The main thing from the love story of Turgenev and Viardot. Life Cross by Ivan Turgenev

In 2018, it will be 200 years since the birth of the great Russian writer I.S. Turgenev. In anticipation of this anniversary date in the reading room of the district library for students of grade 10 B of secondary school No. 1, a literary and musical composition “Love in the life and work of I.S. Turgenev” was held.

Children are just entering adulthood and for many love is not yet known feeling. One should also learn to love, at least to know that people have different feelings in strength. Some it elevates and makes stronger, others can break...

For Ivan Sergeevich, love is an all-consuming passion that helped him rise to the top. literary creativity. Turgenev can be called a great singer of love. Love in his works is the biggest test of life, a test of the spiritual and moral strength of a person. Often literary heroes in the works of Turgenev they give in to a wonderful feeling. At Ivan Sergeevich himself, love was directed to one single woman - French singer Pauline Viardot. He first saw her in St. Petersburg at the Alexandrinsky Theater. The singer did not have attractive external data, but her velvety voice made a unique impression on everyone. Ivan Sergeevich fell in love at first sight. At first, like everyone else, he noted the ugliness of her face, but the amazing voice penetrated to the depths of his sensitive and gentle soul and with his unique charm made me fall in love with this woman forever. For 42 years, Turgenev was near Polina Viardot as a Russian friend and no more - the woman she loved had a husband and children, and she could not break the bonds of marriage. Dying, Ivan Sergeevich bequeathed to Polina all movable property and royalties from books. This is how he wrote to his beloved: “When I am gone, when everything that was me crumbles into dust, oh you, my only friend, oh you, whom I loved so deeply and so tenderly, you, who will probably survive me - do not go to my grave ... You have nothing to do there.

Don't forget me... But don't remember me among your daily worries, pleasures and needs... I don't want to interfere with your life, I don't want to impede its calm flow.

But in the hours of solitude, when that shy and causeless sadness, so familiar kind hearts, take one of our favorite books and look in it for those pages, those lines, those words that used to come from - remember? – we both had sweet and silent tears at the same time…” Indeed, only a person who is devotedly loving, an altruist to the marrow of his bones could write like that.

The children got acquainted with Turgenev's lyrical works, listened to romances based on his poems, watched the presentation "More than Love". At the end of the event, the hosts held a discussion about love. The teacher of secondary school No. 1, Natalya Vasilievna Dryuk, thanked the organizers for an interesting meeting.

Pauline Viardot was by no means a beauty. Only the lazy one did not comment on her frankly unattractive appearance: bulging eyes, huge mouth, large features and stoop. But it all faded into the background when she sang. Her voice had an amazing hypnotic quality. young talent, who also has extraordinary strength of character and intelligence - it was she who won the heart of the young writer. She came from Paris to St. Petersburg on tour in 1843 and collected full houses, where she kept all the spectators in a daze. "She sings well, the damned gypsy," Turgenev's mother will also say about her, jealous of her son for Polina.

By the time they met, Polina was married to an art historian, critic and director of a Parisian Italian opera— Louis Viardot. Polina was introduced to him by the writer George Sand, who "copied" the image of Consuelo from Viardot. Polina was not carried away by her husband for a long time, because with a "dull nightcap", according to George Sand herself, it would be absolutely impossible for Polina to live without inspiration. Everyone knew that she often allowed herself to have lovers and admirers. Franz Liszt - her piano teacher, Charles Gounod, Italian director - Julius Ritz, artist - Ari Schaeffer and even the Prince of Baden - this is an incomplete list of Madame Viardot's lovers, among whom Turgenev occupied a special place - he was also a great friend of the family. Polina's husband treated her love whims with restrained indulgence, relying on her prudence, and really made friends with Ivan Sergeevich.

But Polina was not Turgenev's first love. She was the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya, who lived next door to the Turgenevs. Charming, young, with the sweetest features of her face, Katya, turned out to be not at all as immaculate and pure as it seemed to Ivan Sergeevich. What was his surprise when he found out that his girlfriend's lover had long been his own father, whom Katya eventually preferred to the writer. After this incident, Turgenev's tastes changed, and women of a completely different warehouse began to attract him.

On the Viardo Turgenev made absolutely no impression. However, after some time he became one of her close associates, even gave her Russian lessons. Thanks to these activities, Viardot was later able to sing Russian romances. But nothing more can be said about their relationship at that time. There is still debate, but were they ever lovers at all?

Photos from open sources

Polina tours quite a lot, constantly returning to Russia with concerts. Unable to bear the constant separation from his beloved, Turgenev decides to move to live in France in order to be close to her and be able to see her. Gradually, he becomes practically a member of the Viardot family. He was always there, rented houses near Polina when they went on vacation and seemed to become faithful dog on a short leash of imperious Viardot.

In 1850, Turgenev returned to his seriously ill mother and did not even know that he would not see his Polina for six long years. By that time, the writer had had a daughter from his connection with the seamstress Avdotya, who was already 8 years old by the time he returned. The latter, who had lived all this time with her grandmother, who never managed to recognize her granddaughter, was greatly burdened by her life and complained that no one loved her. Turgenev writes about this to Polina, to which she suggests that he send her a girl to raise. The girl's name - Pelageya - was changed to Polinette, of course, in honor of Viardot. From this noble act, the writer's feelings for the merciful Viardot, who kept her promise, become even more tender.

Avdotya was not the only woman, with which Turgenev happened love stories. He even made an attempt to marry the young Olga, the daughter of his cousin Alexander Turgenev. However, thoughts of Viardot did not give him rest, he constantly returned to her image, yearning and exhausted from love.

A love story happened to him and with Leo Tolstoy's sister, Maria Tolstoy, but she could not replace his writer Polina either. And in 1856 he returned to Paris. He lived his old life again, like a shadow at Viardot's feet, and was happy. She inspired him - by that time already a great writer - to new achievements: "Not a single line of Turgenev got into print before he introduced me to it. You Russians don't know how much you owe me that Turgenev continues to write and work!"

When Turgenev again came to Polina in Courtanvel, he spent several weeks with her. He wrote to his friends: "How happy I am!" And 9 months later, Madame Viardot had a son, whom she named Paul. Researchers are still arguing about who is the father of this boy, because at that time Polina had several more lovers who can easily be attributed paternity. Unfortunately, this remains a mystery.

Turgenev often came to Russia. In his homeland, he often had love stories, but every time, it was worth another novel gain momentum, Viardot called Turgenev to her.

CONTEMPORARY unanimously admitted that she was not at all beautiful. Rather, even the opposite. 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's how it was described at the time. famous singer Pauline Viardot. 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 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 moment of one of these transformations on stage opera house Polina Viardot was seen 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 young writer left a bitter residue. Young Katenka, the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya who lived next door, captivated the 18-year-old Turgenev with 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. Once 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 Sergei Nikolaevich 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 the 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 are not spoiled good attitude their husbands, swathed in work and poverty, gladly accepted signs of attention from an affectionate 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 happy 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, to live 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 with her children and forcefully smile at Louis Viardot.

As for his own daughter, Polina, who was born from the writer's relationship with the serf seamstress A.I. Ivanova, 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 her resentment towards 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 lives 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 that 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 one last try get 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, whom he dictated latest stories and letters. September 3, 1883 Turgenev died. According to the will, he wanted to be buried in Russia, and in last way Claudia Viardot, the daughter of Pauline Viardot, accompanies him 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.

Turgenev and Pauline Viardot.

The year 1843 remained forever memorable for Turgenev, not only because it was the first notable milestone on his literary path; This year left an indelible mark on his personal life.

In the autumn of 1843, an Italian opera came to St. Petersburg, in which the remarkably gifted twenty-year-old singer Polina Garcia Viardo performed.

Born into an artistic family, Polina Garcia began her career almost as a child. Already at the end of the thirties, she performed with great success in Brussels, in London, and as an eighteen-year-old girl she made her debut at the Paris opera stage as Desdomona in Verdi's Otello, and then as Cenerentola in Rossini's opera.

Russian audiences immediately appreciated the stormy passion and extraordinary artistic skill of Viardot, the range of her voice and the ease with which she freely moved from the high note of the soprano to the deep notes of the contralto that caressed the heart.

Hearing for the first time Polina Garcia in the role of Rosina, Turgenev was captivated by her talent and from that day on did not miss a single performance of the opera that arrived.

After some time, his friends and acquaintances told each other that Turgenev was without memory from Viardot's game. “He is now completely immersed in Italian opera and, like all enthusiasts, is very sweet and very funny,” Belinsky wrote to Tatyana Bakunina.

They said that, having learned about her son’s new hobby, Varvara Petrovna visited a concert where Viardot performed, and upon returning home, as if speaking to herself, not addressing anyone, she said: “I must admit, the damned gypsy sings well!”

Soon Turgenev had the opportunity to go hunting in the company of Pauline Garcia's husband, Louis Viardot, and then he was introduced to the singer herself. Subsequently, Viardot jokingly told that he was introduced to her as a young landowner, an excellent hunter, a good conversationalist and a mediocre poet.

November 1 - the day on which this acquaintance took place, forever remained unforgettable for him.

“I have not seen anything in the world better than you ... To meet you on my way was the greatest happiness of my life, my devotion and gratitude has no boundaries and will die only with me,” Turgenev wrote to Polina Viardot from St. Petersburg.

From adolescence to last days life Turgenev remained true to this feeling, sacrificing a lot to him ...

On April 30, 1845, Varvara Petrovna wrote from Moscow: “Ivan left here for five days with the Italians, he disposes to go abroad with them or for them.”

At the end of the tour in St. Petersburg and Moscow, the Italian opera began to prepare for its departure from Russia.

With the service in the department of the Ministry of the Interior, everything was over by this time. On May 10, a foreign passport was sent from the ministry to the Governor-General of St. Petersburg "for the retired collegiate secretary Ivan Turgenev, who is going to Germany and Holland to cure his illness."

Again Kronstadt, then a long-distance steamer, again wind and waves in the boundless expanse of the harsh Baltic Sea ...

Was it not because these regions attracted him then, that nearby, behind a ridge of mountains, lay the birthplace of Pauline Garcia?

Then he was in Paris and, apparently, received an invitation to stay at the estate of the Viardot spouses, located sixty kilometers southeast of Paris. The place called Kurtavnel, with its ancient castle, surrounded by moats, a canal, a park, groves, left an unforgettable impression in Turgenev's soul.

Upon his return from France, he was again in St. Petersburg, among Belinsky and his friends. Turgenev's literary reputation is being strengthened day by day.

Their relationship lasted 40 years - from 1843 to 1883. This is probably the longest love story ever.

But it would be more correct to say that this is the love story of only one person, Ivan Turgenev. For forty years the great Russian writer lived in the status eternal friend family, "on the edge of someone else's nest", side by side with her husband opera diva Pauline Viardot. He changed life at home and personal family happiness to the dispassionate friendship of his beloved, and even in old age he was ready “even as a janitor” to follow her to the ends of the world.

She is not at all beautiful, rather, on the contrary. She is 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. Ivan Turgenev was first introduced to Pauline Viardot on November 1, 1843 as "a Great Russian landowner, good shooter, a pleasant conversationalist and a bad poet. It cannot be said that such a recommendation contributed to his happiness: Polina herself later noted that she did not single out the future writer from the circle of new acquaintances and numerous admirers of her talent. But the young Turgenev, who was then barely 25, fell in love at first sight with the 22-year-old singer, who arrived in St. Petersburg with the Parisian Italian Opera. All of Europe at that time idolized her talent, and even Viardot's unattractive appearance did not interfere with her fame as a wonderful artist.

Contemporaries recalled how, with the beginning of the singing of the prima, a spark seemed to run through the hall, the audience fell into complete ecstasy and the appearance of the singer ceased to have at least some meaning. According to the composer Saint-Saens, Pauline Viardot had a bitter, like an orange, voice created for tragedies and elegiac poems. On the stage, she charmed with a passionate performance of operas, and on musical evenings captivated the audience with her beautiful piano playing - her apprenticeship with Liszt and Chopin was not in vain. "Sings well, damn gypsy!" - admitted not without jealousy, after hearing the speech of Polina, Turgenev's mother.

Turgenev girl

In an inconspicuous stooped woman with bulging eyes, there really was something gypsy: she adopted southern features from her father, Spanish singer Manuel Garcia. “She is desperately ugly, but if I saw her a second time, I would certainly fall in love,” said one Belgian artist about the singer to her future husband Louis Viardot. George Sand introduced Polina to an art historian, critic and director of the Parisian Italian Opera. The writer herself considered forty-year-old Louis dull, “like a nightcap,” but recommended him to her young friend as a suitor out of the best of intentions. Being completely fascinated by the singer, George Sand documented her in the main female image novel "Consuelo", dissuaded from marriage with the writer and poet Alfred de Musset and later turned a blind eye to the affair of the already married Polina with her son.

And temperament talented singer was not to occupy: in her youth, her first hobby was Franz Liszt, from whom Polina took piano lessons, later she was fond of the composer Charles Gounod, to whom Turgenev was very jealous of her. The rest of Madame Viardot's novels will remain unknown to history, but, judging by the paradoxical attractiveness of the prima donna, numerous. However, Polina Garcia married then for love, and for some time she was really carried away by her husband. However, everything passes - and soon Polina confessed to George Sand that she was tired of the ardent expressions of her husband's love.

Pauline Viardot Engraving

But what about our Turgenev? He became for Madame Viardot one of the many admirers, not without, however, a certain value. A rare man could amuse the artist with an amusing story, told so skillfully that inviting him to the dressing room seemed no longer so in vain. In addition, Turgenev eagerly undertook to teach Pauline Viardot the Russian language, which she needed for the flawless performance of the romances of Glinka, Dargomyzhsky and Tchaikovsky. This language was the sixth in the singer's arsenal and later helped her become the first listener of Turgenev's works. “Not a single line of Turgenev got into print before he introduced me to it. You Russians don’t know how much you owe me that Turgenev continues to write and work, ”Viardot once said.

In order to be useful to his beloved, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev - then still an unknown and poor landowner - went to France for Polina and her husband when the artist's tour of Russia ended. With Louie Viardot writer found mutual language against the backdrop of a passion for hunting and interest in the translations of Russian writers into French. He often visited the Courtavnel family estate near Paris, took part in home performances, gathering guests and artistic evenings. When Pauline Viardot went on tour, Turgenev followed her: “Ah, my feelings for you are too great and powerful,” Ivan writes in one of his many letters to his beloved. - I can not live away from you, I must feel your closeness, enjoy it. The day when your eyes did not shine for me is a lost day. Compatriots visiting Turgenev abroad were surprised at his condition: “I never thought that he was capable of loving so much,” Leo Tolstoy writes after a meeting with a friend in Paris.

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.

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 her resentment towards 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 lives 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 that 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.

The first time after the death of Turgenev, Viardot was so broken that she did not even leave the house. As the people around her recall, it was impossible to look at Viardot without pity. Having recovered a little, she constantly reduced all conversations to Turgenev, rarely mentioning also her recently deceased husband. Some time later, the artist A.P. Bogolyubov visited her and the singer said very important words to him for understanding her relationship with Turgenev: “... we understood each other too well to care about what they say about us, because our mutual position was recognized legitimate by those who knew and appreciated us. If the Russians value the name of Turgenev, then I can proudly say that the name Viardot compared with him does not detract from him in any way ... "

Viardot greatly outlived Turgenev, as he predicted in the poem “When I am gone ...” and she did not go to his grave, which was also predicted by the writer ...

Viardot's influence on literary destiny Turgenev is enormous (and it could not be otherwise): look, he had no other topic than love; all his themes are an inconspicuous single love song. But look further at the details: all of Turgenev's "loves" do not have an earthly crown, they do not pass into marriage. He sang "a piece of the opened pagan sky" as the acquisition of his biography.

According to Turgenev's personality and his great affection for Viardot, we must protect her name from any offense ... For the world, she can be judged; but precisely for those who read and love the work of Ivan Sergeevich - she should never be judged, even if someone were to say that it was for Russians that she was especially judged for her coldness and indifference to Turgenev. May his will be sacred: may her memory be calm, not wounded near his sacred grave.

Well, why didn't Turgenev fall in love with another? Which would save him, reassure him, make him happy? Fall asleep with love and reverence? Well, why is he this, another did not like?

That's the whole answer to why she his I couldn’t possibly love more than I loved so much ... for the interest of his mind, the charm of his talents, his education; for his noble work.

Rock. And on both sides.

Materials used:[

url]http://www.bibliotekar.ru/rus-Rozanov/73.htm