Ivan Turgenev.

The writer's mother was against her son's relationship with Viardot. She hoped that Ivan would leave her and finally find a suitable match for himself.

Interestingly, in his youth, Turgenev had a fleeting affair with the seamstress Avdotya. As a result of their relationship, the daughter of Pelageya was born, whom he recognized only 15 years later.

Varvara Petrovna (Turgenev's mother) treated her granddaughter very coldly because of her peasant origin. But Ivan Sergeevich himself loved the girl very much, and even agreed to take her into his house, after living together with Viardot.

The love idyll with Polina did not last long. This was largely due to Turgenev's three-year house arrest, because of which the lovers could not see each other.

After parting, the writer began dating young Olga, who was 18 years younger than him. However, Viardot still did not leave his heart.

Not wanting to spoil the life of a young girl, he confessed to her that he still loves only Polina.

Portrait of Turgenev performed

The next hobby of Ivan Sergeevich was the 30-year-old actress Maria Savina. At that time, Turgenev was 61 years old.

When the couple went to, Savina saw a large number of Viardot's things in the writer's house and guessed that she would never be able to achieve the same love for herself.

As a result, they never got married, although they maintained friendly relations until the death of the writer.

Death

In 1882, Turgenev became seriously ill. After the examination, the doctors diagnosed him with cancer of the bones of the spine. The disease was very difficult and was accompanied by constant pain.

In 1883, he underwent an operation in Paris, but this did not give any results. The only joy for him was that in the last days of his life, his beloved woman, Viardot, was next to him.

After his death, she inherited all of Turgenev's property.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev died on August 22, 1883 at the age of 64. His body was taken from Paris to St. Petersburg, where he was buried at the Volkovo Cemetery.

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Russian writer Ivan Turgenev died on August 22 (September 3), 1883 in the town of Bougival near Paris. Before his death, he was seriously ill. It was pstandoff, according to P. V. Annenkov, between " an unimaginably painful illness and an unimaginably strong organism". Doctors could not make an accurate diagnosis. Only after his death, during an autopsy, Turgenev was found to have a malignant tumor of the bones of the spine.

The death of the writer, who had a lot of readers and fans, was a real shock both in France and in Russia. About 500 people gathered for Turgenev's funeral in the Russian church in Paris, including more than 100 French people, including well-known writers and creative figures of their time.
The Russian magazine World Illustration published a series of engravings dedicated to the mourning events and the funeral of Turgenev.

The funeral of Ivan Turgenev in the Orthodox Church of Alexander Nevsky on the Rue Daru in Paris



According to the will of the writer, the coffin with his body was sent to Russia, to St. Petersburg. Starting from the Verzhbolovo border station, memorial services and farewells to Turgenev were held at all stops along the way. Local residents somehow found out that the coffin with the body of the writer was being transported in a passing train and flocked from all over the area to the stations and half stations of the railway.

A solemn and mournful meeting took place in St. Petersburg at the Varshavsky railway station ... The well-known lawyer, senator A.F. Koni described it this way:

"The reception of the coffin in St. Petersburg and its passage to the Volkovo cemetery presented unusual spectacles in their beauty, majestic character and complete, voluntary and unanimous observance of order. An unbroken chain of 176 deputations from literature, from newspapers and magazines, scientists, educational and educational institutions, from Zemstvos, Siberians, Poles and Bulgarians, it occupied a space of several miles, attracting the sympathetic and often moved attention of the huge public, which blocked the sidewalks - carried by the deputations elegant, magnificent wreaths and banners with meaningful inscriptions. animal welfare societies»; a wreath with a repetition of the words spoken by the sick Turgenev to the artist Bogolyubov:« Live and love people as I loved them» , - from the Association of Traveling Exhibitions;a wreath with the inscription "Love is stronger than death" from pedagogical women's courses. The wreath with the inscription« Unforgettable teacher of truth and moral beauty» from the St. Petersburg Law Society ... Deputation from drama courses for lovers of theatrics brought a huge lyre of fresh flowers with torn silver strings.

A. F. Koni, "The Funeral of Turgenev"

Funeral procession in St. Petersburg

The procession was extremely disturbing to the Minister of the Interior, Tolstoy, who feared spontaneous anti-government rallies. The security measures taken by him seemed completely ridiculous to the townspeople.

Somehow managed without political speeches, although the funeral turned into a grandiose event - only after the death of the writer did the Russian society realize to what extent Turgenev was important for Russian literature and culture ...

Tombstone I.S. Turgenev at the Volkovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg (photo from Wikipedia)

Two days before his death, he dictated a story in French. He died of a serious illness in the 65th year in Paris. He was buried in St. Petersburg, as was bequeathed to him.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev wrote six novels, dozens of novellas, short stories, plays and many poems. He created unique images of women on paper, thanks to which everyone knows who the Turgenev girl is. But he himself was never married, although he had an illegitimate daughter and several unsuccessful novels. Because all his life he adored only one woman - the opera diva Pauline Viardot. In his works, a happy ending rarely happens, the last chord is more often sad.

The writer was popular in Europe, respected at home. He fell into the category of classics during his lifetime. He was called a brilliant novelist, and the great George Sand considered him her teacher. He translated almost all the works of Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy for French, German and Italian readers.

Hunting was his only passion, he traveled hundreds of thousands of kilometers with a gun, not only in Russia, but also in France, Germany and England. Toward the end of his life, he repented of the countless number of partridges, ducks, woodcocks and black grouse he had killed.

From the nobility, he received a decent inheritance and had more than twenty thousand rubles a year income only from the land. His fees were significant. He also received a significant bonus from the publications of novels.

Sackle for no reason

The cavalry guard Sergei Turgenev was completely ruined, and he had to marry for convenience. His chosen one was a wealthy noblewoman Varvara Lutovinova, who had a very domineering disposition. In 1816 they got married. A stately handsome man of 26 years old and a 30-year-old unattractive owner of a large estate in the Oryol province for five thousand souls were not happy.

In the same year, their son Nikolai was born, and two years later - Ivan.

Marriage did not bring happiness to Sergei Nikolaevich, but helped to improve his affairs. He willingly worked with his sons, and they found protection from his mother, who, for any reason, mercilessly flogged both of them. Little Ivan even tried to run away from home, not understanding why he was being whipped. Her father also could not stand her and ran away from her after 14 years. His life was cut short at the age of 41, and the children were completely left in the care of an unbalanced mother.

We must give her her due: she was educated and ordered French and German tutors for her sons. They were taught literacy, languages, mathematics. The house had a large library and the mother regularly replenished it with new items.

When Ivan was nine years old, the family moved to Moscow. The boy entered the boarding school. He became a student at Moscow University at the age of 15. Belinsky studied at the senior courses, with whom they will communicate all their lives.

At this age, he falls in love for the first time. She is the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya Katenka. The matter is complicated by the fact that at the same time his father was also attracted to her. Being already a mature writer, Turgenev will remember this story: in the heroine of the story “First Love”, Katenka’s features will be clearly visible.

A year later, he and his mother moved to St. Petersburg, where Nikolai, the elder brother of the writer, was waiting for them. He entered the artillery school. Ivan chooses the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg University. The period of study is significant for him, he gets acquainted with Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Koltsov and a little later with Lermontov. The poems that Turgenev writes in his third year were written under the influence of their work. By the end of their studies, two of them are published in the Sovremennik magazine. Turgenev's dream of becoming a poet since childhood.

He yearns to leave his mother's care. After graduating from university, a 20-year-old boy moves to Germany. At the University of Berlin, he attends lectures, studies Roman and Greek literature, learns ancient languages ​​in order to read ancient classics in the original.

He is strongly influenced by European culture. From that time on, he becomes convinced that Russia is in darkness, serf captivity, and only culture can rescue it from this state. He travels extensively in Europe. Only three years later he returns to the estate.

Here he falls in love with the girl Dunyasha. Passion flares up, which ends in pregnancy. The mother makes a scandal, sends Avdotya to Moscow, where her daughter Pelageya is born. And Ivana sharply wakes up craving for science. He leaves for St. Petersburg, where he takes an exam for a master's degree in philology and writes a dissertation.

At the same time, the muse visits him and for 25 years he creates the poem "Parasha", which is published with a benevolent review by Belinsky. Since that time, the friendship of two famous people begins. At the same time, he writes the poem "Misty Morning", which is better known as a romance.

A year later, Turgenev takes up prose, gets carried away, abandons his dissertation and completely immerses himself in a new genre for him. The stories “Breter” and “Three Portraits” are published. In the first, critics find the influence of Lermontov, in the second - the original motives of the author himself. In Three Portraits, he told the story of the generations of the Lutovinovs and it becomes clear why mothers have such an unbearable character.

Foreign countries will help us

Fame brought the writer stories about hunting - his only passion, which he retained until the end of his days. Without it, there would be no "Notes of a Hunter". The chapters of this story were published in 1847 by the Sovremennik magazine.

Turgenev writes a lot, including for the theater. His dramas are released, and theatrical premieres are favorably received by the public. Many images are inspired by Shakespeare and Byron, whose plays Ivan Sergeevich translates.

He often travels abroad: acquaintance with Pauline Viardot has long grown from an epistolary genre into a love one.

Having met her at the St. Petersburg opera, he fell in love immediately and forever. He is 25, she is only 22 and is married to the forty-year-old composer and director of the Italian theater in Paris, Louis. This acquaintance will forever connect Turgenev with the Viardot family. He will constantly confess his feelings to her, and she will see him only as a friend. So in 1850, he did not have time for his mother's funeral, when he once again visited Viardot's house in Paris.

Varvara Petrovna never justified this relationship, she even deprived her son of all financial support. But now he and his brother shared the inheritance: the estate and the house on Ostozhenka Street passed to him. The Turgenev Museum is located in the Moscow mansion. By the way, it was in this house that the events that he transferred to the story “Mumu” ​​took place.

When he was 32 years old, Gogol died. His work was close to Ivan Sergeevich. Their acquaintance took place once abroad. He heartily suffered the loss and wrote an obituary. His publication in the newspaper aroused the displeasure of the censors. Turgenev spoke of him with more sympathy than the state would like. This was the first serious skirmish with the system, which already had a grudge against the writer for his radical views, protection of the serfs from arbitrariness, friendship with the revolutionaries.

He was afraid that his "Notes of a Hunter" would never be published as a separate edition because of the close attention to him from the groans of censorship. But they are passed. True, the oversight is immediately revealed and, by decree of the king, the censor is deprived of his place. Two years later, this work will be printed in French in Paris, but the author will not be satisfied with the quality of the translation.

After the death of the sovereign, all the novels of Ivan Turgenev will be printed as they are written. His fees were considered the highest among writers.

But the writer did not turn to dramaturgy for more than ten years. He considered the performances based on his plays unconvincing, and the critics did not say a single kind word in his defense.

He will return to the theater only once, when his Polina will need operetta librettos for staging on her own small stage during their cohabitation in Germany. Europeans, by the way, appreciated his talent as a playwright, his plays were shown in many theaters.

For ten years the writer will live abroad, communicate with European authors: Maupassant, Flaubert, Hugo.

At one time, bachelor's "dinners of five" were held in restaurants in Paris. This is how the great French authors Flaubert, Zola, Turgenev and others called their meetings. Once a month they met to discuss various literary topics, to talk about the future.

In Europe, there are ideas about writing the novel "Smoke". This is a story about the writer's contemporaries, but it takes place in one of the German resorts where Russian aristocrats rest. He writes the novel for two years and receives a book as a gift for his fiftieth birthday.

Ten years later, his most voluminous and last novel is published. "Nov" was written after the abolition of serfdom, the novel again immerses readers in an atmosphere of revolutionary sentiment, but now there is less nobility in the heroes, more despondency - nothing changes in the country, the government is stupid, the people are poor.

The writer's work and contribution to English literature was appreciated at Oxford. The famous university in England declares him an honorary doctorate - a title that no other writer in the world has ever been awarded.

family saga

Turgenev met his eight-year-old daughter when he once again arrived at the estate. The girl was thin and poorly dressed. Avdotya did not deny that Pelageya was his daughter. He was confused, in an emotional outburst he writes a heartbreaking letter to Pauline Viardot and asks for advice. Polina asks to bring the girl to France so that she can be brought up in their family. She just gave birth to her fourth child - the son of Paul - and did not think about touring.

He changed her daughter's name to more euphonious for the French - Polinet. She lived with Viardot until the age of 14. I almost forgot Russian. When Turgenev arrived after a six-year separation from her, he saw a negative relationship between his daughter and lover. He sent her boarding house before his next arrival. Then they lived together in Paris and the girl had governesses.

She married a Frenchman at the age of 17. He was an entrepreneur, six years older than her, but Turgenev liked him, who gave his consent. Polinet received a rich dowry. But she was not happy for long. The husband went bankrupt, began to drink, she had no choice but to pick up her daughter Jeanne and son Georges and leave. For a long time they lived in Switzerland and Turgenev always helped them. He even offered to sell the estate so that his daughter and grandchildren would not need anything, but he did not have time.

After his death, his only and adored Polina became the heiress.

The daughter received nothing from her father's fortune. She tried to restore justice through the court, but she could not challenge the writer's will. She lived in poverty, earning as a tutor. She died in Paris at the age of 77. The cause of death was cancer.

The writer's grandson will die in 1924, and the granddaughter will live up to eighty years. None of Pauline's children will have heirs. So the Turgenev family was interrupted.

Pauline Viardot will bury her husband Louis and friend Ivan in one year. She will live for more than 20 years and become famous as a talented teacher.

Burned out in three years

Turgenev was 62 years old when he was invited to the opening of the monument to Pushkin. His stay in Russia was a triumph. The salons of the capital opened their doors to him, the nobility invited him to dinner. But he preferred to go to Yasnaya Polyana, so that for the last time he would hunt game with Lev Nikolayevich. He was already feeling unwell, about which he complained to his friend. Tolstoy advised not to pay attention, they walked, talked, made plans.

Before leaving for Paris, Ivan Sergeevich stopped by the estate, gave some orders and promised to return soon.

In France, he continued to work: he was preparing for publication the cycle "Poems in Prose", the last chord of which he put "Russian Language" - a declaration of love to his homeland.

He felt very bad, went to Viardot. Doctors diagnosed angina pectoris, even performed an operation. But nothing helped - for several months the writer suffered from pain and took morphine. He died at the end of the summer of 1883. After an autopsy, it was determined that the cause of death was cancer of the bones of the spine.

The funeral gathered all the famous writers and writers of that time, ordinary readers also came to say goodbye.

Newspapers were full of articles about the Russian writer, his importance in world literature, realistic pictures of the social life of Russia, simple and deeply built reflections. Through his prose, contemporaries better understood what was happening in the country. The concept of "nihilism" he coined is still in use today. He was always on the side of the peasants, felt their moods and advocated the enlightenment of society. Several feature films have been made based on his works.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a famous Russian prose writer, poet, classic of world literature, playwright, critic, memoirist and translator. Many outstanding works belong to his pen. The fate of this great writer will be discussed in this article.

Early childhood

Turgenev's biography (short in our review, but very rich in fact) began in 1818. The future writer was born on November 9 in the city of Oryol. His father, Sergei Nikolaevich, was a combat officer in a cuirassier regiment, but soon after Ivan's birth, he retired. The boy's mother, Varvara Petrovna, was a representative of a wealthy noble family. It was in the family estate of this imperious woman - Spasskoe-Lutovinovo - that the first years of Ivan's life passed. Despite the heavy unbending disposition, Varvara Petrovna was a very enlightened and educated person. She managed to instill in her children (in addition to Ivan, his older brother Nikolai was brought up in the family) a love for science and Russian literature.

Education

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

Pen trial and further education

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

Pauline Viardot

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

The heyday of creativity

In 1946, Ivan Sergeevich took an active part in updating the Sovremennik magazine. He meets Nekrasov, and he becomes his best friend. For two years (1950-1952) the writer is torn between foreign countries and Russia. Creativity Turgenev during this period began to gain serious momentum. The cycle of stories "Notes of a Hunter" was almost completely written in Germany and glorified the writer throughout the world. In the next decade, the classic created a number of outstanding prose works: "The Nest of Nobles", "Rudin", "Fathers and Sons", "On the Eve". In the same period, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev quarreled with Nekrasov. Their controversy over the novel "On the Eve" ended in a complete break. The writer leaves Sovremennik and goes abroad.

Abroad

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

Creativity of recent years

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

demise

For the first time, a serious illness that interrupted the writer's life made itself felt in 1882. Despite severe physical suffering, Ivan Sergeevich continued to create. A few months before his death, the first part of the book Poems in Prose was published. The great writer died in 1883, on September 3, in the suburbs of Paris. Relatives fulfilled the will of Ivan Sergeevich and transported his body to his homeland. The classic was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovo cemetery. Numerous admirers saw him off on his last journey.

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

aliases: ..... vb; -e-; I.S.T.; I.T.; L.; Nedobobov, Jeremiah; T.; T…; T. L.; T……in; ***

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

Ivan Turgenev

short biography

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

There he received an elementary education, and in order to continue it in a worthy manner, in 1827 the Turgenev family bought a house in Moscow and moved there. Then the parents went abroad, and Ivan was brought up in a boarding house - first by Weidenhammer, later - by Krause. In 1833, young Turgenev became a student at the Moscow State University, Faculty of Languages. After the elder brother entered the Guards Artillery, the Turgenevs moved to St. Petersburg, and to the local university, but Ivan was also transferred to the Faculty of Philosophy, graduating from it in 1837.

The debut in the literary field also belongs to the same period of his biography. Several lyrical poems written in 1834 and the dramatic poem "The Wall" became his first attempts at writing. P.A. Pletnev, a professor of literature and his teacher, noticed sprouts of undeniable talent. By 1837, the number of small poems written by Turgenev approached a hundred. In 1838, in the journal Sovremennik, edited after the death of Pushkin by P. A. Pletnev, Turgenev’s poems “Evening” and “To the Venus of Medicine” were published.

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

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

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

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

Living outside of Russia did not mean that Turgenev moved away from her life and problems. Written in 1867, the novel "Smoke" caused a huge response in the homeland, the novel was subjected to fierce criticism from parties that held opposite positions. In 1877, the largest novel in terms of volume, Nov, was published, summing up the writer's reflections of the 70s.

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

Biography from Wikipedia

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

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

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

Origin and early years

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

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

Varvara Petrovna was a difficult woman. Serfdom habits coexisted in her with erudition and education, she combined care for the upbringing of children with family despotism. Ivan was also subjected to maternal beatings, despite the fact that he was considered her beloved son. The boy was taught literacy by frequently changing French and German tutors. In the family of Varvara Petrovna, everyone spoke exclusively in French among themselves, even prayers in the house were pronounced in French. She traveled a lot and was an enlightened woman, she read a lot, but also mostly in French. But her native language and literature were not alien to her either: she herself had an excellent figurative Russian speech, and Sergei Nikolayevich demanded that the children write letters to him in Russian during their father's absences. The Turgenev family maintained ties with V. A. Zhukovsky and M. N. Zagoskin. Varvara Petrovna followed the latest in literature, was well aware of the work of N. M. Karamzin, V. A. Zhukovsky, A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov and N. V. Gogol, whom she willingly quoted in letters to her son.

Love for Russian literature was also instilled in young Turgenev by one of the serf valets (who later became the prototype of Punin in the story "Punin and Baburin"). Until the age of nine, Ivan Turgenev lived in the hereditary mother's estate, Spasskoe-Lutovinovo, 10 km from Mtsensk, Oryol province. In 1822, the Turgenev family made a trip to Europe, during which four-year-old Ivan almost died in Bern, falling off the railing of a moat with bears (Berengraben); his father saved him by catching him by the leg. In 1827, the Turgenevs, in order to educate their children, settled in Moscow, buying a house on Samotyok. The future writer studied first at the boarding house of Weidenhammer, then at the boarding house of the director of the Lazarev Institute, I. F. Krause.

Education. The beginning of literary activity

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

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

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

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

After graduation. Abroad.

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

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

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

Poems of Turgenev in a prominent place in a famous magazine, 1843, No. 9

In early 1842, he applied to Moscow University for admission to the examination for the degree of Master of Philosophy, but at that time there was no full-time professor of philosophy at the university, and his request was rejected. Not settling in Moscow, Turgenev satisfactorily passed the exam for a master's degree in Greek and Latin philology in Latin at St. Petersburg University and wrote a dissertation for the verbal department. But by this time, the craving for scientific activity had cooled down, and literary creativity began to attract more and more. Refusing to defend his dissertation, he served until 1844 in the rank of collegiate secretary in the Ministry of the Interior.

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

In November 1843, Turgenev created the poem "On the Road (Foggy Morning)", set to music in different years by several composers, including A. F. Gedike and G. L. Catuar. The most famous, however, is the romance version, which was originally published under the title "Music of Abaza"; its belonging to V. V. Abaza, E. A. Abaza or Yu. F. Abaza has not been finally established. Upon publication, the poem was seen as a reflection of Turgenev's love for Pauline Viardot, whom he met during this time.

In 1844, the poem "Pop" was written, which the writer himself described rather as fun, devoid of any "deep and significant ideas." Nevertheless, the poem attracted public interest for its anti-clerical orientation. The poem was curtailed by Russian censorship, but it was printed in its entirety abroad.

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

The heyday of creativity

Since 1847, Ivan Turgenev participated in the reformed Sovremennik, where he became close to N. A. Nekrasov and P. V. Annenkov. His first feuilleton "Modern Notes" was published in the journal, and the first chapters of "Notes of a Hunter" began to be published. In the very first issue of Sovremennik, the story "Khor and Kalinich" was published, which opened countless editions of the famous book. The subtitle "From the notes of a hunter" was added by the editor I. I. Panaev in order to draw the attention of readers to the story. The success of the story turned out to be enormous, and this led Turgenev to the idea of ​​writing a number of others of the same kind. According to Turgenev, "Notes of a Hunter" was the fulfillment of his Annibal oath to fight to the end with the enemy, whom he had hated since childhood. "This enemy had a certain image, bore a well-known name: this enemy was - serfdom." To carry out his intention, Turgenev decided to leave Russia. “I could not,” Turgenev wrote, “breathe the same air, stay close to what I hated. It was necessary for me to move away from my enemy in order to be given a stronger attack on him from my own.”

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

Dramaturgy

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

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

1850s

Burning of the "Hunter's Notes", caricature by L. N. Vaksel. 1852. Writer in a hunting suit, with shackles on his legs. Musin-Pushkin points to the jail, he has selected manuscripts and Turgenev's gun. Behind Turgenev is a fire with manuscripts. In the lower left corner - a cat clutching a nightingale in its paws

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

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

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

However, the censor V.V. Lvov, who let the “Notes of a Hunter” go to print, was, by personal order of Nicholas I, dismissed from service with deprivation of his pension (“Highest Forgiveness” followed on December 6, 1853). Russian censorship also imposed a ban on the re-edition of the Hunter's Notes, explaining this step by the fact that Turgenev, on the one hand, poeticized the serfs, and on the other hand, depicted “that these peasants are oppressed, that the landowners behave indecently and illegal ... finally, that it is more free for a peasant to live in freedom.

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

During his exile in Spasskoye, Turgenev went hunting, read books, wrote stories, played chess, listened to Beethoven's Coriolanus performed by A.P. Tyutcheva and his sister, who lived at that time in Spasskoye, and from time to time was subjected to raids by the bailiff .

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

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

In the autumn of 1855, Leo Tolstoy was added to Turgenev's circle of friends. In September of the same year, Tolstoy's story "The Cutting of the Forest" was published in Sovremennik with a dedication to I. S. Turgenev.

1860s

Turgenev took an ardent part in the discussion of the upcoming Peasant Reform, participated in the development of various collective letters, draft addresses addressed to Tsar Alexander II, protests, and so on. From the first months of publication of Herzen's "The Bell" Turgenev was his active collaborator. He himself did not write in The Bell, but he helped in collecting materials and preparing them for publication. An equally important role of Turgenev was to mediate between A. I. Herzen and those correspondents from Russia who, for various reasons, did not want to be in direct relations with the disgraced London emigrant. In addition, Turgenev sent detailed review letters to Herzen, information from which, without the author's signature, was also published in Kolokol. At the same time, Turgenev always spoke out against the harsh tone of Herzen’s materials and excessive criticism of government decisions: “Please don’t scold Alexander Nikolayevich, otherwise all the reactionaries in St. - so he, perhaps, will lose his spirit.

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

Turgenev gravitated toward the circle of Western writers who professed the principles of "pure art", opposed to the tendentious creativity of raznochintsev revolutionaries: P. V. Annenkov, V. P. Botkin, D. V. Grigorovich, A. V. Druzhinin. For a short time, Leo Tolstoy also joined this circle. For some time Tolstoy lived in Turgenev's apartment. After Tolstoy's marriage to S. A. Bers, Turgenev found a close relative in Tolstoy, but even before the wedding, in May 1861, when both prose writers were visiting A. A. Fet at the Stepanovo estate, there was a serious quarrel between them, almost ended in a duel and ruined relations between writers for a long 17 years. For some time, the writer had a difficult relationship with Fet himself, as well as with some other contemporaries - F. M. Dostoevsky, I. A. Goncharov.

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

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

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

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

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

In 1868, Turgenev became a permanent contributor to the liberal journal Vestnik Evropy and severed ties with M. N. Katkov. The gap did not go easily - the writer began to be persecuted in the Russky Vestnik and Moskovskie Vedomosti. The attacks were especially toughened in the late 1870s, when, regarding the applause that fell to Turgenev's lot, the Katkov newspaper assured that the writer was "tumbling" in front of progressive youth.

1870s

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

Since 1874, the famous bachelor's "dinners of five" - ​​Flaubert, Edmond Goncourt, Daudet, Zola and Turgenev - have been held in the Parisian restaurants of Risch or Pellet. The idea belonged to Flaubert, but Turgenev played the main role in them. Lunches were held once a month. They raised various topics - about the features of literature, about the structure of the French language, told stories and simply enjoyed delicious food. Lunches were held not only at the Parisian restaurateurs, but also at the writers' houses.

I. S. Turgenev, 1871

I. S. Turgenev acted as a consultant and editor of foreign translators of Russian writers, wrote prefaces and notes to translations of Russian writers into European languages, as well as to Russian translations of works by famous European writers. He translated Western writers into Russian and Russian writers and poets into French and German. This is how translations of Flaubert's works Herodias and The Tale of St. Julian the Merciful" for Russian readers and Pushkin's works for French readers. For a while, Turgenev became the most famous and most widely read Russian author in Europe, where critics ranked him among the first writers of the century. In 1878, at the international literary congress in Paris, the writer was elected vice-president. On June 18, 1879, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford University, despite the fact that the university had not given such an honor to any novelist before him.

The fruit of the writer's reflections in the 1870s was the largest of his novels, Nov (1877), which was also criticized. So, for example, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin regarded this novel as a service to the autocracy.

Turgenev was friends with the Minister of Education A. V. Golovnin, with the Milyutin brothers (comrade of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Minister of War), N. I. Turgenev, and was closely acquainted with the Minister of Finance M. Kh. Reitern. In the late 1870s, Turgenev became closer to the leaders of the revolutionary emigration from Russia, his circle of acquaintances included P. L. Lavrov, P. A. Kropotkin, G. A. Lopatin and many others. Among other revolutionaries, he placed German Lopatin above all, bowing before his mind, courage and moral strength.

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

However, Dostoevsky in the novel "Demons" portrayed Turgenev in the form of "the great writer Karmazinov" - a noisy, small, scribbled and practically mediocre writer who considers himself a genius and sits out abroad. A similar attitude towards Turgenev by the ever-needy Dostoevsky was caused, among other things, by Turgenev’s secure position in his noble life and by the highest literary fees at that time: “To Turgenev for his“ Noble Nest ”(I finally read it. Extremely well) I ask for 100 rubles per sheet) gave 4,000 rubles, that is, 400 rubles per sheet. My friend! I know very well that I write worse than Turgenev, but not too worse, and finally, I hope to write not worse at all. Why am I, with my needs, taking only 100 rubles, and Turgenev, who has 2,000 souls, 400 each?

Turgenev, not hiding his dislike for Dostoevsky, in a letter to M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in 1882 (after Dostoevsky's death) also did not spare his opponent, calling him "the Russian Marquis de Sade."

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

Last years

Photo by I. S. Turgenev

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

The last years of Turgenev's life became for him the pinnacle of fame both in Russia, where the writer again became a universal favorite, and in Europe, where the best critics of that time (I. Ten, E. Renan, G. Brandes, etc.) ranked him among the first writers of the century. His visits to Russia in 1878-1881 were real triumphs. All the more disturbing in 1882 were the reports of a severe exacerbation of his usual gouty pains. In the spring of 1882, the first signs of the disease appeared, which soon turned out to be fatal for Turgenev. With temporary relief of pain, he continued to work and a few months before his death he published the first part of "Poems in Prose" - a cycle of lyrical miniatures, which became his kind of farewell to life, homeland and art. The book was opened by the poem in prose "Village", and completed by "Russian language" - a lyrical hymn in which the author put his faith in the great destiny of his country:

In days of doubt, in days of painful reflections on the fate of my homeland, you are my only support and support, O great, powerful, truthful and free Russian language! But one cannot believe that such a language was not given to a great people!

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

By January 1883, the pains had intensified so much that he could not sleep without morphine. He underwent an operation to remove a neuroma in the lower part of the abdominal cavity, but the operation did not help much, since it did not alleviate the pain in the thoracic region of the spine. The disease developed, in March and April the writer was so tormented that those around him began to notice momentary clouding of reason, caused in part by morphine. The writer was fully aware of his imminent death and resigned himself to the consequences of the disease, which made it impossible for him to walk or just stand.

Death and funeral

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

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

Even from the border station Verzhbolovo, funeral services were served at stops. On the platform of the St. Petersburg Warsaw railway station, a solemn meeting of the coffin with the body of the writer took place. Senator A.F. Koni recalled the funeral at the Volkovsky cemetery:

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

- A. F. Koni, "Turgenev's Funeral", Collected Works in eight volumes. T. 6. M., Legal Literature, 1968. Pp. 385-386.

There were no misunderstandings either. The day after the funeral of Turgenev’s body in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on the Rue Daru in Paris, on September 19, the famous populist emigrant P.L. Lavrov published in the Parisian newspaper Justice (Russian) French, edited by the future socialist prime minister Georges Clemenceau, a letter in which he reported that I. S. Turgenev, on his own initiative, transferred 500 francs to Lavrov annually for three years to facilitate the publication of the revolutionary émigré newspaper Vperyod.

Russian liberals were outraged by this news, considering it a provocation. The conservative press in the person of M. N. Katkov, on the contrary, took advantage of Lavrov’s message for the posthumous persecution of Turgenev in the Russky Vestnik and Moskovskie Vedomosti in order to prevent the deceased writer from being honored in Russia, whose body “without any publicity, with special care” should was to arrive in the capital from Paris for burial. The following of the ashes of Turgenev was very worried about the Minister of the Interior D. A. Tolstoy, who was afraid of spontaneous rallies. According to the editor of Vestnik Evropy, M. M. Stasyulevich, who accompanied the body of Turgenev, the precautions taken by the officials were as inappropriate as if he had accompanied the Nightingale the Robber, and not the body of the great writer.

Personal life

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Turgenev girls"

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

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

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

Offspring

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

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

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

Passion for hunting

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

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

In 1839, the writer's mother, describing the tragic consequences of the fire that occurred in Spasskoye, does not forget to say: your gun is intact, and the dog is crazy". The resulting fire hastened the arrival of Ivan Turgenev in Spasskoye. In the summer of 1839, he first went hunting in the Teleginsky swamps (on the border of the Bolkhovsky and Oryol counties), visited the Lebedyanskaya fair, which was reflected in the story "Lebedyan" (1847). Varvara Petrovna purchased five packs of greyhounds, nine bowhounds and horses with saddles especially for him.

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

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

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

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

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

Ivan Turgenev went with a gun over his shoulders Oryol, Tula, Tambov, Kursk, Kaluga provinces. He was well acquainted with the best hunting grounds in England, France and Germany. He wrote three specialized works devoted to hunting: “On the Notes of the Orenburg Province Rifle Hunter S. T. Aksakov”, “Notes of the Orenburg Province Rifle Hunter” and “Fifty Shortcomings of a Rifle Hunter or Fifty Shortcomings of a Pointing Dog”.

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

Character traits and writer's life

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

Biographers of Turgenev noted the unique features of his writing life. From his youth, he combined intelligence, education, artistic talent with passivity, a penchant for introspection, and indecision. All together, in a bizarre way, combined with the habits of a barchonka, who for a long time was dependent on an imperious, despotic mother. Turgenev recalled that at the University of Berlin, while studying Hegel, he could drop out of school when he needed to train his dog or set it on rats. T. N. Granovsky, who came to his apartment, found the student-philosopher playing with a serf servant (Porfiry Kudryashov) in card soldiers. Childishness smoothed over the years, but the internal split and immaturity of views made themselves felt for a long time: according to A. Ya. Panaeva, young Ivan wanted to be accepted both in the literary society and in secular living rooms, while in secular society Turgenev was ashamed to admit about his literary earnings, which spoke of his false and frivolous attitude to literature and to the title of a writer at that time.

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

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

The reverse side of these flaws was softness of soul, the breadth of nature, a certain generosity, gentleness, but his kindness had its limits. When, during his last visit to Spasskoye, he saw that the mother, who did not know how to please her beloved son, lined up all the serfs along the alley to greet the barchuk " loud and happy”, Ivan was angry with his mother, immediately turned around and left back to St. Petersburg. They did not see each other again until her death, and even lack of money could not shake his decision. Ludwig Peach singled out his modesty among Turgenev's character traits. Abroad, where his work was still poorly known, Turgenev never boasted to those around him that in Russia he was already considered a famous writer. Having become an independent owner of the maternal inheritance, Turgenev did not show any concern for his bread and crops. Unlike Leo Tolstoy, he had no mastery in him.

He calls himself " the most careless of Russian landowners". The writer did not delve into the management of his estate, entrusting it either to his uncle, or to the poet N. S. Tyutchev, or even to random people. Turgenev was very wealthy, he had at least 20 thousand rubles of income per year from the land, but at the same time he always needed money, spending it very imprudently. The habits of a wide Russian master made themselves felt. Turgenev's literary fees were also very significant. He was one of the highest paid writers in Russia. Each edition of the Hunter's Notes brought him 2,500 rubles of net income. The right to publish his works cost 20-25 thousand rubles.

The value and appreciation of creativity

Extra people in the image of Turgenev

"Nest of Nobles" on the stage of the Maly Theater, Lavretsky - A. I. Sumbatov-Yuzhin, Lisa - Elena Leshkovskaya (1895)

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

The protagonist of The Diary of a Superfluous Man is marked by the desire to analyze all his emotions, to record the slightest shades of the state of his own soul. Like Shakespeare's Hamlet, the hero notices the unnaturalness and tension of his thoughts, the lack of will: I disassembled myself to the last thread, compared myself with others, remembered the slightest glances, smiles, words of people ... Whole days passed in this painful, fruitless work". Soul-corroding introspection gives the hero an unnatural pleasure: Only after my expulsion from the Ozhogins' house did I painfully learn how much pleasure a person can draw from the contemplation of his own misfortune.". The failure of apathetic and reflective characters was even more set off by the images of solid and strong Turgenev's heroines.

The result of Turgenev's reflections on the heroes of the Rudin and Chulkaturin types was the article "Hamlet and Don Quixote" (1859). The least "hamletic" of all Turgenev's "superfluous people" is the hero of "The Nest of Nobles" Lavretsky. "Russian Hamlet" is named in the novel "Nov" one of its main characters, Alexei Dmitrievich Nezhdanov.

Simultaneously with Turgenev, I. A. Goncharov continued to develop the phenomenon of “an extra person” in the novel “Oblomov” (1859), N. A. Nekrasov - Agarin (“Sasha”, 1856), A. F. Pisemsky and many others. But, unlike Goncharov's character, Turgenev's characters have undergone more typification. According to the Soviet literary critic A. Lavretsky (I. M. Frenkel), “If we had all the sources to study the 40s. there is only one “Rudin” or one “Noble Nest”, then it would still be possible to establish the character of the era in its specific features. According to Oblomov, we are not able to do this.

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

On the stage

Set design for "A Month in the Country", M. V. Dobuzhinsky, 1909

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

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

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

According to contemporaries of the XIX century

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

Contemporaries gave Turgenev's work a very high assessment. Critics V. G. Belinsky, N. A. Dobrolyubov, D. I. Pisarev, A. V. Druzhinin, P. V. Annenkov, Apollon Grigoriev, V. P. Botkin, N. N. Strakhov, V. P. Burenin, K. S. Aksakov, I. S. Aksakov, N. K. Mikhailovsky, K. N. Leontiev, A. S. Suvorin, P. L. Lavrov, S. S. Dudyshkin, P. N. Tkachev, N. I. Solovyov, M. A. Antonovich, M. N. Longinov, M. F. De Poulet, N. V. Shelgunov, N. G. Chernyshevsky and many others.

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

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

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

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

In the encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron

The novel "Fathers and Sons". 1880 edition, Leipzig, Germany

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

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

But if in "Rudin" Turgenev spoke only against the idle chattering people of the generation of the forties, then in "The Nest of Nobles" his criticism already fell upon his entire generation; he favored the younger forces without the slightest bitterness. In the face of the heroine of this novel, a simple Russian girl Liza, a collective image of many women of that time is shown, when the meaning of a woman’s whole life was reduced to love, failing in which, a woman was deprived of any purpose of existence. Turgenev foresaw the emergence of a new type of Russian woman, which he placed at the center of his next novel. The Russian society of that time lived on the eve of radical social and state changes. And the heroine of Turgenev's novel "On the Eve" Elena became the personification of the indefinite desire for something good and new, characteristic of the first years of the reform era, without a clear idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthis new and good. It is no coincidence that the novel was called “On the Eve” - in it Shubin ends his elegy with the question: “ When will our time come? When will we have people?” To which his interlocutor expresses hope for the best: “ Give me time, - answered Uvar Ivanovich, - they will". On the pages of Sovremennik, the novel received an enthusiastic assessment in Dobrolyubov's article "When the real day comes."

In the next novel, Fathers and Sons, one of the most characteristic features of Russian literature of that time, the closest connection between literature and the real currents of social moods, most fully achieved expression. Turgenev succeeded better than other writers in capturing the moment of unanimity of public consciousness, which in the second half of the 1850s buried the old Nikolaev era with its lifeless reactionary isolation, and the turning point of the era: the subsequent confusion of innovators who singled out from their midst moderate representatives of the older generation with their indefinite hopes for a better future - "fathers", and thirsting for radical changes in the social structure of the younger generation - "children". The Russian Word magazine, represented by D. I. Pisarev, even recognized the hero of the novel, the radical Bazarov, as his ideal. At the same time, if we look at the image of Bazarov from a historical point of view, as a type that reflects the mood of the sixties of the XIX century, then he is rather not fully disclosed, since socio-political radicalism, quite strong at that time, is almost never seen in the novel. was affected.

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

XIX-XX century

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

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

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

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

The representative of decadent criticism in Russia, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, treated Turgenev's work ambiguously. He did not appreciate Turgenev's novels, preferring "small prose" to them, in particular the so-called "mysterious stories and novels" of the writer. According to Merezhkovsky, Ivan Turgenev is the first impressionist artist, the forerunner of the later symbolists: “ The value of Turgenev as an artist for the literature of the future<…>in the creation of an impressionistic style, which is an art education that is not related to the work of this writer as a whole».

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

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

Russian language

From "Poems in Prose"

In days of doubt, in days of painful reflections on the fate of my homeland, you alone are my support and support, O great, powerful, truthful and free Russian language! Without you - how not to fall into despair at the sight of everything that happens at home? But one cannot believe that such a language was not given to a great people!

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

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

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

According to the academic History of Russian Literature, Turgenev was the first in Russian literature who succeeded in expressing in his work through pictures of everyday village life and various images of ordinary peasants the idea that the enslaved people are the root, the living soul of the nation. And the literary critic Professor V. M. Markovich said that Turgenev was one of the first to try to portray the inconsistency of the national character without embellishment, and he also showed the same people worthy of admiration, admiration and love for the first time.

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

Foreign criticism

I. S. Turgenev - Honorary Doctor of Oxford University. Photo by A. Lieber, 1879

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

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

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

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

XXI Century

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

Turgenev's statements

“Whatever a person prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer boils down to the following: “Great God, make sure that twice two is not four!”

Art illustrators

Yakov Turk sings ("Singers"). Illustration by B. M. Kustodiev for the "Notes of a Hunter", 1908

Over the years, the works of I. S. Turgenev were illustrated by illustrators and graphic artists P. M. Boklevsky, N. D. Dmitriev-Orenburgsky, A. A. Kharlamov, V. V. Pukirev, P. P. Sokolov, V. M. Vasnetsov, D. N. Kardovsky, V. A. Taburin, K. I. Rudakov, V. A. Sveshnikov, P. F. Stroev, N. A. Benois, B. M. Kustodiev, K. V. Lebedev and others. The imposing figure of Turgenev is depicted in the sculptures of A. N. Belyaev, M. M. Antokolsky, Zh. I. N. Kramskoy, Adolf Menzel, Pauline Viardot, Ludwig Pich, M. M. Antokolsky, K. Shamro, in the cartoons of N. A. Stepanov, A. I. Lebedev, V. I. Porfiriev, A. M. Volkov , on the engraving by Yu. S. Baranovsky, on the portraits of E. Lamy, A. P. Nikitin, V. G. Perov, I. E. Repin, Ya. P. Polonsky, V. V. Vereshchagin, V. V. Mate , E. K. Lipgart, A. A. Kharlamova, V. A. Bobrov. The works of many painters “based on Turgenev” are known: Ya. P. Polonsky (plots of Spassky-Lutovinov), S. Yu. on his son's grave). Ivan Sergeevich himself drew well and was an auto-illustrator of his own works.

Screen adaptations

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

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

Addresses

In Moscow

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

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

In St. Petersburg

• Late summer 1839 - January 1841 - Efremova's house - Gagarinskaya street 12;
• October 1850 - April 1851 - Lopatin's house - Nevsky Prospekt, 68;
• December 1851 - May 1852 - Gillerme's profitable house - Gorokhovaya street, 8, apt. 9;
• December 1853 - the end of November 1854 - Povarskoy lane, 13;
• end of November 1854 - July 1856 - Stepanov's profitable house - embankment of the Fontanka River, 38;
• November 1858 - April 1860 - the profitable house of F.K. Weber - Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street, 13;
• 1861; 1872; 1874; 1876 ​​- hotel "Demut" - embankment of the Moika River, 40;
• January 4, 1864-1867 - Hotel "France" - Bolshaya Morskaya Street, 6;
• 1867 - V.P. Botkin's apartment in Fedorov's apartment building - Karavannaya Street, 14;
• May-June 1877 - Bouillet furnished rooms - Nevsky Prospekt, 22;
• February-March 1879 - the hotel "European" - Bolshaya Italianskaya street, 7.
• January-April 1880 - Kverner furnished rooms - Nevsky Prospekt, 11/Malaya Morskaya Street, 2/Kirpichny Lane, 2

Memory

The following objects are named after Turgenev.

Toponymy

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

Public institutions

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

Museums

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

Monuments

In honor of I. S. Turgenev installed:

• monument in Moscow (in Bobrov lane).
• monument in St. Petersburg (on Italian street).
• Eagle:
  • Monument in Orel;
  • Bust of Turgenev at the Noble Nest.

Other objects

• The name of Turgenev was worn by the branded train of FPC JSC Moscow - Simferopol - Moscow (No. 029/030) in the general circulation with Moscow - Oryol - Moscow (No. 33/34)
• In 1979, a crater on Mercury was named after Turgenev.

In philately

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

Bibliography

Collected works

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