Where did the story described by Turgenev take place? Life and work of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

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

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. Portrait by Repin

In this suffocating atmosphere, saturated with all the miasma of serfdom, the first years of Turgenev’s childhood passed. According to the prevailing custom in the landowner life 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 French and German languages, learned by Turgenev in childhood; the native language was suppressed. According to the author of “Notes of a Hunter” himself, the first person 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 remote room from Kheraskov’s “Rossiada”.

At the beginning of 1827, the Turgenevs moved to Moscow to raise their children. Turgenev was placed in a private boarding house of Weidenhammer, then was soon transferred from there to the director of the Lazarev Institute, with whom he lived as a boarder. In 1833, being only 15 years old, Turgenev entered Moscow University in the literature department, 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 full student and passing the examination for a candidate's degree the following year, Turgenev, given the low level of Russian university science of that time, could not help but realize the complete insufficiency of the university education he 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 lectures by Berlin professors.

However, it was not just scientific interests that prompted him to go abroad. Possessing by nature a sensitive and receptive soul, which he preserved among the groans of the unrequited “subjects” of the landowners-lords, among the “beatings and tortures” of the serfdom, which instilled in him from the very first days of his adult life invincible horror and deep disgust, Turgenev felt a strong need to at least temporarily flee from their native Palestine. As he himself later wrote in his memoirs, he could either submit and humbly wander along the common path, along the beaten path, or turn away at once, push “everyone and everything” away from him, even at the risk of losing much that was dear and close to my heart. That’s what I did... I threw myself headfirst into the “German sea,” which was supposed to cleanse and revive me, and when I finally emerged from its waves, I still found myself a “Westerner” and remained one 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 submitted for Pletnev’s consideration one of the first fruits of his inexperienced muse, a fantastic drama in verse, “Stenio” - this is a completely absurd, according to the author himself, work, in which, with childish ineptitude, a slavish imitation of Byron’s was expressed. Manfred." Although Pletnev scolded the young author, he still noticed that there was “something” in him. These words prompted Turgenev to take him several more poems, two of which were published a year later in " Contemporary" Upon returning from abroad in 1841, 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 philosophy department 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 trend of Russian social thought. On the contrary, he became very close friends with the hostile Slavophiles Belinsky, Herzen, Granovsky and others.

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

Turgenev soon became close to the circle of writers who grouped around Otechestvennye Zapiski and attracted him to participate in this magazine, 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 “Andrey” (1845). His first prose work was a one-act dramatic essay “Carelessness” (“Otechestvennye Zapiski”, 1843), followed by the story “Andrei Kolosov” (1844), the humorous poem “The Landowner” and the stories “Three Portraits” and “Briter” (1846) . These first literary experiments did not satisfy Turgenev, and he was ready to give up literary activity, when Panaev, starting together with Nekrasov on the publication of Sovremennik, turned to him with a request to send something for the first book of the updated magazine. Turgenev sent a short story “Khor and Kalinich”, which was placed by Panaev in the modest “mixture” section under the title “From the Notes of a Hunter”, which he invented, which created unfading fame for our famous writer.

With this story, which immediately aroused everyone's attention, begins new period Turgenev's literary activity. He completely abandons the writing of poetry and turns exclusively to stories and stories, primarily from the life of the serf peasantry, imbued with a humane feeling and compassion for the enslaved masses. “Notes of a Hunter” 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 ever-increasing sense of dissatisfaction with them finally led him to the decision to finally settle abroad (1847). “I didn’t see any other way in front of me,” he wrote later, recalling the internal crisis that he was experiencing at that time. “I couldn’t breathe the same air, stay close to what I hated; For this I probably lacked reliable endurance and strength 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, wore famous name: this enemy was - serfdom. Under this name I collected and concentrated everything that I decided to fight against to the end - with which I vowed never to reconcile... This was my Annibal oath... I also went to the West in order to better fulfill it.” This main motive was also supplemented by personal motives - a hostile relationship with his mother, dissatisfied with the fact that her son chose her literary career, and Ivan Sergeevich’s affection for the famous singer Viardot-Garcia and her family, with whom he lived almost inseparably for 38 years, a bachelor all his life.

Ivan Turgenev and Polina Viardot. More than love

In 1850, the year of his mother’s death, Turgenev returned to Russia to organize his affairs. He released all the courtyard peasants of the family estate that he and his brother had inherited; He transferred those who wished to quit rent and contributed in every possible way to the success of the general liberation. In 1861, during the redemption, he ceded a fifth of the share everywhere, but in the main estate he did not take anything for the estate land, which was quite a large sum. In 1852, Turgenev published “Notes of a Hunter” as a separate edition, which finally strengthened his fame. But in official spheres, where serfdom was considered an inviolable foundation of public order, the author of “Notes of a Hunter,” who also lived abroad for a long time, was in very bad standing. An insignificant reason was enough for official disgrace against the author to take a concrete form. This reason was Turgenev’s letter, caused by Gogol’s death in 1852 and published in Moskovskie Vedomosti. For this letter, the author was sent to prison for a month, where, by the way, he wrote the story “Mumu”, and then, by administrative order, 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 with the heir to the throne. The forced stay in the village, as Turgenev himself admitted, gave him the opportunity to get acquainted with those sides peasant life, which previously escaped his attention. There he wrote the stories “Two Friends”, “The Calm”, the beginning of the comedy “A Month in the Country” and two critical articles. From 1855 he reconnected with his foreign friends, from whom exile had separated him. From this time on, the most famous fruits of his artistic work began to appear - “Rudin” (1856), “Asya” (1858), “The Noble Nest” (1859), “On the Eve” and “First Love” (1860). [Cm. Novels and heroes of Turgenev, Turgenev - lyrics in prose.]

Having retired abroad again, Turgenev listened sensitively to everything that was happening in his homeland. At the first rays of the dawn of revival that was breaking over Russia, Turgenev felt in himself a new surge of energy, which he wanted to give a new use to. To his mission as a sensitive artist of our time, he wanted to add the role of a publicist-citizen, one of the most important moments socio-political development of the homeland. During this period of preparation for 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 individuals organized meetings among themselves at which the issue of liberating the peasants was discussed, and the result of these meetings was a project for the founding of a magazine, the program of which Turgenev was entrusted with developing. In his explanatory note to the program, Turgenev proposed calling on all the living forces of society to assist the government in the liberation reform being undertaken. The author of the note recognized Russian science and literature with such forces. The projected magazine was supposed to be devoted “exclusively and specifically to the development of all issues related to the device itself peasant life and the consequences arising from them." This attempt, however, was considered “premature” and was not put into practice.

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

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

But the need for creativity in the artist was too great for him to dwell on his decision for a long time. In 1867, the novel “Smoke” appeared, which also brought upon the author accusations of backwardness and lack of understanding of Russian life. Turgenev reacted much more calmly to the new attacks. “Smoke” was his last work to appear on the pages of the Russian Messenger. Since 1868, he published exclusively in the then emerging journal “Bulletin of Europe”. At the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War, Turgenev moved from Baden-Baden to Paris with Viardot and lived in the house of his friends in the winter, and in the summer he moved to his dacha in Bougival (near Paris). In Paris he became close friends with the most prominent representatives French literature, was on friendly terms with Flaubert, Daudet, Ogier, Goncourt, and patronized Zola and Maupassant. As before, he continued to write a novel or short story every year, and in 1877 Turgenev’s largest novel, Nov, appeared. Like almost everything that came from the pen of the novelist, his new work - and this time, perhaps with more reason than ever - aroused many different rumors. The attacks were renewed with such ferocity that Turgenev returned to his old idea of ​​stopping 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 at his address, in which young people took a particularly active part. They testified to how strong the sympathy of the Russian intelligentsia for the novelist was. On his next visit in 1880, this ovation, but on an even more grandiose scale, was repeated in Moscow during the “Pushkin days”. Since 1881, alarming news about Turgenev’s illness began to appear in newspapers. Gout, from which he had been suffering for a long time, 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 chair, 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.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a famous Russian prose writer, poet, classic of world literature, playwright, critic, memoirist and translator. He has written a lot outstanding works. The fate of this great writer will be discussed in this article.

Early childhood

Turgenev's biography (brief in our review, but very rich in reality) began in 1818. The future writer was born on November 9 in the city of Orel. His dad, Sergei Nikolaevich, was a combat officer in a cuirassier regiment, but retired soon after Ivan’s birth. The boy’s mother, Varvara Petrovna, was a representative of a wealthy noble family. It was on the family estate of this powerful woman - Spasskoye-Lutovinovo - that the first years of Ivan’s life passed. Despite her difficult, unbending disposition, Varvara Petrovna was a very enlightened and educated person. She managed to instill in her children (in the family, besides Ivan, his older brother Nikolai was raised) a love of science and Russian literature.

Education

The future writer received his primary education at home. So that it could continue in a dignified manner, the Turgenev family moved to Moscow. Here Turgenev’s biography (short) took a new turn: the boy’s parents went abroad, and he was kept in various boarding houses. First he lived and was brought up in Weidenhammer's establishment, then in Krause's. At the age of fifteen (in 1833), Ivan entered Moscow State University at the Faculty of Literature. After the eldest son Nikolai joined the Guards cavalry, the Turgenev family moved to St. Petersburg. Here the future writer became a student at a local university and began studying philosophy. In 1837, Ivan graduated from this educational institution.

Trying out the pen and further education

For many, Turgenev’s work is associated with writing prose works. However, Ivan Sergeevich initially planned to become a poet. In 1934 he wrote several lyrical works, including the poem “The Wall,” which was appreciated by his mentor, P. A. Pletnev. Over the next three years, the young writer has already composed about a hundred poems. In 1838, several of his works (“To the Venus of Medicine,” “Evening”) were published in the famous Sovremennik. Young poet felt inclined to scientific activity and in 1838 went to Germany to continue his education at the University of Berlin. Here he studied Roman and Greek literature. Ivan Sergeevich quickly became imbued with the Western European way of life. A year later, the writer returned to Russia briefly, but already in 1840 he left his homeland again and lived in Italy, Austria and Germany. Turgenev returned to Spasskoye-Lutovinovo in 1841, and a year later he turned to Moscow State University with a request to allow him to take the examination for a master's degree in philosophy. This was denied to him.

Pauline Viardot

Ivan Sergeevich managed to obtain a scientific degree at St. Petersburg University, but by that time he had already lost interest in this type of activity. In search of a worthy career in life, in 1843 the writer entered the service of the ministerial office, but his ambitious aspirations quickly faded away. In 1843, the writer published the poem “Parasha,” which impressed V. G. Belinsky. Success inspired Ivan Sergeevich, and he decided to devote his life to creativity. In the same year, the biography of Turgenev (short) was marked by another fateful event: the writer met an outstanding French singer Pauline Viardot. Having seen the beauty at the St. Petersburg Opera House, Ivan Sergeevich decided to meet her. At first, the girl did not pay attention to the little-known writer, but Turgenev was so amazed by the singer’s charm that he followed the Viardot family to Paris. For many years he accompanied Polina on her foreign tours, despite the obvious disapproval of his relatives.

Creativity flourishes

In 1946, Ivan Sergeevich actively took part in updating the Sovremennik magazine. He meets Nekrasov, and he becomes his best friend. For two years (1950-1952), the writer was torn between abroad and Russia. During this period, Turgenev's creativity began to gain serious momentum. The series of stories “Notes of a Hunter” was almost entirely written in Germany and made the writer famous throughout the world. In the next decade, a classic was created whole line outstanding prose works: “ Noble Nest", "Rudin", "Fathers and Sons", "On the Eve". During the same period, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev quarreled with Nekrasov. Their controversy over the novel “On the Eve” ended in a complete break. The writer leaves Sovremennik and goes abroad.

Abroad

Turgenev's life abroad began in Baden-Baden. Here Ivan Sergeevich found himself in the very center of Western European cultural life. He began to maintain relationships with many world literary celebrities: Hugo, Dickens, Maupassant, France, Thackeray and others. The writer actively promoted Russian culture abroad. For example, in 1874 in Paris, Ivan Sergeevich, together with Daudet, Flaubert, Goncourt and Zola, organized the now famous “bachelor dinners at five” in the capital’s restaurants. Turgenev's characterization during this period was very flattering: he turned into the most popular, famous and read Russian writer in Europe. In 1878, Ivan Sergeevich was elected vice-president of the International Literary Congress in Paris. Since 1877, the writer has been an honorary doctor of Oxford University.

Creativity of recent years

Turgenev's biography - short but vivid - indicates that long years spent abroad did not alienate the writer from Russian life and its pressing problems. He still writes a lot about his homeland. So, in 1867, Ivan Sergeevich wrote the novel “Smoke,” which caused a large-scale public outcry in Russia. In 1877, the writer composed the novel “New,” which became the result of his creative reflections in the 1870s.

Demise

For the first time, a serious illness that interrupted the writer’s life made itself felt in 1882. Despite severe physical suffering, Ivan Sergeevich continued to create. A few months before his death, the first part of the book “Poems in Prose” was published. The great writer died in 1883, on September 3, in the suburbs of Paris. Relatives carried out the will of Ivan Sergeevich and transported his body to his homeland. The classic was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkov cemetery. IN last way He was seen off by numerous admirers.

This is the biography of Turgenev (short). This man devoted his entire life to his favorite work and forever remained in the memory of posterity as an outstanding writer and famous public figure.

And Van Turgenev was one of the most important Russians writers of the 19th century century. Created by him art system changed the poetics of the novel both in Russia and abroad. His works were praised and harshly criticized, and Turgenev spent his entire life searching in them for a path that would lead Russia to well-being and prosperity.

“Poet, talent, aristocrat, handsome”

Ivan Turgenev's family came from an old family of Tula nobles. His father, Sergei Turgenev, served in a cavalry 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. The mother wrote in her diary: “...on Monday my son Ivan was born, 12 inches tall [about 53 centimeters]”. There were three children in the Turgenev family: Nikolai, Ivan and Sergei.

Until he was nine years old, Turgenev lived on the Spasskoye-Lutovinovo estate in Oryol region. His mother had a difficult and contradictory character: her sincere and heartfelt care for the 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 French to 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 better education. Three years later, Sergei Turgenev left the family.

When Ivan Turgenev was 15 years old, he entered the literature department of Moscow University. It was then that the future writer first fell in love with Princess Ekaterina Shakhovskaya. Shakhovskaya exchanged letters with him, but reciprocated with Turgenev’s father and thereby 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 lyricism and wrote his first work - the dramatic poem “Steno”. Turgenev spoke of her like this: “A completely absurd work, in which, with frenzied ineptitude, a slavish imitation of Byron’s Manfred was expressed.”. In total, during his 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, and Italy. The European way of life amazed Turgenev: he came to the conclusion that Russia must get rid of incivility, laziness, and ignorance, following the Western countries.

Unknown artist. Ivan Turgenev at the age of 12 years. 1830. State literary museum

Eugene Louis Lamy. Portrait of Ivan Turgenev. 1844. State Literary Museum

Kirill Gorbunkov. Ivan Turgenev in his youth. 1838. State Literary Museum

In the 1840s, Turgenev returned to his homeland, received a master's degree in Greek and Latin philology at St. Petersburg University, and 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 Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, he had an affair with a peasant woman, Avdotya Ivanova, which ended in the girl’s pregnancy. Turgenev wanted to get married, 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, Turgenev’s poem “Parasha” was published under the initials T.L. (Turgenesis-Lutovinov). Vissarion Belinsky appreciated her very highly, and from that moment their acquaintance grew into strong friendship- Turgenev even became the godfather of the critic’s son.

“This man is unusually smart... It’s gratifying to meet a person whose original and characteristic opinion, when colliding with yours, produces sparks.”

Vissarion Belinsky

In the same year, Turgenev met Polina Viardot. Researchers of Turgenev’s work are still arguing about the true nature of their relationship. They met in St. Petersburg when the singer came to the city on tour. Turgenev often traveled with Polina and her husband, art critic Louis Viardot, around Europe and stayed in their Parisian home. His illegitimate daughter Pelageya was raised in the Viardot family.

Fiction writer and playwright

In the late 1840s, Turgenev wrote a lot for the theater. His plays “The Freeloader”, “The Bachelor”, “A Month in the Country” and “Provincial Woman” were very popular with the public and warmly received by critics.

In 1847, Turgenev’s story “Khor and Kalinich” was published in the Sovremennik magazine, created under the impression of the writer’s hunting travels. A little later, stories from the collection “Notes of a Hunter” were published there. The collection itself was published in 1852. Turgenev called it his “Annibal's Oath” - a promise to fight to the end against the enemy he hated since childhood - serfdom.

“Notes of a Hunter” is marked by such a powerful talent that has a beneficial effect on me; understanding nature often appears to you as a revelation.”

Fedor Tyutchev

This was one of the first works that openly spoke about the troubles and harm of serfdom. The censor who allowed “Notes of a Hunter” to be published was, by personal order of Nicholas I, dismissed from service and deprived of his pension, and the collection itself was prohibited from being republished. The censors explained this by saying that Turgenev, although he poeticized the serfs, criminally exaggerated their suffering from landlord oppression.

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 words do not agree with deeds. Three years later, Turgenev published the novel “The Noble Nest,” 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 not from books, but from experience, taken from reality, purified and comprehended by the power of talent and reflection, appears in all of Turgenev’s works...”

Dmitry Pisarev

From 1860 to 1861, excerpts from the novel Fathers and Sons were published in the Russian Messenger. The novel was written on the topic of the day and explored the public mood of the time - mainly the views of nihilistic youth. 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, although it 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 “Bell”. Herzen saw the future of Russia in peasant socialism, believing that bourgeois Europe had outlived its usefulness, and Turgenev defended the idea of ​​strengthening cultural ties between Russia and the West.

Sharp criticism fell on Turgenev after the release of his novel “Smoke”. It was a novel-pamphlet that equally sharply ridiculed both the conservative Russian aristocracy and revolutionary-minded liberals. According to the author, everyone scolded him: “both red and white, and above, and below, and from the side - especially from the side.”

From “Smoke” to “Prose Poems”

Alexey Nikitin. Portrait of Ivan Turgenev. 1859. State Literary Museum

Osip Braz. Portrait of Maria Savina. 1900. State Literary Museum

Timofey Neff. Portrait of Pauline Viardot. 1842. State Literary Museum

After 1871, Turgenev lived in Paris, occasionally returning to Russia. He actively participated in cultural life Western Europe, promoted Russian literature abroad. Turgenev communicated and corresponded with Charles Dickens, George Sand, Victor Hugo, Prosper Merimee, Guy de Maupassant, and Gustave Flaubert.

In the second half of the 1870s, Turgenev published his most ambitious novel, Nov, in which he sharply satirically and critically portrayed members of the revolutionary movement of the 1870s.

“Both novels [“Smoke” and “Nov”] only revealed his 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 powerful 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, popularity early stories and Turgenev’s novels have not decreased.

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 opened with the prose poem “Village”, and ended with “Russian Language” - the famous hymn about faith in the great destiny of one’s country: “In days of doubt, in days of painful thoughts about the fate of my homeland, you alone are my support and support, oh great, powerful, truthful and free Russian language!.. Without you, how not to fall into despair at the sight of everything that is happening at home . But one cannot 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 - 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 magnificent farewells were held. The writer was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovskoye cemetery. The writer's death came as a shock to his fans - and the procession of people who came to say goodbye to Turgenev stretched for several kilometers.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev(Turgeniev) (October 28, 1818, Oryol, Russian Empire - August 22, 1883, Bougival, France) - Russian writer, poet, translator; Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of Russian language and literature (1860). Considered one of the classics of world literature.

Biography

Father, Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev (1793-1834), was a retired cuirassier colonel. Mother, Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva (before Lutovinov's marriage) (1787-1850), came from a wealthy noble family.

The family of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev came from an ancient family of Tula nobles, the Turgenevs. It is curious that the great-grandfathers were involved in the events of the times of Ivan the Terrible: the names of such representatives of this family as Ivan Vasilyevich Turgenev, who was Ivan the Terrible’s nursery (1550-1556); Dmitry Vasilyevich was a governor in Kargopol in 1589. And in the Time of Troubles, Pyotr Nikitich Turgenev was executed Execution Place in Moscow for denouncing False Dmitry I; great-grandfather Alexey Romanovich Turgenev was a participant in the Russian-Turkish war under Anna Ioannovna.

Until the age of 9, Ivan Turgenev lived on the hereditary estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, 10 km from Mtsensk, Oryol province. In 1827, the Turgenevs, in order to give their children an education, settled in Moscow, buying a house on Samotek.

The first romantic interest of young Turgenev was falling in love with the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya, Ekaterina. The estates of their parents in the Moscow region bordered, they often exchanged visits. He is 14, she is 18. In letters to her son, V.P. Turgenev called E.L. Shakhovskaya a “poet” and a “villain,” since Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev himself, his son’s happy rival, could not resist the charms of the young princess. The episode was revived much later, in 1860, in the story “First Love.”

After his parents went abroad, Ivan Sergeevich first studied at the Weidenhammer boarding school, then at the boarding school of the director of the Lazarevsky Institute, Krause. In 1833, 15-year-old Turgenev entered the literature department of Moscow University. Herzen and Belinsky studied here at that time. A year later, after Ivan’s older brother joined the Guards Artillery, the family moved to St. Petersburg, and Ivan Turgenev then moved to the Faculty of Philosophy at St. Petersburg University. Timofey Granovsky became his friend.

Group portrait of Russian writers - members of the editorial board of the Sovremennik magazine. Top row: L. N. Tolstoy, D. V. Grigorovich; bottom row: I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, A. V. Druzhinin, A. N. Ostrovsky, 1856

At that time, Turgenev saw himself in the poetic field. In 1834 he wrote dramatic poem“Steno”, several lyric poems. The young author showed these samples of writing to his teacher, professor of Russian literature P. A. Pletnev. Pletnev called the poem a weak imitation of Byron, but noted that the author “has something.” By 1837, he had already written about a hundred small poems. At the beginning of 1837, an unexpected and short meeting took place with A.S. Pushkin. In the first issue of the Sovremennik magazine for 1838, which after Pushkin’s death was published under the editorship of P. A. Pletnev, Turgenev’s poem “Evening” was published with the caption “- - -v”, which is the author’s debut.

In 1836, Turgenev graduated from the course with the degree of a full student. Dreaming of scientific activity, the following year he again took the final exam, received a candidate's degree, and in 1838 he went to Germany. During the trip, a fire broke out on the ship, and the passengers miraculously managed to escape. Turgenev, who feared for his life, asked one of the sailors to save him and promised him a reward from his rich mother if he managed to fulfill his request. Other passengers testified that the young man plaintively exclaimed: “To die so young!”, while pushing women and children away from the lifeboats. Fortunately, the shore was not far away.

Once on the shore, the young man was ashamed of his cowardice. Rumors of his cowardice permeated society and became the subject of ridicule. The event played a certain negative role in the subsequent life of the author and was described by Turgenev himself in the short story “Fire at Sea.” Having settled in Berlin, Ivan took up his studies. While listening to lectures on the history of Roman and Greek literature at the university, at home he studied the grammar of ancient Greek and Latin languages. Here he became close to Stankevich. In 1839 he returned to Russia, but already in 1840 he went abroad again, visiting Germany, Italy and Austria. Impressed by his meeting with a girl in Frankfurt am Main, Turgenev later wrote the story “Spring Waters.”

Henri Troyat, “Ivan Turgenev” “My whole life is permeated feminine. Neither a book nor anything else can replace a woman for me... How can I explain this? I believe that only love causes such a flowering of the whole being that nothing else can give. And what do you think? Listen, in my youth I had a mistress - a miller's wife from the outskirts of St. Petersburg. I met her when I went hunting. She was very pretty - blonde with radiant eyes, the kind we see quite often. She didn't want to accept anything from me. And one day she said: “You should give me a gift!” - "What do you want?" - “Bring me soap!” I brought her soap. She took it and disappeared. She returned flushed and said, holding out her fragrant hands to me: “Kiss my hands as you kiss them to the ladies in St. Petersburg drawing rooms!” I threw myself on my knees in front of her... There is no moment in my life that could compare with this!” (Edmond Goncourt. "Diary", March 2, 1872.)

Turgenev's story at dinner at Flaubert's

In 1841, Ivan returned to Lutovinovo. He became interested in the seamstress Dunyasha, who in 1842 gave birth to his daughter Pelageya (Polina). Dunyasha was married off, leaving her daughter in an ambiguous position.

At the beginning of 1842, Ivan Turgenev submitted a request to Moscow University for admission to the exam for the degree of Master of Philosophy. At the same time he began his literary activity.

The largest printed work of this time was the poem “Parasha”, written in 1843. Not hoping for positive criticism, he took the copy to V. G. Belinsky at Lopatin’s house, leaving the manuscript with the critic’s servant. Belinsky praised Parasha, publishing a positive review in Otechestvennye zapiski two months later. From that moment their acquaintance began, which over time grew into a strong friendship.

In the fall of 1843, Turgenev saw Pauline Viardot on stage for the first time opera house, When great singer came on tour to St. Petersburg. Then, while hunting, he met Polina’s husband, the director of the Italian Theater in Paris, a famous critic and art critic, Louis Viardot, and on November 1, 1843, he was introduced to Polina herself. Among the mass of fans, she did not particularly single out Turgenev, who was better known as an avid hunter rather than a writer. And when her tour ended, Turgenev, together with the Viardot family, left for Paris against the will of his mother, without money and still unknown to Europe. In November 1845, he returned to Russia, and in January 1847, having learned about Viardot’s tour in Germany, he left the country again: he went to Berlin, then to London, Paris, a tour of France and again to St. Petersburg.

In 1846 he took part in updating Sovremennik. Nekrasov - his best friend. With Belinsky he travels abroad in 1847 and in 1848 lives in Paris, where he witnesses revolutionary events. He becomes close to Herzen and falls in love with Ogarev's wife Tuchkova. In 1850-1852 he lived either in Russia or abroad. Most of the “Notes of a Hunter” were created by the writer in Germany.

Pauline Viardot

Without an official marriage, Turgenev lived in the Viardot family. Pauline Viardot raised illegitimate daughter Turgenev. Several meetings with Gogol and Fet date back to this time.

In 1846, the stories “Breter” and “Three Portraits” were published. Later he wrote such works as “The Freeloader” (1848), “The Bachelor” (1849), “Provincial Woman”, “A Month in the Village”, “Quiet” (1854), “Yakov Pasynkov” (1855), “Breakfast at the Leader’s "(1856), etc. He wrote "Mumu" in 1852, while in exile in Spassky-Lutovinovo because of the obituary on the death of Gogol, which, despite the ban, he published in Moscow.

A collection was published in 1852 short stories Turgenev under the general title “Notes of a Hunter,” which was published in Paris in 1854. After the death of Nicholas I, four major works of the writer were published one after another: “Rudin” (1856), “The Noble Nest” (1859), “On the Eve” (1860) and “Fathers and Sons” (1862). The first two were published in Nekrasov's Sovremennik. The next two are in the “Russian Bulletin” by M. N. Katkov.

In 1860, Sovremennik published an article by N. A. Dobrolyubov, “When will the real day come?”, in which the novel “On the Eve” and Turgenev’s work in general were rather harshly criticized. Turgenev gave Nekrasov an ultimatum: either he, Turgenev, or Dobrolyubov. The choice fell on Dobrolyubov, who later became one of the prototypes for the image of Bazarov in the novel “Fathers and Sons.” After this, Turgenev left Sovremennik and stopped communicating with Nekrasov.

Turgenev gravitates towards the circle of Westernized writers who profess the principles of “ pure art”, opposing the tendentious creativity of raznochintsy revolutionaries: P. V. Annenkov, V. P. Botkin, D. V. Grigorovich, A. V. Druzhinin. For a short time, Leo Tolstoy, who lived for some time in Turgenev’s apartment, also joined this circle. After Tolstoy’s marriage to S.A. Bers, Turgenev found a close relative in Tolstoy, but even before the wedding, in May 1861, when both prose writers were visiting A.A. Fet on the Stepanovo estate, a serious quarrel occurred between the two writers, barely which did not end in a duel and spoiled the relationship between the writers for 17 long years.

"Poems in Prose". Bulletin of Europe, 1882, December. From the editorial introduction it is clear that this is a magazine title, not an author's one.

From the beginning of the 1860s, Turgenev settled in Baden-Baden. The writer actively participates in the cultural life of Western Europe, making acquaintances with the greatest writers of Germany, France and England, promoting Russian literature abroad and introducing Russian readers to the best works contemporary to him Western authors. Among his acquaintances or correspondents are Friedrich Bodenstedt, Thackeray, Dickens, Henry James, George Sand, Victor Hugo, Saint-Beuve, Hippolyte Taine, Prosper Mérimée, Ernest Renan, Théophile Gautier, Edmond Goncourt, Emile Zola, Anatole France, Guy de Maupassant , Alphonse Daudet, Gustave Flaubert. In 1874, the famous bachelor dinners of the five began in the Parisian restaurants of Riche or Pellet: Flaubert, Edmond Goncourt, Daudet, Zola and Turgenev.

I. S. Turgenev is an honorary doctor of the University of Oxford. 1879

I. S. Turgenev acts as a consultant and editor for foreign translators of Russian writers; he himself writes prefaces and notes to translations of Russian writers into European languages, as well as to Russian translations of works by famous European writers. He translates Western writers into Russian and Russian writers and poets into French and German. This is how translations of Flaubert’s works “Herodias” and “The Tale of St. Julian the Merciful" for the Russian reader and Pushkin's works for French reader. For some time, Turgenev became the most famous and most widely read Russian author in Europe. In 1878, at the international literary congress in Paris, the writer was elected vice-president; in 1879 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford University.

Feast of the classics. A. Daudet, G. Flaubert, E. Zola, I. S. Turgenev

Despite living abroad, all of Turgenev’s thoughts were still connected with Russia. He writes the novel “Smoke” (1867), which caused a lot of controversy in Russian society. According to the author, everyone criticized the novel: “both red and white, and above, and below, and from the side - especially from the side.” The fruit of his intense thoughts in the 1870s was the largest in volume of Turgenev’s novels, Nov (1877).

Turgenev was friends with the Milyutin brothers (fellow Minister of Internal Affairs and Minister of War), A.V. Golovnin (Minister of Education), M.H. Reitern (Minister of Finance).

At the end of his life, Turgenev decides to reconcile with Leo Tolstoy; he explains the significance of modern Russian literature, including Tolstoy’s work, to the Western reader. In 1880, the writer took part in Pushkin celebrations dedicated to the opening of the first monument to the poet in Moscow, organized by the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature. The writer died in Bougival near Paris on August 22 (September 3), 1883 from myxosarcoma. Turgenev's body was, according to his wishes, brought to St. Petersburg and buried in the Volkov cemetery in front of a large crowd of people.

Family

Turgenev's daughter Polina was raised in the family of Polina Viardot, and in adulthood she no longer spoke Russian. She married manufacturer Gaston Brewer, who soon went bankrupt, after which Polina, with the assistance of her father, hid from her husband in Switzerland. Since Turgenev's heir was Polina Viardot, his daughter found herself in a difficult situation after his death. financial situation. She died in 1918 from cancer. Polina's children, Georges-Albert and Jeanne, had no descendants.

Memory

Tombstone bust of Turgenev at Volkovskoye Cemetery

Named after Turgenev:

Toponymy

• Streets and Turgenev Square in many cities of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia.
• Moscow metro station "Turgenevskaya"

Public institutions

• Oryol State Academic Theater.
• Library-reading room named after I. S. Turgenev in Moscow.
• Museum of I. S. Turgenev (“Mumu’s house”) - (Moscow, Ostozhenka St., 37, building 7).
• Turgenev School of Russian Language and Russian Culture (Turin, Italy).
• State Literary Museum named after I. S. Turgenev (Oryol).
• Museum-reserve "Spasskoye-Lutovinovo" estate of I. S. Turgenev (Oryol region).
• Street and museum "Turgenev's Dacha" in Bougival.
• Russian Public Library named after I. S. Turgenev (Paris).

Monuments

In honor of I. S. Turgenev, monuments were erected in the following cities:

• Moscow (in Bobrov Lane).
• St. Petersburg (On Italianskaya Street).
• Eagle:
  • Monument in Orel.
  • Bust of Turgenev on the "Noble Nest".

• Ivan Turgenev is one of the main characters in Tom Stoppard's Coast of Utopia trilogy.
• F. M. Dostoevsky in his novel “Demons” portrays Turgenev as the character of “The Great Writer Karmazinov” - a loud, petty, practically mediocre writer who considers himself a genius and is holed up abroad.
• Ivan Turgenev had one of the most big brains of the people who ever lived whose brains were weighed:

His head immediately spoke of a very great development of mental abilities; and when, after the death of I. S. Turgenev, Paul Ber and Paul Reclus (surgeon) weighed his brain, they found that it was so much heavier than the heaviest known brain, namely Cuvier, that they did not believe their scales and took out new ones, to test yourself.

• After the death of his mother in 1850, the collegiate secretary I. S. Turgenev inherited 1925 souls of serfs.
• Chancellor of the German Empire Clovis Hohenlohe (1894-1900) called Ivan Turgenev the best candidate to the post of Prime Minister of Russia. He wrote about Turgenev: “Today I spoke with the smartest man in Russia.”

Description of the presentation The life and work of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev Mother on slides

Mother Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva, nee Lutovinova (1787-1850) - the mother of the writer Ivan Turgenev, depicted by him in the image of a nameless imperious lady in the story "Mumu", he also endowed her character traits with the image of the mother from "First Love", and the grandmother in "Punin" and Baburina." Turgenev's mother had a very capricious character, was a cruel serfdom and had a difficult relationship with her sons. Turgenev nicknamed his mother “Saltykha.” Her character really couldn't be called simple. He combined opposite qualities - stinginess and generosity, cruelty and sensitivity. Sharp outbursts of anger and decisive actions of the lady were replaced by sentimentality and doubts.

R was born in 1787 after the death of her father. Until she was eight years old, she lived in Petrovskoye under the supervision of her aunts. After her mother’s second marriage, she grew up in the Kromsky district in the village of Kholodovo, in the house of her stepfather Somov, in a complete enclosure, under beatings and humiliation. When her mother died, 16-year-old Varvara fled from her stepfather to her uncle Ivan Ivanovich Lutovinov in Spasskoye-Lutovinovo. Her uncle paid for her education. After her uncle's death in 1813, she inherited his entire fortune. Condition of the 28-year-old old maid was huge. One piece of silverware in Spassky turned out to be worth 60 poods, and the capital accumulated by Ivan Ivanovich was 600 thousand rubles.” In 1815, a hussar regiment was stationed in Orel, among them was the future Vladimir vice-governor Matvey Muromtsev. Soon after this event, a young 22-year-old handsome lieutenant from an impoverished family came to Spasskoye as a repairman (a buyer of horses for military purposes). “I married for love, to the one I chose, the handsome Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev. In those days this did not happen very often. And in the first years of their life, their marriage was even happy.”

A few words about love Ivan was Varvara Petrovna’s beloved son. Despite this, he was constantly subjected to maternal beatings. “I have nothing to remember my childhood with,” Turgenev said many years later. - Not a single bright memory. I was afraid of my mother like fire. I was punished for every trifle - in a word, I was drilled like a recruit. Rarely did a day pass without rods; when I dared to ask why I was being punished, my mother categorically stated: “You should know better about this, guess.” As a result, Turgenev often endowed the negative heroines of his works with the traits of a mother. These are the images of the lady in the story “Mumu”, the mother from “First Love”, the grandmother in “Punin and Baburin”, the lady in “The Master’s Own Office”.

Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev 1793 - 1834 He came from an old noble family. A hussar officer, a poor nobleman who squandered all his fortune on carousing and cards. In 1810 he began serving in the cavalry regiment. He was a participant in the Battle of Borodino. Awarded the Insignia of the Military Order. Despite his intelligence, development and impressiveness, he failed to achieve successful career. Sergei Nikolaevich remained a man insecure and timid when it came to relationships with higher ranks. In 1821 he retired. His marriage to the middle-aged, rich Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova was a matter of calculation. Sergei Nikolaevich was distinguished by his amazing beauty. Son Ivan called his father “a great fisher of women’s faces before the Lord.”

Sergei Nikolaevich had a very good relationship with his son Ivan. difficult relationships. He was almost not involved in raising Ivan, since he was immersed in own life. I. S. Turgenev recalled: “My father had a strange influence on me... He respected my freedom... He just didn’t let me get to himself...” The image of his father became the prototype of the hero Pyotr Vasilyevich in I. S. Turgenev’s work “First Love,” where his relationship is described with E. L. Shakhovskaya. Sergei Nikolaevich died in 1834 in St. Petersburg after three days of terrible torment.

Childhood impressions Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born on October 28 (November 9), 1818 in Orel in noble family. He spent his childhood years in his mother's rich estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo Mtsensk district Oryol province. Through his mother, Varvara Petrovna, Turgenev belonged to the old noble family of the Lutovinovs. The Lutovinovs lived widely and generously, denying themselves nothing, without limiting their power-hungry and unrestrained natures. Thanks to parental care, Turgenev received brilliant education. Since childhood, he read and spoke fluently three European languages ​​- German, French and English - and became familiar with the spiritual treasures of the Spassky library. Under the roof of his parents' house, Turgenev was not destined to experience the poetry of family feelings. The writer's father did not take any part in household chores and treated his mother coldly: he married Varvara Petrovna not out of love, but in order to improve his material well-being. Every year the mother became more capricious and suspicious, and took out her personal grievances on those around her.

Turgenev was saved from the destructive influence of feudal tyranny by the reliable patronage of people from among the people. In the Spassky Garden, the boy met experts and connoisseurs of bird singing, people with kind and free souls. From here he developed a passionate love for Central Russian nature. Homegrown actor and poet Leonty Serebryakov became a real teacher for the boy native language and literature.

Subsequently, Turgenev recalled with gratitude these happy moments of his childhood: “It is impossible to convey the feeling that I experienced when, having seized a convenient moment, he suddenly, like a fairy-tale hermit or a good spirit, appeared in front of me with a weighty book under his arm and, furtively nodding his long with a crooked finger and a mysterious wink, he pointed with his head, eyebrows, shoulders, and whole body to the depths and wilderness of the garden, where no one could follow us and where it was impossible to find us! . The first sounds of reading are finally heard! Everything around disappears. . . no, it doesn’t disappear, but becomes distant, covered in haze, leaving behind only the impression of something friendly and patronizing! These trees, these green leaves, these tall grasses screen, shelter us from the rest of the world; no one knows where we are, what we are - and poetry is with us, we are imbued with it, we revel in it, an important, great, secret thing is happening. . . "

The first work Turgenev's literary biography began with poetic works. In 1838-1847 he wrote and published lyrical poems and poems in magazines (“Parasha”, “Landowner”, “Andrey”, etc.). At first poetic creativity Turgenev developed under the sign of romanticism, then realistic features prevailed in him.

Since 1847, a sharp change has occurred in Turgenev’s literary biography: he left poetry and turned to prose. Turgenev’s first prose work “Khor and Kalinich” (1847) from the future “Notes of a Hunter” (1847 -1852). Poetic experience also entered into prose creativity Turgenev, distinguished by his special sensitivity to the rhythm of phrases and great musicality.

In the story “Khor and Kalinich”, the author talks about two men he met in the Zhizdrinsky district of the Oryol province. One of them - Khor - after the fire, settled with his family far in the forest, lived in trade, regularly paid his master his dues, and was known as an “administrative head” and a “rationalist.” The idealist Kalinich, on the contrary, had his head in the clouds, was afraid even of his own wife, was in awe of the master, and had a meek disposition; at the same time, he could charm blood, relieve fears, and had power over bees. The narrator was very interested in his new acquaintances; he listened with pleasure to the conversations of people so different from each other.

"Khor and Kalinich". Illustration by Elisabeth Böhm.

“Notes of a Hunter” “Notes of a Hunter” is a collection of stories by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, published in 1847-1851 in the magazine “Sovremennik” and published as a separate edition in 1852. Three stories were written and added by the author to the collection much later. Researchers do not have a consensus on the genre of the works included in the book: they are called essays and stories.

Liberals The history of the liberal movement in Russia is beyond the scope of this course. We will only talk about Ivan Turgenev, who lived precisely during this period and, I think, was a true representative of liberalism, and in some respects a typical Russian liberal. The lifestyle that Turgenev wanted to lead was possible even in the Prussia of Frederick William IV. In Russia under Nicholas I, on the contrary, such a life was impossible, and, I think, in that early period this was the reason main reason for Turgenev’s disagreement with the existing regime in Russia. However, he refused to follow Bakunin's advice and become a political emigrant. Subsequently, upon returning to Russia, he fell under strong influence Belinsky. At the same time - and this, I think, is also quite characteristic of Turgenev and his liberalism - when discussing the peasant question, he demonstrated a certain rationalism.

Unlike the Slavophiles, and later unlike Herzen, he had no illusions about the remarkable qualities and capabilities of the Russian rural community. Turgenev was very disappointed in the government, but despite this, he remained loyal to it. He did not want to undermine relations and begin open criticism, since he deeply lost faith that a constructive revolution was possible in Russia, and was just as deeply afraid of a destructive revolution. Turgenev accused the young radicals of provoking and strengthening the reaction in the country with their stupid actions. In general, he believed that the revolutionary movement that developed in Russia in the 1860s. , does more harm than good and leads to undesirable consequences. He was equally harshly opposed to the reaction of the government and to the revolutionaries, who bore almost the same responsibility for that difficult situation, which seemed to him a vicious circle: a strong reaction strengthens the revolutionary movement, a growing revolutionary movement strengthens the reaction.

The last years of Turgenev's life were illuminated by the joyful awareness that Russia highly valued his literary merits. The writer's visits to his homeland in 1879 and 1880 turned into noisy celebrations of his talent. After Russian applause in the summer of 1879, Turgenev received news of new success: in England Oxford University awarded him the degree of Doctor of Law for his assistance with “Notes of a Hunter” to the liberation of peasants. These successes were inspiring. The idea of ​​a great novel about two types of revolutionaries—Russian and French—was maturing. Turgenev rejoiced: “Will new leaves and even branches come out of an old withered tree? Let's see. “But in January 1882, tests began. A painful illness - spinal cord cancer - confined the writer to bed. On May 30, 1882, Turgenev wrote to the writer Ya. P. Polonsky, who was leaving for his hospitable Spassky: “When you are in Spassky, bow from me to my house, garden, my young oak tree, bow to my homeland, which I will probably never see again. “The life of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was cut short on August 22 (September 3), 1883 at two o’clock in the afternoon. The writer died in the town of Bougival near Paris. In accordance with the will of the deceased, on September 27, his body was transported to St. Petersburg.

Ivan Turgenev on his deathbed. Tombstone bust of Turgenev at the Volkovskoye cemetery.