Very short biography (in a nutshell)

Born November 9, 1818 in Orel. Father - Sergei Nikolayevich Turgenev (1793-1834), military man. Mother - Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova (1787-1850), a noblewoman. In 1836 he graduated from the philosophical faculty of St. Petersburg University. From 1836 to 1839 he lived and studied in Germany. In 1852 he was exiled to his village for two years. He moved to Germany in 1863. In 1879 he received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. Was not married. Had an illegitimate daughter. Was fond of hunting. He died on September 3, 1883 at the age of 64 in Paris. He was buried at the Volkovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg. Main works: “Fathers and Sons”, “Mumu”, “Noble Nest”, “Rudin”, “Asya”, “On the Eve” and others.

Brief biography (detailed)

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a 19th-century Russian realist writer, poet, translator and corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Turgenev was born on October 28 (November 9), 1818 in the city of Oryol in a noble family. The writer's father was a retired officer, and his mother was a hereditary noblewoman. Turgenev's childhood passed in the family estate, where he had personal teachers, tutors, serf nannies. In 1827, the Turgenev family moved to Moscow in order to give their children a decent education. There he studied at a boarding school, then studied with private teachers. The writer has been fluent in several foreign languages ​​since childhood, including English, French and German.

In 1833, Ivan entered Moscow University, and a year later he transferred to St. Petersburg to the verbal department. In 1838 he went to Berlin for lectures in classical philology. There he met Bakunin and Stankevich, meetings with whom were of great importance for the writer. For two years spent abroad, he managed to visit France, Italy, Germany and Holland. The return home took place in 1841. At the same time, he began to actively attend literary circles, where he met Gogol, Herzen, Aksakov, etc.

In 1843, Turgenev joined the office of the Minister of the Interior. In the same year, he met Belinsky, who had a considerable influence on the formation of the literary and social views of the young writer. In 1846, Turgenev wrote several works: Breter, Three Portraits, Freeloader, Provincial Woman, etc. In 1852, one of the writer's best stories, Mumu, appeared. The story was written while serving a link in Spassky-Lutovinovo. In 1852, Notes of a Hunter appeared, and after the death of Nicholas I, 4 major works by Turgenev were published: On the Eve, Rudin, Fathers and Sons, and Noble Nest.

Turgenev gravitated toward the circle of Western writers. In 1863, together with the Viardot family, he left for Baden-Baden, where he actively participated in cultural life and made acquaintances with the best writers of Western Europe. Among them were Dickens, George Sand, Prosper Merimee, Thackeray, Victor Hugo and many others. Soon he became the editor of foreign translators of Russian writers. In 1878 he was appointed vice-president at an international congress on literature held in Paris. The following year, Turgenev was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. Living abroad, he was also drawn to his homeland with his soul, which was reflected in the novel Smoke (1867). The largest in volume was his novel "Nov" (1877). I. S. Turgenev died near Paris on August 22 (September 3), 1883. The writer was buried according to his will in St. Petersburg.

TURGENEV Ivan Sergeevich(1818 - 1883), Russian writer, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1860). In the cycle of stories "Notes of a Hunter" (1847-52) he showed the high spiritual qualities and talent of the Russian peasant, the poetry of nature. In the socio-psychological novels "Rudin" (1856), "The Noble Nest" (1859), "On the Eve" (1860), "Fathers and Sons" (1862), the stories "Asya" (1858), "Spring Waters" (1872 ) created images of the outgoing noble culture and new heroes of the era of raznochintsy and democrats, images of selfless Russian women. In the novels "Smoke" (1867) and "Nov" (1877) he depicted the life of Russians abroad, the populist movement in Russia. On the slope of his life he created the lyric-philosophical "Poems in Prose" (1882). A master of language and psychological analysis, Turgenev had a significant impact on the development of Russian and world literature.

Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich, Russian writer.

According to his father, Turgenev belonged to an old noble family, his mother, nee Lutovinova, was a wealthy landowner; in her estate Spasskoe-Lutovinovo (Mtsensk district, Oryol province), the childhood years of the future writer, who early learned to feel nature subtly and hate serfdom, passed. 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 1836, Turgenev showed his poetic experiments in a romantic spirit to the writer of the Pushkin circle, university professor P. A. Pletnev; he invites the student to a literary evening (at the door Turgenev ran into A. S. Pushkin), and in 1838 he published Turgenev’s poems “Evening” and “To the Venus of Medicine” in Sovremennik (at this point, Turgenev had written about a hundred poems, mostly not preserved, and the dramatic poem "The Wall").

In May 1838, Turgenev went to Germany (the desire to complete his education was combined with the rejection of the Russian way of life based on serfdom). 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). Until August 1839, Turgenev lives in Berlin, listens to lectures at the university, studies classical languages, writes poetry, communicates with T. N. Granovsky, N. V. Stankevich. After a short stay in Russia in January 1840 he went to Italy, but from May 1840 to May 1841 he was again in Berlin, where he met M. A. Bakunin. Arriving in Russia, he visits the Bakunin estate Premukhino, 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 January 1843 Turgenev entered the service of the Ministry of the Interior.

In 1843, a poem based on modern material, Parasha, appeared, which was highly appreciated by V. G. Belinsky. Acquaintance with the critic, which turned into friendship (in 1846 Turgenev became his son's godfather), rapprochement with his entourage (in particular, with N. A. Nekrasov) change his literary orientation: from romanticism, he turns to an ironic moral descriptive poem ("The Landowner" , "Andrey", both 1845) and prose, close to the principles of the "natural school" and not alien to the influence of M. Yu. Lermontov ("Andrey Kolosov", 1844; "Three Portraits", 1846; "Breter", 1847).

November 1, 1843 Turgenev meets the singer Pauline Viardot (Viardot Garcia), love for which will largely determine the external course of his life. In May 1845 Turgenev retired. From the beginning of 1847 to June 1850 he lived abroad (in Germany, France; Turgenev witnessed the French Revolution of 1848): he took care of the sick Belinsky during his travels; closely communicates with P. V. Annenkov, A. I. Herzen, gets acquainted with J. Sand, P. Merimet, A. de Musset, F. Chopin, C. Gounod; writes the novels "Petushkov" (1848), "The Diary of a Superfluous Man" (1850), the comedy "The Bachelor" (1849), "Where it is thin, there it breaks", "Provincial Woman" (both 1851), the psychological drama "A Month in the Country" (1855).

The main work of this period is “Notes of a Hunter”, a cycle of lyrical essays and stories that began with the story “Khor and Kalinich” (1847; the subtitle “From the Notes of a Hunter” was invented by I. I. Panaev for publication in the “Mixture” section of the Sovremennik magazine ); a separate two-volume edition of the cycle was published in 1852, later the stories "The End of Chertop-hanov" (1872), "Living Powers", "Knocks" (1874) were added. The fundamental diversity of human types, first singled out from a previously unnoticed or idealized mass of the people, testified to the infinite value of any unique and free human personality; the serf order appeared as an ominous and dead force, alien to natural harmony (detailed specifics of heterogeneous landscapes), hostile to man, but unable to destroy the soul, love, creative gift. Having discovered Russia and the Russian people, laying the foundation for the “peasant theme” in Russian literature, “Notes of a Hunter” became the semantic foundation of all Turgenev’s further work: from here, threads stretch to the study of the phenomenon of “an extra person” (a problem outlined in “Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky district”) , and to the comprehension of the mysterious ("Bezhin meadow"), and to the problem of the artist's conflict with the everyday life that suffocates him ("Singers").

In April 1852, for his response to the death of N.V. Gogol, banned in St. Petersburg and published in Moscow, Turgenev, by royal command, was put on the congress (the story "Mumu" was written there). In May he was exiled to Spasskoye, where he lived until December 1853 (work on an unfinished novel, the story "Two Friends", acquaintance with A. A. Fet, active correspondence with S. T. Aksakov and writers from the Sovremennik circle); A. K. Tolstoy played an important role in the efforts to free Turgenev.

Until July 1856, Turgenev lives in Russia: in the winter, mainly in St. Petersburg, in the summer in Spassky. His immediate environment is the editorial office of Sovremennik; acquaintances with I. A. Goncharov, L. N. Tolstoy and A. N. Ostrovsky took place; Turgenev takes part in the publication of "Poems" by F. I. Tyutchev (1854) and supplies him with a preface. Mutual cooling off with a distant Viardot leads to a brief, but almost ending in marriage romance with a distant relative O. A. Turgeneva. The novels "Calm" (1854), "Yakov Pasynkov" (1855), "Correspondence", "Faust" (both 1856) are published.

"Rudin" (1856) opens a series of Turgenev's novels, compact in volume, unfolding around the hero-ideologist, journalistically accurately fixing the current socio-political issues and, ultimately, putting "modernity" in the face of the unchanging and mysterious forces of love, art, nature . Inflaming the audience, but incapable of an act, "an extra person" Rudin; in vain dreaming of happiness and coming to humble selflessness and hope for happiness for the people of modern times, Lavretsky (“The Nest of Nobles”, 1859; events take place in an atmosphere of the approaching “great reform”); the “iron” Bulgarian revolutionary Insarov, who becomes the chosen one of the heroine (that is, Russia), but is “alien” and doomed to death (“On the Eve”, 1860); the “new man” Bazarov, who hides a romantic rebellion behind nihilism (“Fathers and Sons”, 1862; post-reform Russia is not freed from eternal problems, and “new” people remain people: “dozens” will live, and those captured by passion or idea will perish); sandwiched between "reactionary" and "revolutionary" vulgarity, the characters of "Smoke" (1867); the Narodnik revolutionary Nezhdanov, an even more “new” person, but still unable to respond to the challenge of a changed Russia (Nov, 1877); all of them, together with minor characters (with individual dissimilarity, differences in moral and political orientations and spiritual experience, varying degrees of closeness to the author), are closely related, combining in different proportions the features of the two eternal psychological types of the heroic enthusiast, Don Quixote, and the absorbed a reflector, Hamlet (cf. program article "Hamlet and Don Quixote", 1860).

Having served abroad in July 1856, Turgenev finds himself in a painful whirlpool of ambiguous relations with Viardot and his daughter, who was brought up in Paris. After the difficult Parisian winter of 1856-57 (the gloomy Journey to Polissya was completed), he went to England, then to Germany, where he wrote Asya, one of the most poetic stories, which, however, lends itself to interpretation in a public way (article by N. G . Chernyshevsky "Russian man on rendez-vous", 1858), and spends autumn and winter in Italy. By the summer of 1858 he was in Spasskoye; in the future, the year of Turgenev will often be divided into "European, winter" and "Russian, summer" seasons.

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). The conflict with the “young generation” was aggravated by the novel “Fathers and Sons” (pamphlet article by M. A. Antonovich “Asmodeus of Our Time” in Sovremennik, 1862; the so-called “schism in the nihilists” largely motivated the positive assessment of the novel in the article by D. I. Pisarev "Bazarov", 1862). In the summer of 1861 there was a quarrel with Leo Tolstoy, which almost turned into a duel (reconciliation in 1878). In the story "Ghosts" (1864), Turgenev thickens the mystical motives outlined in "Notes of a Hunter" and "Faust"; this line will be developed in The Dog (1865), The Story of Lieutenant Yergunov (1868), Dream, The Story of Father Alexei (both 1877), Songs of Triumphant Love (1881), After Death (Klara Milic )" (1883). The theme of the weakness of a person who turns out to be a toy of unknown forces and doomed to non-existence, to a greater or lesser extent, colors all of Turgenev's late prose; it is most directly expressed in the lyrical story "Enough!" (1865), perceived by contemporaries as evidence (sincere or coquettishly hypocritical) of Turgenev's situationally conditioned crisis (cf. F. M. Dostoevsky's parody in the novel "Demons", 1871).

In 1863 there is a new rapprochement between Turgenev and Pauline Viardot; until 1871 they live in Baden, then (at the end of the Franco-Prussian war) in Paris. Turgenev closely converges with G. Flaubert and through him with E. and J. Goncourt, A. Daudet, E. Zola, G. de Maupassant; he assumes the function of an intermediary between Russian and Western literatures. His all-European fame is growing: in 1878, at the international literary congress in Paris, the writer was elected vice president; in 1879 he received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. Turgenev maintains contacts with Russian revolutionaries (P. L. Lavrov, G. A. Lopatin) and provides material support to emigrants. In 1880, Turgenev took part in the celebrations in honor of the opening of a monument to Pushkin in Moscow. In 1879-81, the old writer experienced a stormy passion for the actress M. G. Savina, which colored his last visits to his homeland.

Along with stories about the past (“King of the Steppe Lear”, 1870; “Punin and Baburin”, 1874) and the “mysterious” stories mentioned above, in the last years of his life, Turgenev turned to memoirs (“Literary and everyday memories”, 1869-80) and "Poems in Prose" (1877-82), where almost all the main themes of his work are presented, and the summing up takes place as if in the presence of impending death. Death was preceded by more than a year and a half of a painful illness (cancer of the spinal cord).

Biography of I.S. Turgenev

The film “The Great Singer of Great Russia. I.S. Turgenev»

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

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

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

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

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

Each of these stages has its own characteristics.

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

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

The creative achievements of this period include the following works:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creative heritage:

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

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

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

Works from this period:

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

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

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Born in the city of Oryol on November 9 (October 28 according to the old style), 1818 in a noble family. Father, Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev (1793-1834), was a retired cuirassier colonel. Mother, Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva (before the marriage of Lutovinova) (1787-1850), came from a wealthy noble family. Up to 9 years old Ivan Turgenev lived in the hereditary estate of Spasskoe-Lutovinovo, 10 km from Mtsensk, Oryol province. In 1827 Turgenevs to give their children an education, they settled in Moscow, in a house bought on Samotyok. After the parents went abroad, Ivan Sergeevich first he studied at the boarding house of Weidenhammer, then at the boarding house of the director of the Lazarev Institute, Krause. In 1833, 15-year-old Turgenev Entered the verbal faculty of Moscow University. where they studied at the time Herzen and Belinsky. A year later, after Ivan's older brother entered the Guards Artillery, the family moved to St. Petersburg, and Ivan Turgenev at the same time he moved to the Faculty of Philosophy at St. Petersburg University. Timofey Granovsky became his friend. In 1834, he wrote the dramatic poem "Wall", several lyric poems. The young author showed these tests of the pen to his teacher, professor of Russian literature P. A. Pletnev. Pletnev called the poem a weak imitation of Byron, but noted that "there is something" in the author. By 1837 he had already written about a hundred small poems. At the beginning of 1837, an unexpected and short meeting with A. S. Pushkin takes place. In the first issue of the Sovremennik magazine for 1838, which after his death Pushkin published under the editorship of P. A. Pletnev, with the signature "- - -v" a poem was printed Turgenev"Evening", which is the debut of the author. In 1836 Turgenev completed the course with a valid student's degree. Dreaming of scientific activity, he again took the final exam the next year, received a candidate's degree, and in 1838 went to Germany. During the journey, a fire broke out on the ship, and the passengers miraculously managed to escape. Fearing for your life Turgenev asked one of the sailors to save him and promised him a reward from his rich mother if he could fulfill his request. Other passengers testified that the young man exclaimed plaintively: "To die so young!", while pushing women and children at the lifeboats. Fortunately, the shore was not far away. Once on the shore, the young man was ashamed of his cowardice. Rumors of his cowardice infiltrated society and became the subject of ridicule. The event played a certain negative role in the subsequent life of the author and was described by Turgenev in the novel Fire at Sea. Settling in Berlin Ivan took up studies. Listening to lectures at the university on the history of Roman and Greek literature, at home he studied the grammar of ancient Greek and Latin. Here he became close to Stankevich. In 1839 he returned to Russia, but already in 1840 he again left for Germany, Italy, Austria. Impressed by meeting a girl in Frankfurt am Main Turgenev later the story "Spring Waters" was written. In 1841 Ivan returned to Lutovinovo. He became interested in the seamstress Dunyasha, who in 1842 gave birth to his daughter Pelageya (Polina). Dunyasha was given in marriage, the daughter remained in an ambiguous position. At the beginning of 1842 Ivan Turgenev submitted a request to Moscow University for admission to the exam for a master's degree in philosophy. At the same time, he began his literary activity. The largest printed work of this time was the poem "Parasha", written in 1843. Not hoping for positive criticism, he took a copy of V. G. Belinsky to Lopatin's house, leaving the manuscript to the critic's servant. Belinsky highly appreciated Parasha, publishing a positive review in Otechestvennye Zapiski two months later. From that moment, their acquaintance began, which eventually grew into a strong friendship. In the autumn of 1843 Turgenev I first saw Pauline Viardot on the stage of the opera house when the great singer came on tour to St. Petersburg. Then, while hunting, he met Pauline's husband, the director of the Italian Theater in Paris, a well-known critic and art critic, Louis Viardot, and on November 1, 1843, he was introduced to Pauline herself. Among the mass of fans, she did not particularly single out Turgenev, known more as an avid hunter, and not a writer. And when her tour is over, Turgenev together with the Viardot family, he went to Paris against the will of his mother, without money and still unknown to Europe. In November 1845, he returned to Russia, and in January 1847, having learned about Viardot's tour in Germany, he left the country again: he went to Berlin, then to London, Paris, a tour of France and again to St. Petersburg. In 1846 participates in the update of Sovremennik. Nekrasov- his best friend. With Belinsky he went abroad in 1847 and in 1848 he lived in Paris, where he witnessed revolutionary events. He becomes close to Herzen, falls in love with Ogaryov's wife Tuchkova. In 1850-1852 he lived either in Russia or abroad. Most of the "Hunter's Notes" was created by the writer in Germany. Without an official marriage, Turgenev lived in the Viardot family. Pauline Viardot raised an illegitimate daughter Turgenev. This period includes several meetings with Gogol and Fetom.In 1846, the stories "Breter" and "Three Portraits" were published. Later, he wrote such works as The Freeloader (1848), The Bachelor (1849), The Provincial Girl, A Month in the Village, Calm (1854), Yakov Pasynkov (1855), Breakfast at the Leader "(1856), etc. "Mumu" he wrote in 1852, being in exile in Spassky-Lutovinovo because of an obituary for death Gogol, which, despite the ban, published in Moscow. In 1852, a collection of short stories was published Turgenev under the general title "Notes of a Hunter", which was published in Paris in 1854. After the death of Nicholas I, four major works of the writer were published one after another: Rudin (1856), The Noble Nest (1859), On the Eve (1860) and Fathers and Sons (1862). The first two were published in Nekrasov's Sovremennik. The next two are in Russkiy Vestnik by M. N. Katkov. In 1860, N. A. Dobrolyubov’s article “When will the real day come?” was published in Sovremennik, in which the novel “On the Eve” and Turgenev’s work in general were rather harshly criticized . Turgenev set Nekrasov ultimatum: either he, Turgenev, or Dobrolyubov. The choice fell on Dobrolyubova, which later became one of the prototypes of the image of Bazarov in the novel "Fathers and Sons". Thereafter Turgenev left Sovremennik and stopped communicating with Nekrasov.Turgenev gravitates towards the circle of Western writers who profess the principles of "pure art", opposing the tendentious creativity of raznochintsev revolutionaries: P. V. Annenkov, V. P. Botkin, D. V. Grigorovich, A. V. Druzhinin. For a short time, Leo Tolstoy also joined this circle, who for some time lived in an apartment Turgenev. After marriage Tolstoy on S. A. Bers Turgenev found in Tolstoy a close relative, but even before the wedding, in May 1861, when both prose writers were visiting A. A. Fet at the Stepanovo estate, a serious quarrel occurred between the two writers, which almost ended in a duel and ruined relations between writers for a long 17 years. Since the early 1860s Turgenev settled in Baden-Baden. The writer actively participates in the cultural life of Western Europe, making acquaintances with the leading writers of Germany, France and England, promoting Russian literature abroad and acquainting Russian readers with the best works of contemporary Western authors. Among his acquaintances or correspondents are Friedrich Bodenstedt, Thackeray, Dickens, Henry James, George Sand, Victor Hugo, Saint-Beuve, Hippolyte Taine, Prosper Mérimée, Ernest Renan, Theophile Gauthier, Edmond Goncourt, Emile Zola, Anatole France, Guy de Maupassant , Alphonse Daudet, Gustave Flaubert. In 1874, the famous bachelor dinners of five began in the Parisian restaurants of Rich or Pellet: Flaubert, Edmond Goncourt, Daudet, Zola and Turgenev. I. S. Turgenev acts as a consultant and editor of foreign translators of Russian writers, he himself writes prefaces and notes to translations of Russian writers into European languages, as well as to Russian translations of works by famous European writers. He translates Western writers into Russian and Russian writers and poets into French and German. This is how translations of Flaubert's works Herodias and The Tale of St. Yuliana Merciful" for the Russian reader and Pushkin's works for the French reader. For some time Turgenev becomes the most famous and most widely read Russian author in Europe. In 1878, at the international literary congress in Paris, the writer was elected vice-president; in 1879 he received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. Despite living abroad, all thoughts Turgenev were still linked to Russia. He writes the novel "Smoke" (1867), which caused a lot of controversy in Russian society. According to the author's review, everyone scolded the novel: "both red and white, and from above, and from below, and from the side - especially from the side." The fruit of his intense reflections in the 1870s was the largest of Turgenev's novels, Nov (1877). Turgenev he was friends with the Milyutin brothers (Comrade Minister of the Interior and Minister of War), A. V. Golovnin (Minister of Education), M. Kh. Reitern (Minister of Finance). At the end of his life Turgenev decides to come to terms with Leo Tolstoy, he explains the significance of modern Russian literature, including creativity Tolstoy, Western reader. In 1880, the writer takes part in the Pushkin celebrations dedicated to the opening of the first monument to the poet in Moscow, organized by the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature. The writer died in Bougival near Paris, on August 22 (September 3), 1883 from myxosarcoma. Turgenev's body was, according to his desire, brought to St. Petersburg and buried at the Volkovo cemetery with a large gathering of people.

Artworks

1855 - "Rudin" - a novel
1858 - "The Noble Nest" - a novel
1860 - "On the eve" - ​​a novel
1862 - "Fathers and Sons" - a novel
1867 - "Smoke" - a novel
1877 - "Nov" - a novel
1844 - "Andrey Kolosov" - novel / story
1845 - "Three portraits" - novel / story
1846 - "Jew" - story / story
1847 - "Breter" - novel / story
1848 - "Petushkov" - story / story
1849 - "The Diary of a Superfluous Man" - story / story
1852 - "Mumu" - story / story
1852 - "Inn" - story / story
1852 - "Notes of a hunter" - a collection of stories
1851 - "Bezhin Meadow" - story
1847 - "Biryuk" - story
1847 - "Burgemistr" - story
1848 - "Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky district" - story
1847 - "Two landowners" - a story
1847 - "Yermolai and the Miller's Woman" - story
1874 - "Living relics" - story
1851 - "Kasian with a beautiful sword" - story
1871-72 - "The End of Chertopkhanov" - story
1847 - "Office" - story
1847 - "Swan" - story
1848 - "Forest and steppe" - story
1847 - "Lgov" - story
1847 - "Raspberry Water" - story
1847 - "My neighbor Radilov" - story
1847 - "Ovsyannikov's Odnodvorets" - story
1850 - "Singers" - story
1864 - "Pyotr Petrovich Karataev" - story
1850 - "Date" - story
1847 - "Death" - story
1873-74-"Knocks!" - story
1847 - "Tatyana Borisovna and her nephew" - story
1847 - "County doctor" - story
1846-47-"Khor and Kalinich" - story
1848 - "Chertop-hanov and Nedopyuskin" - story
1855 - "Yakov Pasynkov" - novel / story
1855 - "Faust" - novel / story
1856 - "Calm" - novel / story
1857 - "Trip to Polissya" - novel / story
1858 - "Asya" - story / story
1860 - "First Love" - ​​novel / story
1864 - "Ghosts" - novel / story
1866 - "The Brigadier" - story / story
1868 - "Unfortunate" - story / story
1870 - "Strange story" - story / story
1870 - "The Steppe King Lear" - story / story
1870 - "Dog" - story / story
1871 - "Knock ... knock ... knock! .." - story / story
1872 - "Spring Waters" - a story
1874 - "Punin and Baburin" - novel / story
1876 ​​- "Hours" - novel / story
1877 - "Dream" - novel / story
1877 - "The Story of Father Alexei" - story / story
1881 - "The Song of Triumphant Love" - ​​novel / story
1881 - "Own master's office" - novel / story
1883 - "After death (Clara Milic)" - novel / story
1878 - "In memory of Yu. P. Vrevskaya" - a poem in prose
1882 - How good, how fresh were the roses ... - a poem in prose
1848 - "Where it is thin, there it breaks" - a play
1848 - "Freeloader" - a play
1849 - "Breakfast at the leader" - play
1849 - "The Bachelor" - a play
1850 - "A Month in the Village" - a play
1851 - "Provincial" - a play
1854 - "A few words about the poems of F. I. Tyutchev" - article
1860 - "Hamlet and Don Quixote" - article
1864 - "Speech on Shakespeare" - article

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 until then been, 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 loudly reproach 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 risking 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 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 Otechestvennye Zapiski 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 section of the “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 the “moving out”, 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 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 the founding of 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 delivered many difficult minutes to the author. A whole hail of sharp reproaches rained down on him both from the conservatives, who convicted him (pointing to the image of Bazarov) in sympathy with the "nihilists", in "somersaulting in front of the youth", and from the latter, who accused Turgenev of slandering the younger generation and 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.