Additional material about Turgenev. Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich - biography

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

Orel city

Lithography. 1850s

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monuments to I. S. Turgenev

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born into a noble family on October 28, 1818. The writer's father served in the cavalry guard regiment and led a rather wild life. Because of his carelessness, and in order to improve his financial situation, he took Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova as his wife. She was very wealthy and came from the nobility.

Childhood

The future writer had two brothers. he himself was average, but for the mother became the most beloved.

The father died early and the mother was engaged in the upbringing of the sons. Her character was domineering and despotic. In her childhood, she suffered from the beatings of her stepfather and went to live with her uncle, who, after his death, left her a decent dowry. Despite the difficult nature, Varvara Petrovna constantly took care of her children. To give them a good education, she moved from the Oryol province to Moscow. It was she who taught her sons to art, read the works of contemporaries, and thanks to good teachers gave children an education which would be useful to them in the future.

Creativity of the writer

At the university, the writer studied literature from the age of 15, but due to the relocation of relatives from Moscow, he transferred to the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg University.

Ivan already saw himself as a writer from a young age and planned to connect his life with literature. In his student years, he communicated with T.N. Granovsky, a well-known historian. He wrote his first poems while studying in his third year, and four years later he was already published in the Sovremennik magazine.

In 1938 Turgenev moves to Germany where he studies the work of Roman and then Greek philosophers. It was there that he met the Russian literary genius N.V. Stankevich, whose work had a great influence on Turgenev.

In 1841, Ivan Sergeevich returned to his homeland. At this time, the desire to engage in science cooled down, and creativity began to take all the time. Two years later, Ivan Sergeevich wrote the poem "Parasha", a positive review of which Belinsky left in "Notes of the Fatherland". From that moment on, a strong friendship began between Turgenev and Belinsky, which lasted for a long time.

Artworks

The French Revolution made a strong impression on the writer, changing his worldview. Attacks and murders of people prompted the writer to write dramatic works. Turgenev spent a lot of time away from his homeland, but love for Russia always remained in the soul of Ivan Sergeevich and his creations.

• Bezhin meadow;
• Noble Nest;
• Fathers and Sons;
• Mu Mu.

Personal life

Personal life is replete with novels, but officially Turgenev never married.

The biography of the writer has a huge number of hobbies, but the most serious was romance with Pauline Viardot. She was a famous singer and the wife of a theater director in Paris. After meeting the Viardot couple, Turgenev lived for a long time in their villa and even settled his illegitimate daughter there. The complex relationship between Ivan and Polina is still not marked in any way.

The love of the last days of the writer was actress Maria Savina, who very brightly played Verochka in the production of "A Month in the Village". But on the part of the actress there was sincere friendship, but not love feelings.

last years of life

Turgenev gained particular popularity in the last years of his life. He was a favorite both at home and in Europe. The developing gout disease prevented the writer from working at full strength. In recent years, he lived in Paris in the winter, and in the summer at the Viardot estate in Bougival.

The writer foresaw his imminent death and tried with all his might to fight the disease. But on August 22, 1883, the life of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was cut short. The cause was a malignant tumor of the spine. Despite the fact that the writer died in Bougival, buried him in Petersburg at the Volkovsky cemetery, according to the last will. There were about four hundred people at the farewell memorial service in France alone. In Russia, there was also a farewell ceremony for Turgenev, which was also attended by a lot of people.

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Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, the world famous writer in the future, was born on November 9, 1818. Place of birth - the city of Orel, parents - nobles. He began his literary activity not with prose, but with lyric works and poems. Poetic notes are felt in many of his subsequent stories and novels.

It is very difficult to briefly present Turgenev's work, the influence of his creations on all Russian literature of that time was too great. He is a prominent representative of the golden age in the history of Russian literature, and his fame extended far beyond the borders of Russia - abroad, in Europe, the name of Turgenev was also familiar to many.

Turgenev's Peru belongs to the typical images of new literary heroes created by him - serfs, superfluous people, fragile and strong women and commoners. Some of the topics he touched on more than 150 years ago are relevant to this day.

If we briefly characterize Turgenev's work, then the researchers of his works conditionally distinguish three stages in it:

1. 1836 – 1847.
2. 1848 – 1861.
3. 1862 – 1883.

Each of these stages has its own characteristics.

1) The first stage is the beginning of a creative path, writing romantic poems, searching for oneself as a writer and one's own style in different genres - poetry, prose, dramaturgy. At the beginning of this stage, Turgenev was influenced by the philosophical school of Hegel, and his work was of a romantic and philosophical nature. In 1843 he met the famous critic Belinsky, who became his creative mentor and teacher. A little earlier, Turgenev wrote his first poem called Parasha.

A great influence on Turgenev's work was his love for the singer Pauline Viardot, after which he left for France for several years. It is this feeling that explains the subsequent emotionality and romanticism of his works. Also, during his life in France, Turgenev met many talented masters of the word of this country.

The creative achievements of this period include the following works:

1. Poems, lyrics - "Andrey", "Conversation", "Landowner", "Pop".
2. Dramaturgy - plays "Carelessness" and "Lack of money".
3. Prose - stories and novels "Petushkov", "Andrey Kolosov", "Three Portraits", "Breter", "Mumu".

The future direction of his work - works in prose - is becoming better and better.

2) The second stage is the most successful and fruitful in Turgenev's work. He enjoys the well-deserved fame that arose after the publication of the first story from the "Notes of a Hunter" - the story-essay "Khor and Kalinich" published in 1847 in the Sovremennik magazine. Its success marked the beginning of five years of work on the rest of the stories in the series. In the same year, 1847, when Turgenev was abroad, the following 13 stories were written.

The creation of the "Hunter's Notes" carries an important meaning in the activities of the writer:

- firstly, Turgenev, one of the first Russian writers, touched on a new topic - the theme of the peasantry, more deeply revealed their image; he portrayed the landowners in a real light, trying not to embellish or criticize without reason;

- secondly, the stories are imbued with a deep psychological meaning, the writer does not just portray the hero of a certain class, he tries to penetrate his soul, to understand the way of his thoughts;

- thirdly, the authorities did not like these works, and for their creation Turgenev was first arrested, and then sent into exile to his family estate.

Creative heritage:

1. Novels - "Rud", "On the Eve" and "Noble Nest". The first novel was written in 1855 and was a great success with readers, and the next two further strengthened the fame of the writer.
2. The stories are "Asya" and "Faust".
3. Several dozen stories from the "Notes of a hunter".

3) Stage three - the time of mature and serious works of the writer, in which the writer touches on deeper issues. It was in the sixties that Turgenev's most famous novel, Fathers and Sons, was written. This novel raised questions of the relationship between different generations that are still relevant to this day and gave rise to many literary discussions.

An interesting fact is also that at the dawn of his creative activity, Turgenev returned to where he started - to lyrics, poetry. He became interested in a special kind of poetry - writing prose fragments and miniatures, in lyrical form. For four years he wrote more than 50 such works. The writer believed that such a literary form could fully express the most secret feelings, emotions and thoughts.

Works from this period:

1. Novels - "Fathers and Sons", "Smoke", "Nov".
2. The stories - "Punin and Baburin", "The Steppe King Lear", "The Brigadier".
3. Mystical works - "Ghosts", "After death", "The story of Lieutenant Ergunov".

In the last years of his life, Turgenev was mainly abroad, while not forgetting his homeland. His work influenced many other writers, opened many new questions and images of heroes in Russian literature, therefore Turgenev is rightfully considered one of the most outstanding classics of Russian prose.

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Ivan Turgenev is one of the world's greatest classics. Thanks to his work, Russian literature in the 19th century became popular abroad. Moreover, the artistic system created by Turgenev influenced the Western European novel.

There are many interesting things to be said about literary work of this outstanding personality. But in today's article we will talk about Turgenev not as a writer, but as a person with an interesting and vibrant biography. How were the early years of the prose writer? Where was Turgenev born? In which city did he create his most famous works?

Origin

The writer was a representative of an ancient noble family. His father, Sergei Nikolaevich, once served in the cavalry regiment. He led a carefree lifestyle, was known as a handsome man, loved to live in a big way. He was probably quite a practical person, because in 1816 he married Varvara Lutovinova, the heiress of a huge fortune. In the small village where Turgenev was born, this lady had a huge estate. Now there is a state museum, which will be discussed later.

When was Turgenev born? The future writer was born in 1818. Twelve years later, his father left the family - a profitable marriage turned out to be unhappy. In 1834, Turgenev Sr. died.

The mother of the classic was a difficult woman. It miraculously coexisted serf habits with progressive views. Despotism nevertheless prevailed in her manner of education. It has already been said above in what year Turgenev was born. Varvara Lutovinova by that time was 25 years old. She had two more sons - Nikolai and Sergei, who died at an early age from epilepsy.

This woman beaten not only serfs, but also her own children. At the same time, she gave each of them an excellent education. The family spoke only French. But the mother of the future writer was not indifferent to Russian literature either.

Where was Turgenev born?

Ten kilometers from Mtsensk there is a small settlement called Spasskoye-Lutovinovo. Now there is a museum-reserve dedicated to the life and work of the writer.

The family estate of the Lutovinovs, where Turgenev was born, has a long and interesting history. One of the representatives of an old noble family, the village of Spasskoye was granted by Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century. The settlement where Turgenev was born cannot be called a city. This is a small village, known today thanks to the estate, converted into a museum in the 20th century. The history of the Lutovinov estate is described below. Let's return to the life and work of the creator of "Spring Waters" and other wonderful books.

early years

The future writer lived in his mother's estate until he was nine years old. It is noteworthy that a serf valet instilled in him a love of literature. This man, by the way, became the prototype of one of Turgenev's characters. In 1822 the family went to Europe. Five years later, the Turgenevs settled in Moscow.

At the age of 15, Ivan entered the verbal faculty, where Belinsky and Herzen also studied at that time. However, Moscow University did not have a chance to graduate Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich. Where did the idea to become a writer come from? This happened in St. Petersburg, where the family moved after the eldest son entered the guards artillery. Ivan Turgenev moved to a local university at the Faculty of Philosophy. Here he decided to connect his life with literature. However, initially he wanted to become not a writer, but a poet.

The beginning of creativity

And in 1834, Ivan Turgenev was a third-year student at the Faculty of Philosophy. It was at this time that he made his literary debut. He wrote a dramatic poem, then showed his composition to the teacher. The professor of literature reacted quite strictly to the work of the young author. True, he replied that there is "something" in the poem. These seemingly neutral words prompted Turgenev to write a number of other poetic works. Some of them were published in the Sovremennik magazine.

Abroad

Turgenev graduated from the University in 1836. He soon received his Ph.D. In 1838 he left for Germany, where he actively studied ancient languages, attended lectures on Greek and Roman literature. Turgenev met Zhukovsky, Koltsov, Lermontov. There were only a few meetings with the latter, which, although they did not lead to close communication, had a certain influence on Turgenev.

Staying abroad had a strong influence on the writer's work. Turgenev came to the conclusion that only the assimilation of the foundations of universal human culture is capable of leading Russia out of the darkness in which it is immersed. Since then, he has become a convinced "Westernizer".

"Spring Waters"

In 1839 the house where Turgenev was born burned down. In what city was the writer at that time? He then lived in Frankfurt am Main. Upon learning of the fire, he returned home. But soon he left his home again. In Germany, he once met a girl who made a strong impression on him. Returning home once again, the writer sat down for a novel, which, after publication, gained worldwide fame. It is about the book "Spring Waters".

Confession

In the forties, Turgenev became close to Annenkov and Nekrasov. At this time, he took an active part in the activities of the literary magazine Sovremennik. In one of the issues, "Notes of a Hunter" were published. The success of the work was huge, which inspired Turgenev to create other stories.

Turgenev was an ardent opponent of serfdom, which, according to many biographers, forced him to leave Russia so often. However, in 1848, during his stay in Paris, he witnessed revolutionary events, which, as expected, were accompanied by bloodshed. Since then, he forever hated the word "revolution".

At the beginning of the 50s, Turgenev's creativity flourished. Such works as "The Freeloader", "Breakfast at the Leader's", "A Month in the Village" have already been published. The writer also worked on translations of Shakespeare and Byron. In 1855 Turgenev returned to Russia. Shortly before his arrival, Varvara Lutovinova passed away. The writer failed to see his mother for the last time.

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In the early fifties, Turgenev often visited St. Petersburg. After Gogol's death, he wrote an obituary that was not passed by the censors. Then the writer sent his note to Moscow, where it was successfully published. The authorities did not like the obituary, the author of which too openly admired the creator of Dead Souls. Turgenev was sent into exile in Spasskoye-Lutovinovo.

True, there is an assumption that the reason for the dissatisfaction of the authorities was not at all a note dedicated to the death of Gogol. In Russia, many people did not like the excessive radicalism of the views of the prose writer, his suspiciously frequent trips abroad, and sympathetic stories about serfs.

With fellow writers, Turgenev was not always able to find a common language. It is known that he left the Sovremennik magazine due to a conflict with Dobrolyubov. Turgenev preferred to communicate with Western writers, to whom Leo Tolstoy belonged for some time. Turgenev had friendly relations with this writer. However, in 1861, a quarrel broke out between the prose writers, which almost ended in a duel. Turgenev and Tolstoy did not communicate for 17 years. The author of Fathers and Sons also had a difficult relationship with Goncharov and Dostoevsky.

Spasskoye-Lutovinovo

The estate, which once belonged to Turgenev's mother, is located in the Mtsensk region. After the death of Varvara Lutovinova, the writer ceded the Moscow house and profitable estates to his brother. He himself became the owner of the family nest, where he spent his early years. Turgenev was in exile until 1853, but after his release he returned more than once to Spasskoe. In the estate he was visited by Fet, Tolstoy, Aksakov.

The last time Ivan Turgenev visited the family estate was in 1881. The writer died in France. The heirs removed almost all the furniture from the estate. It burned down in 1906. And 12 years later, the remaining property of Ivan Turgenev was nationalized.

CONTEMPORARY unanimously admitted that she was not at all beautiful. Rather, the opposite is true. The poet Heinrich Heine said that she resembled a landscape, both monstrous and exotic, and one of the artists of that era described her as not just an ugly woman, but cruelly ugly. That is how the famous singer Pauline Viardot was described in those days. Indeed, Viardot's appearance was far from ideal. She was stooped, with bulging eyes, large, almost masculine features, and a huge mouth.

But when the "divine Viardot" began to sing, her strange, almost repulsive appearance was magically transformed. It seemed that before that, Viardot's face was just a reflection in a crooked mirror, and only during singing did the audience see the original. At the time of one of these transformations, Pauline Viardot was seen on the stage of the opera house by the beginning Russian writer Ivan Turgenev.

This mysterious, attractive, like a drug, woman managed to chain the writer to her for life. Their romance took a long 40 years and divided Turgenev's entire life into periods before and after meeting Polina.

Village passions

From the very beginning, Turgenev's PERSONAL life was somehow uneven. The first love of the young writer left a bitter aftertaste. Young Katenka, the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya who lived next door, captivated the 18-year-old Turgenev with her girlish freshness, naivety and spontaneity. But, as it turned out later, the girl was not at all as pure and immaculate as the imagination of the young man in love had drawn. One day, Turgenev had to find out that Catherine had long had a constant lover, and the “cordial friend” of young Katya turned out to be none other than Sergei Nikolayevich, a well-known Don Juan in the district and ... Turgenev’s father. Complete confusion reigned in the young man’s head, the young man could not understand why Katenka preferred his father to him, because Sergey Nikolayevich treated women without any trepidation, was often rude to his mistresses, never explained his actions, could offend the girl with an unexpected word and caustic remark, while his son loved Katya with a kind of special affectionate tenderness. All this seemed to young Turgenev a huge injustice, now, looking at Katya, he felt as if he had suddenly stumbled upon something vile, like a frog crushed by a cart.
Having recovered from the blow, Ivan becomes disillusioned with the "noble maidens" and sets off to seek love from simple and gullible serfs. They, not spoiled by the good attitude of their husbands, who were swamped with work and poverty, gladly accepted signs of attention from the gentle master, it was easy for them to bring joy, to light a warm light in their eyes, and with them Turgenev felt that his tenderness was finally appreciated. One of the serfs, the burning beauty Avdotya Ivanova, gave birth to the writer's daughter.
Perhaps the relationship with the master could play the role of a lucky lottery ticket in the life of the illiterate Avdotya - Turgenev settled his daughter on his estate, planned to give her a good upbringing and, what the hell is not joking, live a happy life with her mother. But fate decreed otherwise.

Love without an answer

TRAVELING through Europe, in 1843 Turgenev met Pauline Viardot, and since then his heart belongs to her alone. Ivan Sergeevich does not care that his love is married, he gladly agrees to meet Pauline's husband Louis Viardot. Knowing that Polina is happy in this marriage, Turgenev does not even insist on intimacy with his beloved and is content with the role of a devoted admirer.

Turgenev’s mother was cruelly jealous of her son for the “singer”, and therefore the journey through Europe (which soon came down to visiting the cities where Viardot toured) had to be continued under tight financial circumstances. But how can such trifles as the dissatisfaction of relatives and lack of money stop the feeling that has fallen on Turgenev! The Viardot family becomes a particle of his life, he is attached to Pauline, he is connected with Louis Viardot by something like friendship, and their daughter has become native to the writer. In those years, Turgenev practically lived in the Viardot family, the writer either rented houses in the neighborhood, or stayed for a long time in the house of his beloved. Louis Viardot did not interfere with his wife's meetings with a new admirer. On the one hand, he considered Polina a reasonable woman and completely relied on her common sense, and on the other hand, friendship with Turgenev promised quite material benefits: contrary to the will of his mother, Ivan Sergeevich spent a lot of money on the Viardot family. At the same time, Turgenev was well aware of his ambiguous position in the Viardot house, he more than once had to catch the sidelong glances of his Parisian acquaintances, who shrugged their shoulders in bewilderment when Polina, introducing Ivan Sergeevich to them, said: “And this is our Russian friend, please meet me” . Turgenev felt that he, a hereditary Russian nobleman, was gradually turning into a lap dog, who began to wag his tail and squeal joyfully, as soon as the mistress threw a favorable look at her or scratched behind her ear, but he could not do anything with his unhealthy feeling. Without Polina, Ivan Sergeevich felt really sick and broken: “I cannot live away from you, I must feel your closeness, enjoy it. The day when your eyes didn’t shine for me is a lost day, ”he wrote to Polina and, without demanding anything in return, continued to help her financially, mess around with her children and forcefully smile at Louis Viardot.
As for his own daughter, her life in her grandmother's estate is not at all cloudless. The imperious landowner treats her granddaughter like a serf. As a result, Turgenev offers Polina to take the girl to be brought up in the Viardot family. At the same time, either wanting to please the woman he loves, or seized with a love fever, Turgenev changes the name of his own daughter, and from Pelageya the girl turns into Polinet (of course, in honor of the adored Polina). Of course, the consent of Pauline Viardot to raise Turgenev's daughter further strengthened the feeling of the writer. Now Viardot has become for him also an angel of mercy, who snatched his child from the hands of a cruel grandmother. True, Pelageya-Polinet did not at all share her father's affection for Pauline Viardot. Having lived in Viardot's house until she came of age, Polinet retained a grudge against her father and hostility towards her adoptive mother for the rest of her life, believing that she had taken away her father's love and attention.
Meanwhile, the popularity of Turgenev as a writer is growing. In Russia, no one perceives Ivan Sergeevich as a novice writer - now he is almost a living classic. At the same time, Turgenev firmly believes that he owes his fame to Viardot. Before the premieres of performances based on his works, he whispers her name, believing that it brings him good luck.
In 1852–1853, Turgenev lived on his estate practically under house arrest. The authorities did not like the obituary he wrote after Gogol's death - in it the secret office saw a threat to imperial power.
Upon learning that in March 1853 Pauline Viardot was coming to Russia with concerts, Turgenev lost his head. He manages to get a fake passport, with which the writer, disguised as a tradesman, goes to Moscow to meet his beloved woman. The risk was huge, but, unfortunately, unjustified. Several years of separation cooled Polina's feelings. But Turgenev is ready to be content with simple friendship, if only from time to time to see how Viardot turns his thin neck and looks at him with his mysterious black eyes.

In someone else's arms

SOME time later, Turgenev nevertheless made several attempts to improve his personal life. In the spring of 1854, the writer met with the daughter of one of Ivan Sergeevich's cousins, Olga. The 18-year-old girl captivated the writer so much that he even thought about getting married. But the longer their romance lasted, the more often the writer remembered Pauline Viardot. The freshness of the young Olga's face and her trustingly affectionate glances from under lowered eyelashes still could not replace the opium dope that the writer felt at every meeting with Viardot. Finally, completely exhausted by this duality, Turgenev confessed to the girl in love with him that he could not justify her hopes for personal happiness. Olga was very upset by the unexpected breakup, and Turgenev blamed himself for everything, but could not do anything with the newly flared love for Polina.
In 1879, Turgenev makes his last attempt to start a family. The young actress Maria Savinova is ready to become his life partner. The girl is not even afraid of a huge age difference - at that moment Turgenev was already over 60.
In 1882 Savinova and Turgenev went to Paris. Unfortunately, this trip marked the end of their relationship. In Turgenev's house, every little thing reminded of Viardot, Maria constantly felt superfluous and was tormented by jealousy. In the same year, Turgenev fell seriously ill. Doctors made a terrible diagnosis - cancer. At the beginning of 1883, he was operated on in Paris, and in April, after the hospital, before returning to his place, he asks to be escorted to Viardot's house, where Polina was waiting for him.
Turgenev did not have long to live, but he was happy in his own way - next to him was his Polina, to whom he dictated the last stories and letters. September 3, 1883 Turgenev died. According to the will, he wanted to be buried in Russia, and Claudia Viardot, the daughter of Pauline Viardot, accompanies him on his last journey to his homeland. Turgenev was buried not in his beloved Moscow and not in his estate in Spassky, but in St. Petersburg - a city in which he was only passing through, in the necropolis of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Perhaps this happened due to the fact that, in fact, almost strangers to the writer were engaged in the funeral.