How many years Turgenev lived abroad. Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich - famous writer

The classic of Russian literature, a genius and a quiet revolutionary - Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev - significantly influenced the development of culture and thought in our country. It was taught by more than one generation of the youth of our country. Although few today know what influenced the formation of the writer's worldview, how he lived, worked, and also where Turgenev was born.

Early childhood

It is customary to begin the study of the work of any writer with a study of his childhood, first impressions, as well as the environment that in one way or another influenced him. Ignorant people, especially schoolchildren, confuse where Turgenev was born, in which city, calling his mother's estate his homeland. In fact, the Russian classic, although he spent most of his childhood there, was still born in the city of Orel.

Researchers of the work of the famous writer of the 19th century note that all the childhood impressions of the Russian classic were subsequently reflected in his works. The time and place where Turgenev was born became the determining factors in his attitude to the existing government.

Reflection of childhood memories in literature

Ivan Sergeevich came from an ancient noble family, his father - refined, noble, a favorite of women and society - contrasted sharply with the imperious and despotic mother Varvara Petrovna, nee Lutovinova. Later, all the memories of where Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born, grew up and brought up will be included in some of the plots of his works. And the images of the mother and grandmother will become the prototypes of imperious and heartless landowners from the series "Notes of a Hunter".

The area where Turgenev was born was rich in true Russian traditions and ancient customs. Ivan Sergeevich listened with pleasure to the stories of his mother's serfs, imbued with their dreams and suffering. It was here, in the family estate, that the writer understood what slavery was, and fiercely hated this phenomenon. Childhood impressions formed the uncompromising position of the writer, all his life he stood for the freedom of every person, regardless of his origin.

The most striking image of Turgenev's creativity is a fading old estate, which personified the decline of the nobility, the grinding of the souls and deeds of the intelligentsia. All these thoughts were inspired by the atmosphere of the family nest.

Manor Spasskoe-Lutovinovo

When the question arises of where Turgenev was born, everyone immediately recalls a picture from a school textbook. the rays of the setting sun penetrating the foliage and an old house with white columns. Not everyone will remember the name of the estate where Turgenev was born, but meanwhile the local environment greatly influenced the writer's work, we can say that Russian literary classics were born here.

Here, in forced exile, the novels "The Inn" and the unpublished work "Two Generations", the essay "On Nightingales", as well as the famous novel about the failed revolutionary "Rudin" were written. Silence and natural splendor reigned here, all this disposed to creativity and self-criticism. It is not surprising that the classic always returned here after long travels around Europe.

Turgenev was not only in words an opponent of slavery, after he gave freedom to his serfs (many of whom remained in the service already as free people), the writer organized a school for children and a kind of nursing home on the estate. Until the end of his life, Ivan Sergeevich adhered to European traditions of respect for the freedoms of every person.

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After the death of his mother, the writer ceded most of his inheritance to his brother Nikolai, but left for himself the only place where he was happy - the family estate of Spasskoye-Lutovinovo. It was here that Nicholas I exiled him in the hope of bringing the obstinate writer to reason. But the punishment failed, Ivan Sergeevich released all his serfs and continued to write books objectionable to the court.

Where he was born and where he was imprisoned by decree of the emperor, other geniuses of Russian literature often came. To support a comrade, Nikolai Nekrasov, Afanasy Fet and Leo Tolstoy visited Spasskoe-Lutovinovo at different times. After each trip abroad, Turgenev returns exactly here, to the family estate. Here he writes The Nest of Nobles, Fathers and Sons and On the Eve, and no serious philological study of these works is possible without correlating the events of the novels with the history of the Spasskoye-Lutovinovo estate.

Turgenev Museum

Today in Russia there are many abandoned and destroyed noble estates. Many of them were destroyed during the Civil War, some were nationalized or demolished, and some simply collapsed due to time and lack of repair.

The history of the estate where Ivan Turgenev was born is also quite tragic. The house burned several times, property was confiscated, and the famous alleys were overgrown with dense grass. But thanks to connoisseurs of Russian classical literature, back in Soviet times, the estate was restored according to the remaining drawings and drawings. Gradually, the backyard plot was also put in order, and today the museum named after Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, the world classic and famous genius of Russian literature, is open here.

Among the famous writers of Russia of the 19th century, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev stands out, who is not only a writer. He has dramatic, journalistic works and poetry. Critics recognized the writer as one of the best figures of the century, so his biography should be briefly studied.

The writer's life began in the city of Orel. This event took place on October 28, 1818. Parents were among the nobles. The place of residence of the family was the Spasskoe-Lutovinovo estate. Initially, the future literary figure studied at home with tutors of German and French origin.

When the family moved to Moscow in 1827, he was educated in private schools. Then there was admission to Moscow University, but after a while the figure transferred to St. Petersburg, where he began to study philosophy.

Ivan had the opportunity to study abroad, at the University of Berlin, which he took advantage of.

Important! The writer's relationship with his mother was not easy. Varvara Petrovna was an educated person, she loved literature and philosophy, especially foreign ones, but she was distinguished by a despotic character.

Studying at the University

Beginnings in literature

One of the most important aspects of Turgenev's biography is the beginning of his creative path. His interest in literary activity arose in his institute time, in 1834. Ivan Sergeevich set to work on the poem "Steno". The first publication is dated 1836 - it was a review of the work of A.N. Muravyov "About the Journey to the Holy Places".

In 1837, at least one hundred poems and several poems were created:

• "The Old Man's Tale"
• "Dream",
• "Calm on the sea"
• "Phantasmagoria on a moonlit night."

In 1838, the poems "Evening", "To the Venus of Medicius" were published. At the initial stage, poetry had a romantic character. In the future, the author switched to realism. It is also very important that I.S. Turgenev was busy with scientific work for some time. In 1841 he wrote a dissertation in philology and received a master's degree. But then he moved to work in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In the biography of I.S. Turgenev, it is mentioned that Belinsky strongly influenced his work. It is after meeting the critic that the author writes new poems, stories and poems. The works "Three portraits", "Pop", "Breter" are accepted for printing.

Creative upsurge

The period of active creativity began in 1847, when the author was invited to the Sovremennik magazine. There were printed Modern Notes and the beginning of the Hunter's Notes. These works were successful, so the writer continued to work on hunting stories. Then Turgenev, along with Belinsky, ends up in France, where the February revolution takes place.

In a brief biography of Turgenev, which is studied by schoolchildren in the 10th grade, it is indicated that in the late 40s and early 50s the figure wrote dramatic works. Then the plays “Bachelor”, “Freeloader”, “Provincial”, “A Month in the Village” were created. Many of the works are staged on the stage.

A very important feature of Turgenev's biography is a link to the family estate for 2 years for an obituary written after Gogol's death. According to another version, the literary figure was exiled because of his radical views and negative attitude towards serfdom. Being in the village, the author creates a story

After returning, the novels “On the Eve”, “Rudin”, as well as “The Noble Nest”, published in the Sovremennik magazine, were written.

I.S. Turgenev "Rudin"

Notable works also include:

• "Spring Waters"
• "Smoke",
• "Asya"
• "Fathers and Sons",

The move to Germany took place in 1863. Here the writer communicates with the literary figures of Western Europe and disseminates information about Russian literature. He is mainly engaged in editing and translating Russian-language works into other languages ​​- French and German. Thanks to Turgenev, readers abroad learned about the works of Russian authors. A short biography of Turgenev for children notes the rise in popularity of the author during this period. The literary figure is considered one of the best writers of the century.

Leaving poetry almost at the very beginning of his literary activity, Turgenev returned to it shortly before his death. At this time, he created a cycle of "Poems in Prose". And "Literary and everyday memories" are written in the genre of memoirs. The author seems to have a premonition of his imminent death and sums up the results in the works.

Useful video: briefly about the work of Turgenev

The main themes of the works

Considering the life and work of Turgenev, it is necessary to characterize the themes of his works. In the works, much attention is paid to descriptions of nature and psychological analysis. They reveal the images of representatives of the nobility, which the author considers to be dying. The heroes of the new century are considered supporters of democracy and raznochintsy. Thanks to the works of the writer, the concept of "Turgenev's girls" came into literature. Another topic is the peculiarities of the life of Russian people abroad.

The most important thing is the writer's convictions. He had a negative attitude towards serfdom and sympathized with the peasants. Because of his hatred for the way of life in Russia, the literary figure preferred to live abroad. But at the same time he was not a supporter of revolutionary methods of solving the problem.

A short biography for children tells about the serious state of health of the author in the last few years of his life. Ivan Sergeevich suffers from gout, neuralgia and angina pectoris. Death came on August 22, 1883. The cause was sarcoma. He lived then in the Parisian suburbs. He was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Turgenev had a difficult personal life. In his youth, he unsuccessfully became interested in the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya. His father was in love with the same girl, to whom Catherine reciprocated.

During his life in exile, he had a relationship with Avdotya Ermolaevna Ivanova (Dunyash's seamstress). Despite the girl's pregnancy, the writer never married because of the scandal arranged by his mother. Avdotya gave birth to a daughter, Pelageya. The girl was officially recognized as a father only in 1857.

After returning to Moscow, the writer developed friendly relations with Tatyana Bakunina. The girl had a serious feeling for him, which Ivan Sergeevich highly appreciated, but could not reciprocate.

In 1843, an acquaintance with the singer Pauline Viardot took place. She was married, but this did not prevent the writer from getting carried away seriously. Features of their relationship are unknown, but there is an assumption that for some time they lived as spouses (when her husband was paralyzed after a stroke).

The writer's daughter Pelageya was brought up in the Viardot family. Her father decided to change her name, calling her Polina or Polinet. The girl's relationship with Polina Viardot was not successful, so very soon she was sent to study at a private boarding school.

Maria Savina became his last love. The literary figure was almost 40 years older, but did not hide his feelings for the young actress. Maria treated the writer as a friend. She was supposed to marry someone else, but it didn't work out. Marriage with Ivan Sergeevich did not take place due to his death.

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. This is how the famous singer Pauline Viardot was described in those days. Indeed, Viardot's appearance was far from ideal. She was stooped, with bulging eyes, large, almost masculine features, and a huge mouth.

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

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

Village passions

From the very beginning, Turgenev's PERSONAL life was somehow uneven. The first love of the young writer left a bitter aftertaste. Young Katenka, the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya who lived next door, captivated the 18-year-old Turgenev with 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, not spoiled by the good attitude of their husbands, who were swamped with work and poverty, gladly accepted signs of attention from the gentle master, it was easy for them to bring joy, to light a warm light in their eyes, and with them Turgenev felt that his tenderness was finally appreciated. One of the serfs, the burning beauty Avdotya Ivanova, gave birth to the writer's daughter.
Perhaps the connection with the master could play the role of a lucky lottery ticket in the life of the illiterate Avdotya - Turgenev settled his daughter on his estate, planned to give her a good upbringing and, what the hell is not joking, live a happy life with her mother. But fate decreed otherwise.

Love without an answer

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

Turgenev's mother was cruelly jealous of her son for the "singer", and therefore the journey through Europe (which soon came down to visiting the cities where Viardot toured) had to be continued under tight financial circumstances. But how can such trifles as the dissatisfaction of relatives and lack of money stop the feeling that has fallen on Turgenev! The Viardot family becomes a particle of his life, he is attached to Pauline, he is connected with Louis Viardot by something like friendship, and their daughter has become native to the writer. In those years, Turgenev practically lived in the Viardot family, the writer either rented houses in the neighborhood, or stayed for a long time in the house of his beloved. Louis Viardot did not interfere with his wife's meetings with a new admirer. On the one hand, he considered Polina a reasonable woman and completely relied on her common sense, and on the other hand, friendship with Turgenev promised quite material benefits: contrary to the will of his mother, Ivan Sergeevich spent a lot of money on the Viardot family. At the same time, Turgenev was well aware of his ambiguous position in the Viardot house, he more than once had to catch the sidelong glances of his Parisian acquaintances, who shrugged their shoulders in bewilderment when Polina, introducing Ivan Sergeevich to them, said: “And this is our Russian friend, please meet me” . Turgenev felt that he, a hereditary Russian nobleman, was gradually turning into a lap dog, who began to wag his tail and squeal joyfully, as soon as the mistress threw a favorable look at her or scratched behind her ear, but he could not do anything with his unhealthy feeling. Without Polina, Ivan Sergeevich felt really sick and broken: “I cannot live away from you, I must feel your closeness, enjoy it. The day when your eyes didn’t shine for me is a lost day, ”he wrote to Polina and, without demanding anything in return, continued to help her financially, mess with her children and forcefully smile at Louis Viardot.
As for his own daughter, her life in her grandmother's estate is not at all cloudless. The imperious landowner treats her granddaughter like a serf. As a result, Turgenev offers Polina to take the girl to be brought up in the Viardot family. At the same time, either wanting to please the woman he loves, or seized with a love fever, Turgenev changes the name of his own daughter, and from Pelageya the girl turns into Polinet (of course, in honor of the adored Polina). Of course, the consent of Pauline Viardot to raise Turgenev's daughter further strengthened the feeling of the writer. Now Viardot has become for him also an angel of mercy, who snatched his child from the hands of a cruel grandmother. True, Pelageya-Polinet did not at all share her father's affection for Pauline Viardot. Having lived in Viardot's house until she came of age, Polinet retained 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 lived on his estate practically under house arrest. The authorities did not like the obituary he wrote after Gogol's death - in it the secret office saw a threat to imperial power.
Upon learning that in March 1853 Pauline Viardot was coming to Russia with concerts, Turgenev lost his head. He manages to get a fake passport, with which the writer, disguised as a tradesman, goes to Moscow to meet his beloved woman. The risk was huge, but, unfortunately, unjustified. Several years of separation cooled Polina's feelings. But Turgenev is ready to be content with simple friendship, if only from time to time to see how Viardot turns his thin neck and looks at him with his mysterious black eyes.

In someone else's arms

SOME time later, Turgenev nevertheless made several attempts to improve his personal life. In the spring of 1854, the writer met with the daughter of one of Ivan Sergeevich's cousins, Olga. The 18-year-old girl captivated the writer so much that he even thought about getting married. But the longer their romance lasted, the more often the writer remembered Pauline Viardot. The freshness of the young Olga's face and her trustingly affectionate glances from under lowered eyelashes still could not replace 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. According to the will, he wanted to be buried in Russia, and Claudia Viardot, the daughter of Pauline Viardot, accompanies him on his last journey to his homeland. Turgenev was buried not in his beloved Moscow and not in his estate in Spassky, but in St. Petersburg - a city in which he was only passing through, in the necropolis of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Perhaps this happened due to the fact that, in fact, almost strangers to the writer were engaged in the funeral.

Turgenev, Ivan Sergeevich, a famous writer, was born on December 28, 1818 in Orel, into a wealthy landowner family that belonged to an ancient noble family. [Cm. See also the article Turgenev, life and work.] Turgenev's father, Sergei Nikolaevich, married Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova, who had neither youth nor beauty, but inherited huge property - solely by calculation. Soon after the birth of his second son, the future novelist, S. N. Turgenev, with the rank of colonel, left the military service, in which he had been until then, and moved with his family to his wife's estate, Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, near the city of Mtsensk, Oryol province . Here the new landowner quickly unfolded the violent nature of an unbridled and depraved tyrant, who was a thunderstorm not only for the serfs, but also for members of his own family. Turgenev’s mother, even before her marriage, experienced a lot of grief in the house of her stepfather, who pursued her with vile offers, and then in the house of her uncle, to whom she fled, was forced to silently endure the wild antics of her despot husband and, tormented by the pangs of jealousy, did not dare to reproach loudly him in unworthy behavior that offended in her the feelings of a woman and wife. Hidden resentment and irritation accumulated over the years embittered and hardened her; this was fully revealed when, after the death of her husband (1834), having become the sovereign mistress of her possessions, she gave vent to her evil instincts of unrestrained landlord tyranny.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. Portrait by Repin

In this suffocating atmosphere, saturated with all the miasma of serfdom, the first years of Turgenev's childhood passed. According to the custom prevailing in the life of the landowners of that time, the future famous novelist was brought up under the guidance of tutors and teachers - Swiss, Germans and serf uncles and nannies. The main attention was paid to the French and German languages, assimilated by Turgenev in childhood; the native language was in the pen. According to the testimony of the author of The Hunter's Notes, the first person who interested him in Russian literature was his mother's serf valet, secretly, but with extraordinary solemnity, reading to him somewhere in the garden or in a remote room Kheraskov's Rossiad.

In early 1827, the Turgenevs moved to Moscow to raise their children. Turgenev was placed in the private pension of Weidenhammer, then was soon transferred from there to the director of the Lazarev Institute, with whom he lived as a boarder. In 1833, having only 15 years of age, Turgenev entered Moscow University in the Faculty of Languages, but a year later, with the family moving to St. Petersburg, he moved to St. Petersburg University. Having completed the course in 1836 with the title of a full student and having passed the exam for the degree of a candidate the following year, Turgenev, with the low level of Russian university science at that time, could not but be aware of the complete insufficiency of the university education he had received and therefore went to complete his studies abroad. To this end, in 1838 he went to Berlin, where for two years he studied ancient languages, history and philosophy, mainly the Hegelian system under the guidance of Professor Werder. In Berlin, Turgenev became close friends with Stankevich, Granovsky, Frolov, Bakunin, who together with him listened to the lectures of Berlin professors.

However, not only scientific interests prompted him to go abroad. Possessing by nature a sensitive and receptive soul, which he saved among the groans of the unanswered "subjects" of the landowners-masters, among the "beatings and tortures" of the serf situation, which inspired him from the very first days of his conscious life with invincible horror and deep disgust, Turgenev felt a strong need for at least temporarily flee from their native Palestine. As he himself wrote later in his memoirs, he had to “either submit and humbly wander along the common rut, along the beaten path, or turn away at once, recoil from himself“ everyone and everything ”, even at the risk of losing much that was dear and close to my heart. I did just that ... I threw myself headlong into the "German sea", which was supposed to cleanse and revive me, and when I finally emerged from its waves, I nevertheless found myself a "Westerner" and remained so forever.

The beginning of Turgenev's literary activity dates back to the time preceding his first trip abroad. While still a 3rd year student, he gave Pletnev one of the first fruits of his inexperienced muse, a fantastic drama in verse, “Stenio”, - this is completely ridiculous, according to the author himself, a work in which, with childish ineptness, a slavish imitation of Byron’s was expressed “ Manfred." Although Pletnev scolded the young author, he nevertheless noticed that there was “something” in him. These words prompted Turgenev to take him a few more poems, of which two were published a year later in " Contemporary". Upon returning in 1841 from abroad, Turgenev went to Moscow with the intention of taking the exam for a master of philosophy; this turned out to be impossible, however, due to the abolition of the department of philosophy at Moscow University. In Moscow, he met the luminaries of the emerging Slavophilism at that time - Aksakov, Kireevsky, Khomyakov; but the convinced "Westernizer" Turgenev reacted negatively to the new current of Russian social thought. On the contrary, with Belinsky, Herzen, Granovsky, and others hostile to the Slavophiles, he became very close.

In 1842, Turgenev left for St. Petersburg, where, as a result of a quarrel with his mother, who severely limited his means, he was forced to follow the "common track" and enter the office of the Minister of the Interior Perovsky. "Listed" in this service for a little over two years, Turgenev was not so much engaged in official affairs as reading French novels and writing poetry. Around the same time, starting from 1841, in " Domestic Notes” His small poems began to appear, and in 1843 the poem “Parasha” signed by T. L. was published, very sympathetically received by Belinsky, with whom he soon met after that and remained in close friendly relations until the end of his days. The young writer made a very strong impression on Belinsky. “This is a man,” he wrote to his friends, “unusually intelligent; conversations and disputes with him took away my soul. Turgenev later recalled these disputes with love. Belinsky had a considerable influence on the further direction of his literary activity. (See Turgenev's early work.)

Soon Turgenev became close to the circle of writers who were grouped around Fatherland Notes and attracted him to participate in this journal, and took an outstanding place among them as a person with a broad philosophical education, familiar with Western European science and literature from primary sources. After Parasha, Turgenev wrote two more poems in verse: Conversation (1845) and Andrei (1845). His first prose work was the one-act dramatic essay "Carelessness" ("Notes of the Fatherland", 1843), followed by the story "Andrey Kolosov" (1844), the humorous poem "The Landowner" and the stories "Three Portraits" and "Breter" (1846) . These first literary experiences did not satisfy Turgenev, and he was already ready to quit his literary career, when Panaev, embarking on the publication of Sovremennik together with Nekrasov, asked him to send something for the first book of the updated magazine. Turgenev sent a short story "Khor and Kalinich", which was placed by Panaev in the modest department of "mixture" under the heading "From the notes of a hunter" invented by him, which created unfading glory for our famous writer.

This story, which immediately aroused everyone's attention, begins a new period of Turgenev's literary activity. He completely abandons the writing of poetry and turns exclusively to the story and the story, primarily from the life of the serf peasantry, imbued with a humane feeling and compassion for the enslaved masses of the people. The Hunter's Notes soon became a big name; their rapid success forced the author to abandon his previous decision to part with literature, but could not reconcile him with the difficult conditions of Russian life. An increasingly aggravated sense of dissatisfaction with them finally led him to the decision to finally settle abroad (1847). “I saw no other way before me,” he later wrote, recalling the internal crisis that he was going through at that time. “I could not breathe the same air, stay close to what I hated; for this, I probably lacked reliable endurance, firmness of character. I needed to move away from my enemy in order to attack him more strongly from my distance. In my eyes, this enemy had a certain image, bore a well-known name: this enemy was serfdom. Under this name, I collected and concentrated everything against which I decided to fight to the end - with which I swore never to reconcile ... This was my Annibal oath ... I went to the West in order to better fulfill it. Personal motives joined this main motive - hostile relations with his mother, who was dissatisfied with the fact that her son chose a literary career, and Ivan Sergeevich's attachment to the famous singer Viardo-Garcia and her family, with whom he lived almost inseparably for 38 years, a bachelor all his life.

Ivan Turgenev and Pauline Viardot. More than love

In 1850, in the year of his mother's death, Turgenev returned to Russia to arrange his affairs. All the yard peasants of the family estate, which he inherited with his brother, he set free; he transferred those who wished to quitrent and in every possible way contributed to the success of the general liberation. In 1861, at the time of redemption, he conceded a fifth part everywhere, and in the main estate he did not take anything for the estate land, which was a rather large amount. In 1852, Turgenev issued a separate edition of the Hunter's Notes, which finally strengthened his fame. But in official spheres, where serfdom was considered an inviolable foundation of social order, the author of The Hunter's Notes, who, moreover, had lived abroad for a long time, was in very bad shape. An insignificant occasion was enough for the official disgrace against the author to take concrete form. This occasion was Turgenev's letter, caused by Gogol's death in 1852 and placed in Moskovskie Vedomosti. For this letter, the author was imprisoned for a month on a “moving house”, where, among other things, he wrote the story “Mumu”, and then, by administrative procedure, was sent to live in his village of Spasskoye, “without the right to leave.” Turgenev was released from this exile only in 1854 through the efforts of the poet Count A. K. Tolstoy, who interceded for him before the heir to the throne. The forced stay in the village, according to Turgenev himself, gave him the opportunity to get acquainted with those aspects of peasant life that had previously eluded his attention. There he wrote the novels "Two Friends", "Calm", the beginning of the comedy "A Month in the Country" and two critical articles. Since 1855, he again connected with his foreign friends, with whom he was separated by exile. From that time on, the most famous fruits of his artistic creativity began to appear - Rudin (1856), Asya (1858), Noble Nest (1859), On the Eve and First Love (1860). [Cm. Turgenev's novels and heroes, Turgenev - lyrics in prose.]

Retiring again abroad, Turgenev listened attentively to everything that was happening in his homeland. At the first rays of the dawn of the renaissance that was taking over Russia, Turgenev felt in himself a new surge of energy, which he wanted to give a new application. He wanted to add to his mission as a sensitive contemporary artist the role of a publicist-citizen, at one of the most important moments in the socio-political development of his homeland. During this period of preparing reforms (1857 - 1858), Turgenev was in Rome, where many Russians then lived, including Prince. V. A. Cherkassky, V. N. Botkin, gr. Ya. I. Rostovtsev. These persons arranged meetings among themselves, at which the question of the emancipation of the peasants was discussed, and the result of these meetings was a project for founding a journal, the program of which was entrusted to develop Turgenev. In his explanatory note to the program, Turgenev proposed calling on all the living forces of society to assist the government in the ongoing liberation reform. The author of the note recognized Russian science and literature as such forces. The projected magazine was supposed to devote "exclusively and specifically to the development of all issues related to the actual arrangement of peasant life and the consequences arising from them." This attempt, however, was recognized as "premature" and did not receive practical implementation.

In 1862, the novel Fathers and Sons appeared (see its full text, summary and analysis), which had an unprecedented success in the literary world, but also brought the author many difficult minutes. A whole hail of harsh reproaches rained down on him both from the conservatives, who accused him (pointing to the image of Bazarov) of sympathizing with the "nihilists", in "somersaulting in front of the youth", and from the latter, who accused Turgenev of slandering the younger generation and of treason " the cause of freedom." By the way, "Fathers and Sons" led Turgenev to break with Herzen, who offended him with a sharp review of this novel. All these troubles had such a hard effect on Turgenev that he seriously considered abandoning further literary activity. The lyrical story "Enough", written by him shortly after the troubles experienced, serves as a literary monument of the gloomy mood in which the author was seized at that time.

Fathers and Sons. Feature film based on the novel by I. S. Turgenev. 1958

But the artist's need for creativity was too great for him to dwell on his decision for a long time. In 1867, the novel "Smoke" appeared, which also brought accusations against the author of backwardness and misunderstanding of Russian life. Turgenev reacted much more calmly to the new attacks. "Smoke" was his last work, which appeared on the pages of "Russian Messenger". Since 1868, it has been published exclusively in the journal Vestnik Evropy, which was then born. At the beginning of the Franco-Prussian war, Turgenev moved from Baden-Baden to Paris with Viardot and lived in the house of his friends in the winter, and moved to his dacha in Bougival (near Paris) in the summer. In Paris, he became close friends with the most prominent representatives of French literature, was on friendly terms with Flaubert, Daudet, Ogier, Goncourt, patronized Zola and Maupassant. As before, he continued to write a story or story every year, and in 1877 Turgenev's largest novel, Nov, appeared. Like almost everything that came out of the novelist's pen, his new work - and this time, perhaps with more reason than ever - aroused a lot of the most diverse interpretations. The attacks resumed with such ferocity that Turgenev returned to his old idea of ​​ending his literary activity. And, indeed, for 3 years he did not write anything. But during this time, events occurred that completely reconciled the writer with the public.

In 1879 Turgenev came to Russia. His arrival gave rise to a whole series of warm applause addressed to him, in which the youth took a particularly active part. They testified to how strong the sympathies of the Russian intelligentsia society were for the novelist. On his next visit in 1880, these ovations, but on an even grander scale, were repeated in Moscow during the "Pushkin days". Since 1881, alarming news about Turgenev's illness began to appear in the newspapers. The gout, from which he had long suffered, grew worse and at times caused him severe suffering; for almost two years, at short intervals, she kept the writer chained to a bed or an armchair, and on August 22, 1883, she put an end to his life. Two days after his death, Turgenev's body was transported from Bougival to Paris, and on September 19 it was sent to St. Petersburg. The transfer of the ashes of the famous novelist to the Volkovo cemetery was accompanied by a grandiose procession, unprecedented in the annals of Russian literature.

He was born on October 28 (November 9, n.s.), 1818 in Orel in a noble family. Father, Sergei Nikolaevich, a retired hussar officer, came from an old noble family; mother, Varvara Petrovna, is from a wealthy landowning family of the Lutovinovs. Turgenev's childhood passed in the family estate of Spasskoe-Lutovinovo. He grew up in the care of "tutors and teachers, Swiss and Germans, homegrown uncles and serf nannies."

In 1827 the family moved to Moscow; At first, Turgenev studied in private boarding schools and with good home teachers, then, in 1833, he entered the verbal department of Moscow University, and in 1834 he transferred to the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University. One of the strongest impressions of early youth (1833), falling in love with Princess E. L. Shakhovskaya, who at that time was having an affair with Turgenev's father, was reflected in the story First Love (1860).

In his student years, Turgenev began to write. His first attempts at poetry were translations, short poems, lyric poems, and the drama The Wall (1834), written in the then fashionable romantic spirit. Among Turgenev's university professors, Pletnev stood out, one of Pushkin's close friends, "a mentor of the old age ... not a scientist, but wise in his own way." Having become acquainted with the first works of Turgenev, Pletnev explained to the young student their immaturity, but singled out and printed 2 of the most successful poems, encouraging the student to continue studying literature.
November 1837 - Turgenev officially graduates and receives a diploma from the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg University for the title of candidate.

In 1838-1840. Turgenev continued his education abroad (at the University of Berlin he studied philosophy, history and ancient languages). During his free time from lectures, Turgenev traveled. For more than two years of his stay abroad, Turgenev was able to travel all over Germany, visit France, Holland and even live in Italy. The catastrophe of the steamer "Nikolai I", on which Turgenev sailed, will be described by him in the essay "Fire at Sea" (1883; in French).

In 1841 Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev returned to his homeland and began to prepare for the master's exams. Just at this time, Turgenev met such great people as Gogol and Asakov. Even in Berlin, having met Bakunin, in Russia he visits their Premukhino estate, converges with this family: soon an affair with T. A. Bakunina begins, which does not interfere with communication with the seamstress A. E. Ivanova (in 1842 she will give birth to Turgenev's daughter Pelageya) .

In 1842, he successfully passed the master's exams, hoping to get a professorship at Moscow University, but since philosophy was taken under suspicion by the Nikolaev government, the departments of philosophy were abolished at Russian universities, and it was not possible to become a professor.

But in Turgenev the fever for professional scholarship had already caught cold; he is more and more attracted to literary activity. He publishes small poems in Otechestvennye Zapiski, and in the spring of 1843 he publishes a separate book, under the letters of T. L. (Turgenev-Lutovinov), the poem Parasha.

In 1843 he entered the service of an official in the "special office" of the Minister of the Interior, where he served for two years. In May 1845 I.S. Turgenev retires. By this time, the writer's mother, irritated by his inability to serve and incomprehensible personal life, finally deprives Turgenev of material support, the writer lives in debt and starving, while maintaining the appearance of well-being.

The influence of Belinsky largely determined the formation of Turgenev's social and creative position, Belinsky helped him embark on the path of realism. But this path is difficult at first. The young Turgenev tries himself in a variety of genres: lyrical poems alternate with critical articles, after Parasha, the verse poems Conversation (1844), Andrey (1845) appear. From romanticism, Turgenev turned to the ironic moral descriptive poems "The Landowner" and the prose "Andrey Kolosov" in 1844, "Three Portraits" in 1846, "Breter" in 1847.

1847 - Turgenev brought his story "Khor and Kalinich" to Nekrasov in Sovremennik, to which Nekrasov made a subtitle "From the notes of a hunter." This story began the literary activity of Turgenev. In the same year, Turgenev takes Belinsky to Germany for treatment. Belinsky dies in Germany in 1848.

In 1847, Turgenev went abroad for a long time: love for the famous French singer Pauline Viardot, whom he met in 1843 during her tour in St. Petersburg, took him away from Russia. He lived for three years in Germany, then in Paris and on the estate of the Viardot family. Turgenev lived in close contact with Viardo's family for 38 years.

I.S. Turgenev wrote several plays: "The Freeloader" in 1848, "The Bachelor" in 1849, "A Month in the Country" in 1850, "The Provincial Girl" in 1850.

In 1850 the writer returned to Russia and worked as an author and critic in Sovremennik. In 1852, the essays were published as a separate book called Notes of a Hunter. Impressed by Gogol's death in 1852, Turgenev published an obituary banned by the censors. For this he was arrested for a month, and then exiled to his estate without the right to travel outside the Oryol province. In 1853, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was allowed to come to St. Petersburg, but the right to travel abroad was returned only in 1856.

During his arrest and exile, he created the stories "Mumu" in 1852 and "Inn" in 1852 on a "peasant" theme. However, he was increasingly occupied with the life of the Russian intelligentsia, to whom the novels "The Diary of a Superfluous Man" in 1850, "Yakov Pasynkov" in 1855, and "Correspondence" in 1856 are dedicated.

In 1856, Turgenev received permission to travel abroad, and went to Europe, where he lived for almost two years. In 1858 Turgenev returned to Russia. They argue about his stories, literary critics give opposite assessments of Turgenev's works. After his return, Ivan Sergeevich publishes the story "Asya", around which the controversy of well-known critics unfolds. In the same year, the novel "The Nest of Nobles" was published, and in 1860 the novel "On the Eve" was published.

After "The Eve" and the article by N. A. Dobrolyubov devoted to the novel "When will the real day come?" (1860) there is a break between Turgenev and the radicalized Sovremennik (in particular, with N. A. Nekrasov; their mutual hostility persisted to the end).

In the summer of 1861 there was a quarrel with L. N. Tolstoy, which almost turned into a duel (reconciliation in 1878).

In February 1862, Turgenev published the novel "Fathers and Sons", where he tries to show the Russian society the tragic nature of the growing conflicts. The stupidity and helplessness of all classes in the face of a social crisis threatens to develop into confusion and chaos.

Since 1863, the writer settled with the Viardot family in Baden-Baden. Then he began to cooperate with the liberal-bourgeois Vestnik Evropy, in which all his subsequent major works were published.

In the 60s he published a short story "Ghosts" (1864) and an etude "Enough" (1865), where sad thoughts sounded about the ephemeral nature of all human values. For almost 20 years he lived in Paris and Baden-Baden, being interested in everything that happened in Russia.

1863 - 1871 - Turgenev and Viardot live in Baden, after the end of the Franco-Prussian war they move to Paris. At this time, Turgenev converges with G. Flaubert, the Goncourt brothers, A. Daudet, E. Zola, G. de Maupassant. Gradually, Ivan Sergeevich takes on the function of an intermediary between Russian and Western European literature.

The public upsurge of the 1870s in Russia, associated with the attempts of the populists to find a revolutionary way out of the crisis, the writer met with interest, became close to the leaders of the movement, and provided material assistance in the publication of the collection Vperyod. His long-standing interest in the folk theme was awakened again, he returned to the "Notes of a Hunter", supplementing them with new essays, wrote the novels "Punin and Baburin" (1874), "Hours" (1875), etc. As a result of living abroad, the largest volume from Turgenev's novels - "Nov" (1877).

Turgenev's worldwide recognition was expressed in the fact that he, along with Victor Hugo, was elected co-chairman of the First International Congress of Writers, which took place in 1878 in Paris. In 1879 he received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. On the slope of his life, Turgenev wrote his famous "poems in prose", in which almost all the motives of his work are presented.

In 1883 On August 22, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev died. This sad event happened in Bougival. Thanks to the will, Turgenev's body was transported and buried in Russia, in St. Petersburg.