Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich origin social affiliation. Brief biography of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1817-1833)- Russian realist writer, poet, publicist, playwright, translator. One of the classics of Russian literature who made the most significant contribution to its development in the second half of the 19th century.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev on his father's side he belonged to an old noble family - the names of his ancestors were found in descriptions historical events since the time of Ivan the Terrible.

IN Time of Troubles one of the Turgenevs - Pyotr Nikitich - was executed at Execution Ground for denouncing False Dmitry.

The writer's father began serving in a cavalry regiment and by the time he met his future wife he held the rank of lieutenant. Mother is a wealthy landowner, owner of the Spasskoye estate in Mtsensk district, Oryol province.

All management of the Spasskoye estate was in the hands of Varvara Petrovna’s mother. Around the spacious two-story manor house, built in the shape of a horseshoe, gardens were laid out, greenhouses and hotbeds were built. The alleys formed the Roman numeral XIX, denoting the century in which Spassky arose. The boy began to notice early on that everything around him was subject to the arbitrariness and whims of the mistress of the estate. This awareness darkened the love for Spassky and his nature.

Childhood and youthful memories of life in Spassky sank deeply into Turgenev’s soul and were later reflected in his stories. “My biography,” he once said, “is in my works.” Certain character traits of Varvara Petrovna can be discerned in the images of some of Turgenev’s heroines (“Mumu”).

The home library had many books in Russian, English, and German, but most of the books were in French.

There were always some misunderstandings with tutors and home teachers. They were changed frequently. The future writer was interested in nature, hunting, and fishing.

But now the time has come to part with Spassky for for a long time. The Turgenevs decided to move to Moscow to prepare their children for entering college. educational establishments. We bought a house on Samotyok. At first, the children were placed in a boarding school, after leaving it they again began diligent studies with teachers: preparations were underway for entering the University. As a result, teachers noted the high level of development of adolescents. The father in his letters encourages his sons to write more letters in Russian, rather than in French and German. Turgenev was not yet fifteen years old when he submitted an application to Moscow University, to the literature department.

The beginning of the 1830s was marked by the stay at the University of such wonderful people as Belinsky, Lermontov, Goncharov, Turgenev and others. But he studied there future writer just a year. His parents moved to St. Petersburg, and he transferred to the philological department of the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg University. Soon Turgenev began writing a dramatic poem. He wrote short poems back in Moscow. In the first year of his life in St. Petersburg, he met with Zhukovsky, he became close to Professor P. A. Pletnev, and Granovsky. A.S. Pushkin became the idol of his friends. Turgenev was not yet eighteen years old when his first work appeared.

To complete his education, he goes to the University of Berlin. German professors were amazed by the unquenchable thirst for knowledge among Russian students, the willingness to sacrifice everything to the truth, and the thirst for activity for the good of their homeland. At the beginning of December 1842, Turgenev returned from abroad to St. Petersburg. He devotes himself to creative work with redoubled effort.

In 1843, Turgenev entered service in the office of the Minister of Internal Affairs. In the same year he met Belinsky, who had a significant influence on the formation of literary and public views young writer. In 1846, Turgenev wrote several works: “Brother”, “Three Portraits”, “Freeloader”, “Provincial Woman”, etc. In 1852 one of the best stories writer - "Mumu". The story was written while serving exile in Spassky-Lutovinovo. In 1852, “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 towards the circle of Westernized writers. In 1863, together with the Viardot family, he left for Baden-Baden, where he actively participated in cultural life and made acquaintances with the best writers of Western Europe. Among them were Dickens, George Sand, Prosper Merimee, Thackeray, Victor Hugo and many others. Soon he became the editor of foreign translators of Russian writers. In 1878 he was appointed vice-president of the international congress of literature held in Paris. The following year, Turgenev was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. Living abroad, his soul was still drawn to his homeland, which was reflected in the novel “Smoke” (1867). The largest in volume was his novel “New” (1877). I. S. Turgenev died near Paris on August 22 (September 3), 1883. The writer was buried according to his will in St. Petersburg.

08/22/1883 (09/04). – Writer Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (born 10/28/1818) died near Paris.

I.S. Turgenev

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (10/28/1818–8/22/1883), Russian writer, author of “Notes of a Hunter”, “Fathers and Sons”. Born in Orel into a noble family. His father, a retired hussar officer, came from an old noble family; mother is from a wealthy landowner family, the Lutovinovs. Turgenev spent his childhood on the family estate Spassky-Lutovinovo. Turgenev’s mother Varvara Petrovna ruled her “subjects” in the manner of an autocratic empress - with “police” and “ministers” who sat in special “institutions” and ceremoniously came to report to her every morning (about this in the story “The Master’s Own Office”). Her favorite saying was “I want execution, I want sweetheart.” She treated her naturally good-natured and dreamy son harshly, wanting to raise him as a “real Lutovinov,” but in vain. She only wounded the boy’s heart, causing offense to those of her “subjects” to whom he had become attached (later she would become the prototype of the capricious ladies in the story “Mumu”, etc.).

At the same time, Varvara Petrovna was an educated woman and not alien to literary interests. She did not skimp on mentors for her sons (Ivan was the second of three). From an early age, Turgenev was taken abroad; after the family moved to Moscow in 1827, he was taught by the best teachers; from childhood he spoke French, German, English languages. In the fall of 1833, before reaching the age of fifteen, he entered the next year transferred to St. Petersburg University, from which he graduated in 1836 in the verbal department of the Faculty of Philosophy.

In May 1837 he went to Berlin to listen to lectures on classical philosophy (how could we live without advanced Europe...). The reason for leaving was hatred for the man who darkened his childhood: “I could not breathe the same air, stay close to what I hated... I needed to move away from my enemy so that from my very distance I could attack him more strongly. In my eyes, this enemy had a certain image, bore a well-known name: this enemy was serfdom.” In Germany, he became friends with the ardent revolutionary demon M. Bakunin (who partly served as the prototype for Rudin in novel of the same name), meetings with him may have been of much greater importance than the lectures of Berlin professors. He combined his studies with long travels: he traveled around Germany, visited Holland and France, and lived in Italy for several months. But it seems that he learned little from his four years of experience abroad. The West did not arouse in him the desire to know Russia through comparison.

Returning to Russia in 1841, he settled in Moscow, where he intended to teach philosophy (German, of course) and prepared for master's exams, attended literary circles and salons: he met,. On one of the trips to St. Petersburg - with. The circle of friends, as we see, includes both Slavophiles and Westerners, but Turgenev rather belonged to the latter not because of his ideological convictions, but because of his mental make-up.

In 1842, he successfully passed his master's exams, hoping to get a professorship at Moscow University, but since the department of philosophy, as an obvious hotbed of Westernism, was abolished, he failed to become a professor.

In 1843 he entered the service as an official of 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 publishes his poems, poems, dramatic works, stories. The Social Democratic critic guided his work with his assessments and friendly advice.

In 1847, Turgenev again went abroad for a long time: love for a French singer Pauline Viardot(married), whom he met in 1843 during her tour in St. Petersburg, took him away from Russia. He lived for three years, first in Germany, then in Paris and on the estate of the Viardot family.

Writer's fame came to him even before his departure: the essay "Khor and Kalinich" published in Sovremennik was a success. The following essays from folk life have been published in the same magazine for five years. In 1852 it was published as a separate book under the now famous title “Notes of a Hunter.” Perhaps some nostalgia for his childhood years in the Russian village gave his stories artistic insight. This is how he took his place in Russian literature.

In 1850 he returned to Russia, collaborating as an author and critic in Sovremennik, which became the center of Russian literary life. Impressed by Gogol's death in 1852, he published a daring obituary, prohibited by censorship. For this he is arrested for a month, and then sent to his estate under police supervision 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 (Here it is, all the cruelty of the “unbearable Nicholas despotism”...)

Along with “hunting” stories, Turgenev wrote several plays: “Freeloader” (1848), “Bachelor” (1849), “A Month in the Country” (1850), “Provincial Girl” (1850). During his exile, he wrote the stories "Mumu" (1852) and "The Inn" (1852) on peasant theme. However, he is increasingly occupied by the life of the Russian “intelligentsia”, to whom the stories “The Diary of an Extra Man” (1850) are dedicated; "Yakov Pasynkov" (1855); "Correspondence" (1856). Working on stories naturally led to the genre of the novel. In the summer of 1855, “Rudin” was written in Spassky; in 1859 – “The Noble Nest”; in 1860 - “On the Eve”.

Thus, Turgenev was not only a writer, but also public figure, whom his fellow revolutionaries included in their circle of fighters against the autocracy. At the same time, Turgenev criticized his friends Herzen, Dobrolyubov, Chernyshevsky, Bakunin for nihilism. Thus, in the article “Hamlet and Don Quixote” he wrote: “In denial, like in fire, there is a destroying force - and how to keep this force within boundaries, how to show it exactly where it should stop, when what it should destroy and what it should spare are often merged and inextricably linked ».

Turgenev's conflict with the revolutionary democrats influenced the design of his most famous novel, Fathers and Sons (1861). The dispute here is precisely between liberals, such as Turgenev and his closest friends, and revolutionary democrats like Dobrolyubov (who partly served as the prototype for Bazarov). At first glance, Bazarov turns out to be stronger in disputes with his “fathers” and emerges victorious. However, the inconsistency of his nihilism is proven not by his father, but by the entire artistic structure of the novel. Slavophile N.N. Strakhov defined Turgenev’s “mysterious moral teaching” as follows: “Bazarov turns away from nature; ...Turgenev paints nature in all its beauty. Bazarov does not value friendship and renounces romantic love; ... the author depicts Arkady’s friendship for Bazarov himself and his happy love to Katya. Bazarov denies close ties between parents and children; ...the author unfolds before us a picture of parental love...” The love rejected by Bazarov chained him to the cold “aristocrat” Odintsova and broke him mental strength. He dies by an absurd accident: a cut on his finger was enough to kill the “giant of free thought.”

The situation in Russia at that time was changing rapidly: the government announced its intention, preparations for reform began, giving rise to numerous plans for the upcoming restructuring. Turgenev takes an active part in this process, becoming an unofficial collaborator of Herzen, sending incriminating material to his emigrant magazine "Bell". Nevertheless, he was far from the revolution.

In the struggle against serfdom, writers of different trends only initially acted as a united front, but then natural and sharp disagreements arose. There was a break between Turgenev and the Sovremennik magazine, the reason for which was Dobrolyubov’s article “When will the real day come?” dedicated to the novel Turgenev's "On the Eve", in which the critic predicted the imminent appearance of the Russian Insarov, the approaching day of the revolution. Turgenev did not accept this interpretation of the novel and asked not to publish this article. Nekrasov took the side of Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky, and Turgenev left Sovremennik. By 1862–1863 refers to his polemic with Herzen on the issue of further paths of development of Russia, which led to a divergence between them. Placing hopes on reforms “from above,” Turgenev considered Herzen’s then-faith in the revolutionary and socialist aspirations of the peasantry unfounded.

Since 1863, the writer was abroad again: he settled with the Viardot family in Baden-Baden. At the same time, he began to collaborate with the liberal-bourgeois “Bulletin of Europe”, which published all his subsequent major works, including his last novel “New” (1876), which questioned both the revolutionary and liberal-cosmopolitan paths of development Russia - the writer no longer wants to participate even in the second, preferring to live private life Abroad. Following the Viardot family, he moved to Paris. The writer also takes his daughter to France, who was adopted in her youth from a relationship with a serf peasant woman. The ambiguity of the position of the Russian nobleman, famous writer, “at the beck and call” of a married French singer, amused the French public. In the days (spring 1871) Turgenev went to London, after its collapse he returned to France, where he remained until the end of his life, spending winters in Paris, and summer months outside the city, in Bougival, and making short trips to Russia every spring.

Strangely, such a frequent and ultimately long stay in the West (including the experience of the revolutionary Commune), unlike most Russian writers (Gogol, even the revolutionaries Herzen and) did not prompt such a talented Russian writer to spiritually feel the meaning of Orthodox Russia. Perhaps because during these years Turgenev received European recognition. Flattery is rarely useful.

Revolutionary movement of the 1870s in Russia, connected with the activities of the populists, Turgenev again met with interest, became close to the leaders of the movement, provided financial assistance in the publication of the collection "Forward". His long-standing interest in folk themes is reawakened, he returns to “Notes of a Hunter,” supplementing them with new essays, writes the stories “Lunin and Baburin” (1874), “The Clock” (1875), etc.

A “progressive” revival begins among student youth, and a diverse “intelligentsia” (translated into Russian: umniki) is formed. Turgenev's popularity, once shaken by his break with Sovremennik, is now being restored and growing rapidly in these circles. In February 1879, when he arrived in Russia after sixteen years of emigration, these “progressive” circles honored him at literary evenings and gala dinners, strongly inviting them to stay in their homeland. Turgenev was even inclined to stay, but this intention was not realized: Paris became more familiar. In the spring of 1882, the first signs of a serious illness were discovered, which deprived the writer of the ability to move (cancer of the spine).

On August 22, 1883, Turgenev died in Bougival. According to the writer's will, his body was transported to Russia and buried in St. Petersburg.

The writer's funeral showed that the socialist revolutionaries considered him one of their own. In their magazine "Bulletin" Narodnaya Volya“An obituary was published with the following assessment: “The deceased was never a socialist or a revolutionary, but Russian socialist-revolutionaries will not forget that an ardent love for freedom, hatred of the tyranny of the autocracy and the deadening element of official Orthodoxy, humanity and a deep understanding of the beauty of developed human personality constantly animated this talent and further strengthened its significance as the greatest artist and honest citizen. During universal slavery, Ivan Sergeevich was able to notice and reveal the type of protesting rarity, developed and developed a Russian personality and took an honorable place among the spiritual fathers of the liberation movement.”

This was, of course, an exaggeration, nevertheless, it contributed to the so-called. " liberation movement"Ivan Sergeevich, unfortunately, contributed, therefore taking a corresponding place in the Soviet school education system. It, of course, exaggerated the oppositional side of him social activities without proper spiritual analysis of it and to the detriment of its undoubted artistic merits... True, it is difficult to include all the images of the notorious “Turgenev women” among them, some of whom showed the great importance of the Russian woman in her love for her family and homeland, and others in their dedication were far from the Orthodox worldview.

Meanwhile, it is the spiritual analysis of Turgenev’s work that makes it possible to understand both his personal life drama and his place in Russian literature. M.M. wrote well about this. Dunaev in connection with the published letters of Ivan Sergeevich with the words: “I want truth, not salvation, I expect it from my own mind, and not from Grace” (1847); “I’m not a Christian in your sense, and perhaps not in any sense” (1864).

“Turgenev... unambiguously outlined the state of his soul, which he would strive to overcome throughout his life and the struggle with which would become the true, albeit hidden plot of his literary creativity. In this struggle, he will gain insight into the deepest truths, but will also experience severe defeats, learn ups and downs - and will give every reader with a non-lazy soul the precious experience of striving from unbelief to faith (regardless of what the writer’s own conclusion was). life path)" (Dunaev M.M. "Orthodoxy and Russian Literature". Vol. III).

Materials also used:
Russian writers and poets. Brief biographical dictionary. Moscow, 2000.
Ivan and Polina Turgenev and Viardot

Against the background of speculation and biography of the writer described above, one can more accurately evaluate his famous statement about the Russian language:
“In days of doubt, in days of painful thoughts about the fate of my homeland, you alone are my support and support, oh great, mighty, truthful and free Russian language! Without you, how can one not 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!”

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev made an invaluable contribution to the development of Russian and world literature. His works excited society, raised new themes, and introduced new heroes of the time. Turgenev became an ideal for a whole generation of aspiring writers of the 60s of the 19th century. In his works, the Russian language began to sound with renewed vigor; he continued the traditions of Pushkin and Gogol, raising Russian prose to unprecedented heights.

In Russia they honor Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, in his hometown Orel created a museum dedicated to the life of the writer, and the Spasskoye-Lutovinovo estate became 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 wealthy 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 capricious and cruel to the serfs. The paintings taken by Turgenev as a child left a mark on the writer’s soul and made him an ardent fighter against Russian slavery. The mother became the prototype for the image of the elderly lady in the famous story “Mumu”.

Father was on military service, had a good upbringing and refined manners. He was well-born, but quite poor. Perhaps this fact forced him to connect his life with Turgenev’s mother. Soon the parents separated.

The family had two children, boys. The brothers got a good education. Life on Spassky-Lutovinovo, his mother’s estate, had a great influence on Ivan Turgenev. Here he became acquainted with folk culture and communicated with serfs.

Education

Moscow University - the young Turgenev entered here in 1934. But after the first year, the future writer became disillusioned with the learning process and the teachers. He transferred to St. Petersburg University, but even there he did not find a high enough level of teaching. So he went abroad to Germany. The German university attracted him to its philosophy program, which included Hegel's theories.

Turgenev became one of the most educated people of its time. The first attempts at writing date back to this period. He acted as a poet. But the first poems were imitative and did not attract public attention.

After graduating from university, Turgenev came to Russia. He entered the Department of Internal Affairs 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 blind execution of orders did not appeal to him..

Turgenev’s social circle abroad included the founder of the Russian revolutionary idea, M.A. Bakunin, and also representatives of advanced 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 details, way of life, life. He believed that social status brought up

The largest works of this period:

  1. "Parasha".
  2. "Andrey and the landowner."
  3. "Three Portraits".
  4. "Carelessness."

Turgenev became close to the Sovremennik magazine. His first prose experiments received a positive assessment from Belinsky, the main literary critic 19th century. This became a ticket to the world of literature.

Since 1847, Turgenev began the creation of 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 who changed the 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 best forces. The book “Notes of a Hunter” received a negative assessment from the government. At that time, the attitude of the authorities towards Turgenev was wary.

Eternal love

The main story of Turgenev's life is his love for Pauline Viardot. French Opera singer won his heart. But being married, she could make him happy. Turgenev followed her family and lived nearby. He spent most of his life abroad. Homesickness accompanied him until last days, was clearly expressed in the cycle of “Prose Poems.”

civil position

Turgenev was one of the first to raise modern problems in his work. He analyzed the image advanced person of his time, illuminated the most important questions, which excited society. Each of his novels became an event and the subject of furious discussion:

  1. "Fathers and Sons".
  2. "Nove."
  3. "Fog".
  4. "The day before."
  5. "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 destroy everything old in order to build a new world. Eternal ideals were dear to him. As a result, his relationship with Sovremennik broke down.

One of the important facets of a writer’s talent is lyricism. His works are characterized by a detailed depiction of the feelings and psychology of the characters. Descriptions of nature are filled with love and understanding of the dim beauty of central Russia.

Every year Turgenev came to Russia, his main route was St. Petersburg - Moscow - Spasskoye. Last year life became painful for Turgenev. A serious illness, spinal sarcoma, brought him terrible suffering for a long time and became an obstacle to visiting his homeland. The writer died in 1883.

Already during his lifetime he was recognized best writer Russia, his works were republished in different countries. In 2018, the country will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the wonderful Russian writer.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a famous Russian writer, poet, translator, member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1860).

Orel city

Lithography. 1850s

“On Monday, October 28, 1818, a son, Ivan, 12 inches tall, was born in Orel, in his house, at 12 o’clock in the morning,” Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva made this entry in her memorial book.
Ivan Sergeevich was her second son. The first, Nikolai, was born two years earlier, and in 1821 another boy, Sergei, appeared in the Turgenev family.

Parents
It's hard to imagine more unlike people than the parents of the future writer.
Mother - Varvara Petrovna, nee Lutovinova - was a powerful woman, intelligent and fairly educated, but did not shine with beauty. She was short and squat, with a broad face marred by smallpox. And only the eyes were good: large, dark and shiny.
Varvara Petrovna was already thirty years old when she met the young officer Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev. He came from an old noble family, which, however, had already become impoverished by that time. All that was left of the former wealth was a small estate. Sergei Nikolaevich was handsome, elegant, and smart. And it is not surprising that he made an irresistible impression on Varvara Petrovna, and she made it clear that if Sergei Nikolaevich wooed, there would be no refusal.
The young officer did not think for long. And although the bride was six years older than him and was not attractive, the vast lands and thousands of serf souls that she owned determined Sergei Nikolaevich’s decision.
At the beginning of 1816, the marriage took place, and the young couple settled in Orel.
Varvara Petrovna idolized and was afraid of her husband. She gave him complete freedom and did not restrict him in anything. Sergei Nikolaevich lived the way he wanted, without burdening himself with worries about his family and household. In 1821, he retired and moved with his family to his wife’s estate, Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, seventy miles from Orel.

The future writer spent his childhood in Spassky-Lutovinovo near the city of Mtsensk, Oryol province. Much of Turgenev’s work is connected with this family estate of his mother Varvara Petrovna, a stern and domineering woman. In the estates and estates he described, the features of his native “nest” are invariably visible. Turgenev considered himself indebted to the Oryol region, its nature and inhabitants.

The Turgenev estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo was located in a birch grove on a gentle hill. Around the spacious two-story manor house with columns, adjoined by semicircular galleries, there was a huge park with linden alleys, orchards and flower beds.

Years of study
Raising children in early age Varvara Petrovna was mainly involved in this. Gusts of care, attention and tenderness were replaced by attacks of bitterness and petty tyranny. On her orders, children were punished for the slightest offenses, and sometimes for no reason. “I have nothing to remember my childhood,” 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.”
The Turgenev house had a fairly large library. Huge cabinets contained works of ancient writers and poets, works by French encyclopedists: Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, novels by W. Scott, de Stael, Chateaubriand; works of Russian writers: Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Karamzin, Dmitriev, Zhukovsky, as well as books on history, natural science, botany. Soon the library became Turgenev’s favorite place in the house, where he sometimes spent whole days. To a large extent, the boy’s interest in literature was supported by his mother, who read quite a lot and knew well French literature and Russian poetry of the late XVIII - early XIX century.
At the beginning of 1827, the Turgenev family moved to Moscow: it was time to prepare their children for admission to educational institutions. First, Nikolai and Ivan were placed in the private boarding house of Winterkeller, and then in the boarding house of Krause, later called the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages. The brothers did not study here for long - only a few months.
Their further education was entrusted to home teachers. With them they studied Russian literature, history, geography, mathematics, foreign languages- German, French, English, - drawing. Russian history was taught by the poet I. P. Klyushnikov, and the Russian language was taught by D. N. Dubensky, a famous researcher of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”

University years. 1833-1837.
Turgenev was not yet fifteen years old when, having successfully passed the entrance exams, he became a student in the literature department of Moscow University.
Moscow University at that time was the main center of advanced Russian thought. Among the young people who came to the university in the late 1820s and early 1830s, the memory of the Decembrists, who took up arms against the autocracy, was kept sacred. Students closely followed the events that were taking place in Russia and Europe at that time. Turgenev later said that it was during these years that he began to develop “very free, almost republican convictions.”
Of course, Turgenev had not yet developed a coherent and consistent worldview in those years. He was barely sixteen years old. It was a period of growth, a period of search and doubt.
Turgenev studied at Moscow University for only one year. After his older brother Nikolai joined the Guards Artillery stationed in St. Petersburg, his father decided that the brothers should not be separated, and therefore in the summer of 1834 Turgenev applied for a transfer to the philological department of the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg University.
Before the Turgenev family had time to settle in the capital, Sergei Nikolaevich unexpectedly died. The death of his father deeply shocked Turgenev and made him think seriously for the first time about life and death, about the place of man in perpetual motion nature. The young man’s thoughts and experiences were reflected in a number of lyrical poems, as well as in the dramatic poem “The Wall” (1834). First literary experiments Turgenev's works were created under the strong influence of the then dominant romanticism in literature, and above all the poetry of Byron. Turgenev's hero is an ardent, passionate man, full of enthusiastic aspirations, who does not want to put up with the evil world around him, but cannot find use for his powers and ultimately dies tragically. Later, Turgenev spoke very skeptically about this poem, calling it “an absurd work, in which, with childish ineptitude, it was expressed slavish imitation Byron's Manfred."
However, it should be noted that the poem “Wall” reflected the young poet’s thoughts about the meaning of life and the purpose of man in it, that is, questions that many great poets of that time tried to resolve: Goethe, Schiller, Byron.
After Moscow, the capital's university seemed colorless to Turgenev. Here everything was different: there was no atmosphere of friendship and camaraderie to which he was accustomed, there was no desire for lively communication and debate, few people were interested in issues of public life. And the composition of the students was different. Among them were many young men from aristocratic families who had little interest in science.
Teaching at St. Petersburg University was carried out according to a fairly broad program. But the students did not receive serious knowledge. There were no interesting teachers. Only the professor of Russian literature Pyotr Aleksandrovich Pletnev turned out to be closest to Turgenev.
While studying at the university, Turgenev developed a deep interest in music and theater. He often attended concerts, opera and drama theaters.
After graduating from the university, Turgenev decided to continue his education and in May 1838 he went to Berlin.

Studying abroad. 1838-1940.
After St. Petersburg, Berlin seemed to Turgenev a prim and a little boring city. “What can you say about a city,” he wrote, “where they get up at six o’clock in the morning, have dinner at two and go to bed before the chickens, about a city where at ten o’clock in the evening only melancholic watchmen laden with beer wander through the deserted streets...”
But the university auditoriums at the University of Berlin were always crowded. The lectures were attended by not only students, but also volunteers - officers and officials who wanted to get involved in science.
Already the first classes at the University of Berlin revealed that Turgenev had gaps in his education. Later he wrote: “I studied philosophy, ancient languages, history and studied Hegel with special zeal..., but at home I was forced to cram Latin grammar and Greek, which I knew poorly. And I wasn’t one of the worst candidates.”
Turgenev diligently comprehended the wisdom of German philosophy, and in his free time he attended theaters and concerts. Music and theater became a true need for him. He listened to the operas of Mozart and Gluck, the symphonies of Beethoven, and watched the dramas of Shakespeare and Schiller.
Living abroad, Turgenev did not stop thinking about his homeland, about his people, about their present and future.
Even then, in 1840, Turgenev believed in the great destiny of his people, in their strength and resilience.
Finally, the course of lectures at the University of Berlin ended, and in May 1841 Turgenev returned to Russia and most seriously began to prepare himself for scientific activity.

He dreamed of becoming a professor of philosophy.
Return to Russia. Service. Enthusiasm philosophical sciences - one of characteristic features social movement in Russia in the late 1830s and early 1840s. Advanced people of that time tried to explain with the help of abstract philosophical categories the world
and the contradictions of Russian reality, to find answers to the pressing issues of our time that worried them.
However, Turgenev's plans changed. He became disillusioned with idealistic philosophy and gave up hope of resolving the issues that worried him with its help. In addition, Turgenev came to the conclusion that science was not his calling. At the beginning of 1842, Ivan Sergeevich submitted a petition to the Minister of Internal Affairs to enlist him in the service and was soon accepted by the official special assignments
to the office under the command of V.I. Dahl, a famous writer and ethnographer. However, Turgenev did not serve for long and retired in May 1845. Stay on gave him the opportunity to collect a large amount of vital material related primarily to tragic situation peasants and destructive power serfdom, since in the office where Turgenev served, cases of punishment of serfs, all kinds of abuses of officials, etc. were often considered. It was at this time that Turgenev developed a sharply negative attitude towards the bureaucratic order prevailing in state institutions, towards callousness and selfishness of St. Petersburg officials. In general, life in St. Petersburg made a depressing impression on Turgenev.

Creativity of I. S. Turgenev.
The first work I. S. Turgenev can be considered the dramatic poem “The Wall” (1834), which he wrote in iambic pentameter as a student, and in 1836 showed to his university teacher P. A. Pletnev.
The first publication in print was a short review of the book by A. N. Muravyov “Journey to Russian Holy Places” (1836). Many years later, Turgenev explained the appearance of this first printed work: “I had just turned seventeen years old, I was a student at St. Petersburg University; my relatives, in view of securing my future career, recommended me to Serbinovich, the then publisher of the Journal of the Ministry of Education. Serbinovich, whom I saw only once, probably wanting to test my abilities, handed me... Muravyov’s book so that I could sort it out; I wrote something about it - and now, almost forty years later, I find out that this “something” was worthy of embossing.”
His first works were poetic. His poems, starting from the late 1830s, began to appear in the magazines Sovremennik and Otechestvennye zapiski. In them one could clearly hear the motives of the then dominant romantic movement, echoes of the poetry of Zhukovsky, Kozlov, Benediktov. Most of the poems are elegiac reflections about love, about aimlessly lived youth. They, as a rule, were permeated with motives of sadness, sadness, and melancholy. Turgenev himself was later very skeptical about his poems and poems written at this time, and never included them in his collected works. “I feel a positive, almost physical antipathy towards my poems...,” he wrote in 1874, “I would give a lot for them not to exist in the world at all.”
Turgenev was unfair in speaking so harshly about his poetic experiments. Among them you can find many talentedly written poems, many of which were highly appreciated by readers and critics: “Ballad”, “Alone again, alone...”, “Spring Evening”, “Foggy Morning, Gray Morning...” and others . Some of them were later set to music and became popular romances.
The beginning of his literary activity Turgenev considered the year 1843, when his poem “Parasha” appeared in print, which opened a whole series of works dedicated to the debunking romantic hero. “Parasha” met with a very sympathetic review from Belinsky, who saw in young author“extraordinary poetic talent”, “true observation, deep thought”, “the son of our time, carrying in his chest all his sorrows and questions.”
First prose work I. S. Turgenev - essay “Khor and Kalinich” (1847), published in the magazine “Sovremennik” and opened a whole cycle of works under common name"Notes of a Hunter" (1847-1852). “Notes of a Hunter” was created by Turgenev at the turn of the forties and early fifties and appeared in print in the form of separate stories and essays. In 1852, they were combined by the writer into a book, which became a major event in Russian social and literary life. According to M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, “Notes of a Hunter” “laid the beginning whole literature, which has as its object the people and their needs.”
"Notes of a Hunter" is a book about people's life in the era of serfdom. The images of peasants, distinguished by a sharp practical mind, a deep understanding of life, a sober view of the world around them, who are capable of feeling and understanding the beautiful, responding to others’ grief and suffering, emerge as if alive from the pages of “Notes of a Hunter.” No one had portrayed the people like this in Russian literature before Turgenev. And it is no coincidence that, after reading the first essay from “Notes of a Hunter - “Khor and Kalinich,” Belinsky noticed that Turgenev “came to the people from a side from which no one had approached him before.”
Turgenev wrote most of “Notes of a Hunter” in France.

Works by I. S. Turgenev
Stories: collection of stories “Notes of a Hunter” (1847-1852), “Mumu” ​​(1852), “The Story of Father Alexei” (1877), etc.;
Stories:“Asya” (1858), “First Love” (1860), “Spring Waters” (1872), etc.;
Novels:“Rudin” (1856), “The Noble Nest” (1859), “On the Eve” (1860), “Fathers and Sons” (1862), “Smoke” (1867), “New” (1877);
Plays:“Breakfast at the Leader’s” (1846), “Where it’s thin, it breaks” (1847), “Bachelor” (1849), “Provincial Woman” (1850), “A Month in the Country” (1854), etc.;
Poetry: dramatic poem “Wall” (1834), poems (1834-1849), poem “Parasha” (1843), etc., literary and philosophical “Poems in Prose” (1882);
Translations Byron D., Goethe I., Whitman W., Flaubert G.
As well as criticism, journalism, memoirs and correspondence.

Love through life
With the famous French singer Turgenev met Polina Viardot back in 1843, in St. Petersburg, where she came on tour. The singer performed a lot and successfully, Turgenev attended all her performances, told everyone about her, praised her everywhere, and quickly separated himself from the crowd of her countless fans. Their relationship developed and soon reached its climax. He spent the summer of 1848 (like the previous one, like the next one) in Courtavenel, on Pauline’s estate.
Love for Polina Viardot remained both happiness and torment for Turgenev until his last days: Viardot was married, did not intend to divorce her husband, but did not drive Turgenev away either. He felt on a leash. but I was unable to break this thread. For more than thirty years, the writer essentially became a member of the Viardot family. He survived Polina's husband (a man, apparently, of angelic patience), Louis Viardot, by only three months.

Sovremennik magazine
Belinsky and his like-minded people had long dreamed of having their own press organ. This dream came true only in 1846, when Nekrasov and Panaev managed to lease the Sovremennik magazine, founded at one time by A. S. Pushkin and published after his death by P. A. Pletnev. Turgenev took a direct part in organizing the new magazine. According to P.V. Annenkov, Turgenev was “the soul of the whole plan, its organizer... Nekrasov consulted with him every day; the magazine was filled with his works.”
In January 1847, the first issue of the updated Sovremennik was published. Turgenev published several works in it: a cycle of poems, a review of the tragedy of N.V. Kukolnik “Lieutenant General Patkul...”, “Modern Notes” (together with Nekrasov). But the real highlight of the magazine’s first book was the essay “Khor and Kalinich,” which opened a whole series of works under the general title “Notes of a Hunter.”

Recognition in the West
Since the 60s, the name of Turgenev has become widely known in the West. Turgenev maintained close friendly relations with many Western European writers. He was well acquainted with P. Mérimée, J. Sand, G. Flaubert, E. Zola, A. Daudet, Guy de Maupassant, and knew many figures of English and German culture closely. They all considered Turgenev an outstanding realist artist and not only highly appreciated his works, but also studied from him. Addressing Turgenev, J. Sand said: “Teacher! “We all must go through your school!”
Turgenev spent almost his entire life in Europe, visiting Russia only occasionally. He was a prominent figure in the literary life of the West. He communicated closely with many French writers, and in 1878 he even chaired (together with Victor Hugo) the International Literary Congress in Paris. It is no coincidence that it was with Turgenev that the worldwide recognition of Russian literature began.
Turgenev's greatest merit was that he was an active promoter of Russian literature and culture in the West: he himself translated the works of Russian writers into French and German languages, edited translations of Russian authors, contributed in every possible way to the publication of the works of his compatriots in various countries of Western Europe, and introduced the works of Russian composers and artists to the Western European public. Turgenev said, not without pride, about this side of his activity: “I consider it the great happiness of my life that I have brought my fatherland somewhat closer to the perception of the European public.”

Connection with Russia
Almost every spring or summer Turgenev came to Russia. Each of his visits became an event. The writer was a welcome guest everywhere. He was invited to speak at all kinds of literary and charity evenings, at friendly meetings.
At the same time, Ivan Sergeevich retained the “lordly” habits of a native Russian nobleman until the end of his life. His very appearance betrayed his origins to the inhabitants of European resorts, despite his impeccable command of foreign languages. IN best pages his prose evokes the silence of manor life landowner Russia. Hardly any of the writers - Turgenev's contemporaries - have such a pure and correct Russian language, capable, as he himself used to say, of “performing miracles in skillful hands.” Turgenev often wrote his novels “on the topic of the day.”
Last time Turgenev visited his homeland in May 1881. To his friends, he repeatedly “expressed his determination to return to Russia and settle there.” However, this dream did not come true.
At the beginning of 1882, Turgenev became seriously ill, and moving was no longer out of the question. But all his thoughts were at home, in Russia. He thought about her, bedridden with a serious illness, about her future, about the glory of Russian literature.
Shortly before his death, he expressed a wish to be buried in St. Petersburg, at the Volkov cemetery, next to Belinsky. Last will

the writer was fulfilled
"Poems in Prose".
“Poems in prose” are rightly considered the final chord of the writer’s literary activity. They reflected almost all the themes and motives of his work, as if re-experienced by Turgenev in his declining years. He himself considered “Poems in Prose” only sketches of his future works. Turgenev called his lyrical miniatures “Selenia” (“Senile”), but the editor of “Bulletin of Europe” Stasyu-levich replaced it with another one that remained forever - “Poems in Prose”. In his letters, Turgenev sometimes called them “Zigzags,” thereby emphasizing the contrast of themes and motifs, images and intonations, and the unusualness of the genre. The writer feared that “the river of time in its flow” would “carry away these light leaves.” But “Poems in Prose” met with the most cordial reception and forever entered the golden fund of our literature. It’s not for nothing that P. V. Annenkov called them “a fabric made of the sun, rainbow and diamonds, women’s tears and the nobility of men’s thoughts,” expressing general opinion
reading public. “Poems in Prose” is an amazing fusion of poetry and prose into a kind of unity that allows you to fit “the whole world” into the grain of small reflections, called by the author “the last breaths of... an old man.” But these “sighs” brought to this day the inexhaustibility vital energy

writer.

Monuments to I. S. Turgenev

A brief message about the personal life and work of I.S. Turgenev for children in grades 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Turgenev is a true Russian writer, poet and realist of the nineteenth century before last, from the organization of the Academy of Sciences. Born on 10/28/18 into a family of nobles, whose father was a retired military officer, and whose mother true lady

Since 1827, while still a child, Turgenev and his family moved for permanent residence to the capital of Russia, Moscow. Here he began to study foreign languages, taught by private teachers. In 1883, Ivan became a first-year student at Moscow University, from which a year later he transferred to study at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at St. Petersburg University.

In 1938, he was forced to travel to Berlin in order to attend lectures on philology at one of the Berlin universities. There, at Turgenev’s lectures, he met Bakunin and Stankevich.

It was this acquaintance that left a big mark on the life of the realist poet. Only two years have passed since Turgenev became a student, and he managed to visit the foreign countries of France, Italy, and Germany. Returned to native penates in forty-first.

It was from this time that Turgenev became a participant in literary circles, which were attended by Gogol, Herzen, and Aksakov. From forty-three, Turgenev, briefly speaking, served in the chancellery, where he had the honor of meeting Belinsky, he became the progenitor of Ivan’s literary views.
A little later, “Brother”, “Three Portraits”, “Freeloader”, “Provincial Woman” appeared, and after another 4 years the world saw “Muma”, since the poet was an exile in Spassky-Lutovinovo, and the appearance of “Records of a Hunter” , and, “On the Eve”, “Rudin”, “Fathers and Sons”, “The Noble Nest” society could read only after death society could only read after the death of Nicholas I.

With the onset of 1960, Turgenev moved to live in the village of Baden-Baden, where the poet began to actively participate in the life of Western European cultural trends. His correspondence with celebrities of the new literary direction led to the fact that Turgenev, in short, turned abroad into a propagandist of Russian literature. At the same time, it can be briefly said about Turgenev that thanks to his desire to instill a love for Russian literature, he became closer to his readers and compatriots. Even despite the fact that he was far from his native land.

By 1874, Turgenev moved to the capital of France and, together with Zola, Flaubert, and Edmond Gancourt, organized such famous bachelor restaurant meals. For a moment, Ivan Sergeev became the most famous and readable poet among others on the territory of the European continent.

In this regard, Turgenev’s brief biography suggests that he was elected in 1877 vice-president of the International literary congress. In addition, Ivan Sergeevich was an honorary doctor of Oxford University. The fact that Turgenev did not live in his homeland for a long time, and far away, did not mean that the poet separated himself from the problems existing there. In confirmation of this, his novel “Smoke” was published in 67. It was he who was confirmed by severe criticism from representatives of the poet’s opposite position. But this did not stop the poet. Already in 1977, his most voluminous novel, “New,” with the results and reflections of Turgenev himself, saw the light.

In 1982, Ivan Sergeevich became seriously ill, but despite this, the poet continued to create. In moments of weakening attacks, he wrote poems in prose. He only had the opportunity to create the first part, but the second was taken with him, like the poet’s life, by death, which cut short his life on September 3, 1883, August 22 according to the old style.