Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich was born on October 28, 1818 (according to the new one on November 9). 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.
He spent his childhood on his mother's estate, the village of Spasskoe-Lutovinovo, Oryol province, where the culture of the "noble nest" contrasted strikingly with feudal arbitrariness. In 1833 he entered Moscow University, a year later he moved to St. Petersburg University to the verbal department of the Faculty of Philosophy (he graduated as a candidate in 1837). T.'s first work that has come down to us is the dramatic poem Steno (written in 1834, published in 1913), dedicated to the hero of a demonic warehouse. By the mid 30s. early poetic experiments of T. The first work that saw the light of day is a review of the book by A. N. Muravyov "Journey to Russian Holy Places" (1836), in 1838 the first poems of T. "Evening" and "K Venus Medicea."
In 1838-40 (with interruptions) he continued his education abroad. At the University of Berlin, he studied philosophy, ancient languages, and history. In Berlin, then in Rome, he became close friends with N. V. Stankevich and M. A. Bakunin. In 1842, T. passed the exam at St. Petersburg University for a master's degree in philosophy. In 1842 he made another trip to Germany. Upon his return, he served in the Ministry of the Interior as an official for special assignments (1842-44). In 1843 T. met the French singer P. Viardot. Friendly relations with her and her family continued throughout the life of the writer, left a deep mark on his work; attachment to Viardot largely explains the frequent trips, and then the long stay of Turgenev abroad. Extremely important for Ivan Sergeevich was his acquaintance at the end of 1842 with V. G. Belinsky; soon Turgenev became close to his circle, with St. Petersburg writers (including A. I. Herzen), whose activities unfolded in line with the ideas of Westernism. The criticism and convictions of Belinsky contributed to the strengthening of Turgenev in anti-serfdom and anti-Slavophil positions; in some of Turgenev's essays from the "Notes of a Hunter" ("Burgeon Master" and "Two Landowners") there are traces of the direct influence of the "Letter to Gogol", written by Belinsky during a joint stay with Turgenev abroad (1847).
In 1843, the poem Parasha, highly appreciated by Belinsky, was published; following her published poems "Conversation" (1845), "Andrey" (1846) and "Landlord" (1846) - a kind of "physiological sketch" in verse, which determined the place of T. in the circle of writers of the Gogol direction. In Turgenev's poetry there are two heroes - a dreamer, a man of a passionate and rebellious soul, full of inner anxiety, vague hopes, and a skeptic of the Onegin-Pechorinsky type. Sad irony in relation to the homeless "wanderer", longing for the high, ideal, heroic - the main mood of Ivan Sergeevich's poems in the prose works of these years - "Andrei Kolosov" (1844), "Three Portraits" (1846), "Breter" (1847) - Turgenev continued to develop the problem of the individual and society put forward by romanticism. Epigon Pechorin, skeptic in the 2nd half of the 40s. Turgenev did not seem significant, on the contrary, he now sympathizes with a person who is direct and free in the manifestations of his will and feelings. At this time, Turgenev also appeared with critical articles, with reviews (on the translation of Faust by M. Vronchenko, plays by N. V. Kukolnik, S. A. Gedeonov), which expressed the aesthetic position of the writer, close to Belinsky's views on high social purpose literature.
In dramatic works - the genre scenes Lack of Money (1846), Breakfast at the Leader's (1849, published 1856), The Bachelor (1849) and the social drama The Freeloader (1848, staged 1849, published 1857) - in The depiction of the "little man" was influenced by the traditions of N. V. Gogol and the connection with the psychological manner of F. M. Dostoevsky (the image of Kuzovkin). In the plays "Where it's thin, it breaks there" (1848), "Provincial Girl" (1851), "A Month in the Country" (1850, published in 1855), Ivan Sergeevich's characteristic dissatisfaction with the inaction of the reflective noble intelligentsia is expressed, a premonition of a new hero - a commoner. From the drama of a man humiliated by serfdom, Turgenev comes to a deep psychological development of clashes between different social groups, different views (for example, the nobility and raznochintsy). The dramaturgy of T. prepared the social plays of A. N. Ostrovsky and anticipated the psychological drama of A. P. Chekhov, with its hidden lyricism and a keen sense of the fragmentation of the world and human consciousness.
The cycle of essays "Notes of a Hunter" (1847-52) is the most significant work of the young T. It had a great influence on the development of Russian literature and brought world fame to the author. The book was translated into many European languages and already in the 50s, being actually banned in Russia, it went through many editions in Germany, France, England, and Denmark. According to M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, "Notes of a Hunter" "... laid the foundation for a whole literature that has as its object the people and their needs" (Sobr. soch., vol. 9, 1970, p. 459). In the center of the essays is a serf, smart, talented, but powerless. T. discovered a sharp contrast between the "dead souls" of the landowners and the high spiritual qualities of the peasants, which arose in communion with the majestic, mysterious, and beautiful nature. In accordance with the general idea of the Hunter's Notes about the depth and significance of the people's consciousness, T. in the most artistic manner of depicting peasants takes a step forward in comparison with previous and modern literature. Vivid individualization of peasant types, the image of the psychological life of the people in the change of mental movements, the discovery in the peasant of a personality subtle, complex, deep, like nature - T.'s discoveries made in the "Notes of a Hunter".
Turgenev's conception of the people's character was of great importance for the development of progressive social thought in Russia. Progressive people turned to T.'s book as a convincing argument in favor of the abolition of serfdom in Russia. In the 70s. "Notes ..." turned out to be close to the Narodniks as a recognition of the moral height of the peasant and his plight. They had a noticeable influence on the image of the people in Russian literature (L. N. Tolstoy, V. G. Korolenko, Chekhov). With the "Notes of a Hunter" began T. participation in Nekrasov's "Contemporary", in the circle of which he soon took a prominent place.
In February 1852, T. wrote an obituary note on the death of Gogol, calling him a great writer who "... marked an era in the history of our literature" (Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 14, 1967, p. 72), which served a pretext for the arrest and exile of T. under police supervision in the village of Spasskoe for a year and a half. The true reason for this action is the criticism of serfdom in the "Notes of a Hunter". During this period T. wrote the novels Mumu (published 1854) and The Inn (published 1855), which, in their anti-serfdom content, are close to Notes of a Hunter.
In 1856, the novel Rudin appeared in Sovremennik, a peculiar result of T.'s thoughts about the leading hero of our time. The novel was preceded by novels and short stories in which the writer assessed the type of idealist of the 1940s from different angles. If in the stories "Two Friends" (1854) and "Calm" (1854) a portrait of an unstable, reflective person was given with disapproval, then in the stories "Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky District" (1849), "The Diary of a Superfluous Man" (1850), "Yakov Pasynkov" (1855), "Correspondence" (1856) revealed the tragedy of the "superfluous person", his painful discord with the world and people. T.'s point of view on the "superfluous person" in "Rudin" is ambiguous: while recognizing the importance of Rudin's "word" in awakening the consciousness of people in the 40s, he notes the insufficiency of propaganda of lofty ideas in the conditions of Russian life in the 50s. As always, T. "checked" his hero with the sensitively grasped requirements of the present, which was awaiting an advanced public figure. Rudin belonged to the generation that prepared the ground for him. N. G. Chernyshevsky and N. A. Dobrolyubov (in those years) were ready to support the protest against feudal reality, which consisted in many psychological features of the “superfluous person”.
In the novel "The Nest of Nobles" (1859), the question of the historical fate of Russia is sharply raised. The hero of the novel, Lavretsky, is "more ordinary" than Rudin, but he is closer to people's life, better understands the needs of the people. He considers it his duty to alleviate the fate of the peasants. However, for the sake of personal happiness, he forgets about duty, although happiness turns out to be impossible. The heroine of the novel Liza, ready for a great service or feat, does not find high meaning in a world where her moral sense is constantly offended. Lisa's departure to the monastery is a kind of protest and, albeit passive, but still a rejection of life. The image of Lisa is surrounded by "bright poetry", which Saltykov-Shchedrin noted in "every sound of this novel." If "Rudin" is a test of the idealist of the 1940s, then "The Nest of Nobles" is an awareness of his departure from the historical stage.
In connection with "The Nest of Nobles" and the stories "Faust" (1856) and "Asya" (1858) that preceded it, a controversy arose in the press about duty, self-denial, selfishness. In solving these problems, there was a discrepancy between T. and the revolutionary democrats, who focused their attention on the weakness, indecisiveness of the “superfluous person”, the lack of civic feeling in him (which Chernyshevsky wrote in the article “Russian Man on Rendezvous” in connection with the story of T. "Asya"); they proceeded from the idea of a morally whole person, who does not have a contradiction between internal needs and social duty. The dispute about the new hero touched upon the most essential questions of Russian life on the eve of the reform, in the conditions of a brewing revolutionary situation. Sensitive to the demands of the time, T. in the novel "On the Eve" (1860) expressed the idea of the need for consciously heroic natures. In the image of the commoner Bulgarian Insarov, the writer brought out a person with an integral character, all the moral forces of which are focused on the desire to liberate his homeland. T. paid tribute to the people of a heroic warehouse, although they seemed to him somewhat limited, one-line. Dobrolyubov, who devoted the article "On the Eve" to "When will the real day come?" (1860), noted that Insarov is incompletely described in the novel, not close to the reader, not open to him. And therefore, according to the critic, the main face of the novel is Elena Stakhova; it embodies "the social need of a cause, a living cause, the beginning of contempt for dead principles and passive virtues..." (Sobr. soch., vol. 3, 1952, p. 36). Russia for T. - on the eve of the emergence of consciously heroic natures (for Dobrolyubov - revolutionary). T. could not accept the sharply journalistic interpretation of the novel proposed by Dobrolyubov, could not agree with the revolutionary position of the critic, expressed on the material and with the help of his novel. Therefore, the writer objected to the publication of the article. When, thanks to Nekrasov's persistence, she nevertheless appeared, he left Sovremennik. The main reason for the gap was rooted in the fact that T., who stood on liberal positions, did not believe in the need for a revolution; according to Lenin's definition, he was "... disgusted by the muzhik democratism of Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky" (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 36, p. 206). At the same time, T. paid tribute to the high spiritual qualities of the revolutionary democrats and associated with them the future of Russia.
Therefore, in the novel "Fathers and Sons" (1862), T. continued the artistic study of the "new man." "Fathers and Sons" is a novel not just about the change of generations, but about the struggle of ideological trends (idealism and materialism), about the inevitable and irreconcilable clash of old and new socio-political forces. The novel revealed the cruel and complex process of breaking the old social relations, conflicts in all spheres of life (between landowners and peasants who are out of obedience; between nobles and commoners; within the nobility). This process appeared in the novel as a destructive element, blowing up aristocratic isolation, breaking class barriers, changing the usual course of life. The arrangement of persons in the novel and the development of the action showed which side the author is on. Despite his ambivalent attitude towards the hero, despite the dispute that T. has with the "nihilist" Bazarov, about his attitude to nature, love, art, this "denier" is deduced as a courageous person, consistent in his convictions, who has a big and important "a business". Rationalism of judgments is in conflict with his deep, passionate nature. The defenders of the former "principles" - the "cream" of noble society (the Kirsanov brothers) - are inferior to the hero in moral strength, in understanding the needs of life. The tragic love story of Bazarov and Odintsova, revealing the discrepancy between nature and some of the views of the hero, emphasizes his moral superiority over the best representatives of the nobility. T. soberly and seriously assessed not only the role of the hero, who is on the threshold of the future, constituting a “strange pendant with Pugachev,” but also the place of the people in this process. T. saw the disunity of the people with the advanced intelligentsia, which stood up to protect its interests. This, according to T., is one of the reasons for the tragic situation of the new figures.
Contemporaries reacted sharply to the appearance of the novel. The reactionary press accused T. of currying favor with the youth, while the democratic press reproached the author for slandering the younger generation. D. I. Pisarev understood the novel differently, seeing in it the true image of a new hero. T. himself wrote to K. K. Sluchevsky about Bazarov: "... If he is called a nihilist, then it must be read: revolutionary" (Poln. sobr. soch. and letters. Letters, vol. 4, 1962, p. 380) . However, the well-known inconsistency of T.'s position still gives rise to disputes about the author's attitude towards the hero.
After "Fathers and Sons" for the writer came a period of doubt and disappointment. In an open dispute with A. I. Herzen, he defends the views of the Enlightenment. The stories "Ghosts" (1864), "Enough" (1865) and others appear, filled with sad reflections and pessimistic moods. The genre of Turgenev's novel is changing: the centralizing role of the protagonist in the overall composition of the work is increasingly weakened. At the center of the novel Smoke (1867) is the problem of life in Russia shaken by the reform, when "... the new was received badly, the old lost all its strength" (Soch., vol. 9, 1965, p. 318). There are two main characters in the novel - Litvinov, whose tragic love reflected both the "shaken life" and the contradictory, unstable consciousness of people, and Potugin - the preacher of Western "civilization". The novel was sharply satirical and anti-Slavophile in nature. The author's irony was directed both against the representatives of the revolutionary emigration ("Heidelberg arabesques") and against the higher government circles of Russia ("Baden generals"). However, the condemnation of the post-reform reality ("smoke"), the consideration of the political opposition not as a phenomenon introduced from outside, but as a product of Russian life, distinguish this novel from the "anti-nihilistic" works of other authors. Sad memories of the type of "extra person" ("Spring Waters", publ. 1872), reflections on the people and the essence of the Russian character ("Steppe King Lear", published 1870) lead T. to create the most significant work of the last period - the novel " Nov" (1877).
In an atmosphere of heated discussions about the fate of history and art, "Nov" appears - a novel about the populist movement in Russia. Paying tribute to the heroic impulse of youth, their feat of self-sacrifice, but not believing in the possibility of revolutionary transformations, T. gives the participant "going to the people", "romantic realism" to Nezhdanov, the features of "Russian Hamlet". The sober practitioner-gradualist Solomin with his theory of "small deeds", according to T., is closer to the truth. Deploying in the novel pictures of ideological disputes between representatives of liberal views (Sipyagin), conservative (Kallomeytsev) and populist (Nezhdanov, Marianna, Solomin) views, T. prefers populist views. Nov, although not immediately, reconciled the writer with the younger generation. In the last years of his life T. created several small works, including "Poems in Prose" (part 1, published 1882); in the poems "The Threshold", "In Memory of Yu. P. Vrevskaya" he glorified the feat of self-sacrifice in the name of the happiness of the people.
In the 1970s, while living in Paris, T. became close to the figures of the populist movement, G. A. Lopatin, P. L. Lavrov, and S. M. Stepnyak-Kravchinsky; financially helps the populist magazine Vperyod. He follows the development of Russian and French art; enters the circle of the largest French writers - G. Flaubert, E. Zola, A. Daudet, the Goncourt brothers, where he enjoys the reputation of one of the largest realist writers. During these years and later, T., with his mature skill, the refined art of psychological analysis, undoubtedly influenced Western European writers. P. Merime considered him one of the leaders of the realistic school. J. Sand, G. Maupassant recognized themselves as students of T. In the Scandinavian countries, T.'s novels, in particular Rudin, were especially popular and attracted the attention of prominent playwrights and prose writers. Swedish criticism noted the "Turgenev element" in A. Strindberg's plays. Very great was the role of T. and as a propagandist of Russian literature abroad.
T. activity in the field of literature, science and art was highly appreciated in France and England. In 1878 he was elected vice-president of the International Literary Congress in Paris. In 1879, Oxford University awarded T. a doctorate in customary law. Arriving in Russia (1879, 1880), T. participated in readings in favor of the society of lovers of Russian literature. In 1880 he gave a speech on Pushkin. Progressive Russia greeted him with applause.
Creativity T. marked a new stage in the development of Russian realism. Sensitivity to topical issues of Russian life, philosophical understanding of events and characters, the truthfulness of the image made T.'s books a kind of chronicle of Russian reality in the 40-70s. 19th century Especially great are his merits in the development of the Russian novel. Continuing the traditions of Pushkin, Gogol, M. Yu. Lermontov, he created a special form of "biographical" or "personal" novel, the hero's novel. The author focuses on the fate of one person, characteristic of his time. T. belongs to a deep and objective study of the type of "superfluous person", which was further developed in the works of I. A. Goncharov, L. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov. An analysis of the hero's character, an assessment of him from a socio-historical point of view, determine the composition of T.'s novel. The location of the characters is also determined by the same principle. The protagonist of the novel defends a certain position in life. How successfully he defends it depends on his fate. Other persons of the novel, expressing their views in disputes-fights, correlate with the main character, emphasizing the strengths and weaknesses of his convictions and character.
A special place in T.'s prose is occupied by female images. In the female nature, according to the author, whole, uncompromising, sensitive, dreamy and passionate, the expectation of a new, heroic, characteristic of a certain time, is embodied. Therefore, T. gives the right to judge the hero to his beloved heroines. Love stories occupy a central place in the composition of T.'s novel. Understanding love not only as the greatest happiness, but also as a tragedy of human life, analysis of the "tragic meaning of love" have T. conceptual significance. In the incompatibility of public duty and happiness, which reveals the contradictions between the nature and beliefs of the hero, T.'s idea is revealed about the insolubility of the conflict between an advanced figure and society in serf-owning Russia, the impossibility of a free manifestation of the human personality. Deep coverage of the main life conflict and characters, the approval of progressive social trends, faith in the social ideal are combined in T. with the consciousness of the impracticability of the ideal in that historical period. Hence the duality in the author's attitude towards the main character: respect for his high moral qualities and doubt about the correctness of his chosen life position. This also explains the sad, lyrical atmosphere that arises around the hero, who fails to realize his convictions, and the heroine, striving for active goodness.
Landscape in T.'s works is not only a background for the development of action, but one of the main means of characterizing characters. The philosophy of nature most fully reveals the features of the worldview and artistic system of the author. T. perceives nature as "indifferent", "imperious", "self-loving", "suppressing" (see Poln. sobr. soch. i pism. Pisma, vol. 1, 1961, p. 481). T.'s nature is simple, open in its reality and naturalness, and infinitely complex in the manifestation of mysterious, spontaneous, often hostile forces. However, in happy moments it is for a person a source of joy, vivacity, heights of spirit and consciousness.
Turgenev is a master of halftones, a dynamic, penetrating lyrical landscape. The main tone of the Turgenev landscape, as in the works of painting, is usually created by lighting. T. captures the life of nature in the alternation of light and shadow, and in this movement notes the similarity with the changeable mood of the characters. The function of the landscape in T.'s novels is ambiguous, it often acquires a generalized, symbolic sound and characterizes not only the hero's transition from one state of mind to another, but also turning points in the development of the action (for example, the scene at Avdyukhin's pond in "Rudin", a thunderstorm in " the day before", etc.). This tradition was continued by L. Tolstoy, Korolenko, Chekhov.
In creating a psychological and satirical portrait of T. - a follower of Pushkin and Gogol. Portrait characteristics are made by T. in an objective manner (T. himself spoke of the need "... to be a psychologist, but secret" - ibid., vol. 4, 1962, p. 135). The intensity of spiritual life with a finely defined change of various states is conveyed in its external manifestations - in facial expressions, gestures, movement of the character, behind which, as it were, the missing links of a single psychological chain are guessed. T. continued the work of his great predecessors as an unsurpassed stylist, as a master of the language, who in his prose merged the bookish culture of the Russian word with the riches of living folk speech.
The artistic system created by Turgenev had a noticeable influence on the poetics of not only the Russian, but also the Western European novel of the second half of the 19th century. It largely served as the basis for the "intellectual" novel by L. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, in which the fate of the central characters depends on their solution of an important philosophical issue of universal human significance. Tajik traditions are also developing in the work of many Soviet writers (A. N. Tolstoy, K. G. Paustovsky, and others). His plays are an integral part of the repertoire of Soviet theaters. Many of Turgenev's works have been filmed.
From the first years of the revolution, Soviet literary criticism was engaged in a close study of T.'s legacy. A scientific study of the texts was carried out, widely commented collections of essays were published. Museums of T. were created in the city of Orel and the former estate of his mother, Spassky-Lutovinovo
- - Every love, happy, as well as unhappy, is a real disaster when you give yourself all to it.
- - Do you still not know if you have a talent? Give it time to ripen; and even if it does not turn out to be, does a person really need a poetic talent in order to live and act?
- - there are three categories of egoists: egoists who themselves live and let others live; egoists who themselves live and do not let others live; finally, egoists who do not live themselves and do not give to others ...
- life is nothing but a contradiction constantly conquered
- “Nature... awakens in us the need for love...
- - Take care of our language, our beautiful Russian language - this is a treasure, this is a property handed down to us by our predecessors! Treat this mighty weapon with respect
- - Marriage based on mutual inclination and on reason is one of the greatest blessings of human life.
- “Outside of nationality, there is no art, no truth, no life, nothing.
- - In days of doubt, in days of painful reflections about the fate of my homeland - you are my only support and support, oh great, powerful, truthful and free Russian language! .. you can’t believe that such a language was not given to a great people!
- - Time flies sometimes like a bird, sometimes crawls like a worm; but it happens especially well for a person when he does not even notice - how soon, how quietly it passes.
- - Every Prayer boils down to the following: "Great God, make sure that twice two is not four."
- - If there is a chance to do something - fine, but if it doesn’t - at least you will be satisfied that you didn’t talk in vain beforehand.
- - Good by decree is not good.
- - If striving comes from a pure source, it can still bring great benefits, even if it does not succeed completely, if it does not reach the goal.
- - There are three categories of egoists: egoists who themselves live and let others live; egoists who themselves live and do not let others live; finally, egoists who do not live themselves and do not give to others.
- "Pitiful is he who lives without an ideal!"
- - Cosmopolitan - zero, worse than zero.
- Whoever strives for a lofty goal should no longer think about himself.
- Love is stronger than death and fear of death. Only her, only love holds and moves life.
- “Love… is stronger than death and the fear of death.
- - A man can say that two and two is not four, but five or three and a half, and a woman will say that two and two is a stearin candle.
- “Music is intelligence embodied in beautiful sounds.
- “The one who does not have at least a drop of hope is not jealous.
- - It is impossible to believe that such a language was not given to a great people.
- “There is nothing more painful than the consciousness of a stupidity just done.
- - The unfading laurel, with which a great man is crowned, also rests on the forehead of his people.
- - Nowhere does time run so fast as in Russia; in prison, they say, it runs even faster.
- “There is nothing more tiring than a gloomy mind.
- - Oh, youth! Youth! Maybe the whole secret of your charm is not in the ability to do everything, but in the ability to think that you will do everything.
- “You can talk about everything in the world with passion... but you only talk about yourself with appetite.”
- - Before eternity, they say, all trifles - yes; but in that case, eternity itself is a trifle.
- - Nature is not a temple, but a workshop, and man is a worker in it.
- - Russia can do without each of us, but none of us can do without it. Woe to the one who thinks this, doubly woe to the one who really does without it.
- “Self-love is suicide. ... but self-love, as an active striving for perfection, is the source of everything great...
- The strong don't need happiness.
- “Laughter for no reason is the best laugh in the world.
- - It's ridiculous to be afraid - not to love the truth.
- “The old thing is death, but a new one for everyone.
- - Happiness is like health: when you do not notice it, it means that it is there.
- - Only her, only love holds and moves life.
- “We all have one anchor from which, if you don’t want to, you will never break: a sense of duty.
- “A man without self-love is worthless. Self-love is an Archimedes lever that can move the earth from its place.
- - A man is weak, a woman is strong, chance is omnipotent, it is difficult to reconcile with a colorless life, it is impossible to completely forget oneself ... but here is beauty and participation, here is warmth and light - where is it to resist? And you will run like a child to a nanny.
- - A person needs to break down the stubborn egoism of his personality in order to give it the right to express itself.
- “Honesty was his capital, and he took usurious interest from it.
- “Excessive pride is the sign of an insignificant soul.
- - This woman, when she comes to you, is as if she is bringing you all the happiness of your life ...
- - Every thought is like dough, if you knead it well - you will make everything out of it.
- - Only those people remain incomprehensible who either do not yet know what they want, or are not worthy of being understood.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a Russian realist writer who served as an intermediary between Russian and Western European cultures. His prose, which raised topical issues of modern life and presented a gallery of various human types, reflects the historical path of Russia in the 40s–70s of the 19th century, illuminates the ideological and spiritual searches of the Russian intelligentsia and reveals the deepest features of the national character. Below you will find detailed information on the topic "Interesting Facts", "The Life and Work of Turgenev" and, of course, a short and complete biography (Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich)
Brief biography of Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich for children
Option 1
Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich (1818–1883)
Great Russian writer. Born in the city of Orel, in a middle-class noble family. He studied at a private boarding school in Moscow, then at universities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin. Turgenev began his literary career as a poet. In 1838-1847. he writes and publishes lyrical poems and poems in magazines (“Parasha”, “Landowner”, “Andrey”, etc.).
At first, Turgenev's poetic work developed under the sign of romanticism, later realistic features prevail in it.
Turning to prose in 1847 (“Khor and Kalinich” from the future “Notes of a Hunter”), Turgenev left poetry, but at the end of his life he created a wonderful cycle of “Poems in Prose”.
He had a great influence on Russian and world literature. An outstanding master of psychological analysis, descriptions of pictures of nature. He created a number of socio-psychological novels - "" (1856), "" (1860), "" (1859), "" (1862), the story "Leya", "Spring Waters", in which he brought out both representatives of the outgoing noble culture, and new heroes of the era - raznochintsy and democrats. His images of selfless Russian women enriched literary criticism with a special term - "Turgenev's girls".
In his later novels Smoke (1867) and Nov (1877) he depicted the life of Russians abroad.
At the end of his life, Turgenev turns 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 approaching death.
The writer died on August 22 (September 3), 1883 in Bougival, near Paris; buried at the Volkov cemetery in St. Petersburg. Death was preceded by more than a year and a half of a painful illness (cancer of the spinal cord).
Option 2
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. Immediately 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 best stories of the writer appeared - "". The story was written while serving a link in Spassky-Lutovinovo. Then the "Notes of a Hunter" appeared, and after the death of Nicholas I, 4 of Turgenev's largest works were published: "On the Eve", "Rudin", "Fathers and Sons", "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 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 "" (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.
Option 3
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was born in 1818 and died in 1883.
Representative of the nobility. Born in the small town of Orel, but later moved to live in the capital. Turgenev was an innovator of realism. By profession, the writer was a philosopher. On his account there were many universities in which he entered, but he did not manage to finish many. He also traveled abroad and studied there.
At the beginning of his career, Ivan Sergeevich tried his hand at writing dramatic, epic and lyrical works. Being a romantic, Turgenev wrote especially carefully in the above areas. His characters feel like strangers in a crowd of people, lonely. The hero is even ready to admit his insignificance in front of the opinions of others.
Ivan Sergeevich was also an outstanding translator, and it was thanks to him that many Russian works were translated into a foreign way.
He spent the last years of his life in Germany, where he actively initiated foreigners into Russian culture, in particular into literature. During his lifetime, he achieved high popularity both in Russia and abroad. The poet died in Paris from a painful sarcoma. His body was brought to his homeland, where the writer was buried.
Biography of Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich by years
Option 1
Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich (1818 - 1883)
Key dates of life and creativity
1818, October 28 (November 9)- was born in Orel in a noble family. He spent his childhood in the family estate of his mother, Spasskoe-Lutovinovo, Oryol province.
1833–1837 - studies at the Moscow (language faculty) and St. Petersburg (philological department of the philosophical faculty) universities.
1838–1841 - studies at the University of Berlin.
1843 - acquaintance with V.G. Belinsky and Polina Viardot.
1850 - the comedy "A Month in the Country" (it predicts some features of Chekhov's drama). For ten years (1843 - 1852) about a dozen scenes and comedies were written.
1852 - The first edition of the collection "Notes of a Hunter" is published.
1852 - publication of an obituary on the death of N.V. Gogol, a link to the Spasskoe-Lutovinovo family estate. The story of Mumu.
1856 - the novel “Rudin” (magazine “Sovremennik”, No. 1–2), the story “Faust”.
1883 , August 22 (September 3)- died in Bougival near Paris, was buried at the Volkov cemetery in St. Petersburg.
Option 2
Turgenev's chronological table is an excellent tool for studying and consolidating knowledge on the topic. Turgenev "Life and Work" in the chronological table, will allow the student to get acquainted with the important stages of the writer's creative path.
For the convenience of users, Turgenev's biography in the table (by date) divides the life of the author into specific periods of his life. Each of them left its mark on the works of the author, ranging from youthful minimalism to more mature works.
1818 October 28 (November 9) Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, famous Russian writer, was born.
1827 - The Turgenev family, in order to give their children a decent education, moved to Moscow, where their father bought a house.
1833 - Ivan Turgenev became a student of the famous Moscow University at the Faculty of Literature.
1834 - The elder brother entered the military service of the Guards Artillery Regiment, and the family moved to St. Petersburg;
Ivan Turgenev transferred to St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of Philosophy;
the dramatic poem "The Wall" was written.
1836 – Completed the course with a valid student degree
1837 – Created more than a hundred small poems;
there was a short and unexpected meeting with A.S. Pushkin.
1838 - Turgenev's poetic debut took place, who published his poem "Evening" in the Sovremennik magazine;
Turgenev passed the exam for a Ph.D. and went to Germany. Here he became close to Stankevich.
1839 - Returned to Russia.
1840 - I went abroad again, visited Germany, Italy and Austria.
1841 - He returned to Lutovinovo, here he became interested in the seamstress Dunyasha.
1842 - Turgenev applied for admission to the exams for a master's degree in philosophy at Moscow University, but the request was rejected;
passed the exam for a master of philosophy at the University of St. Petersburg;
Dunyasha was born from Turgenev, the daughter of Pelageya (Polina);
at the insistence of his mother, Turgenev began to serve in the office of the Ministry of the Interior. But the clerical service did not appeal to him, and the official did not work out of him. And so, after serving for a year and a half, he retired.
1843 - Turgenev wrote the poem "Parasha", which was highly appreciated by Belinsky. Since then, a friendship has developed between the writer and the critic.
1843, autumn- Turgenev met Polina Viardot, who came to St. Petersburg on tour.
1846 - Participates with Nekrasov in updating Sovremennik;
written novels "Brether" and "Three portraits".
1847 - Together with Belinsky, he goes abroad;
finally stops writing poetry and switches to prose.
1848 - Being in Paris, the writer finds himself in the epicenter of revolutionary events.
1849 - "Bachelor".
1850–1852 - Lives either in Russia or abroad. Lives in the Viardot Family, Polina brings up his daughter.
1852 - "Notes of a hunter" published.
1856 - Rudin.
1859 - The novel "The Nest of Nobles" was created.
1860 - "The day before";
Sovremennik published an article written by N. Dobrolyubov “When will the real day come?”, in which criticism of the novel “On the Eve” and Turgenev’s work as a whole was voiced;
Turgenev stopped working with Sovremennik and stopped communicating with Nekrasov.
1862 - "Fathers and Sons".
1867 - The novel "Smoke" was published.
1874 - In the restaurants of Rich or Pele, the notorious bachelor dinners are held with the participation of Edmond Goncourt, Flaubert, Emile Zola, Daudet and Turgenev.
1877 - The novel "Nov" was created.
1879 The writer was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford University.
1880 – Turgenev participated in the celebrations dedicated to the opening in Moscow of the first monument to the great Russian poet A. S. Pushkin.
1883, August 22 (September 3) Turgenev died of myxosarcoma. His body, according to the will, was transported to St. Petersburg and buried at the Volkovo cemetery.
Option 3
The life of I. Turgenev in dates and facts
9 November 1818G. - Born in Orel, in a noble family. Childhood years were spent in the estate of Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, which became the prototype of the noble "family nest", which the writer later repeatedly recreated in his works as a specific phenomenon of Russian culture.
AT 1827 G. the family moved to Moscow, where the systematic education of the young Turgenev began. Having been trained in private boarding schools, he continued his studies at Moscow and St. Petersburg Universities, and then, from 1838to 1840gg., listened to lectures at the University of Berlin. In Germany, the writer became close to talented young representatives of the Russian intelligentsia: N.V. Stankevich, who later created the Moscow philosophical circle, from which many outstanding figures of Russian culture came out, the future revolutionary M.A. Bakunin, as well as the future famous historian and idol of Moscow students in the 1840s–50s. T.N. Granovsky. Upon his return to Russia, he entered the service of the Ministry of the Interior, but soon left it, deciding to devote himself to literary creativity.
1834 year dates back to the first great literary experience of I. Turgenev, a poem "Wall", which was not published during the life of the author, but testified to the presence of his literary inclinations.
AT 1840s- appears in the press as the author of poems, poems, dramas and the first stories approved by the public and literary criticism. Among those who enthusiastically accepted the writer was V.G. Belinsky, who had a significant impact on the development of I. Turgenev's talent.
1847 G.- Turgenev's story " Khor and Kalinich", to which the editors prefaced the subtitle "From the notes of a hunter." This story was a resounding success.
AT 1843 G. Turgenev met the singer Polina Viardot, who became the love of his life.
1852 G.- the appearance of a collection of short stories « ”, perceived not only as a literary, but also as a social and cultural event in the life of Russia.
1850s- the heyday of the writer's talent. At the beginning of this decade, stories were written "Diary of a Superfluous Man" (1850), "Calm"(1854) and others, which served as approaches to the first novel "Rudin"(1856). The model of love relationships outlined in this work was further developed in the stories "Asya" (1858), "The first love"(1860) and « » (1872), forming a kind of trilogy about love; and the theme of the ideological and spiritual quest of the intelligentsia, developed in Rudin, was taken as the basis of the novels "Noble Nest"(1859) and "The Eve"(1860). The discussion about the last novel was the reason for Turgenev's break with Sovremennik, with which he had long-term close relations.
1862 G.- published a novel "Fathers and Sons", which caused fierce disputes between representatives of different socio-political camps and trends. Insulted by the tactless controversy, Turgenev went abroad, where he spent the last 20 years of his life. In France, where the writer mainly lived, he was accepted into a select literary community, to which V. Hugo, P. Merimet, George Sand, E. Goncourt, E. Zola, G. de Maupassant, G. Flaubert belonged.
1867 G.- a novel was written "Smoke", which differed sharply in mood from those previously created and reflected the extremely Westernizing views of the writer. In Russia, this work was received with irritation.
1877 G.- publication of a novel "Nov" further deepened the misunderstanding between the writer and the Russian public.
1878 G.- together with V. Hugo I. Turgenev presided over the International Literary Congress in Paris.
Start 1880sgg. was marked by the appearance of the so-called "mysterious" stories - "Song of Triumphant Love"(1881) and "Clara Milic"(1882), as well as the collection "Poems in Prose"(1877–1882), who became the writer's swan song.
3 September 1883G.- Due to a serious illness, Turgenev died in Bougival in the south of France. The writer was buried at the Volkovo cemetery in St. Petersburg.
Full biography of Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich
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. Turgenev's father, Sergei Nikolaevich, married Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova, who had neither youth nor beauty, but who inherited huge property - solely by calculation. Shortly 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, Spasskoe-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 a sovereign mistress in her possessions, she gave vent to her evil instincts of unrestrained landlord tyranny.
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 author himself, Hunter's notes”, the first who interested him in Russian literature was his mother’s serf valet, who secretly, but with extraordinary solemnity, read to him somewhere in the garden or in a distant room “Rossiada” by Kheraskov.
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 the 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, two of which were published a year later in Sovremennik.
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 Slavophilism that was emerging 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 in 1841, his small poems began to appear in Fatherland Notes, and in 1843 the poem Parasha signed by T. L. was published, very sympathetically received by Belinsky, with whom he soon met and stayed in close friendship 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.
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 "", 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. " Hunter's Notes» soon became famous; 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.
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 out” place, where, among other things, he wrote the story “Mumu”, and then, by administrative procedure, he 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. Since that time, 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).
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 liberation of the peasants, and the result of these meetings was a project for the foundation of the 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 organization of peasant life and the consequences arising from them." This attempt, however, was recognized as "early" and did not receive practical implementation.
In 1862, the novel "Fathers and Sons" appeared, which had an unprecedented success in the literary world, but also delivered many difficult moments to the author. Whole hail sharp reproaches rained down on him as if from the side of conservatives who accused him (pointing to Bazarov's image) in sympathy" nihilists”, in “somersaulting in front of the youth”, and on the part of the latter, who accused Turgenev of slandering the younger generation and betraying 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.
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 Franco-Prussian War Turgenev from Baden-Baden moved 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 " Pushkin's 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.
Biography of Turgenev with quotes
Ivan Turgenev was one of the most important Russian writers of the 19th century.century. The artistic system he created changed the poetics of the novel both in Russia and abroad. His works were praised and severely criticized, and Turgenev spent his whole life looking for a path in them that would lead Russia to well-being and prosperity.
"Poet, talent, aristocrat, handsome"
The family of Ivan Turgenev came from an old family of Tula nobles. His father, Sergei Turgenev, served in the cavalry guard regiment and led a very wasteful lifestyle. To improve his financial situation, he was forced to marry an elderly (by the standards of that time), but very wealthy landowner Varvara Lutovinova. The marriage became unhappy for both of them, their relationship did not work out. Their second son, Ivan, was born two years after the wedding, in 1818, in Orel. Mother wrote in her diary: “... on Monday, the son Ivan was born, 12 inches tall [about 53 centimeters]”. There were three children in the Turgenev family: Nikolai, Ivan and Sergey.
Until the age of nine, Turgenev lived in the Spasskoe-Lutovinovo estate in the Oryol region. His mother had a difficult and contradictory character: her sincere and cordial concern for children was combined with severe despotism, Varvara Turgeneva often beat her sons. However, she invited the best French and German tutors to her children, spoke exclusively in French with her sons, but at the same time remained a fan of Russian literature and read Nikolai Karamzin, Vasily Zhukovsky, Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol.
In 1827 the Turgenevs moved to Moscow so that their children could receive a better education. Three years later, Sergei Turgenev left the family.
When Ivan Turgenev was 15 years old, he entered the verbal department of Moscow University. At the same time, the future writer fell in love with Princess Ekaterina Shakhovskaya for the first time. Shakhovskaya exchanged letters with him, but reciprocated Turgenev's father and thus broke his heart. Later, this story became the basis of Turgenev's story "First Love".
A year later, Sergei Turgenev died, and Varvara and her children moved to St. Petersburg, where Turgenev entered the Faculty of Philosophy at St. Petersburg University. Then he became seriously interested in lyrics and wrote the first work - the dramatic poem "The Wall". Turgenev spoke of her like this:
“A completely absurd work in which, with furious ineptness, a slavish imitation of Byron's Manfred was expressed”.
In total, during the years of study, Turgenev wrote about a hundred poems and several poems. Some of his poems were published by the Sovremennik magazine.
After his studies, 20-year-old Turgenev went to Europe to continue his education. He studied ancient classics, Roman and Greek literature, traveled to France, Holland, Italy. The European way of life struck Turgenev: he came to the conclusion that Russia should get rid of unculturedness, laziness, ignorance, following the Western countries.
In the 1840s, Turgenev returned to his homeland, received a master's degree in Greek and Latin philology from St. Petersburg University, even wrote a dissertation - but did not defend it. Interest in scientific activity replaced the desire to write. It was at this time that Turgenev met Nikolai Gogol, Sergei Aksakov, Alexei Khomyakov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Afanasy Fet and many other writers.
“The other day the poet Turgenev returned from Paris.<…>What a man!<…>Poet, talent, aristocrat, handsome, rich, smart, educated, 25 years old - I don’t know what nature denied him?
Fyodor Dostoevsky, from a letter to his brother
When Turgenev returned to Spasskoe-Lutovinovo, he had an affair with a peasant woman, Avdotya Ivanova, which ended in the girl's pregnancy. Turgenev wanted to marry, but his mother sent Avdotya to Moscow with a scandal, where she gave birth to a daughter, Pelageya. Avdotya Ivanova's parents hastily married her off, and Turgenev recognized Pelageya only a few years later.
In 1843, under the initials of T. L. (Turgenez-Lutovinov), Turgenev's poem "Parash" was published. She was highly appreciated by Vissarion Belinsky, and from that moment their acquaintance grew into a strong friendship - Turgenev even became the godfather of the critic's son.
“This man is extraordinarily intelligent… It is gratifying to meet a man whose original and characteristic opinion, colliding with yours, extracts sparks.”
Vissarion Belinsky
In the same year, Turgenev met Pauline Viardot. Researchers of Turgenev's work are still arguing about the true nature of their relationship. They met in St. Petersburg when the singer arrived in the city on tour. Turgenev often traveled with Polina and her husband, art critic Louis Viardot, around Europe, visiting their Parisian house. His illegitimate daughter Pelageya was brought up in the Viardot family.
Fictionist and playwright
In the late 1840s, Turgenev wrote extensively for the theatre. His plays The Freeloader, The Bachelor, A Month in the Country and The Provincial Girl were very popular with the public and were warmly received by critics.
In 1847, Turgenev's short story "Khor and Kalinich" was published in the Sovremennik magazine, inspired by the writer's hunting trips. A little later, stories from the collection "Notes of a Hunter" were published there. The collection itself was published in 1852. Turgenev called him his "Annibal Oath" - a promise to fight to the end with the enemy, whom he hated since childhood - serfdom.
The Hunter's Notes is marked by such a power of talent that it has a beneficial effect on me; the understanding of nature is often presented to you as a revelation.”
Fedor Tyutchev
It was one of the first works that spoke openly about the troubles and dangers of serfdom. The censor, who allowed the "Notes of a Hunter" to be published, was dismissed from the service with deprivation of his pension by the personal order of Nicholas I, and the collection itself was forbidden to be republished. The censors explained this by the fact that Turgenev, although he poeticized the serfs, criminally exaggerated their suffering from the oppression of the landlords.
In 1856, the writer's first major novel, Rudin, was published, written in just seven weeks. The name of the hero of the novel has become a household name for people whose word does not agree with the deed. Three years later, Turgenev published the novel "The Nest of Nobles", which turned out to be incredibly popular in Russia: every educated person considered it his duty to read it.
“Knowledge of Russian life, and, moreover, knowledge is not bookish, but experienced, taken out of reality, purified and comprehended by the power of talent and reflection, is found in all the works of Turgenev ...”
Dmitry Pisarev
From 1860 to 1861, the Russian Messenger published excerpts from the novel Fathers and Sons. The novel was written on the "topic of the day" and explored the public mood of the time - mainly the views of nihilistic youth. The Russian philosopher and publicist Nikolai Strakhov wrote about him:
“In Fathers and Sons, he showed more clearly than in all other cases that poetry, while remaining poetry ... can actively serve society ...”
The novel was well received by critics, however, did not receive the support of liberals. At this time, Turgenev's relations with many friends became complicated. For example, with Alexander Herzen: Turgenev collaborated with his newspaper Kolokol. Herzen saw the future of Russia in peasant socialism, believing that bourgeois Europe had outlived itself, and Turgenev defended the idea of strengthening cultural ties between Russia and the West.
Sharp criticism fell upon Turgenev after the release of his novel "Smoke". It was a pamphlet novel that equally sharply ridiculed both the conservative Russian aristocracy and the revolutionary-minded liberals. According to the author, everyone scolded him: "both red and white, and from above, and from below, and from the side - especially from the side."
From "Smoke" to "Prose Poems"
After 1871, Turgenev lived in Paris, occasionally returning to Russia. He actively participated in the cultural life of Western Europe and promoted Russian literature abroad. Turgenev communicated and corresponded with Charles Dickens, George Sand, Victor Hugo, Prosper Merimee, Guy de Maupassant, Gustave Flaubert.
In the second half of the 1870s, Turgenev published his most ambitious novel, Nov, in which he portrayed members of the revolutionary movement of the 1870s in a sharply satirical and critical manner.
"Both novels ["Smoke" and "New"] only revealed his ever-increasing alienation from Russia, the first with its impotent bitterness, the second with insufficient information and the absence of any sense of reality in the depiction of the mighty movement of the seventies.
Dmitry Svyatopolk-Mirsky
This novel, like "Smoke", was not accepted by Turgenev's colleagues. For example, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote that Nov was a service to the autocracy. At the same time, the popularity of Turgenev's early stories and novels did not decrease.
The last years of the writer's life became his triumph both in Russia and abroad. Then a cycle of lyrical miniatures "Poems in Prose" appeared. The book was opened by the poem in prose "Village", and completed it "" - the famous anthem about faith in the great destiny of their country:
“In days of doubt, in days of painful reflections about the fate of my homeland, you are my only support and support, O great, powerful, truthful and free Russian language! .. Without you, how not to fall into despair at the sight of everything that happens at home . But it is impossible to believe that such a language was not given to a great people!”
This collection became Turgenev's farewell to life and art.
At the same time, Turgenev met his last love - the actress of the Alexandrinsky Theater Maria Savina. She was 25 years old when she played the role of Verochka in Turgenev's play A Month in the Country. Seeing her on stage, Turgenev was amazed and openly confessed his feelings to the girl. Maria considered Turgenev more of a friend and mentor, and their marriage never took place.
In recent years, Turgenev was seriously ill. Parisian doctors diagnosed him with angina pectoris and intercostal neuralgia. Turgenev died on September 3, 1883 in Bougival near Paris, where lavish farewells were held. The writer was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovskoye cemetery. The death of the writer was a shock to his fans - and the procession of people who came to say goodbye to Turgenev stretched for several kilometers.
Interesting facts from the life of Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich
Option 1
Interesting facts from the life of Turgenev.
- As a child, the future writer often got cuffs from his mother, women with a very complex character and harsh disposition.
- Turgenev had a very large head. When, after the death of the writer, his brain was weighed, it turned out that he weighs about 2 kg, which is much more than that of the average person.
- Slightly pretentious appearance Turgenev gave his manner of dressing. Bright ties, golden buttons - all this looked rather unusual by the standards of the fashion of those times.
- Because of his gentle nature, the future writer was teased at school by his peers.
- In his youth, Turgenev was in love with Princess Shakhovskaya, who, however, preferred his father to the future writer.
- Turgenev had a high and thin voice that did not match his heroic physique, which he was very embarrassed about.
- Once Turgenev provoked Leo Tolstoy to a duel with pistols. Fortunately, the duel did not take place.
- Turgenev considered the famous poet Nekrasov his best friend.
- In his youth, Turgenev, living in Germany, carelessly squandered his parents' money, and his mother decided to teach him a lesson. She sent him a parcel loaded with bricks, and the unsuspecting son paid for its delivery with the last money left to him, after which he was severely disappointed.
- Afanasy Fet in his memoirs described that Turgenev laughed like crazy - at the top of his voice, clutching his stomach, falling on all fours and rolling on the floor.
- Turgenev was a terrible perfectionist - he changed his underwear twice a day, constantly wiped himself with a sponge moistened with cologne, and before going to bed he always put all the things in the apartment in their places.
- Throughout his life, Turgenev actively advocated the abolition of serfdom.
- Due to a conflict with the ruling dynasty, Turgenev was exiled under house arrest to his estate, where he lived for a long time, remaining under police supervision. The conflict arose because of the views of the writer, which he never considered it necessary to hide.
- Turgenev, being in a good mood, loved to sing, but due to his lack of an ear for music, this habit of his did not meet with the approval of those around him.
- Of all the games, the writer preferred chess, and he was a very strong player.
- One of Turgenev's close friends was the famous literary critic Belinsky.
- Already in childhood, Turgenev mastered German, French and English.
- Turgenev met his death in France, in a town called Bougival.
Option 2
Facts from the biography of Turgenev
- The mother of the future writer was a domineering and despotic lady, and she often beat her children. Her pet, young Ivan, also got it.
- Both by mother and father, Turgenev is a descendant of noble families.
- At the age of 14, Turgenev entered the university. At the same age, the famous poet Tyutchev also became a student.
- His favorite treat was gooseberry jam. However, the writer always loved to eat well, and at the table did not deny himself anything.
- Turgenev spent more time abroad than in Russia.
- Once, with a weapon in his hands, he stood up for a serf girl who was intended to be returned to her rightful owners. As a result, a criminal case was opened against him. The writer was and remained an opponent of serfdom all his life.
- Anatomists found that Turgenev's brain weighed about two kilograms, which is significantly more than the brain of most other prominent people.
- While studying in Germany, young Turgenev carelessly spent everything that his mother sent him. This way of life bothered his harsh parent, and she stopped the allowance. Soon he received from her a large and heavy parcel, the delivery of which had not yet been paid. Having paid the last money for her, he discovered that the stern mother had stuffed the parcel with bricks.
- Turgenev wrote not only in Russian, but also in French.
- The writer's voice was high and thin, which contrasted sharply with his heroic physique.
- Laughing, he lost control of himself. According to contemporaries, he could easily fall on all fours or roll on the floor in a fit of laughter.
- Turgenev was incredibly clean, changing underwear at least twice a day. In addition, he was an obvious perfectionist - he could get out of bed at night, remembering that he had not put some thing in its place.
- Turgenev wrote his famous story "Mumu" while under arrest for a month. Under arrest by royal order, he fell for the publication of one of his articles.
Option 3
Two hundred years ago, the writer Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born. On his works - "Mu-mu", "Notes of a hunter", "Fathers and Sons" - several generations have grown up. These books are included in the compulsory part of the school curriculum. But today "MIR 24" decided to talk about little-known facts from the life of Turgenev.
For example, in childhood, little Vanya was often beaten by his own mother, Varvara Petrovna. She was a real tyrant in the family. And it was she who became the prototype of the cruel lady in the story "Mumu", who forced Gerasim to drown the dog.
Despite a difficult childhood, Turgenev grew up as a very gifted boy. Already at the age of 14 he entered Moscow University. At 18 he became a candidate of philosophical sciences, and at 23 - a master's degree.
By the way, scientists have found that Turgenev's brain weighed two kilograms. This is a lot - 600 grams more than the average person. But Ivan Sergeevich's skull walls were very thin, and he could lose consciousness even from the slightest blow to his head.
An interesting fact - once Turgenev and Leo Tolstoy almost agreed to a duel. The latter insulted the illegitimate daughter of Ivan Sergeevich. As a result, the writers refused to shoot themselves, but they held a grudge against each other and did not communicate for 17 years.
In his 64 years, Turgenev never married. And all his life he was in love with the French singer Pauline Viardot. But she was married, which, however, did not prevent them from dating. According to some sources, they even lived together for some time. And Viardot also raised Turgenev's illegitimate daughter.
Turgenev is, without a doubt, a world-famous writer. The number of performances staged based on his works is simply impossible to count. But there are more than a hundred screen adaptations. And not only in Russia. Films based on Turgenev were shot in Europe, the USA and even Japan.
Russian writer, corresponding member of the Puturburg Academy of Sciences (1880). In the cycle of stories "Notes of a Hunter" (1847 52) he showed the high spiritual qualities and talents 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 - raznochintsy and democrats, images of selfless Russian women. In the novel "Smoke" (1867) and "Nov" (1877) he depicted the life of Russian peasants abroad, the populist movement in Russia. On the slope of his life he created the lyric-philosophical Poems in Prose (1882). Master of Language and Psychological Analysis. Turgenev had a significant impact on the development of Russian and world literature.
Biography
Born October 28 (November 9 n.s.) in Orel in a noble family. Father, Sergei Nikolaevich, a retired hussar officer, came from an old noble family; mother, Varvara Petrovna, 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."
With the family moving to Moscow in 1827, the future writer was sent to a boarding school and spent about two and a half years there. Further education continued under the guidance of private teachers. Since childhood, he knew French, German, English.
In the autumn of 1833, before reaching the age of fifteen, he entered Moscow University, and the following year he transferred to St. Petersburg University, from which he graduated in 1936 in the verbal department of the philosophical faculty.
In May 1838 he went to Berlin to listen to lectures on classical philology and philosophy. He met and became friends with N. Stankevich and M. Bakunin, meetings with whom were of much greater importance than the lectures of Berlin professors. He spent more than two academic years abroad, combining studies with long trips: he traveled around Germany, visited Holland and France, and lived in Italy for several months.
Returning to his homeland in 1841, he settled in Moscow, where he prepared for the master's exams and attended literary circles and salons: he met Gogol, Aksakov, Khomyakov. On one of the trips to St. Petersburg with Herzen.
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.
In 1843, Turgenev entered the service of an official in the "special office" of the Minister of the Interior, where he served for two years. In the same year, an acquaintance with Belinsky and his entourage took place. Turgenev's social and literary views during this period were determined mainly by the influence of Belinsky. Turgenev published his poems, poems, dramatic works, novels. The critic guided his work with his assessments and friendly advice.
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. Even before leaving, he submitted an essay "Khor and Kalinich" to Sovremennik, which was a resounding success. The following essays from folk life were published in the same magazine for five years. In 1852 they came out as a separate book called Notes of a Hunter.
In 1850, the writer returned to Russia, as an author and critic he collaborated in Sovremennik, which became a kind of center of Russian literary life.
Impressed by Gogol's death in 1852, he published an obituary banned by the censors. For this he was arrested for a month, and then sent to his estate under the supervision of the police without the right to travel outside the Oryol province.
In 1853 it was allowed to come to St. Petersburg, but the right to travel abroad was returned only in 1856.
Along with the "hunting" stories, Turgenev wrote several plays: "The Freeloader" (1848), "The Bachelor" (1849), "A Month in the Country" (1850), "Provincial Girl" (1850). During his arrest and exile, he created the stories "Mumu" (1852) and "Inn" (1852) on a "peasant" theme. However, he was increasingly occupied with the life of the Russian intelligentsia, to whom the novel "The Diary of a Superfluous Man" (1850) is dedicated; "Yakov Pasynkov" (1855); "Correspondence" (1856). Work on stories facilitated the transition to the novel.
In the summer of 1855, the novel "Rudin" was written in Spassky, and in subsequent years, novels: in 1859 "The Noble Nest"; in 1860 "On the Eve", in 1862 "Fathers and Sons".
The situation in Russia was changing rapidly: the government announced its intention to free the peasants from serfdom, preparations for the reform began, giving rise to numerous plans for the upcoming reorganization. Turgenev took an active part in this process, became Herzen's unspoken collaborator, sending accusatory material to the Kolokol magazine, and collaborated with Sovremennik, which gathered around him the main forces of advanced literature and journalism. At first, writers of different trends acted as a united front, but sharp disagreements soon appeared. There was a break between Turgenev and the Sovremennik magazine, the cause of which was Dobrolyubov's article "When will the real day come?" Dedicated to Turgenev's novel "On the Eve", in which the critic predicted the imminent appearance of the Russian Insarov, the approach of the day of the revolution. Turgenev did not accept such an interpretation of the novel and asked Nekrasov not to publish this article. Nekrasov took the side of Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky, and Turgenev left Sovremennik. By 1862 1863 he had a polemic with Herzen on the question of the further paths of development of Russia, which led to a divergence between them. Pinning hopes on reforms "from above", Turgenev considered Herzen's faith in the revolutionary and socialist aspirations of the peasantry unfounded.
Since 1863, the writer settled with the Viardot family in Baden-Baden. At the same time, he began to collaborate with the liberal-bourgeois Vestnik Evropy, in which all his subsequent major works were published, including his last novel, Nov (1876).
Following the Viardot family, Turgenev moved to Paris. During the days of the Paris Commune, he lived in London, after its defeat he returned to France, where he remained until the end of his life, spending the winters in Paris, and the summer months outside the city, in Bougival, and making short trips to Russia every spring.
The public upsurge of the 1870s in Russia, connected 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.
A social revival began among the student youth, among the general strata of society. Turgenev's popularity, once shaken by his break with Sovremennik, has now recovered again and is growing rapidly. In February 1879, when he arrived in Russia, he was honored at literary evenings and ceremonial dinners, strenuously inviting him to stay in his homeland. Turgenev was even inclined to stop his voluntary exile, but this intention was not carried out. In the spring of 1882, the first signs of a serious illness appeared, which deprived the writer of the opportunity to move (cancer of the spine).
On August 22 (September 3, n.s.), 1883, Turgenev died in Bougival. According to the writer's will, his body was transported to Russia and buried in St. Petersburg.
Books to read
Screen adaptation of the classics
Biography of the writer
Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich (1818-1883) - prose writer, poet, playwright. Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was born in Orel in 1818. Soon the Turgenev family moved to Spasskoe-Lutovinovo, which became the poetic cradle of the future famous writer. In Spassky, Turgenev learned to deeply love and feel nature. He was not yet fifteen years old when he entered Moscow University in the verbal department. Turgenev did not study at Moscow University for long: his parents transferred him to the philosophical department of St. Petersburg University. After graduating, he went to Germany to complete his education, and in 1842 he returned from abroad. Having passed the exam in philosophy, he wanted to become a professor, but at that time all the departments of philosophy were closed in Russia. In 1843, Turgenev's literary activity begins. His poem "Parasha" came out, which he showed criticism to V. G. Belinsky, and this began a friendship between them. In 1847, Turgenev's essay "Khor and Kalinich" was published in Sovremennik, which immediately attracted the reader's attention. In 1852, Notes of a Hunter was published as a separate book, which can be called an artistic chronicle of Russian folk life, because they reflect the thoughts of the people, and peasant grief, and various forms of protest against the exploiting landowners. Turgenev achieves the greatest depth of generalization in the depiction of the "humane landowner" Arkady Pavlovich Penochkin ("Burgeon"). This is a liberal who claims to be educated and cultured, imitating everything Western European, but behind this ostentatious culture lies a “scoundrel with fine manners,” as V. G. Belinsky aptly said about him. In "Notes of a Hunter", and later in stories, novels, short stories, Turgenev portrays simple peasants with deep sympathy. He shows that in conditions of serf oppression and poverty, the peasants are able to preserve human dignity, faith in a better life. In many of his works, Turgenev shows the inhumanity of the feudal landlords, the slavish position of the peasants. One of these works is the story "Mumu", written in 1852. The range of Turgenev's creativity is extraordinarily wide. He writes stories, plays, novels, in which he illuminates the life of various strata of Russian society. In the novel "Rudin", written in 1855, its characters belong to that galaxy of intellectuals who were fond of philosophy and dreamed of a bright future for Russia, but practically could not do anything for this future. In 1859, the novel "The Nest of Nobles" was published, which was a huge and universal success. In the 1950s and 1960s, people of action came to replace Rudin and Lavretsky. Turgenev depicted them in the images of Insarov and Bazarov (the novels “On the Eve” (1860), “Fathers and Sons” (1862), showing their mental and moral superiority over representatives of the noble intelligentsia. Yevgeny Bazarov is a typical democrat-raznochinets, naturalist-materialist, fighter for the enlightenment of the people, for the liberation of science from moldy traditions.In the 70s, when populism entered the public arena, Turgenev published the novel "Nov", whose characters represent various types of populism.Turgenev created a whole gallery of images of charming Russian women - from peasant women Akulina and Lukerya (“Date”, “Living Powers”) to the revolutionary-minded girl from “The Threshold”. The charm of Turgenev's heroines, despite the difference in their psychological types, lies in the fact that their characters are revealed at the moments of manifestation of the most noble feelings, that their love is portrayed as sublime, pure, ideal. Turgenev is an unsurpassed master of landscape. Pictures of nature in his works are distinguished by concreteness, reality, and visibility. The author describes nature not as a dispassionate observer; he clearly and clearly expresses his attitude towards her. In the late 70s - early 80s, Turgenev wrote the cycle "Poems in Prose". These are lyrical miniatures written in the form of either philosophical and psychological reflections or elegiac memoirs. The social content of Turgenev's works, the depth of the depiction of human characters in them, the magnificent description of nature - all this excites the modern reader.Analysis of creativity and ideological and artistic originality of works
Ivan Sergeevich TURGENEV (1818–1883)
The work of I.S. Turgenev is a striking phenomenon not only in the history of Russian literature, but also in the history of social thought. The writer's works have always caused a strong reaction in society. The novel "Fathers and Sons" "provoked" such a controversy in criticism, the like of which is difficult to find in the history of Russian social thought. The writer in each new work responded to the social life of his time. A keen interest in the pressing problems of our time is a typological characteristic of Turgenev's realism.
N. Dobrolyubov, noting this feature of Turgenev's work, wrote in the article “When will the real day come?”: “A lively attitude to modernity has strengthened Turgenev's constant success with the reading public. We can safely say that if Turgenev raised any issue in his story, if he depicted some new side of social relations, this serves as a guarantee that this issue is being raised or will soon be raised in the minds of an educated society, that this new side. .. will soon speak out before the eyes of everyone.”
With such a "live" connection with time, the peculiarities of the writer's worldview and political views played an important role.
manifested themselves in the artistic types he created of the “extra person” (Rudin, Lavretsky), the “new person” (Insarov, Bazarov), the “Turgenev girl” (Lisa Kalitina, Natalya Lasunskaya).
Turgenev belonged to the camp of liberal nobles. The writer took a consistent anti-serf position, hated despotism. Proximity in the 40s to Belinsky and Nekrasov, cooperation in the 50s with the Sovremennik magazine contributed to his convergence with the advanced social ideology. However, fundamental differences in the question of ways to change life (he categorically denied the revolution and relied on reform from above) led Turgenev to break with Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov, leaving the Sovremennik magazine. The reason for the split in Sovremennik was Dobrolyubov’s article “When will the real day come?” about Turgenev's novel "On the Eve". The bold revolutionary conclusions of the critic frightened Turgenev. In 1879, he wrote about his political and ideological predilections: “I have always been and still remain a “gradualist”, a liberal of the old cut in the English dynastic sense, a person who expects reforms only from above, a principled opponent of the revolution.
Today's reader, to a lesser extent than the writer's contemporaries, is concerned about the political sharpness of his works. Turgenev is of interest to us primarily as a realist artist who contributed to the development of Russian literature. Turgenev strove for fidelity and completeness of the reflection of reality. At the heart of his aesthetics lay the demand for the "reality of life", he sought, in his own words, "to the best of my strength and skill, conscientiously and impartially portray and embody in the proper types and what Shakespeare calls "the very image and pressure of time", and that rapidly changing physiognomy of the Russian people of the cultural layer, which mainly served as the subject of my observations. He created his own style, his own style of narration, in which brevity, brevity of presentation did not contradict the reflection of complex conflicts and characters.
Turgenev's work developed under the influence of Pushkin's discoveries in prose. The poetics of Turgenev's prose was distinguished by an emphasis on objectivity, on the literary nature of the language, on a concise, expressive psychological analysis using the technique of silence. An important role in his works is played by everyday background, given in expressive and concise sketches. Turgenev's landscape is a universally recognized artistic discovery of Russian realism. Turgenev's lyrical landscape, manor poetry with motifs of withering "noble nests" influenced the work of writers of the 20th century - I. Bunin, B. Zaitsev.
The ability to respond to a topic relevant to the era, the ability to create a psychologically reliable character, the lyricism of the narrative manner and the purity of the language are the main features of Turgenev's realism. Turgenev's significance goes beyond the limits of a national writer. He was a kind of mediator between Russian and Western European culture. Since 1856, he almost constantly lived abroad (this is how the circumstances of his personal life developed), which did not in the least prevent him, as already emphasized, from being in the thick of events in Russian life. He actively promoted Russian literature in the West, and in Russia - European. In 1878 he was elected Vice-President of the International Literary Congress in Paris, and in 1879 Oxford University awarded him the degree of Doctor of Common Law. At the end of his life, Turgenev wrote a prose poem "The Russian Language", which expresses the strength of his love for Russia and faith in the spiritual power of the people.
The creative path of I.S. Turgenev essentially began with the publication in the journal Sovremennik in 1847 of the story “Khor and Kalinich”. Although until that time he wrote poems and poems in a romantic spirit (“Evening”, “Steno”, “Parasha”), novels and short stories (“Andrey Kolosov”, “Three Portraits”), only this publication marked the birth of the writer Turgenev.
During his long life in literature, Turgenev created significant works in various genres of the epic kind. In addition to the aforementioned anti-serf stories, he became the author of the stories Asya, First Love, and others, united by the theme of the fate of the noble intelligentsia, and the social novels Rudin, The Noble Nest, and others.
Turgenev left a mark on Russian dramaturgy. His plays "To the Breadmaker", "A Month in the Country" are still included in the repertoire of our theaters. At the end of his life, he turned to a new genre for himself and created the cycle “Poems in Prose”.
The title of Turgenev's novel has nothing to do with the opposition of the characters in terms of family and age. In the novel, the ideological struggle of the era is artistically comprehended: the antagonism of the positions of liberal nobles (“fathers”) and raznochintsi-democrats (“children”).
As early as 1859, Dobrolyubov, reflecting on the social situation in Russia, ironically characterized the generation of the forties as "a wise lot of older people ... with lofty, but somewhat abstract aspirations." “When we say “older,” noted a democratic critic, “everywhere we mean people who have outlived their youthful strength and are no longer able to understand the modern movement and the needs of the new time; such people are found even between twenty-five years. In the same place, Dobrolyubov also reflects on the representatives of the “new” generation. They refuse to worship lofty but abstract principles. “Their final goal is not perfect slavish fidelity to abstract higher ideas, but bringing “the greatest possible benefit to humanity,” writes the critic. The polarity of ideological attitudes is obvious, the confrontation between "fathers" and "children" is ripe in life itself. Sensitive to modernity, Turgenev the artist could not but respond to him. The collision of Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov as a typical representative of the generation of the 40s with Evgeny Bazarov, the bearer of new ideas, is inevitable. Their main life and worldview positions are revealed in the dialogues-disputes.
Dialogues occupy a large place in the novel: their compositional dominance emphasizes the ideological, ideological nature of the main conflict. Turgenev, as already noted, was a liberal in his convictions, which did not prevent him from showing in the novel the inconsistency of the heroes - liberal nobles in all spheres of life. The writer definitely and rather harshly assessed the generation of "fathers". In a letter to Sluchevsky, he noted: “My whole story is directed against the nobility as an advanced class. Look into the faces of Nikolai Petrovich, Pavel Petrovich, Arkady. Weakness and lethargy or limitation. Aesthetic feeling made me
Let's just take good representatives of the nobility in order to prove my theme all the more correctly: if cream is bad, what about milk? They are the best of the nobles - and that is why I have chosen them to prove their failure. The father of the Kirsanov brothers is a military general in 1812, a simple, even rude man, "pulling his webbing all his life." The life of his sons is different. Nikolai Petrovich, who left the university in 1835, began his service under the patronage of his father in the "Ministry of appanages". However, he left her shortly after his marriage. Laconically, but succinctly, the author tells about his family life: “The spouses lived very well and quietly, they almost never parted. Ten years have passed like a dream ... And Arkady grew and grew - also well and quietly. The narration is colored with soft author's irony. Nikolai Petrovich has no public interests. The university youth of the hero took place in the era of the Nikolaev reaction, and the only sphere of application of his forces was love, family. Pavel Petrovich, a brilliant officer, left his career and the world because of his romantic love for the mysterious Princess R. The lack of social activity, social tasks, lack of housekeeping skills leads the heroes to ruin. Nikolai Petrovich, not knowing where to get the money, sells the forest. Being a mild-mannered man of liberal convictions, he is trying to reform the economy, to alleviate the position of the peasants. But his "farm" does not give the expected income. The author notes on this occasion: "Their economy creaked like an unoiled wheel, cracked like home-made furniture made of raw wood." Expressive and meaningful is the description of the wretched villages that the characters pass by at the beginning of the novel. Nature is a match for them: "Like beggars in tatters stood roadside willows with peeled bark and broken branches ...". A sad picture of Russian life arose, from which "the heart contracted." All this is a consequence of the unfavorable social structure, the failure of the landlord class, including the subjectively very attractive Kirsanov brothers. Relying on the strength of the aristocracy, high principles, so dear to Pavel Petrovich, will not help to change the socio-economic situation in Russia. The disease has gone far. We need strong means, revolutionary transformations, Bazarov, a "democrat to the end of his nails," believes.
Bazarov is the central character in the novel, it is he who is the hero of time. This is a man of action, a naturalist materialist, a democrat-educator. Personality in all respects antagonistically opposed to the Kirsanov brothers. He is from the generation of "children". However, in the image of Bazarov, the contradictions of Turgenev's worldview and creativity were more pronounced.
Bazarov's political views contain some of the features inherent in the leaders of the revolutionary democracy of the 60s. He denies social foundations; hates "damned barchuks"; seeks to "clear a place" for a future properly arranged life. But all the same, nihilism, which Turgenev identified with revolutionism, was decisive in his political views. In a letter to Sluchevsky, he wrote like this: "... and if he is called a nihilist, then it must be considered: a revolutionary." Nihilism was an extreme trend in the revolutionary democratic movement and did not define it. But the absolute nihilism of Bazarov in relation to art, love, nature, emotional experiences was the author's exaggeration. There was no such degree of denial in the outlook of the sixties.
Bazarov attracts with his desire for practical activities, he dreams of “breaking off many cases”, however, we do not know which ones. His ideal is a man of action. In the Kirsanov estate, he is constantly engaged in natural science experiments, and having arrived at his parents, he begins to treat the surrounding peasants. For Bazarov, the essence of life is important, because he is so dismissive of its external side - his clothes, appearance, demeanor.
The cult of deeds, the idea of benefit sometimes turn in Bazarov into naked utilitarianism. In terms of the direction of his worldview, he is closer to Pisarev than to Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov.
Bazarov's relationship with the common people is contradictory. Undoubtedly, he is closer to him than the perfumed, prim Pavel Petrovich, but the peasants do not understand either his behavior or his goals.
Bazarov is shown by Turgenev in an environment alien to himself, he, in fact, has no like-minded people. Arkady is a temporary companion who has fallen under the influence of a strong friend, his convictions are superficial. Kukshina and Sitnikov are epigones, a parody of the "new man" and his ideals. Bazarov is alone, which makes his figure tragic. But there is in his personality and internal dissonance. Bazarov proclaims integrity, but in his nature it just does not exist. At the heart of his worldview lies not only the denial of recognized authorities, but also confidence in the absolute freedom of his own feelings and moods, beliefs. It is this freedom that he demonstrates in a dispute with Pavel Petrovich after evening tea, in the tenth chapter of the novel. But a meeting with Odintsova and love for her unexpectedly show him that he does not have this kind of freedom. He is powerless to cope with that feeling, the very existence of which he so easily and boldly denied. Being an ideological maximalist, Bazarov is not able to give up his convictions, but he is not able to win his heart either. This duality causes him great suffering. His own feelings, the life of his heart dealt a terrible blow to his harmonious worldview system. Before us is no longer a self-confident person, ready to destroy the world, but, as Dostoevsky said, "restless, yearning Bazarov." His death is accidental, but it manifested a vital pattern. Bazarov's courage in death confirms the originality of his nature and even the heroic beginning in him. “To die the way Bazarov died is the same as to accomplish a feat,” wrote Pisarev.
Turgenev's novel about the hero of time, the "new man" Bazarov, is written with impeccable skill. First of all, it manifested itself in the creation of images of characters. The analytical portrait of the hero gives him a capacious socio-psychological description. So, “a beautiful hand with long pink nails, a hand that seemed even more beautiful from the delicate whiteness of a mitten buttoned with a single large opal ...” emphasizes the aristocracy of Pavel Petrovich, along with other details of the portrait, indicates the romantic nature of this character. “A long hoodie with tassels” and “a naked red hand”, which Bazarov does not immediately give to Nikolai Petrovich, these portrait details speak eloquently of Bazarov’s democracy and his independence.
With great skill, the author conveys the originality of speech
BEET FORMULA. Turgenev
"Fathers and Sons" is perhaps the most noisy and scandalous book in Russian literature. Avdotya Panaeva, who did not like Turgenev very much, wrote: “I don’t remember that any literary work made so much noise and aroused so many conversations as Turgenev’s story Fathers and Sons. It can be positively said that Fathers and Sons were read even by such people who have not taken books in their hands since school.
It is precisely the fact that since then the book has been picked up just at the school bench, and only occasionally after, has deprived Turgenev's work of a romantic halo of resounding popularity. "Fathers and Sons" is perceived as a work of social service. And in fact, the novel is such a work. It is simply necessary, apparently, to separate what arose due to the author's intention, and what - contrary to, by virtue of the very nature of art, which desperately resists attempts to put it at the service of anything.
Turgenev quite succinctly described the new phenomenon in his book. A definite, concrete, today's phenomenon. Such a mood is already set at the very beginning of the novel: “What, Peter? can’t you see it yet?” he asked on May 20, 1859, going out on a low porch without a hat ...
It was very significant for the author and for the reader that such a year was in the yard. Previously, Bazarov could not appear. The achievements of the 1840s prepared for his arrival. The society was strongly impressed by natural scientific discoveries: the law of conservation of energy, the cellular structure of organisms. It turned out that all the phenomena of life can be reduced to the simplest chemical and physical processes, expressed in an accessible and convenient formula. Focht's book, the same one that Arkady Kirsanov gives his father to read - "Strength and Matter" - taught: the brain secretes thought, like the liver - bile. Thus, the very highest human activity - thinking - turned into a physiological mechanism that can be traced and described. There were no secrets.
Therefore, Bazarov easily and simply transforms the basic position of the new science, adapting it for different occasions. “You study the anatomy of the eye: where can you get, as you say, a mysterious look? This is all romanticism, nonsense, rot, art,” he says to Arkady. And logically ends: "Let's go and watch the beetle."
(Bazarov quite rightly contrasts two worldviews - scientific and artistic. Only their clash will end differently than it seems inevitable to him. Actually, Turgenev's book is about this - more precisely, this is her role in the history of Russian literature.)
In general, Bazarov's ideas boil down to "watching the beetle" - instead of pondering over mysterious views. The beetle is the key to all problems. Bazarov's perception of the world is dominated by biological categories. In such a system of thinking, a beetle is simpler, a person is more complicated. Society is also an organism, only even more developed and complex than a person.
Turgenev saw a new phenomenon and was frightened of it. In these unprecedented people, an unknown force was felt. In order to understand it, he began to write down: "I painted all these faces, as if I were painting mushrooms, leaves, trees; my eyes were sore - I began to draw."
Of course, one should not completely trust the author's coquetry. But it is true that Turgenev tried his best to maintain objectivity. And achieved this. As a matter of fact, this is precisely what made such a strong impression on the society of that time: it was not clear - for whom Turgenev?
The narrative fabric itself is extremely objectified. All the time one feels a zero degree of writing, uncharacteristic for Russian literature, where it is a question of a social phenomenon. In general, reading "Fathers and Sons" leaves a strange impression of a lack of alignment of the plot, looseness of the composition. And this is also the result of an attitude towards objectivity: as if not a novel is being written, but notebooks, notes for memory.
Of course, one should not overestimate the importance of intention in belles-lettres. Turgenev is an artist, and this is the main thing. The characters in the book are alive. The language is bright. How wonderfully Bazarov says about Odintsova: "A rich body. At least now to the anatomical theater."
But nevertheless, the scheme appears through the verbal fabric. Turgenev wrote a novel with a tendency. It's not that the author openly takes sides, but that the social problem is put at the forefront. This is a novel on the subject. That is, as they would say now - engaged art.
However, here a clash of scientific and artistic worldviews occurs, and the same miracle occurs that Bazarov completely denied. The book is by no means exhausted by the scheme of confrontation between the old and the new in Russia in the late 50s of the 19th century. And not because the author's talent built up high-quality artistic material on the speculative frame, which has independent value. The key to "Fathers and Sons" lies not above the scheme, but below it - in a deep philosophical problem that goes beyond both the century and the country.
The novel "Fathers and Sons" is about the collision of a civilizing impulse with the order of culture. The fact that the world, reduced to a formula, turns into chaos.
Civilization is a vector, culture is a scalar. Civilization is made up of ideas and beliefs. Culture summarizes techniques and skills. The invention of the cistern is a sign of civilization. The fact that every house has a flush tank is a sign of culture.
Bazarov is a free and sweeping bearer of ideas. This looseness of his is presented in Turgenev's novel with mockery, but also with admiration. Here is one of the remarkable conversations: "- ... However, we philosophized quite a lot. "Nature evokes the silence of a dream," said Pushkin. "He never said anything like that," said Arkady. as a poet. By the way, he must have served in the military. - Pushkin was never a military man! - For mercy, he has on every page: "To fight, to fight! for the honor of Russia!"
It is clear that Bazarov is talking nonsense. But at the same time, something very accurately guesses in the reading and mass perception of Pushkin by Russian society .. Such courage is the privilege of a free mind. Enslaved thinking operates with ready-made dogmas. Uninhibited thinking turns a hypothesis into a hyperbole, a hyperbole into a dogma. This is the most attractive thing in Bazarov. But the most frightening thing, too.
Such Bazarov was remarkably shown by Turgenev. His hero is not a philosopher, not a thinker. When he speaks at length, it is usually from popular scientific writings. When brief, he speaks sharply and sometimes witty. But the point is not in the ideas themselves that Bazarov expounds, but in the way of thinking, in absolute freedom ("Rafael is not worth a penny").
And Bazarov is opposed not by his main opponent - Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov - but by the way, order, respect for which Kirsanov professes ("Without principles taken on faith, one cannot take a step, one cannot breathe").
Turgenev destroys Bazarov, confronting him with the very idea of a way of life. The author guides his hero through the book, consistently arranging exams for him in all spheres of life - friendship, enmity, love, family ties. And Bazarov consistently fails everywhere. The series of these examinations constitutes the plot of the novel.
Despite the differences in circumstances, Bazarov suffers defeats for the same reason: he invades order, rushing like a lawless comet - and burns out.
His friendship with Arkady, so devoted and faithful, ends in failure. Attachment does not withstand the tests of strength, which are carried out in such barbaric ways as the reviling of Pushkin and other authorities. The bride of Arkady Katya accurately formulates: "He is predatory, and we are tame." Manual
means living by the rules, keeping order.
The way of life is sharply hostile to Bazarov and in his love for Odintsova. In the book, this is persistently emphasized - even by a simple repetition of literally the same words. “What do you need Latin names for?” Bazarov asked. “Everything needs order,” she answered.
And then, even more clearly, “the order that she established in her house and in life is described. She strictly adhered to it and forced others to obey him. Everything during the day was done at a certain time ... Bazarov did not like this measured, somewhat solemn correctness of daily life; “like rolling on rails,” he assured.
Odintsova is frightened by the scope and uncontrollability of Bazarov, and the worst accusation in her lips is the words: "I begin to suspect that you are prone to exaggeration." Hyperbole - the strongest and most effective trump card of Bazarov's thinking - is regarded as a violation of the norm.
The clash of chaos with the norm exhausts the theme of enmity, which is very important in the novel. Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov is also, like Bazarov, not a thinker. He is unable to oppose Bazarov's pressure with any articulated ideas and arguments. But Kirsanov acutely feels the danger of the very fact of Bazarov’s existence, while focusing not on thoughts and not even on words: “You deign to find my habits, my toilet, my neatness funny ... Kirsanov defends these seemingly trifles, because instinctively understands that the sum of trifles is culture. The same culture in which Pushkin, Raphael, clean nails and an evening walk are naturally distributed. Bazarov poses a threat to all this.
The civilizer Bazarov believes that somewhere there is a reliable formula for well-being and happiness, which you just need to find and offer to humanity ("Fix society, and there will be no diseases"). For the sake of finding this formula, some insignificant trifles can be sacrificed. And since any civilizer always deals with an already existing, established world order, he goes by the opposite method: not creating something anew, but first destroying what is already there.
Kirsanov is convinced that prosperity itself
and happiness and consist in accumulation, summation and preservation. The uniqueness of the formula is opposed by the diversity of the system. You can't start a new life on Monday.
The pathos of destruction and reorganization is so unacceptable to Turgenev that it forces Bazarov to ultimately lose outright to Kirsanov.
The climactic event is a finely crafted duel scene. Depicted as a whole as an absurdity, the duel, however, is not out of place for Kirsanov. She is part of his heritage, his world, his culture, rules and "principles". Bazarov, on the other hand, looks pitiful in a duel, because he is alien to the system itself, which gave rise to such phenomena as a duel. He is forced to fight here on foreign territory. Turgenev even suggests that against Bazarov - something much more important and powerful than Kirsanov with a pistol: "Pavel Petrovich seemed to him a big forest, with which he still had to fight." In other words, at the barrier is nature itself, nature, the world order.
And Bazarov is finally finished off when it becomes clear why Odintsova renounced him: "She forced herself to reach a certain line, forced herself to look beyond her - and saw behind her not even an abyss, but emptiness ... or disgrace."
This is an important confession. Turgenev denies even greatness to the chaos that Bazarov brings, leaving only one bare disorder.
That is why Bazarov dies humiliatingly and pitifully. Although here the author retains complete objectivity, showing the strength of mind and courage of the hero. Pisarev even believed that by his behavior in the face of death, Bazarov put on the scales that last weight, which, ultimately, pulled in his direction.
But the cause of Bazarov's death is much more significant - a scratch on his finger. The paradox of the death of a young, flourishing, outstanding person from such an insignificant reason creates a scale that makes you think. It was not a scratch that killed Bazarov, but nature itself. He again invaded with his crude lancet (literally this time) of the transducer into the routine of life and death - and fell victim to it. The smallness of the cause here only emphasizes the inequality of forces. It's aware
and Bazarov himself: "Yes, go and try to deny death. She denies you, and that's it!"
Turgenev killed Bazarov not because he did not guess how to adapt this new phenomenon in Russian society, but because he discovered the only law that, even theoretically, the nihilist does not undertake to refute.
The novel "Fathers and Sons" was created in the heat of controversy. Russian literature rapidly democratized, the priestly sons crowded out the nobles resting on "principles". "Literary Robespierres", "cookers-vandals" confidently walked, striving to "wipe poetry, fine arts, all aesthetic pleasures from the face of the earth and establish their rude seminary principles" (all are Turgenev's words).
This, of course, is an exaggeration, a hyperbole - that is, a tool that, naturally, is more suitable for a destroyer-civilizer than for a cultural conservative, which was Turgenev. However, he used this tool in private conversations and correspondence, and not in belles-lettres. The journalistic idea of the novel "Fathers and Sons" was transformed into a convincing artistic text. It sounds not even the voice of the author, but of the culture itself, which denies the formula in ethics, but does not find a material equivalent for aesthetics. The pressure of civilization breaks against the foundations of the cultural order, and the diversity of life cannot be reduced to a beetle, which one must go to look at in order to understand the world.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev made an invaluable contribution to the development of Russian and world literature. His works excited society, raised new topics, presented new heroes of the time. Turgenev became the ideal for a whole generation of novice writers of the 60s of the 19th century. In his works, the Russian language sounded with renewed vigor, he continued the traditions of Pushkin and Gogol, raising Russian prose to an unprecedented height.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is honored in Russia, a museum dedicated to the life of the writer has been created in his hometown of Orel, and the Spasskoe-Lutovinovo estate has become a famous place of pilgrimage for connoisseurs of Russian literature and culture.
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born in Orel in 1818. The Turgenev family was well off and well-born, but little Nikolai did not see real happiness. His parent, the owner of a large fortune and vast lands in the Oryol province, was wayward, cruel towards the serfs. The pictures taken away by Turgenev in childhood left a mark on the writer's soul, made him an ardent fighter against Russian slavery. The mother became the prototype of the image of the elderly lady in the famous story "Mumu".
My father was in military service, had a good upbringing, refined manners. He was well-born, but rather poor. Perhaps this fact made him connect his life with Turgenev's mother. Soon the parents separated.
The family had two children, boys. The brothers received a good education. Life in Spassky-Lutovinovo, the estate of his mother, had a great influence on Ivan Turgenev. Here he got acquainted with folk culture, communicated with serfs.
Education
Moscow University - the young man Turgenev entered here in 1934. But after the first year, the future writer became disillusioned with the learning process and teachers. He transferred to St. Petersburg University, but even there he did not find a sufficiently high level of teaching. So he went abroad to Germany. A German university attracted him with a philosophy program that included Hegel's theories.
Turgenev became one of the most educated people of his time. The first attempts at writing belong to this period. He acted as a poet. But the first poems were imitative, did not attract the attention of society.
After graduating from university, Turgenev came to Russia. He entered the Department of the Interior in 1843, hoping that he could contribute to the speedy abolition of serfdom. But he was soon disappointed - the civil service did not welcome the initiative, and the blind execution of orders did not attract him ..
Turgenev's social circle abroad included the founder of the national revolutionary idea, M.A. Bakunin, and representatives of progressive Russian thought N.V. Stankevich and T.N. Granovsky.
Creation
The forties of the nineteenth century forced others to pay attention to Turgenev. The main direction at this stage: naturalism, the author carefully, with maximum accuracy, describes the character through the details, way of life, life. He believed that social position was brought up
The most important works of this period:
- "Parash".
- "Andrey and the landowner".
- "Three portraits".
- "Recklessness".
Turgenev became close to the Sovremennik magazine. His first prose experiments were positively evaluated by Belinsky, the main literary critic of the 19th century. It became a ticket to the world of literature.
Since 1847, Turgenev began to create one of the most striking works of literature - "Notes of a Hunter". The first story in this cycle was "Khor and Kalinich". Turgenev became the first writer to change his attitude towards the enslaved peasant. Talent, individuality, spiritual height - these qualities made the Russian people beautiful in the eyes of the author. At the same time, the heavy burden of slavery destroys the best forces. The book "Notes of a Hunter" received a negative assessment from the government. Since then, the attitude of the authorities towards Turgenev was wary.
Eternal love
The main story of Turgenev's life is his love for Pauline Viardot. The French opera singer won his heart. But being married, she could make him happy. Turgenev followed her family, lived nearby. He spent most of his life abroad. Homesickness accompanied him until his last days, clearly expressed in the cycle of "Poems in Prose".
civil position
Turgenev was one of the first to raise the problems of modernity in his work. He analyzed the image of the advanced man of his time, covered the most important issues that excited society. Each of his novels became an event and the subject of furious discussion:
- "Fathers and Sons".
- "New".
- "Fog".
- "The day before".
- "Rudin".
Turgenev did not become an adherent of revolutionary ideology, he was critical of new trends in society. He considered it a mistake to want to break everything old in order to build a new world. Eternal ideals were dear to him. As a result, there was a break in his relationship with Sovremennik.
One of the important facets of the writer's talent is lyricism. His works are characterized by a detailed depiction of feelings, the psychology of the characters. Descriptions of nature are filled with love and understanding of the dim beauty of Russia in the middle zone.
Every year Turgenev came to Russia, his main route was St. Petersburg - Moscow - Spasskoe. The last year of life became painful for Turgenev. A serious illness, a sarcoma of the spine, for a long time brought him terrible torment and became an obstacle to visiting his homeland. The writer died in 1883.
Already during his lifetime, he was recognized as the best writer in Russia, his works were reprinted in different countries. In 2018, the country will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the remarkable Russian writer.