Turgenev is all about him. Where was Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich born? Turgenev's literary activity

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a Russian writer and poet, playwright, publicist, critic and translator. He was born on October 28, 1818 in the city of Orel. His works are remembered for their vivid descriptions of nature, vivid images and characters. Critics especially highlight the cycle of stories “Notes of a Hunter,” which reflects the best moral qualities of a simple peasant. There were many strong and selfless women in Turgenev's stories. The poet had a strong influence on the development of world literature. He died on August 22, 1883 near Paris.

Childhood and education

Turgenev was born into a noble family. His father was a retired officer. The writer's mother, Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova, was of noble origin. Ivan spent his childhood on her family's ancestral estate. The parents did everything to provide their son with a comfortable life. He was taught by the best teachers and tutors, and at a young age, Ivan and his family moved to Moscow to receive higher education. Since childhood, the guy studied foreign languages; he was fluent in English, French and German.

The move to Moscow took place in 1827. There, Ivan studied at the Weidenhammer boarding school, and he also studied with private teachers. Five years later, the future writer became a student in the literature department of a prestigious Moscow university. In 1834 Turgenev transferred to the Faculty of Philosophy in St. Petersburg, as his family moved to this city. It was then that Ivan began to write his first poems.

In three years, he created more than a hundred lyrical works, including the poem “Wall”. Professor Pletnev P.A., who taught Turgenev, immediately noticed the undoubted talent of the young man. Thanks to him, Ivan’s poems “To the Venus of Medicine” and “Evening” were published in the Sovremennik magazine.

In 1838, two years after graduating from university, he went to Berlin to attend philological lectures. At that time, Turgenev managed to receive his Ph.D. In Germany, the young man continues his studies; he studies the grammar of ancient Greek and Latin. He was also interested in studying Roman and Greek literature. At the same time, Turgenev makes acquaintance with Bakunin and Stankevich. He has been traveling for two years, visiting France, Italy and Holland.

Homecoming

Ivan returned to Moscow in 1841, at the same time he met Gogol, Herzen and Aksakov. The poet greatly appreciated getting to know each of his colleagues. Together they attend literary circles. The following year, Turgenev asks for admission to the exam for the degree of Master of Philosophy.

In 1843, for some time the writer went to work in the ministerial office, but the monotonous activity of an official did not bring him satisfaction. At the same time, his poem “Parasha” was published, which was highly appreciated by V. Belinsky. The year 1843 was also remembered by the writer for his acquaintance with the French singer Pauline Viardot. After this, Turgenev decides to devote himself entirely to creativity.

In 1846, the stories “Three Portraits” and “Bretter” were published. Some time after this, the writer created other famous works, including “Breakfast at the Leader’s”, “Provincial Girl”, “Bachelor”, “Mumu”, “A Month in the Country” and others. Turgenev published the collection of stories “Notes of a Hunter” in 1852. At the same time, his obituary dedicated to Nikolai Gogol was published. This work was banned in St. Petersburg, but published in Moscow. For his radical views, Ivan Sergeevich was exiled to Spasskoye.

Later he wrote four more works, which later became the largest in his work. In 1856, the book “Rudin” was published, three years after that the prose writer wrote the novel “The Noble Nest”. The year 1860 was marked by the release of the work “On the Eve”. One of the author’s most famous works, “Fathers and Sons,” dates back to 1862.

This period of his life was also marked by a break in the poet’s relationship with the Sovremennik magazine. This happened after Dobrolyubov’s article entitled “When will the real day come?”, which was filled with negativity towards the novel “On the Eve”. Turgenev spent the next few years of his life in Baden-Baden. The city inspired his most voluminous novel, “Nove,” which was published in 1877.

last years of life

The writer was especially interested in Western European cultural trends. He entered into correspondence with famous writers, among whom were Maupassant, Georges Sand, Victor Hugo and others. Thanks to their communication, literature was enriched. In 1874, Turgenev organized dinners together with Zola, Flaubert, Daudet and Edmond Goncourt. In 1878, an international literary congress was held in Paris, during which Ivan was elected vice-president. At the same time, he becomes a respected doctor at Oxford University.

Despite the fact that the prose writer lived far from Russia, his works were known in his homeland. In 1867, the novel “Smoke” was published, dividing compatriots into two oppositions. Many criticized it, while others were sure that the work opens a new literary era.

In the spring of 1882, a physical illness called microsarcoma first manifested itself, which caused Turgenev terrible pain. It was because of him that the writer subsequently died. He fought the pain to the last; Ivan’s last work was “Poems in Prose,” published a few months before his death. September 3 (old style August 22), 1883 Ivan Sergeevich died in Bougival. He was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovsky cemetery. The funeral was attended by many people who wanted to say goodbye to the talented writer.

Personal life

The poet's first love was Princess Shakhovskaya, who was in a relationship with his father. They met in 1833, and only in 1860 Turgenev was able to describe his feelings in the story “First Love.” Ten years after meeting the princess, Ivan meets Polina Viardot, with whom he falls in love almost immediately. He accompanies her on tour; it is with this woman that the prose writer subsequently moves to Baden-Baden. After some time, the couple had a daughter, who was raised in Paris.

Problems in the relationship with the singer began due to distance, and her husband Louis also acted as an obstacle. Turgenev starts an affair with a distant relative. They were even planning to get married. In the early sixties, the prose writer again became close to Viardot, they lived together in Baden-Baden, then moved to Paris. In the last years of his life, Ivan Sergeevich became interested in the young actress Maria Savina, who reciprocated his feelings.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev is a famous Russian prose writer, poet, classic of world literature, playwright, critic, memoirist and translator. He is the author of many 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. The young poet felt inclined towards 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 exam 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, Turgenev’s (brief) biography was marked by another fateful event: the writer met the 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, the classic author created a number of outstanding prose works: “The 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 the 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. He was accompanied on his last journey 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.

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

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

Turgenev's pen includes the typical images of new literary heroes he created - serfs, superfluous people, fragile and strong women and commoners. Some of the topics he touched on more than 150 years ago are still relevant today.

If we briefly characterize Turgenev’s work, then researchers of his works conventionally distinguish three stages in it:

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

Each of these stages has its own characteristics.

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

Turgenev’s work was greatly influenced by his love for the singer Pauline Viardot, after whom he left for France for several years. It is this feeling that explains the subsequent emotionality and romanticism of his works. Also, during his life in France, Turgenev met many talented wordsmiths of this country.

The creative achievements of this period include the following works:

1. Poems, lyrics - “Andrey”, “Conversation”, “Landowner”, “Pop”.
2. Dramaturgy – plays “Carelessness” and “Lack of Money”.
3. Prose – stories and stories “Petushkov”, “Andrey Kolosov”, “Three Portraits”, “Breter”, “Mumu”.

The future direction of his work—works in prose—is emerging more and more clearly.

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

The creation of “Notes of a Hunter” carries an important meaning in the work of the writer:

- firstly, Turgenev was one of the first Russian writers to touch upon a new topic - the topic of the peasantry, revealing their image more deeply; He portrayed the landowners in a real light, trying not to embellish or criticize without reason;

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

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

Creative heritage:

1. Novels – “Rud”, “On the Eve” and “The Noble Nest”. The first novel was written in 1855 and was a great success among readers, and the next two further strengthened the writer’s fame.
2. The stories are “Asya” and “Faust”.
3. Several dozen stories from “Notes of a Hunter.”

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

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

Works from this period:

1. Novels – “Fathers and Sons”, “Smoke”, “New”.
2. Stories - “Punin and Baburin”, “King of the Steppes Lear”, “Brigadier”.
3. Mystical works - “Ghosts”, “After Death”, “The Story of Lieutenant Ergunov”.

In the last years of his life, Turgenev was mainly abroad, without forgetting his homeland. His work influenced many other writers, opened up many new questions and images of heroes in Russian literature, therefore Turgenev is rightfully considered one of the most outstanding classics of Russian prose.

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Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich, whose stories, tales and novels are known and loved by many today, was born on October 28, 1818 in the city of Orel, into an old noble family. Ivan was the second son of Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva (née Lutovinova) and Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev.

Turgenev's parents

His father served in the Elisavetgrad cavalry regiment. After his marriage, he retired with the rank of colonel. Sergei Nikolaevich belonged to an old noble family. His ancestors are believed to have been Tatars. Ivan Sergeevich’s mother was not as well-born as his father, but she surpassed him in wealth. The vast lands located in belonged to Varvara Petrovna. Sergei Nikolaevich stood out for his elegance of manners and secular sophistication. He had a subtle soul and was handsome. The mother's character was not like that. This woman lost her father early. She had to experience a terrible shock in adolescence, when her stepfather tried to seduce her. Varvara ran away from home. Ivan's mother, who experienced humiliation and oppression, tried to take advantage of the power given to her by law and nature over her sons. This woman was distinguished by her willpower. She loved her children despotically, and was cruel to the serfs, often punishing them with flogging for minor offenses.

Case in Bern

In 1822, the Turgenevs went on a trip abroad. In Bern, a Swiss city, Ivan Sergeevich almost died. The fact is that the father put the boy on the railing of the fence that surrounded a large pit with city bears entertaining the public. Ivan fell off the railing. Sergei Nikolaevich grabbed his son by the leg at the last moment.

Introduction to fine literature

The Turgenevs returned from their trip abroad to Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, their mother’s estate, located ten miles from Mtsensk (Oryol province). Here Ivan discovered literature for himself: one of the servants from his mother’s serfs read the poem “Rossiada” by Kheraskov to the boy in the old manner, in a chanting and measured manner. Kheraskov in solemn verses sang the battles for Kazan of the Tatars and Russians during the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich. Many years later, Turgenev, in his 1874 story “Punin and Baburin,” endowed one of the heroes of the work with a love for the Rossiade.

First love

The family of Ivan Sergeevich was in Moscow from the late 1820s to the first half of the 1830s. At the age of 15, Turgenev fell in love for the first time in his life. At this time, the family was at the Engel dacha. They were neighbors with their daughter, Princess Catherine, who was 3 years older than Ivan Turgenev. First love seemed captivating and beautiful to Turgenev. He was in awe of the girl, afraid to admit the sweet and languid feeling that had taken possession of him. However, the end to joys and torments, fears and hopes came suddenly: Ivan Sergeevich accidentally learned that Catherine was his father’s beloved. Turgenev was haunted by pain for a long time. He will give his love story for a young girl to the hero of the 1860 story “First Love.” In this work, Catherine became the prototype of Princess Zinaida Zasekina.

Studying at universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg, death of father

The biography of Ivan Turgenev continues with a period of study. In September 1834, Turgenev entered Moscow University, the Faculty of Literature. However, he was not happy with his studies at the university. He liked Pogorelsky, a mathematics teacher, and Dubensky, who taught Russian. Most teachers and courses left student Turgenev completely indifferent. And some teachers even caused obvious antipathy. This especially applies to Pobedonostsev, who talked tediously and for a long time about literature and was unable to advance in his passions further than Lomonosov. After 5 years, Turgenev will continue his studies in Germany. About Moscow University he will say: “It is full of fools.”

Ivan Sergeevich studied in Moscow for only a year. Already in the summer of 1834 he moved to St. Petersburg. Here his brother Nikolai served in military service. Ivan Turgenev continued to study at His father died in October of the same year from kidney stones, right in Ivan’s arms. By this time he was already living apart from his wife. Ivan Turgenev's father was amorous and quickly lost interest in his wife. Varvara Petrovna did not forgive him for his betrayal and, exaggerating her own misfortunes and illnesses, presented herself as a victim of his heartlessness and irresponsibility.

Turgenev left a deep wound in his soul. He began to think about life and death, about the meaning of existence. Turgenev at this time was attracted by powerful passions, bright characters, tossing and struggling of the soul, expressed in an unusual, sublime language. He reveled in the poems of V. G. Benediktov and N. V. Kukolnik, and the stories of A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky. Ivan Turgenev wrote, in imitation of Byron (the author of "Manfred"), his dramatic poem called "The Wall". More than 30 years later, he will say that this is “a completely ridiculous work.”

Writing poetry, republican ideas

Turgenev in the winter of 1834-1835. seriously ill. He had weakness in his body and could not eat or sleep. Having recovered, Ivan Sergeevich changed greatly spiritually and physically. He became very stretched out, and also lost interest in mathematics, which had attracted him before, and began to become more and more interested in fine literature. Turgenev began to compose many poems, but still imitative and weak. At the same time, he became interested in republican ideas. He felt the serfdom that existed in the country as a shame and the greatest injustice. Turgenev’s feeling of guilt towards all the peasants strengthened, because his mother treated them cruelly. And he vowed to himself to do everything to ensure that there would be no class of “slaves” in Russia.

Meeting Pletnev and Pushkin, publication of the first poems

Student Turgenev in his third year met P. A. Pletnev, a professor of Russian literature. This is a literary critic, poet, friend of A. S. Pushkin, to whom the novel “Eugene Onegin” is dedicated. At the beginning of 1837, at a literary evening with him, Ivan Sergeevich encountered Pushkin himself.

In 1838, two poems by Turgenev were published in the Sovremennik magazine (first and fourth issues): “To the Venus of Medicine” and “Evening.” Ivan Sergeevich published poems after that. The first samples of the pen that were printed did not bring him fame.

Continuing your studies in Germany

In 1837, Turgenev graduated from St. Petersburg University (literature department). He was not satisfied with the education he received, feeling gaps in his knowledge. German universities were considered the standard of that time. And so in the spring of 1838, Ivan Sergeevich went to this country. He decided to graduate from the University of Berlin, where Hegel's philosophy was taught.

Abroad, Ivan Sergeevich became friends with the thinker and poet N.V. Stankevich, and also became friends with M.A. Bakunin, who later became a famous revolutionary. He held conversations on historical and philosophical topics with T. N. Granovsky, the future famous historian. Ivan Sergeevich became a convinced Westerner. Russia, in his opinion, should follow the example of Europe, getting rid of lack of culture, laziness, and ignorance.

Civil service

Turgenev, returning to Russia in 1841, wanted to teach philosophy. However, his plans were not destined to come true: the department to which he wanted to enter was not restored. Ivan Sergeevich was enlisted in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in June 1843. At that time, the issue of liberating the peasants was being studied, so Turgenev reacted to the service with enthusiasm. However, Ivan Sergeevich did not serve long in the ministry: he quickly became disillusioned with the usefulness of his work. He began to feel burdened by the need to follow all the instructions of his superiors. In April 1845, Ivan Sergeevich retired and was never again in public service.

Turgenev becomes famous

Turgenev in the 1840s began to play the role of a socialite in society: always well-groomed, neat, with the manners of an aristocrat. He wanted success and attention.

In 1843, in April, the poem “Parasha” by I. S. Turgenev was published. Its plot is the touching love of a landowner’s daughter for a neighbor on the estate. The work is a kind of ironic echo of Eugene Onegin. However, unlike Pushkin, in Turgenev’s poem everything ends happily with the marriage of the heroes. Nevertheless, happiness is deceptive, doubtful - it is just ordinary well-being.

The work was highly appreciated by V. G. Belinsky, the most influential and famous critic of that time. Turgenev met Druzhinin, Panaev, Nekrasov. Following "Parasha" Ivan Sergeevich wrote the following poems: in 1844 - "Conversation", in 1845 - "Andrey" and "Landowner". Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich also created short stories and tales (in 1844 - “Andrei Kolosov”, in 1846 - “Three Portraits” and “Breter”, in 1847 - “Petushkov”). In addition, Turgenev wrote the comedy "Lack of Money" in 1846, and the drama "Carelessness" in 1843. He followed the principles of the “natural school” of writers, to which Grigorovich, Nekrasov, Herzen, and Goncharov belonged. Writers belonging to this trend depicted “non-poetic” subjects: people’s everyday life, everyday life, and paid primary attention to the influence of circumstances and environment on a person’s fate and character.

"Notes of a Hunter"

In 1847, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev published the essay “Khor and Kalinich,” created under the impression of hunting trips in 1846 through the fields and forests of the Tula, Kaluga and Oryol provinces. The two heroes in it - Khor and Kalinich - are presented not just as Russian peasants. These are individuals with their own complex inner world. On the pages of this work, as well as other essays by Ivan Sergeevich, published in the book “Notes of a Hunter” in 1852, the peasants have their own voice, different from the manner of the narrator. The author recreated the customs and life of landowners and peasants in Russia. His book was assessed as a protest against serfdom. Society received her with enthusiasm.

Relationship with Pauline Viardot, death of mother

In 1843, a young opera singer from France, Pauline Viardot, arrived on tour. She was greeted enthusiastically. Ivan Turgenev was also delighted with her talent. He was captivated by this woman for his entire life. Ivan Sergeevich followed her and her family to France (Viardot was married) and accompanied Polina on a tour of Europe. His life was now divided between France and Russia. Ivan Turgenev's love has stood the test of time - Ivan Sergeevich waited two years for his first kiss. And only in June 1849 Polina became his lover.

Turgenev's mother was categorically against this connection. She refused to give him the funds received from the income from the estates. Their death reconciled: Turgenev’s mother was dying hard, suffocating. She died in 1850 on November 16 in Moscow. Ivan was notified of her illness too late and did not have time to say goodbye to her.

Arrest and exile

In 1852, N.V. Gogol died. I. S. Turgenev wrote an obituary on this occasion. There were no reprehensible thoughts in it. However, it was not customary in the press to recall the duel that led to and also to recall the death of Lermontov. On April 16 of the same year, Ivan Sergeevich was put under arrest for a month. Then he was exiled to Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, without being allowed to leave the Oryol province. At the request of the exile, after 1.5 years he was allowed to leave Spassky, but only in 1856 was he given the right to go abroad.

New works

During the years of exile, Ivan Turgenev wrote new works. His books became increasingly popular. In 1852, Ivan Sergeevich created the story "The Inn". In the same year, Ivan Turgenev wrote “Mumu,” one of his most famous works. In the period from the late 1840s to the mid-1850s, he created other stories: in 1850 - "The Diary of an Extra Man", in 1853 - "Two Friends", in 1854 - "Correspondence" and "Quiet" , in 1856 - “Yakov Pasynkova”. Their heroes are naive and lofty idealists who fail in their attempts to benefit society or find happiness in their personal lives. Criticism called them "superfluous people." Thus, the creator of a new type of hero was Ivan Turgenev. His books were interesting for their novelty and relevance of issues.

"Rudin"

The fame acquired by Ivan Sergeevich by the mid-1850s was strengthened by the novel "Rudin". The author wrote it in 1855 in seven weeks. Turgenev, in his first novel, attempted to recreate the type of ideologist and thinker, modern man. The main character is an “extra person” who is depicted as both weak and attractive at the same time. The writer, creating him, endowed his hero with the features of Bakunin.

"The Noble Nest" and new novels

In 1858, Turgenev’s second novel, “The Noble Nest,” appeared. Its themes are the history of an old noble family; the love of a nobleman, hopeless due to circumstances. Poetry of love, full of grace and subtlety, careful depiction of the characters’ experiences, spiritualization of nature - these are the distinctive features of Turgenev’s style, perhaps most clearly expressed in “The Noble Nest.” They are also characteristic of some stories, such as “Faust” of 1856, “A Trip to Polesie” (years of creation - 1853-1857), “Asya” and “First Love” (both works written in 1860). "The Nobles' Nest" was received kindly. He was praised by many critics, in particular Annenkov, Pisarev, Grigoriev. However, a completely different fate awaited Turgenev's next novel.

"The day before"

In 1860, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev published the novel “On the Eve”. Its summary is as follows. In the center of the work is Elena Stakhova. This heroine is a brave, determined, devotedly loving girl. She fell in love with the revolutionary Insarov, a Bulgarian who dedicated his life to liberating his homeland from the power of the Turks. The story of their relationship ends, as usual with Ivan Sergeevich, tragically. The revolutionary dies, and Elena, who became his wife, decides to continue the work of her late husband. This is the plot of the new novel created by Ivan Turgenev. Of course, we described its brief content only in general terms.

This novel caused conflicting assessments. Dobrolyubov, for example, in an instructive tone in his article reprimanded the author where he was wrong. Ivan Sergeevich became furious. Radical democratic publications published texts with scandalous and malicious allusions to the details of Turgenev’s personal life. The writer broke off relations with Sovremennik, where he published for many years. The younger generation stopped seeing Ivan Sergeevich as an idol.

"Fathers and Sons"

In the period from 1860 to 1861, Ivan Turgenev wrote “Fathers and Sons,” his new novel. It was published in the Russian Bulletin in 1862. Most readers and critics did not appreciate it.

"Enough"

In 1862-1864. a miniature story “Enough” was created (published in 1864). It is imbued with motives of disappointment in the values ​​of life, including art and love, so dear to Turgenev. In the face of inexorable and blind death, everything loses its meaning.

"Smoke"

Written in 1865-1867. The novel "Smoke" is also imbued with a gloomy mood. The work was published in 1867. In it, the author tried to recreate the picture of modern Russian society and the ideological sentiments that prevailed in it.

"Nove"

Turgenev's last novel appeared in the mid-1870s. It was published in 1877. Turgenev presented in it the populist revolutionaries who are trying to convey their ideas to the peasants. He assessed their actions as a sacrificial feat. However, this is a feat of the doomed.

The last years of the life of I. S. Turgenev

Since the mid-1860s, Turgenev lived abroad almost constantly, visiting his homeland only on short visits. He built himself a house in Baden-Baden, near the house of the Viardot family. In 1870, after the Franco-Prussian War, Polina and Ivan Sergeevich left the city and settled in France.

In 1882, Turgenev fell ill with spinal cancer. The last months of his life were difficult, and his death was also difficult. The life of Ivan Turgenev was cut short on August 22, 1883. He was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovsky cemetery, near Belinsky’s grave.

Ivan Turgenev, whose stories, tales and novels are included in the school curriculum and are known to many, is one of the greatest Russian writers of the 19th century.

Ivan Turgenev photography

What does he see in his house?

His parents are an example to him!

Simple in form, but in essence a very wise poem of three lines expresses the idea that a child learns the main science of life in the family.

Please note: in the poem the emphasis is not on what the child hears “in his home”, not on what his parents instill in him, but on what he himself sees. But what exactly does he see that teaches him and educates him? The way he sees us treat each other? How long do we work and for what? What are we reading? What if it’s neither one nor the other, nor the third, but something completely different?! When raising a child, parents do their best. And sometimes he grows up completely different from what they dreamed of. Why? How could this happen? There is a universal answer to this kind of difficult and bitter questions: “the ways of the Lord are mysterious!..” But let’s try to figure it out using one example: why in a certain family at a certain time a child grew up the way he, it would seem, should not have grown up? We will talk about the great Russian writer Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, by the way, the author of the famous novel called “Fathers and Sons” - precisely dedicated to the continuity of generations.

About the childhood of the writer himself. we know something. For example, the fact that Turgenev’s parents were rich from the Mtsensk district of the Oryol province, convinced and harsh serf owners. (Don’t expect that new materials will be discovered that refute this fact - there are none!) But have we ever asked the question: why does such parents have a son who grows up to be a convinced anti-serfdom, a kind and kind-hearted person by nature? (There was even a case when young Turgenev took up a gun in order not to offend a peasant needlewoman from his village.) The answer seems to suggest itself: he had seen enough of the horrors and abominations of serfdom in the possession of souls - and so he hated it. Yes, this is the answer, but it’s too simple. Indeed, at the same time, in the neighboring estates of the Mtsensk district, the sons of the landowners, from a young age, kicked and mangled the servants, and having taken possession of the estate, they unbridled themselves worse than their parents, doing to people what is now called lawlessness. Well, they and Ivan Turgenev were not cut from the same cloth? Did you breathe a different air, did you study from more than one textbook?..

To understand what made Turgenev spiritually the direct opposite of his parents, one would need to get to know them better. Firstly, with my mother, Varvara Petrovna. Colorful figure! On the one hand, he speaks and writes fluently in French, reads Voltaire and Rousseau, is friends with the great poet V. Zhukovsky, loves the theater, loves growing flowers...

On the other hand, for the disappearance of just one tulip from the garden, he gives the order to flog all the gardeners... He can’t get enough of his sons, especially the middle one, Ivan (not knowing how to express his tenderness for him, sometimes he calls him... . “my beloved Vanya”!), spares neither effort nor money to give them a good education. At the same time, in the Turgenev house, children are often whipped! “Rarely a day passed without rods,” recalled Ivan Sergeevich, “when I dared to ask why I was being punished, my mother categorically declared: “You better know about this, guess.”

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When a son, studying in Moscow or abroad, does not write letters home for a long time, his mother threatens him for this... to flog one of the servants. And so with her, the servant, she does not stand on ceremony. The freedom-loving Voltaire and Rousseau do not in the least prevent her from exiling an offending maid to a remote, remote village, forcing a serf artist to paint the same thing a thousand times, and terrifying the elders and peasants during trips around their estates...

“I have nothing to remember my childhood with,” Ivan Sergeevich sadly admits. – Not a single bright memory. I was afraid of my mother like hell..."

Let’s not ignore the writer’s father, Sergei Nikolaevich. He behaves more balanced, less cruel and picky than Varvara Petrovna. But his hand is also heavy. Maybe, for example, a home teacher he didn’t like for some reason could be thrown right down a flight of stairs. And he treats children without unnecessary sentimentality and takes almost no part in their upbringing. But, as you know, “the absence of education is also education.”

“My father had a strange influence on me...” writes Turgenev in one of his stories, into which he invested a lot of personal things. - He... never insulted me, he respected my freedom - he was even, so to speak, polite to me... only he did not allow me to come near him. I loved him, I admired him, he seemed to me a model of a man, and, my God, how passionately I would have become attached to him if I had not constantly felt his deflecting hands!..” Let us add on our own behalf: Sergei Nikolaevich is still far from children and because he rarely sees them.

Varvara Petrovna rules the roost in the house. She is the one who is involved in raising her children, she is the one who teaches “beloved Vanechka” object lessons in self-will...

Yes, but then what about the fact that “the child learns what he sees in his home” and that “parents are an example to him”? According to all the rules of genetics and family pedagogy, a father - a cold egoist and a mother with a despotic character - should have grown into a moral monster. But we know: he grew up to be a great writer, a man of great soul... No, no matter what you say, the Turgenev parents are an example to their son, an impressive example of how not to treat people. After all, the child also learns what he hates “in his home”!

Thank God, such a variant of generational continuity is also provided: children grow up, as they say, in the exact opposite direction from their fathers... What young Turgenev was more fortunate in than his peers from landowner families was that his parents, for all their selfishness and cruelty, both are smart, well-educated people. And, importantly, they are interesting, extraordinary in their own way, as if woven from blatant contradictions. Varvara Petrovna alone is worth so much! A writer (and Ivan Sergeevich was undoubtedly born to him) definitely needs something above the norm, something out of the ordinary. In this sense, Turgenev’s parents, with their colorfulness, will serve their talented son well: they will inspire him to create unforgettably believable types of that time...

Of course, a child “in his home” sees not only the bad. He learns (and much more willingly!) from good examples. Did Ivan Turgenev love his parents? Freezing from timidity and fear - yes, he loved. And, probably, for some reason he felt sorry for both of them. After all, if you thoroughly delve into the life of each of them, you won’t envy...Varenka Lutovinova’s (her maiden name) father dies early, and her stepfather is so rude and headstrong (can you smell it?) that she, unable to bear the abuse of herself, runs away from Houses. Her uncle takes her under protection and guardianship. But he is also a man with tricks: he keeps his niece locked up almost always. Perhaps she is afraid that she will lose her virginity before marriage. But, it seems, his fears are in vain: Varenka, to put it delicately, does not shine with beauty... However, when her uncle dies, she, his heir, will one day become the richest landowner of the Oryol province...

Her time has come! Varvara Petrovna now takes everything from life - and even more. The son of a neighboring landowner, lieutenant cavalry guard Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev, catches her eye. A man is good for everyone: handsome, stately, intelligent, six years younger than her. But - poor. However, for the rich woman Lutovinova, the latter does not matter at all. And when the lieutenant proposes to her, she, beside herself with happiness, accepts him...

This is not the first time that wealth has been combined with beauty and youth. This is not the first time it has become fragile. Having given up on his military career, Sergei Nikolaevich indulges in hunting, carousing (usually on the side), card games, and starts one affair after another. Varvara Petrovna knows about everything (there are always more helpful people in this regard than are needed), but she endures: she values ​​and loves her handsome husband to such an extent. And, as they say in these cases, he turns his unspent tenderness into sophisticated mockery of people...

Ivan Sergeevich learns about everything that his mother experienced and felt during her life only after her death. After reading Varvara Petrovna’s diaries, he exclaims: “What a woman!.. May God forgive her everything... But what a life!” Even as a child, observing the behavior of his parents, he sees a lot and guesses a lot. This is how any child works, especially a gifted one: not yet having much knowledge and solid life experience, he uses what caring and wise nature generously endows him with, perhaps even more generously than an adult - intuition. It is she who helps “unreasonable” children make correct, sometimes amazingly correct, conclusions. It is thanks to her that the child sees best “in his home” exactly what adults carefully hide from him. That is why we can say: not just anywhere, but precisely in his home, no matter how rich, just as unhappy, the future writer Ivan Turgenev will understand how incomprehensibly complex life is and what an abyss of secrets any human soul keeps within itself...

When a child is afraid of his mother “like fire,” when he constantly stumbles upon the “rejecting hands” of his father, where should he look for love and understanding, without which life is not life? He goes where children who have not received the warmth of home have always gone and go today - “out into the street.” In Russian estates, the “street” is the courtyard, and its inhabitants are called courtyards. These are nannies, tutors, bartenders, errand boys (there was such a position), grooms, foresters, etc. They may not speak French, they may not have read Voltaire and Rousseau. But they have enough natural intelligence to understand: Barchuk Ivan’s life, like theirs, is not all sugar. And they are kind enough to at least somehow caress him. One of them, at the risk of being flogged, helps the barchuk open a cabinet with old books, another takes him hunting with him, the third takes him into the depths of the famous Spassky-Lutovinovsky park and together with him reads poems and stories with inspiration...

It is with such love and trepidation that Ivan Sergeevich, who himself said that his biography is in his works, describes childhood episodes dear to his heart in one of his stories: “...And so we managed to escape unnoticed, now we are sitting side by side, now The book is already opening, emitting a sharp, for me then inexplicably pleasant smell of mold and old stuff!.. The first sounds of reading are 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 obscure, 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 to us ..."

Close communication with people of the lower class, as they said then, would largely predetermine Turgenev as a writer. It is he who will bring into Russian literature a man from the Russian hinterland - economical, skilled, with a certain amount of cunning and trickery. There is no need to prove the nationality of his works: the many-faced Russian people act, speak, and suffer in them. Many writers are recognized only after their death. Turgenev was read by people even during his lifetime, and among others, ordinary people read books - the very ones whom he bowed to all his life...

Among other things, Turgenev differs from other outstanding writers of Russia in that his descriptions of nature take many, many pages. The modern reader, accustomed to prose with a dynamic (sometimes too much) narrative, sometimes becomes unbearable. But if you read carefully, these are wonderful and unique descriptions, like Russian nature itself! It feels like Turgenev, when writing, saw the mysterious depths of the Russian forest right in front of him, squinted from the silver light of the autumn sun, heard the morning call of sweet-voiced birds. And he really saw and heard all this, even when he lived far from Spassky - in Moscow, Rome, London, Paris... Russian nature is his second home, his second mother, she, too, is his biography. There is a lot of it in Turgenev’s works because then there was a lot of it in general, and a lot in his life, in particular.

Thanks to his parents, Ivan Sergeevich saw the world as a child (the family traveled for many months around European countries), received an excellent education in Russia and abroad, and for a long time, while he was looking for his calling, he lived on money sent by his mother. (Turgenev’s father died quite early.) Having met Turgenev, Dostoevsky wrote about him: “Poet, talent, aristocrat, handsome, rich, smart, 25 years old. I don’t know what nature denied him.” In a word, a difficult childhood, despotic order in the house, apparently, did not outwardly affect him. As for his character, spiritual harmony... Most likely, the strong, domineering nature of his mother was one of the reasons that, for all his beauty and talent, Ivan Sergeevich was often timid and indecisive, especially in relationships with women. His personal life turned out to be somewhat awkward: after several more or less serious hobbies, he gave his heart to the singer Viardot, and since she was a married woman, he entered into a strange coexistence with this family, living with her under the same roof for many years . As if carrying within himself the weakened bacilli of maternal pride and intolerance, Ivan Sergeevich is easily vulnerable, touchy, often quarrels with friends (Nekrasov, Goncharov, Herzen, Tolstoy, etc.), but, it is true, he is often the first to extend the hand of reconciliation. As if to reproach the indifference of his late father, he takes care of his illegitimate daughter Polina as best he can (he pays her mother a lifelong pension), but from an early age the girl cannot remember what the word “bread” means in Russian, and which does not justify, no matter how hard Turgenev tries, the aspirations of his father...

Turgenev, among other things, also differs from other outstanding Russian writers in his height. He was so tall that wherever he appeared, he was visible, like a bell tower, from everywhere. A giant and bearded man, with a soft, almost childish voice, friendly in character, hospitable, he, having lived abroad for a long time, being a very famous person there too, contributed greatly to the spread of the legend of the “Russian bear” in the West. But he was a very unusual “bear”: he wrote brilliant prose and fragrant blank verse, knew philosophy and philology very well, spoke German in Germany, Italian in Italy, French in France, Spanish with his beloved woman, Spanish Viardot...

So to whom do Russia and the world owe this miracle of physical and intellectual perfection, multifaceted talent and spiritual wealth? Are we really going to put his mother Varvara Petrovna and father Sergei Nikolaevich out of brackets? Let's pretend that he owes his beauty and outstanding growth, great diligence and aristocratically refined culture not to them, but to someone else?..

It was not without reason that Varvara Petrovna counted her son Ivan among her favorites - you can’t deny her insight. “I love you both passionately, but in different ways,” she writes to “beloved Vanechka,” slightly contrasting him with Nikolai, her eldest son. – You make me especially sick... (How wonderfully they expressed it in the old days!). If I can explain with an example. If they squeezed my hand, it would hurt, but if they stepped on my callus, it would be unbearable.” She realized before many literary critics that her son had a high gift for writing. (Showing a subtle literary taste, she writes to her son that his first published poem “smells of strawberries.”) Towards the end of her life, Varvara Petrovna changes greatly, becomes more tolerant, and in the presence of her son Ivan tries to do something kind and merciful. Well, in this regard, we can say that the continuity of generations is a two-way street: the time comes when parents learn something from their children...