Turgenev how old. Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich

Perhaps every educated person knows who Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is.

His biography proves that a person, despite a difficult life path, can create truly brilliant creations.

His works have become a real gem of world classical literature.

I.S. Turgenev - Russian writer, poet and publicist

According to some critics, the artistic system created by Turgenev changed the formation of Romanism in the second half of the 19th century. The writer was the first to predict the appearance of the sixties, whom he called nihilists, and ridiculed them in the novel Fathers and Sons.

Also, thanks to Turgenev, the term "Turgenev's girl" was also born.

Biography of Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev is a descendant of the old noble family of the Turgenevs.

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883)

The origin of the surname is connected with the nickname Turgen (Turgen) and has Tatar roots.

Father and mother

His father served in the cavalry, liked to drink, walk and spend money. Ivan's mother, Varvara, he married by calculation, so their marriage could hardly be called strong and happy.

Vanya was born just two years after his marriage, and there were three children in the Turgenev family.

Childhood

Little Vanya spent his childhood in the family estate of Spasskoe-Lutovinovo, where the family moved after the birth of their second son. A rich, luxurious estate included a huge house, a garden and even a small pond, in which there were many different fish.

Turgenev's house in Spasskoye-Lutovinovo

The future writer from childhood had the opportunity to observe nature, perhaps this is what formed his reverent, careful attitude to all living things.

The mother recalled that Vanya grew up as an active, inquisitive child, she was really proud of him, but she did not show it in any way. Varvara was a quiet and silent woman, so much so that none of the sons could even briefly recall any bright moments associated with their mother. Now a museum has been opened on the site of the Turgenev family estate.

Education and upbringing

Turgenev's parents were very educated people, so the children were introduced to science from an early age. Vanya early learned to read books and speak several languages. Foreigners were invited to the family, who were supposed to teach children their native languages.

As in all intelligent families, great emphasis was placed on French, in which family members spoke freely among themselves. For disobedience and lack of diligence, the kids were severely punished, the mother was subject to frequent mood swings, so sometimes she could be whipped for nothing.

Even as an adult, Ivan Sergeevich admitted how much he was afraid of his mother. His father, on the contrary, had minimal influence on him, and soon left the family altogether.

Youth years

As soon as Ivan turned nine, the family moved to the capital, where the boy was immediately assigned to a private boarding school. At fifteen, Turgenev already became a university student, but did not study for long, moved to St. Petersburg and graduated from the philosophical and historical department.

Even as a student, the future writer was engaged in translations of foreign poems and dreamed of someday becoming a poet himself.

The beginning of the creative path

In 1836, Turgenev's creative career began, his name began to appear in print for the first time, he wrote reviews of the works of his contemporaries.

But Turgenev became a real celebrity only seven years later, when he published the work Parasha, approved by the critic Belinsky.

They became so close that soon Turgenev began to consider Belinsky a godfather.

In a few years, a recent graduate has become one of the most famous writers of his time. Soon Ivan Sergeevich began to write not only for adults, but also for children.

Turgenev devoted a whole list of fairy tales to kids: “Sparrow”, “Doves”, “Dog”, written in a simple, understandable language for young readers.

Writer's personal life

Turgenev loved only once, the singer Pauline Viardot, known in narrow circles, became his chosen one.

Far from being a beauty, she was able to charm the writer so that he could not forget her all his life until his death.

It is known that in his youth, the writer broke out in a relationship with a seamstress named Avdotya. The romance did not last long, but as a result, the couple had a child, recognized by Turgenev only fifteen years later.

After breaking up with Polina, Turgenev tried to fall in love again, but each time he realized that he was still in love only with Viardot and told this to his young chosen ones. On the wall he always hung her portrait, and in the house there were a lot of personal things.

Descendants of Turgenev

The only daughter of Ivan Sergeevich was Pelageya, who was born as a result of a fleeting connection between Turgenev and the peasant woman Avdotya.

The writer's lover, Pauline Viardot, expressed a desire to take the girl and make a French lady out of her, a simple peasant woman, to which the writer quickly agreed.

Pelageya was renamed Polinet and moved to live in France. She had two children: Georges and Jeanne, who died without leaving heirs, and this branch of the Turgenev family finally broke off.

Last years of life and death

In 1882, after breaking up another relationship, the writer fell ill, the diagnosis sounded terrible: cancer of the bones of the spine. Thus, one can answer the question of why Turgenev died - he was killed by the disease.

He was dying in France, far from his homeland and Russian friends. But the main thing is that his beloved woman, Pauline Viardot, remained nearby until the last days.

The classic died on August 22, 1883; on September 27, his body was delivered to St. Petersburg. Turgenev was buried at the Volkovsky cemetery, his grave has been preserved to this day.

The most famous works of Ivan Turgenev

Of course, the most famous work of Turgenev is considered to be the novel "Fathers and Sons", which is included in the school curriculum.

The nihilist Bazarov and his difficult relationship with the Kirsanovs are known to everyone. This novel is truly eternal, as is the problem of fathers and children that rises in the work.

Slightly less famous are the story "Asya", which, according to some sources, Turgenev wrote about the life of his illegitimate daughter; novel "The Nest of Nobles" and others.

In his youth, Vanya fell in love with his friend Ekaterina Shakhovskaya, who conquered the boy with her tenderness and purity. Turgenev's heart was broken when he learned that Katya had many lovers, including Sergei Turgenev, the father of the classic. Later, the features of Katerina appeared in the main character of the novel "First Love".

Once a friend of Turgenev, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, reproached the writer for the fact that his daughter was forced to earn money by tailoring due to lack of money. Ivan Sergeevich took this to heart, and the men had a big fight. A duel was to take place, which, fortunately, was not, otherwise the world might not see the new work of one of the writers. Friends quickly reconciled and soon forgot about the unpleasant incident.

Turgenev's characterization consisted of continuous contradictions. For example, with his great height and strong physique, the writer had a fairly high voice and could even sing at some feasts.

When he lost inspiration, he stood in a corner and stood there until some important thought came to his head. He laughed, according to contemporaries, with a most infectious laugh, fell to the floor and stood on all fours, sharply twitching and writhing.

The writer had other oddities at different stages of his life, like many creative talented people. The main thing for us is to get acquainted with the work of Turgenev and experience all the depth that the author put into his works.

1818 , October 28 (November 9) - was born in Orel in a noble family. He spent his childhood in the family estate of his mother, Spasskoe-Lutovinovo, Oryol province.

1822–1823 - a trip abroad for the whole Turgenev family along the route: with. Spasskoye, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Narva, Riga, Memel, Koenigsberg, Berlin, Dresden, Karlsbad, Augsburg, Konstanz, ... Kiev, Orel, Mtsensk. The Turgenevs lived in Paris for six months.

1827 - The Turgenevs move to Moscow, where they acquire a house on Samoteka. Ivan Turgenev is placed in the Weidenhammer boarding house, where he stayed for about two years.

1829 , August - Ivan and Nikolai Turgenev are placed in the boarding house of the Armenian Institute.
november- Ivan Turgenev leaves the boarding school and continues his training with home teachers - Pogorelov, Dubensky, Klyushnikov.

1833–1837 - studies at the Moscow (language faculty) and St. Petersburg (philological department of the philosophical faculty) universities.

1834 , December - finishes work on the poem "Steno".

1836 , April 19 (May 1) - attends the first performance of The Inspector General in St. Petersburg.
The end of the year- submits the poem "The Wall" for consideration by P. A. Pletnev. After a condescending response, he gives him a few more poems.

1837 - A. V. Nikitenko sends his literary works: "Wall", "The Old Man's Tale", "Our Century". He reports that he has three completed short poems: “Calm at Sea”, “Phantasmagoria on a Midsummer Night”, “Dream” and about a hundred small poems.

1838 , beginning of April - the book is published. I of Sovremennik, in it: the poem "Evening" (signature: "---v").
May 15 (27)- went abroad on the steamer "Nikolai". E. Tyutcheva, the first wife of the poet F.I. Tyutchev, P. A. Vyazemsky and D. Rosen left on the same ship.
Early October- the book comes out. 4 of Sovremennik, in it: the poem "To the Venus of Medicine" (signed "---v").

1838–1841 - studies at the University of Berlin.

1883 , August 22 (September 3) - died in Bougival near Paris, was buried at the Volkov cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Literary critics argue that the artistic system created by the classic changed the poetics of the novel in the second half of the 19th century. Ivan Turgenev was the first to feel the emergence of a “new man” - a man of the sixties - and showed him in his essay “Fathers and Sons”. Thanks to the realist writer, the term "nihilist" was born in the Russian language. Ivan Sergeevich introduced the image of a compatriot, which received the definition of "Turgenev's girl", into use.

Childhood and youth

One of the pillars of classical Russian literature was born in Orel, in an old noble family. Ivan Sergeyevich spent his childhood in his mother's estate, Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, not far from Mtsensk. He became the second son of three born to Varvara Lutovinova and Sergei Turgenev.

The family life of the parents did not work out. The father, who had spent his fortune as a handsome cavalry guard, according to calculation, married not a beauty, but a wealthy girl Varvara, who was 6 years older than him. When Ivan Turgenev turned 12, his father left the family, leaving three children in the care of his wife. After 4 years, Sergei Nikolaevich died. Soon the youngest son Sergei died of epilepsy.

Nikolai and Ivan had a hard time - the mother had a despotic character. A smart and educated woman drank a lot of grief in her childhood and youth. Varvara Lutovinova's father died when her daughter was a child. Mother, an absurd and despotic lady, whose image readers saw in Turgenev's story "Death", remarried. The stepfather drank and did not hesitate to beat and humiliate his stepdaughter. The mother did not treat her daughter in the best way. Because of the cruelty of her mother and the beatings of her stepfather, the girl fled to her uncle, who left her niece after her death a legacy of 5,000 serfs.

The mother, who did not know affection in childhood, although she loved children, especially Vanya, treated them in the same way as her parents treated her in childhood - the sons forever remembered mother's heavy hand. Despite her absurd disposition, Varvara Petrovna was an educated woman. She spoke exclusively in French with her family, demanding the same from Ivan and Nikolai. Spasskoye kept a rich library, consisting mainly of French books.

When Ivan Turgenev turned 9, the family moved to the capital, to a house on Neglinka. Mom read a lot and instilled in her children a love of literature. Preferring French writers, Lutovinova-Turgeneva followed literary novelties, and was friends with Mikhail Zagoskin. Varvara Petrovna thoroughly knew creativity, and quoted them in correspondence with her son.

Ivan Turgenev was educated by tutors from Germany and France, on whom the landowner spared no expense. The wealth of Russian literature was discovered to the future writer by the serf valet Fyodor Lobanov, who became the prototype of the hero of the story "Punin and Baburin".

After moving to Moscow, Ivan Turgenev was assigned to the Ivan Krause boarding school. At home and in private boarding schools, the young gentleman completed a high school course, at the age of 15 he became a student at the capital's university. At the Faculty of Literature, Ivan Turgenev studied a course, then transferred to St. Petersburg, where he received a university education at the Faculty of History and Philosophy.

In his student years, Turgenev translated poetry and lord and dreamed of becoming a poet.

Having received a diploma in 1838, Ivan Turgenev continued his education in Germany. In Berlin, he attended a course of university lectures on philosophy and philology, and wrote poetry. After the Christmas holidays in Russia, Turgenev went to Italy for six months, from where he returned to Berlin.

In the spring of 1841, Ivan Turgenev arrived in Russia and a year later passed the exams, receiving a master's degree in philosophy from St. Petersburg University. In 1843, he entered the Ministry of the Interior, but the love of writing and literature outweighed.

Literature

Ivan Turgenev first appeared in print in 1836, publishing a review of Andrey Muravyov's book Journey to Holy Places. A year later, he wrote and published the poems "Calm at Sea", "Phantasmagoria on a Moonlit Night" and "Dream".

Fame came in 1843, when Ivan Sergeevich composed the poem "Parasha", approved by Vissarion Belinsky. Soon Turgenev and Belinsky became close so that the young writer became the godfather of the son of a famous critic. Rapprochement with Belinsky and Nikolai Nekrasov influenced the creative biography of Ivan Turgenev: the writer finally said goodbye to the genre of romanticism, which became apparent after the publication of the poem "The Landowner" and the stories "Andrei Kolosov", "Three Portraits" and "Breter".

Ivan Turgenev returned to Russia in 1850. He lived either in the family estate, then in Moscow, then in St. Petersburg, where he wrote plays that were successfully staged in the theaters of the two capitals.

In 1852, Nikolai Gogol died. Ivan Turgenev responded to the tragic event with an obituary, but in St. Petersburg, at the behest of the chairman of the censorship committee, Alexei Musin-Pushkin, they refused to publish it. The Moskovskie Vedomosti newspaper dared to publish Turgenev's note. The censor did not forgive disobedience. Musin-Pushkin called Gogol a "lackey writer" who was not worthy of mention in society, and besides, he saw in the obituary a hint of a violation of an unspoken ban - not to recall Alexander Pushkin and those who died in a duel in the open press.

The censor wrote a report to the emperor. Ivan Sergeevich, who was under suspicion due to frequent trips abroad, communication with Belinsky and Herzen, radical views on serfdom, incurred even greater wrath of the authorities.

In April of the same year, the writer was taken into custody for a month, and then sent under house arrest on the estate. For a year and a half, Ivan Turgenev stayed in Spassky without a break, for 3 years he did not have the right to leave the country.

Turgenev's fears about the censorship ban on the release of the Hunter's Notes as a separate book did not materialize: a collection of short stories, previously published in Sovremennik, was published. For allowing the book to be printed, the official Vladimir Lvov, who served in the censorship department, was fired. The cycle includes the stories "Bezhin Meadow", "Biryuk", "Singers", "County Doctor". Separately, the novels did not pose a danger, but, taken together, they were anti-serfdom in nature.

Ivan Turgenev wrote for both adults and children. For young readers, the prose writer presented fairy tales and observational stories "Sparrow", "Dog" and "Doves", written in rich language.

In rural solitude, the classic wrote the story “Mumu”, as well as the novels “The Noble Nest”, “On the Eve”, “Fathers and Sons”, “Smoke”, which became an event in the cultural life of Russia.

Ivan Turgenev went abroad in the summer of 1856. In winter, in Paris, he completed the gloomy story "A Trip to Polissya". In Germany in 1857 he wrote "Asya" - a story translated during the life of the writer into European languages. Critics consider Turgenev's daughter Polina Brewer and illegitimate half-sister Varvara Zhitova to be the prototype of Asya, the daughter of a master and a peasant woman born out of wedlock.

Abroad, Ivan Turgenev closely followed the cultural life of Russia, corresponded with writers who remained in the country, and communicated with emigrants. Colleagues considered the prose writer a controversial personality. After an ideological disagreement with the editors of Sovremennik, which became the mouthpiece of revolutionary democracy, Turgenev broke with the magazine. But, having learned about the temporary ban on Sovremennik, he spoke out in his defense.

During his life in the West, Ivan Sergeevich entered into long conflicts with Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Nikolai Nekrasov. After the release of the novel Fathers and Sons, he quarreled with the literary community, which was called progressive.

Ivan Turgenev was the first Russian writer to receive recognition in Europe as a novelist. In France, he became close to the realist writers, the Goncourt brothers, and Gustave Flaubert, who became his close friend.

In the spring of 1879, Turgenev arrived in St. Petersburg, where the youth met him as an idol. The authorities did not share the enthusiasm for the visit of the famous writer, letting Ivan Sergeevich understand that a long stay of a writer in the city was undesirable.

In the summer of the same year, Ivan Turgenev visited Britain - at Oxford University, the Russian prose writer was given the title of an honorary doctor.

The penultimate time Turgenev came to Russia in 1880. In Moscow, he attended the opening of a monument to Alexander Pushkin, whom he considered a great teacher. The classic called the Russian language support and support "in the days of painful thoughts" about the fate of the motherland.

Personal life

Heinrich Heine compared the femme fatale, who became the love of the writer's life, with a landscape "both monstrous and exotic." The Spanish-French singer Pauline Viardot, a short and stooping woman, had large masculine features, a large mouth and bulging eyes. But when Polina sang, she fabulously transformed. At such a moment, Turgenev saw the singer and fell in love for life, for the remaining 40 years.

The personal life of the prose writer before meeting Viardot was like a roller coaster. The first love, about which Ivan Turgenev bitterly told in the story of the same name, painfully wounded the 15-year-old boy. He fell in love with his neighbor Katenka, the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya. What a disappointment befell Ivan when he found out that his “pure and immaculate” Katya, who captivated with her childish spontaneity and girlish blush, was the mistress of her father, Sergei Nikolaevich, a seasoned womanizer.

The young man was disappointed in the "noble" girls and turned his eyes to the simple girls - serfs. One of the undemanding beauties - seamstress Avdotya Ivanova - gave birth to Ivan Turgenev's daughter Pelageya. But, traveling around Europe, the writer met Viardot, and Avdotya remained in the past.

Ivan Sergeevich met the singer's husband, Louis, and became a member of their house. Turgenev's contemporaries, the writer's friends and biographers disagreed about this union. Some call it sublime and platonic, others talk about the considerable sums that the Russian landowner left in the house of Polina and Louis. Viardot's husband looked through his fingers at Turgenev's relationship with his wife and allowed him to live in their house for months. It is believed that the biological father of Paul, the son of Polina and Louis, is Ivan Turgenev.

The writer's mother did not approve of the relationship and dreamed that her beloved offspring would settle down, marry a young noblewoman and give legitimate grandchildren. Pelageya Varvara Petrovna did not favor, she saw in her a serf. Ivan Sergeevich loved and pitied his daughter.

Pauline Viardot, listening to the bullying of a despotic grandmother, was imbued with sympathy for the girl and took her to her house. Pelageya turned into Polinet and grew up with Viardot's children. In fairness, it should be noted that Pelageya-Polinet Turgeneva did not share her father's love for Viardot, believing that the woman stole the attention of her loved one from her.

Cooling in the relationship between Turgenev and Viardot came after a three-year separation, which happened due to the house arrest of the writer. Ivan Turgenev made attempts to forget the fatal passion twice. In 1854, the 36-year-old writer met the young beauty Olga, the daughter of a cousin. But when a wedding dawned on the horizon, Ivan Sergeevich yearned for Polina. Not wanting to break the life of an 18-year-old girl, Turgenev confessed his love for Viardot.

The last attempt to escape from the arms of a Frenchwoman happened in 1879, when Ivan Turgenev was 61 years old. Actress Maria Savina was not afraid of the age difference - her lover was twice as old. But when the couple went to Paris in 1882, Masha saw a lot of things and trinkets in the home of her future spouse, reminiscent of her rival, and realized that she was superfluous.

Death

In 1882, after parting with Savinova, Ivan Turgenev fell ill. Doctors made a disappointing diagnosis - cancer of the bones of the spine. The writer died in a foreign land for a long time and painfully.

In 1883, Turgenev was operated on in Paris. The last months of his life, Ivan Turgenev was happy, how happy a person tormented by pain can be - next to him was his beloved woman. After her death, she inherited Turgenev's property.

Classic died on August 22, 1883. His body was brought to St. Petersburg on September 27. From France to Russia, Ivan Turgenev was accompanied by Polina's daughter, Claudia Viardot. The writer was buried at the St. Petersburg Volkov cemetery.

Calling Turgenev "a thorn in his own eye", he reacted to the death of the "nihilist" with relief.

Bibliography

• 1855 - "Rudin"
• 1858 - "Noble Nest"
• 1860 - "On the Eve"
• 1862 - "Fathers and Sons"
• 1867 - "Smoke"
• 1877 - "Nov"
• 1851-73 - "Notes of a hunter"
• 1858 - "Asya"
• 1860 - "First Love"
• 1872 - "Spring Waters"

Books to read

Screen adaptation of the classics

Biography of the writer

Analysis of creativity and ideological and artistic originality of works

Ivan Sergeevich TURGENEV (1818–1883)

The work of I.S. Turgenev is a striking phenomenon not only in the history of Russian literature, but also in the history of social thought. The writer's works have always caused a strong reaction in society. The novel "Fathers and Sons" "provoked" such a controversy in criticism, the like of which is difficult to find in the history of Russian social thought. The writer in each new work responded to the social life of his time. A keen interest in the pressing problems of our time is a typological characteristic of Turgenev's realism.
N. Dobrolyubov, noting this feature of Turgenev's work, wrote in the article “When will the real day come?”: “A lively attitude to modernity has strengthened Turgenev's constant success with the reading public. We can safely say that if Turgenev raised any issue in his story, if he depicted some new side of social relations, this serves as a guarantee that this issue is being raised or will soon be raised in the minds of an educated society, that this new side. .. will soon speak out before the eyes of everyone.”
With such a "live" connection with time, the peculiarities of the writer's worldview and political views played an important role.
manifested themselves in the artistic types he created of the “extra person” (Rudin, Lavretsky), the “new person” (Insarov, Bazarov), the “Turgenev girl” (Lisa Kalitina, Natalya Lasunskaya).
Turgenev belonged to the camp of liberal nobles. The writer took a consistent anti-serf position, hated despotism. Proximity in the 40s to Belinsky and Nekrasov, cooperation in the 50s with the Sovremennik magazine contributed to his convergence with the advanced social ideology. However, fundamental differences in the question of ways to change life (he categorically denied the revolution and relied on reform from above) led Turgenev to break with Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov, leaving the Sovremennik magazine. The reason for the split in Sovremennik was Dobrolyubov’s article “When will the real day come?” about Turgenev's novel "On the Eve". The bold revolutionary conclusions of the critic frightened Turgenev. In 1879, he wrote about his political and ideological preferences: “I have always been and still remain a “gradualist”, a liberal of the old cut in the English dynastic sense, a person who expects reforms only from above, a principled opponent of the revolution.
Today's reader, to a lesser extent than the writer's contemporaries, is concerned about the political sharpness of his works. Turgenev is of interest to us primarily as a realist artist who contributed to the development of Russian literature. Turgenev strove for fidelity and completeness of the reflection of reality. At the heart of his aesthetics lay the demand for the "reality of life", he strove, in his own words, "to the best of my strength and skill, conscientiously and impartially portray and embody in the proper types and what Shakespeare calls "the very image and pressure of time", and that rapidly changing physiognomy of the Russian people of the cultural layer, which mainly served as the subject of my observations. He created his own style, his own manner of narration, in which brevity, brevity of presentation did not contradict the reflection of complex conflicts and characters.
Turgenev's work developed under the influence of Pushkin's discoveries in prose. The poetics of Turgenev's prose was distinguished by an emphasis on objectivity, on the literary nature of the language, on a concise, expressive psychological analysis using the technique of silence. An important role in his works is played by everyday background, given in expressive and concise sketches. Turgenev's landscape is a universally recognized artistic discovery of Russian realism. The lyrical Turgenev landscape, estate poetry with motifs of the withering of "noble nests" influenced the work of writers of the 20th century - I. Bunin, B. Zaitsev.

The ability to respond to a topic relevant to the era, the ability to create a psychologically reliable character, the lyricism of the narrative manner and the purity of the language are the main features of Turgenev's realism. Turgenev's significance goes beyond the limits of a national writer. He was a kind of mediator between Russian and Western European culture. Since 1856, he almost constantly lived abroad (this is how the circumstances of his personal life developed), which did not in the least prevent him, as already emphasized, from being in the thick of events in Russian life. He actively promoted Russian literature in the West, and in Russia - European. In 1878 he was elected Vice-President of the International Literary Congress in Paris, and in 1879 Oxford University awarded him the degree of Doctor of Common Law. At the end of his life, Turgenev wrote a prose poem "The Russian Language", which expresses the strength of his love for Russia and faith in the spiritual power of the people.
The creative path of I.S. Turgenev essentially began with the publication in the journal Sovremennik in 1847 of the story “Khor and Kalinich”. Although until that time he wrote poetry and poems in a romantic spirit (“Evening”, “Steno”, “Parasha”), novels and short stories (“Andrey Kolosov”, “Three Portraits”), only this publication marked the birth of the writer Turgenev.
During his long life in literature, Turgenev created significant works in various genres of the epic kind. In addition to the aforementioned anti-serf stories, he became the author of the stories Asya, First Love, and others, united by the theme of the fate of the noble intelligentsia, and the social novels Rudin, The Noble Nest, and others.
Turgenev left a mark on Russian dramaturgy. His plays "To the Breadmaker", "A Month in the Country" are still included in the repertoire of our theaters. At the end of his life, he turned to a new genre for himself and created the cycle “Poems in Prose”.

The title of Turgenev's novel has nothing to do with the opposition of the characters in terms of family and age. In the novel, the ideological struggle of the era is artistically comprehended: the antagonism of the positions of liberal nobles (“fathers”) and raznochintsi-democrats (“children”).
As far back as 1859, Dobrolyubov, reflecting on the social situation in Russia, ironically characterized the generation of the forties as "a wise lot of older people ... with high, but somewhat abstract aspirations." “When we say “older,” noted a democratic critic, “everywhere we mean people who have outlived their youthful strength and are no longer able to understand the modern movement and the needs of the new time; such people are found even between twenty-five years. In the same place, Dobrolyubov also reflects on the representatives of the “new” generation. They refuse to worship lofty but abstract principles. “Their final goal is not perfect slavish fidelity to abstract higher ideas, but bringing “the greatest possible benefit to humanity,” writes the critic. The polarity of ideological attitudes is obvious, the confrontation between "fathers" and "children" is ripe in life itself. Sensitive to modernity, Turgenev the artist could not but respond to him. The collision of Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov as a typical representative of the generation of the 40s with Evgeny Bazarov, the bearer of new ideas, is inevitable. Their main life and worldview positions are revealed in the dialogues-disputes.
Dialogues occupy a large place in the novel: their compositional dominance emphasizes the ideological, ideological nature of the main conflict. Turgenev, as already noted, was a liberal in his convictions, which did not prevent him from showing in the novel the failure of heroes - liberal nobles in all spheres of life. The writer definitely and rather harshly assessed the generation of "fathers". In a letter to Sluchevsky, he noted: “My whole story is directed against the nobility as an advanced class. Look into the faces of Nikolai Petrovich, Pavel Petrovich, Arkady. Weakness and lethargy or limitation. Aesthetic feeling made me
Let's just take good representatives of the nobility in order to prove my theme all the more correctly: if cream is bad, what about milk? They are the best of the nobles - and that is why I have chosen them to prove their failure. The father of the Kirsanov brothers is a military general in 1812, a simple, even rude man, "pulling his webbing all his life." The life of his sons is different. Nikolai Petrovich, who left the university in 1835, began his service under the patronage of his father in the "Ministry of appanages". However, he left her shortly after his marriage. Laconically, but succinctly, the author tells about his family life: “The spouses lived very well and quietly, they almost never parted. Ten years have passed like a dream ... And Arkady grew and grew - also well and quietly. The narration is colored with soft author's irony. Nikolai Petrovich has no public interests. The university youth of the hero took place in the era of the Nikolaev reaction, and the only sphere of application of his forces was love, family. Pavel Petrovich, a brilliant officer, left his career and the world because of his romantic love for the mysterious Princess R. The lack of social activity, social tasks, lack of housekeeping skills leads the heroes to ruin. Nikolai Petrovich, not knowing where to get the money, sells the forest. Being a mild-mannered man of liberal convictions, he is trying to reform the economy, to alleviate the position of the peasants. But his "farm" does not give the expected income. The author notes on this occasion: "Their economy creaked like an unoiled wheel, cracked like home-made furniture made of raw wood." Expressive and meaningful is the description of the wretched villages that the characters pass by at the beginning of the novel. Nature is a match for them: "Like beggars in tatters stood roadside willows with peeled bark and broken branches ...". A sad picture of Russian life arose, from which "the heart contracted." All this is a consequence of the unfavorable social structure, the failure of the landlord class, including the subjectively very attractive Kirsanov brothers. Relying on the strength of the aristocracy, high principles, so dear to Pavel Petrovich, will not help to change the socio-economic situation in Russia. The disease has gone far. We need strong means, revolutionary transformations, Bazarov, a "democrat to the end of his nails," believes.
Bazarov is the central character in the novel, it is he who is the hero of time. This is a man of action, a naturalist materialist, a democrat-educator. Personality in all respects antagonistically opposed to the Kirsanov brothers. He is from the generation of "children". However, in the image of Bazarov, the contradictions of Turgenev's worldview and creativity were more pronounced.
Bazarov's political views contain some of the features inherent in the leaders of the revolutionary democracy of the 60s. He denies social foundations; hates "damned barchuks"; seeks to "clear a place" for a future properly arranged life. But all the same, nihilism, which Turgenev identified with revolutionism, was decisive in his political views. In a letter to Sluchevsky, he wrote like this: "... and if he is called a nihilist, then it must be considered: a revolutionary." Nihilism was an extreme trend in the revolutionary democratic movement and did not define it. But the absolute nihilism of Bazarov in relation to art, love, nature, emotional experiences was the author's exaggeration. There was no such degree of denial in the outlook of the sixties.
Bazarov attracts with his desire for practical activities, he dreams of “breaking off many cases”, however, we do not know which ones. His ideal is a man of action. In the Kirsanov estate, he is constantly engaged in natural science experiments, and having arrived at his parents, he begins to treat the surrounding peasants. For Bazarov, the essence of life is important, because he is so dismissive of its external side - his clothes, appearance, demeanor.
The cult of deeds, the idea of ​​benefit sometimes turn in Bazarov into naked utilitarianism. In terms of the direction of his worldview, he is closer to Pisarev than to Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov.
Bazarov's relations with the common people are contradictory. Undoubtedly, he is closer to him than the perfumed, prim Pavel Petrovich, but the peasants do not understand either his behavior or his goals.
Bazarov is shown by Turgenev in an environment alien to himself, he, in fact, has no like-minded people. Arkady is a temporary companion who has fallen under the influence of a strong friend, his convictions are superficial. Kukshina and Sitnikov are epigones, a parody of the "new man" and his ideals. Bazarov is alone, which makes his figure tragic. But there is in his personality and internal dissonance. Bazarov proclaims integrity, but in his nature it just does not exist. At the heart of his worldview lies not only the denial of recognized authorities, but also confidence in the absolute freedom of his own feelings and moods, beliefs. It is this freedom that he demonstrates in a dispute with Pavel Petrovich after evening tea, in the tenth chapter of the novel. But a meeting with Odintsova and love for her unexpectedly show him that he does not have this kind of freedom. He is powerless to cope with that feeling, the very existence of which he so easily and boldly denied. Being an ideological maximalist, Bazarov is not able to give up his convictions, but he is not able to win his heart either. This duality causes him great suffering. His own feelings, the life of his heart dealt a terrible blow to his harmonious worldview system. Before us is no longer a self-confident person, ready to destroy the world, but, as Dostoevsky said, "restless, yearning Bazarov." His death is accidental, but it manifested a vital pattern. Bazarov's courage in death confirms the originality of his nature and even the heroic beginning in him. “To die the way Bazarov died is the same as to accomplish a feat,” Pisarev wrote.
Turgenev's novel about the hero of time, the "new man" Bazarov, is written with impeccable skill. First of all, it manifested itself in the creation of images of characters. The analytical portrait of the hero gives him a capacious socio-psychological description. So, “a beautiful hand with long pink nails, a hand that seemed even more beautiful from the delicate whiteness of a mitten buttoned with a single large opal ...” emphasizes the aristocracy of Pavel Petrovich, along with other details of the portrait, indicates the romantic nature of this character. The “long robe with tassels” and the “naked red hand”, which Bazarov does not immediately give to Nikolai Petrovich, these portrait details speak eloquently of Bazarov’s democracy and independence.
With great skill, the author conveys the originality of speech

BEET FORMULA. Turgenev

"Fathers and Sons" is perhaps the most noisy and scandalous book in Russian literature. Avdotya Panaeva, who did not like Turgenev very much, wrote: “I don’t remember that any literary work made so much noise and stirred up so many conversations as Turgenev’s story Fathers and Sons. It can be positively said that Fathers and Sons were read even by people who have not taken books in their hands since school.
It is precisely the fact that since then the book has been picked up just at the school bench, and only occasionally after, has deprived Turgenev's work of a romantic aura of resounding popularity. "Fathers and Sons" is perceived as a work of social service. And in fact, the novel is such a work. It is simply necessary, apparently, to separate what arose thanks to the author's intention, and what - contrary to, by virtue of the very nature of art, which desperately resists attempts to put it at the service of anything.
Turgenev quite succinctly described the new phenomenon in his book. A definite, concrete, today's phenomenon. Such a mood is already set at the very beginning of the novel: “What, Peter? can’t you see it yet?” he asked on May 20, 1859, going out on a low porch without a hat ...
It was very significant for the author and for the reader that such a year was in the yard. Previously, Bazarov could not appear. The achievements of the 1840s prepared for his arrival. The society was strongly impressed by natural scientific discoveries: the law of conservation of energy, the cellular structure of organisms. It turned out that all the phenomena of life can be reduced to the simplest chemical and physical processes, expressed in an accessible and convenient formula. Focht's book, the same one that Arkady Kirsanov gives his father to read - "Strength and Matter" - taught: the brain secretes thought, like the liver - bile. Thus, the very highest human activity - thinking - turned into a physiological mechanism that can be traced and described. There were no secrets.
Therefore, Bazarov easily and simply transforms the basic position of the new science, adapting it for different occasions. “You study the anatomy of the eye: where can you get, as you say, a mysterious look? This is all romanticism, nonsense, rot, art,” he says to Arkady. And logically ends: "Let's go and watch the beetle."
(Bazarov quite rightly contrasts two worldviews - scientific and artistic. Only their clash will end differently than it seems inevitable to him. Actually, Turgenev's book is about this - more precisely, this is her role in the history of Russian literature.)
In general, Bazarov's ideas boil down to "watching the beetle" - instead of pondering over mysterious views. The beetle is the key to all problems. Bazarov's perception of the world is dominated by biological categories. In such a system of thinking, a beetle is simpler, a person is more complicated. Society is also an organism, only even more developed and complex than a person.
Turgenev saw a new phenomenon and was frightened of it. In these unprecedented people, an unknown force was felt. In order to understand it, he began to write down: "I painted all these faces, as if I were painting mushrooms, leaves, trees; my eyes were sore - I began to draw."
Of course, one should not completely trust the author's coquetry. But it is true that Turgenev tried his best to maintain objectivity. And achieved this. As a matter of fact, this is precisely what made such a strong impression on the society of that time: it was not clear - for whom Turgenev?
The narrative fabric itself is extremely objectified. All the time one feels a zero degree of writing, uncharacteristic for Russian literature, where it is a question of a social phenomenon. In general, reading "Fathers and Sons" leaves a strange impression of a lack of alignment of the plot, looseness of the composition. And this is also the result of an attitude towards objectivity: as if not a novel is being written, but notebooks, notes for memory.
Of course, one should not overestimate the importance of intention in belles-lettres. Turgenev is an artist, and this is the main thing. The characters in the book are alive. The language is bright. How wonderfully Bazarov says about Odintsova: "A rich body. At least now to the anatomical theater."
But nevertheless, the scheme appears through the verbal fabric. Turgenev wrote a novel with a tendency. It's not that the author openly takes sides, but that the social problem is put at the forefront. This is a novel on the subject. That is, as they would say now - engaged art.
However, here a clash of scientific and artistic worldviews occurs, and the same miracle occurs that Bazarov completely denied. The book is by no means exhausted by the scheme of confrontation between the old and the new in Russia in the late 50s of the 19th century. And not because the author's talent built up high-quality artistic material on the speculative frame, which has independent value. The key to "Fathers and Sons" lies not above the scheme, but below it - in a deep philosophical problem that goes beyond both the century and the country.
The novel "Fathers and Sons" is about the collision of a civilizing impulse with the order of culture. The fact that the world, reduced to a formula, turns into chaos.
Civilization is a vector, culture is a scalar. Civilization is made up of ideas and beliefs. Culture summarizes techniques and skills. The invention of the cistern is a sign of civilization. The fact that every house has a flush tank is a sign of culture.
Bazarov is a free and sweeping bearer of ideas. This looseness of his is presented in Turgenev's novel with mockery, but also with admiration. Here is one of the notable conversations: "- ... However, we philosophized quite a lot. "Nature evokes the silence of a dream," said Pushkin. "He never said anything like that," said Arkady. as a poet. By the way, he must have served in the military. - Pushkin was never a military man! - For mercy, he has on every page: "To fight, to fight! for the honor of Russia!"
It is clear that Bazarov is talking nonsense. But at the same time, something very accurately guesses in the reading and mass perception of Pushkin by Russian society .. Such courage is the privilege of a free mind. Enslaved thinking operates with ready-made dogmas. Uninhibited thinking turns a hypothesis into a hyperbole, a hyperbole into a dogma. This is the most attractive thing in Bazarov. But the most frightening thing, too.
Such Bazarov was remarkably shown by Turgenev. His hero is not a philosopher, not a thinker. When he speaks at length, it is usually from popular scientific writings. When brief, he speaks sharply and sometimes witty. But the point is not in the ideas themselves that Bazarov expounds, but in the way of thinking, in absolute freedom ("Rafael is not worth a penny").
And Bazarov is opposed not by his main opponent - Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov - but by the way, order, respect for which Kirsanov professes ("Without principles taken on faith, one cannot take a step, one cannot breathe").
Turgenev destroys Bazarov, confronting him with the very idea of ​​a way of life. The author guides his hero through the book, consistently arranging exams for him in all spheres of life - friendship, enmity, love, family ties. And Bazarov consistently fails everywhere. The series of these examinations constitutes the plot of the novel.
Despite the differences in circumstances, Bazarov suffers defeats for the same reason: he invades order, rushing like a lawless comet - and burns out.
His friendship with Arkady, so devoted and faithful, ends in failure. Attachment does not withstand the tests of strength, which are carried out in such barbaric ways as the reviling of Pushkin and other authorities. The bride of Arkady Katya accurately formulates: "He is predatory, and we are tame." Manual
means living by the rules, keeping order.
The way of life is sharply hostile to Bazarov and in his love for Odintsova. This is strongly emphasized in the book - even by the simple repetition of literally the same words. “What do you need Latin names for?” Bazarov asked. “Everything needs order,” she answered.
And then, even more clearly, “the order that she established in her house and in life is described. She strictly adhered to it and forced others to obey him. Everything during the day was done at a certain time ... Bazarov did not like this measured, somewhat solemn correctness of daily life; “like rolling on rails,” he assured.
Odintsova is frightened by the scope and uncontrollability of Bazarov, and the worst accusation in her lips is the words: "I begin to suspect that you are prone to exaggeration." Hyperbole - the strongest and most effective trump card of Bazarov's thinking - is regarded as a violation of the norm.
The clash of chaos with the norm exhausts the theme of enmity, which is very important in the novel. Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov is also, like Bazarov, not a thinker. He is unable to oppose Bazarov's pressure with any articulated ideas and arguments. But Kirsanov acutely feels the danger of the very fact of Bazarov’s existence, while focusing not on thoughts and not even on words: “You deign to find my habits, my toilet, my neatness funny ... Kirsanov defends these seemingly trifles, because instinctively understands that the sum of trifles is culture. The same culture in which Pushkin, Raphael, clean nails and an evening walk are naturally distributed. Bazarov poses a threat to all this.
The civilizer Bazarov believes that somewhere there is a reliable formula for well-being and happiness, which you just need to find and offer to humanity ("Fix society, and there will be no diseases"). For the sake of finding this formula, some insignificant trifles can be sacrificed. And since any civilizer always deals with an already existing, established world order, he goes by the opposite method: not creating something anew, but first destroying what is already there.
Kirsanov is convinced that prosperity itself
and happiness and consist in accumulation, summation and preservation. The uniqueness of the formula is opposed by the diversity of the system. You can't start a new life on Monday.
The pathos of destruction and reorganization is so unacceptable to Turgenev that it forces Bazarov to ultimately lose outright to Kirsanov.
The climactic event is a finely crafted duel scene. Depicted as a whole as an absurdity, the duel, however, is not out of place for Kirsanov. She is part of his heritage, his world, his culture, rules and "principles". Bazarov, on the other hand, looks pitiful in a duel, because he is alien to the system itself, which gave rise to such phenomena as a duel. He is forced to fight here on foreign territory. Turgenev even suggests that against Bazarov - something much more important and powerful than Kirsanov with a pistol: "Pavel Petrovich seemed to him a big forest, with which he still had to fight." In other words, at the barrier is nature itself, nature, the world order.
And Bazarov is finally finished off when it becomes clear why Odintsova renounced him: "She forced herself to reach a certain line, forced herself to look beyond her - and saw behind her not even an abyss, but emptiness ... or disgrace."
This is an important confession. Turgenev denies even greatness to the chaos that Bazarov brings, leaving only one bare disorder.
That is why Bazarov dies humiliatingly and pitifully. Although here the author retains complete objectivity, showing the strength of mind and courage of the hero. Pisarev even believed that by his behavior in the face of death, Bazarov put on the scales that last weight, which, ultimately, pulled in his direction.
But the cause of Bazarov's death is much more significant - a scratch on his finger. The paradoxical nature of the death of a young, flourishing, outstanding person from such an insignificant reason creates a scale that makes one think. It was not a scratch that killed Bazarov, but nature itself. He again invaded with his crude lancet (literally this time) of the transducer into the routine of life and death - and fell victim to it. The smallness of the cause here only emphasizes the inequality of forces. It's aware
and Bazarov himself: "Yes, go and try to deny death. She denies you, and that's it!"
Turgenev killed Bazarov not because he did not guess how to adapt this new phenomenon in Russian society, but because he discovered the only law that, at least theoretically, the nihilist does not undertake to refute.
The novel "Fathers and Sons" was created in the heat of controversy. Russian literature rapidly democratized, the priestly sons crowded out the nobles resting on "principles". "Literary Robespierres", "cookers-vandals" confidently walked, striving to "wipe poetry, fine arts, all aesthetic pleasures from the face of the earth and establish their rude seminary principles" (all are Turgenev's words).
This, of course, is an exaggeration, a hyperbole - that is, a tool that, naturally, is more suitable for a destroyer-civilizer than for a cultural conservative, which was Turgenev. However, he used this tool in private conversations and correspondence, and not in belles-lettres. The journalistic idea of ​​the novel "Fathers and Sons" was transformed into a convincing literary text. It sounds not even the author's voice, but the culture itself, which denies the formula in ethics, but does not find a material equivalent for aesthetics. The pressure of civilization breaks down on the foundations of the cultural order, and the diversity of life cannot be reduced to a beetle, which one must go to look at in order to understand the world.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born on October 28, 1818 in the Oryol province. His father, Sergei Nikolaevich, was a retired hussar officer, a participant in the Patriotic War of 1812. Mother - Varvara Petrovna (nee Lutovinskaya) - came from a wealthy landowner's family, so many said that Sergei Nikolaevich married her solely because of the money.
Until the age of 9, Turgenev lived in the family estate of his mother, Spasskoe-Lutavinovo, Oryol province. Varvara Petrovna had a tough (sometimes cruel) character, she disdained everything Russian, so little Vanya was taught three languages ​​from childhood - French, German and English. The boy received his primary education from tutors and home teachers.

Turgenev's education

In 1827, Turgenev's parents, wanting to give their children a decent education, moved to Moscow, where they sent Ivan Sergeevich to study at the Weidenhammer boarding school, and then under the guidance of private teachers.
At the age of fifteen, in 1833, Turgenev entered the verbal department of Moscow University. A year later, the Turgenevs moved to St. Petersburg, and Ivan Sergeevich transferred to St. Petersburg University. He graduated from this educational institution in 1836 with the degree of a valid student.
Turgenev was passionately passionate about science and dreamed of devoting his life to it, so in 1837 he passed the exam for the degree of candidate of science.
He received further education abroad. In 1838 Turgenev left for Germany. Having settled in Berlin, he attended lectures on classical philology and philosophy, studied the grammar of ancient Greek and Latin. In addition to his studies, Ivan Sergeevich traveled a lot in Europe: he traveled almost all of Germany, visited Holland, France, and Italy. In addition, during this period he met and became friends with T.N. Granovsky, N.V. Stankevich and M.A. Bakunin, who had a significant impact on Turgenev's worldview.
A year after returning to Russia, in 1842, Ivan Sergeevich applied for an exam at Moscow University for a master's degree in philosophy. He successfully passed the exam and hoped to get a professorship at Moscow University, but soon philosophy, as a science, fell out of favor with the emperor and the department of philosophy was closed - Turgenev failed to become a professor.

Literary activity of Turgenev

After returning from abroad, Turgenev settled in Moscow and, at the insistence of his mother, entered the official service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But the service did not bring him satisfaction, much more he was passionate about literature.
Turgenev began to try himself as a writer back in the mid-1830s, and his first publication took place in Sovremennik in 1838 (these were the poems “Evening” and “To Venus Mediceus”). Turgenev continued to collaborate with this publication as an author and critic for a long time.
During this period, he actively began to visit various literary salons and circles, communicated with many writers - V.G. Belinsky, N.A. Nekrasov, N.V. Gogol and others. By the way, communication with V.G. Belinsky significantly influenced Turgenev's literary views: from romanticism and poetry, he moved on to descriptive and morally oriented prose.
In the 1840s, Turgenev's stories such as Breter, The Three Little Pigs, The Freeloader and others were published. And in 1852 the first book of the writer was published - "Notes of a Hunter".
In the same year, he wrote an obituary for N.V. Gogol, which was the reason for the arrest of Turgenev and his exile to the family estate of Spassko-Lutavinovo.
The rise of the social movement that took place in Russia before the abolition of serfdom, Turgenev took it with enthusiasm. He took part in the development of plans for the upcoming reorganization of peasant life. He even became an unspoken employee of Kolokol. However, while the need for social and political reforms was obvious to everyone, the intelligentsia's opinions differed on the details of the reform process. So, Turgenev had disagreements with Dobrolyubov, who wrote a critical article on the novel "On the Eve", and Nekrasov, who published this article. Also, the writer did not support Herzen that the peasantry was capable of making a revolution.
Later, already living in Baden-Baden, Turgenev collaborated with the liberal-bourgeois Vestnik-Europe. In the last years of his life, he acted as an "intermediary" between Western and Russian writers.

Turgenev's personal life

In 1843 (according to some sources, in 1845), I.S. Turgenev met the French singer Pauline Viardot-Garcia, who was touring in Russia. The writer fell passionately in love, but he understood that it was hardly possible to build a relationship with this woman: firstly, she was married, and secondly, she was a foreigner.
Nevertheless, in 1847, Turgenev, together with Viardot and her husband, went abroad (first to Germany, then to France). Ivan Sergeevich's mother was categorically against the "damned gypsy" and deprived him of material support for her son's connection with Polina Viardot.
After returning to their homeland in 1850, relations between Turgenev and Viardot cooled. Ivan Sergeevich even started a new romance with a distant relative O.A. Turgeneva.
In 1863, Turgenev again became close to Pauline Viardot and finally moved to Europe. With Viardot, he lived first in Baden-Baden, and from 1871 in Paris.
Turgenev's popularity at that time, both in Russia and in the West, was truly colossal. Each of his visits to his homeland was accompanied by a triumph. However, the trips were becoming more and more difficult for the writer himself - in 1882 a serious illness began to appear - cancer of the spine.

I.S. Turgenev felt and realized the approaching death, but endured it, as befits a master of philosophy, without fear and panic. The writer died in Bougival (near Paris) on September 3, 1883. According to his will, Turgenev's body was brought to Russia and buried at the Volkovsky cemetery in St. Petersburg.