Complete biography of Turgenev. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev - biography, information, personal life

In 1827 the family moved to Moscow. Ivan Turgenev studied in private boarding schools, in 1833 he entered the literature department of Moscow University (now Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov), in 1834 he moved to the history and philology department of St. Petersburg University, from which he graduated in 1837. In 1838 he went to Berlin, listened to lectures at the university, and in Germany became close to Nikolai Stankevich and Mikhail Bakunin. He returned to Russia in 1841 and settled in Moscow. In 1842, he passed the exams for a master's degree in philosophy at St. Petersburg University, but, being carried away by literary activity, interrupted his scientific career. In 1843 he entered service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and retired in 1845.

In 1843, the poem “Parasha” was published, highly appreciated by Vissarion Belinsky. During this period, Ivan Turgenev turned from romanticism to an ironic-descriptive poem ("The Landowner", "Andrei", both 1845) and prose close to the principles of the "natural school" ("Andrei Kolosov", 1844; "Three Portraits", 1846; " Breter", 1847).

From the beginning of 1847 to June 1850 he lived abroad (in Germany, France): he communicated with Pavel Annenkov, Alexander Herzen, met George Sand, Prosper Merimee, Alfred de Musset, Frederic Chopin, Charles Gounod. The stories "Petushkov" (1848), "Diary" extra person" (1850), the comedy "The Bachelor" (1849), "Where it is thin, there it breaks", "Provincial Girl" (both 1851), the psychological drama "A Month in the Country" (1855).

In 1847, Turgenev’s story “Khor and Kalinich” was published in the Sovremennik magazine, which began the cycle of lyrical essays and stories “Notes of a Hunter.” A separate two-volume edition of the cycle was published in 1852; later the stories “The End of Chertopkhanov” (1872), “Living Relics”, “Knocking” (1874) were added.

In February 1852, Turgenev wrote an obituary note about the death of Gogol, which served as a pretext for the arrest and exile of the writer under police supervision in the village of Spassky for a year and a half. During this period, Turgenev wrote the stories “Mumu” ​​(1854) and “The Inn” (1855), which in their anti-serfdom content are adjacent to “Notes of a Hunter.”

Upon his return from exile, Turgenev lived in Russia until July 1856, where he met Ivan Goncharov, Leo Tolstoy and Alexander Ostrovsky. The stories "The Calm" (1854), "Yakov Pasynkov" (1855), and "Correspondence" (1856) were published.

In 1856, the writer's first major novel, Rudin, was published. The name of the hero of the novel has become a household name for people whose words do not agree with deeds. In subsequent years, Turgenev published the stories "Faust" (1856) and "Asya" (1858), "First Love" (1860) and the novel " Noble nest" (1859).

After “Fathers and Sons,” a period of doubts and disappointments began for the writer: the stories “Ghosts” (1864), “Enough” (1865) and the novel “Smoke” (1867) were published.

After 1871, Turgenev lived in Paris, occasionally returning to Russia. He actively participated in cultural life Western Europe, promoted Russian literature abroad. Member of the circle of the largest French writers- Gustave Flaubert, Emile Zola, Alphonse Daudet, the Goncourt brothers, where he enjoyed a reputation as one of the greatest realist writers. Turgenev communicated and corresponded with Charles Dickens, George Sand, Victor Hugo, Prosper Merimee, Guy de Maupassant.

Turgenev maintained contacts with Russian revolutionaries Pyotr Lavrov and German Lopatin.

IN late creativity Turgenev, mystical motifs appeared and increased: stories and tales “The Dog” (1865), “The Story of Lieutenant Ergunov” (1868), “The Dream”, “The Story of Father Alexei” (both 1877), “The Song of Triumphant Love” (1881), “ After Death (Klara Milich)" (1883).

Along with stories about the past ("The Steppe King Lear", 1870; "Punin and Baburin", 1874), in recent years During his life, Turgenev turned to memoirs ("Literary and Everyday Memoirs", 1869-1880) and "Prose Poems" (1877-1882).

It is difficult to imagine a greater contrast than the general spiritual appearance of Turgenev and the environment from which he directly emerged.

Parents of Ivan Turgenev

His father is Sergei Nikolaevich, a retired cuirassier colonel, was a remarkably handsome man, insignificant in his moral and mental qualities. The son did not like to remember him, and in those rare moments when he spoke to friends about his father, he characterized him as “a great fisher before the Lord.” The marriage of this ruined juir to the middle-aged, ugly, but very rich Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova was purely a matter of calculation. The marriage was not a happy one and did not restrain Sergei Nikolaevich (one of his many “pranks” was described by Turgenev in the story “First Love”). He died in 1834, leaving three sons - Nikolai, Ivan and Sergei, who soon died of epilepsy - at the complete disposal of his mother, who, however, had previously been the sovereign ruler of the house. It typically expressed the intoxication with power that was created by serfdom.

Lutovinov family was a mixture of cruelty, greed and voluptuousness (Turgenev depicted its representatives in “Three Portraits” and in “Ovsyanikov’s One-Palace”). Having inherited their cruelty and despotism from the Lutovinovs, Varvara Petrovna was embittered by her personal fate. Having lost her father early, she suffered both from her mother, depicted by her grandson in the essay “Death” (an old woman), and from a violent, drunken stepfather, who, when she was little, barbarously beat and tortured her, and when she grew up, began to pursue him with vile proposals . On foot, half dressed, she escaped to her uncle, I.I. Lutovinov, who lived in the village of Spassky - the same rapist who is described in Ovsyanikov's Odnodvorets. Almost completely alone, insulted and humiliated, Varvara Petrovna lived for up to 30 years in her uncle’s house, until his death made her the owner of a magnificent estate and 5,000 souls. All information that has been preserved about Varvara Petrovna paints her in the most unattractive form.

The childhood of Ivan Turgenev

Through the environment of “beatings and torture” she created, Turgenev carried his gentle soul unharmed, in which it was the spectacle of the furies of the landowners’ power, long before theoretical influences, that prepared the protest against serfdom. He himself was subjected to cruel “beatings and torture,” although he was considered his mother’s favorite son. “They beat me up,” Turgenev later said, “for all sorts of trifles, almost every day”; One day he was completely ready to run away from home. His mental education was carried out under the guidance of frequently changing French and German tutors. Varvara Petrovna had the deepest contempt for everything Russian; family members spoke to each other exclusively in French.

A love for Russian literature was secretly instilled in Turgenev by one of the serf valets, depicted by him, in the person of Punin, in the story “Punin and Baburin.”

Until the age of 9, Turgenev lived in the hereditary Lutovinovsky Spassky (10 versts from Mtsensk, Oryol province). In 1827, the Turgenevs settled in Moscow to educate their children; They bought a house on Samotek. Turgenev first studied at the Weidenhammer boarding school; then he was sent as a boarder to the director of the Lazarevsky Institute, Krause. Among his teachers, Turgenev recalled with gratitude the quite famous philologist in his time, researcher of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” D.N. Dubensky (XI, 200), mathematics teacher P.N. Pogorelsky and young student I.P. Klyushnikov, later a prominent member of the circle of Stankevich and Belinsky, who wrote thoughtful poems under the pseudonym - F - (XV, 446).

Student years

In 1833, 15-year-old Turgenev (this age of students, given the low requirements of that time, was common) entered the literature department of Moscow University. A year later, due to his older brother joining the Guards Artillery, the family moved to St. Petersburg, and Turgenev then moved to St. Petersburg University. Both scientific and general level Saint Petersburg The university was not very high at that time; Of his university mentors, with the exception of Pletnev, Turgenev did not even mention anyone by name in his memoirs. Turgenev became close with Pletnev and visited him at literary evenings. As a 3rd year student, he submitted to his judgment his writing in iambic pentameter drama "Stenio", in Turgenev’s own words, “a completely absurd work, in which a slavish imitation of Byron’s Manfred was expressed with frenzied ineptitude.” At one of the lectures, Pletnev, without naming the author by name, analyzed this drama quite strictly, but still admitted that “there is something” in the author. The review encouraged the young writer: he soon gave Pletnev a number of poems, of which Pletnev published two in 1838 in his Sovremennik. This was not his first appearance in print, as Turgenev writes in his memoirs: back in 1836, he published in the “Journal of the Ministry of Public Education” a rather thorough, somewhat pompous, but quite literary review - “On a Journey to Holy Places,” A.N. Muravyova (not included in Turgenev’s collected works). In 1836, Turgenev completed the course with the degree of a full student.

After graduation

Dreaming about scientific activity, the next year he again took the final exam, received a candidate's degree, and in 1838 he went to Germany. Having settled in Berlin, Turgenev diligently took up his studies. He didn’t have to “improve” so much as sit down to learn the ABCs. Listening to lectures on the history of Roman and Greek literature at the university, he was forced to “cram” the elementary grammar of these languages ​​at home. At this time, a circle of gifted young Russians gathered in Berlin - Granovsky, Frolov, Neverov, Mikhail Bakunin, Stankevich. All of them were enthusiastically carried away by Hegelianism, in which they saw not only a system of abstract thinking, but a new gospel of life.

“In philosophy,” says Turgenev, “we were looking for everything except pure thinking.” Turgenev was greatly impressed by the entire structure of Western European life. The conviction took root in his soul that only the assimilation of the basic principles of universal human culture could lead Russia out of the darkness in which it was plunged. In this sense, he becomes a convinced “Westerner.” Among the best influences of Berlin life is the rapprochement between Turgenev and Stankevich, whose death made a stunning impression on him.

In 1841 Turgenev returned to his homeland. At the beginning of 1842, he submitted a request to Moscow University for admission to the exam for the degree of Master of Philosophy; but there was no full-time professor of philosophy in Moscow at that time, and his request was rejected. As can be seen from the “New materials for the biography of I.S. Turgenev” published in the “Bibliographer” for 1891, Turgenev in the same 1842 quite satisfactorily passed the exam for a master’s degree at St. Petersburg University. All he had to do now was write his dissertation. It wasn't difficult at all; Dissertations from the Faculty of Literature of that time did not require solid scientific training.

Literary activity

But Turgenev had already lost his passion for professional learning; he is becoming more and more attracted to literary activities. He published short poems in Otechestvennye Zapiski, and in the spring of 1843 he published the poem “Parasha” as a separate book under the letters T. L. (Turgenev-Lutovinov). In 1845, another of his poems, “Conversation”, was also published as a separate book; in the "Notes of the Fatherland" of 1846 (N 1) the large poem "Andrey" appears, in the "Petersburg Collection" by Nekrasov (1846) - the poem "The Landowner"; In addition, Turgenev’s short poems are scattered throughout Otechestvennye Zapiski, various collections (by Nekrasov, Sologub) and Sovremennik. Since 1847, Turgenev completely stopped writing poetry, except for a few small comic messages to friends and the “ballad”: “Croquet in Windsor,” inspired by the massacre of the Bulgarians in 1876. Despite the fact that his performance in the poetic field was enthusiastically received by Belinsky , Turgenev, having reprinted even the weakest of his dramatic works in his collected works, completely excluded poetry from it. “I feel a positive, almost physical antipathy towards my poems,” he says in one private letter, “and not only do I not have a single copy of my poems, but I would pay dearly for them not to exist in the world at all.”

This severe neglect is decidedly unfair. Turgenev did not have a major poetic talent, but under some of his short poems and under individual passages of his poems, he would not refuse to put his name on any of our famous poets. He is best at paintings of nature: here one can clearly feel that aching, melancholic poetry that constitutes the mainbeautyTurgenev landscape.

Turgenev's poem "Parasha"- one of the first attempts in Russian literature to describe the sucking and leveling power of life and everyday vulgarity. The author married his heroine to someone she fell in love with and rewarded her with “happiness,” whose serene appearance, however, makes him exclaim: “But, God! Was that what I thought when, filled with silent adoration, I predicted for her soul a year of holy gratitude? suffering." "Conversation" is written in excellent verse; there are lines and stanzas of direct Lermontov beauty. In terms of its content, this poem, with all its imitation of Lermontov, is one of the first “civil” works in our literature, not in the later meaning of exposing individual imperfections of Russian life, but in the sense of a call to work for the common good. One personal life both characters poems are considered an insufficient goal of meaningful existence; every person must perform some “feat,” serve “some god,” be a prophet and “punish weakness and vice.”

The other two are big Turgenev's poems, "Andrey" and "Landowner", are significantly inferior to the first. “Andrey” describes in a verbose and boring way the growing feelings of the hero of the poem for one married woman and her reciprocal feelings; “The Landowner” is written in a humorous tone and represents, in the terminology of the time, a “physiological” sketch of landowner life - but only its external, ridiculous features are captured. Simultaneously with the poems, Turgenev wrote a number of stories, in which Lermontov’s influence was also very clearly felt. Only in the era of boundless charm of the Pechorin type could the young writer’s admiration for Andrei Kolosov, the hero of the story of the same name (1844), be created. The author presents him to us as an “extraordinary” person, and he really is completely extraordinary... an egoist who, without experiencing the slightest embarrassment, looks at the entire human race as an object of his amusement. The word “duty” does not exist for him: he abandons the girl who has fallen in love with him more easily than another throws away old gloves, and with complete unceremoniousness uses the services of his comrades. His special merit is that he “does not stand on stilts.” The halo with which the young author surrounded Kolosov was undoubtedly influenced by Georges Sand, with her demand for complete sincerity in love relationships. But only here the freedom of relationships received a very peculiar shade: what was vaudeville for Kolosov turned into a tragedy for the girl who passionately fell in love with him. Despite the vagueness of the general impression, the story bears clear traces of serious talent.

Turgenev's second story, "Breter"(1846), represents the author's struggle between Lermontov's influence and the desire to discredit posturing. The hero of the story, Luchkov, with his mysterious gloominess, behind which something unusually deep seems to be, makes a strong impression on those around him. And so, the author sets out to show that the unsociability of the Breter, his mysterious silence are very prosaically explained by the reluctance of the most pathetic mediocrity to be ridiculed, his “denial” of love - by the rudeness of nature, indifference to life - by some Kalmyk feeling, between apathy and bloodthirstiness.

Contents of the third Turgenev's story "Three Portraits"(1846) was drawn from the family chronicle of the Lutovinovs, but everything unusual in this chronicle is very much concentrated in it. The clash between Luchinov and his father, the dramatic scene when the son, clutching a sword in his hands, looks at his father with evil and disobedient eyes and is ready to raise his hand against him - all this would be much more appropriate in some novel from a foreign life. The colors applied to Luchinov the father are also too thick, whom Turgenev forces for 20 years not to speak a single word to his wife because of the suspicion of adultery vaguely expressed in the story.

Dramatic field

Along with poetry and romantic stories, Turgenev also tries his hand at the dramatic field. Of his dramatic works, the most interesting is the lively, funny and scenic genre picture written in 1856 "Breakfast at the Leader's", which is still in the repertoire. Thanks, in particular, to good stage performance, they also enjoyed success "Freeloader" (1848), "Bachelor" (1849),"Provincial Girl", "A Month in the Country".

The success of “The Bachelor” was especially dear to the author. In the preface to the 1879 edition, Turgenev, “not recognizing his dramatic talent,” recalls “with a feeling of deep gratitude that the brilliant Martynov deigned to play in four of his plays and, by the way, before the very end of his brilliant, interrupted too early career , transformed, by the power of great talent, the pale figure of Moshkin in “The Bachelor” into a living and touching face.”

Creativity flourishes

The undoubted success that befell Turgenev at the very first stages of his literary activity did not satisfy him: he carried in his soul the consciousness of the possibility of more significant plans - and since what was poured out on paper did not correspond to their breadth, he “had a firm intention to abandon literature altogether." When, at the end of 1846, Nekrasov and Panaev decided to publish Sovremennik, Turgenev, however, found a “trifle”, to which both the author himself and Panaev attached so little importance that it was not even placed in the fiction department, and in “Mixture” of the first book of Sovremennik, 1847. To make the public even more lenient, Panaev added to the already modest title of the essay: "Khor and Kalinich" added another title: "From the Hunter's Notes". The public turned out to be more sensitive than the experienced writer. By 1847, the democratic or, as it was then called, “philanthropic” mood began to reach its highest intensity in the best literary circles. Prepared by Belinsky’s fiery sermon, literary youth are imbued with new spiritual movements; in one or two years a whole galaxy of future famous and simply good writers- Nekrasov, Dostoevsky, Goncharov, Turgenev, Grigorovich, Druzhinin, Pleshcheev and others - appear with a number of works that make a radical revolution in literature and immediately convey to it the mood that later received its national expression in the era of great reforms.

Among these literary youth, Turgenev took first place because he directed all the power of his high talent to the most painful place of the pre-reform society - serfdom. Encouraged by the major success of "Khorya and Kalinich"; he wrote a number of essays, which were published in 1852 under the general name "Hunter's Notes". The book played a first-class historical role. There is direct evidence of the strong impression she made on the heir to the throne, the future liberator of the peasants. All the generally sensitive spheres of the ruling classes succumbed to her charm. "Notes of a Hunter" plays the same role in the history of the liberation of peasants as in the history of the liberation of blacks - Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin", but with the difference that Turgenev's book is incomparably higher in artistic terms.

Explaining in his memoirs why he went abroad at the very beginning of 1847, where most of the essays in “Notes of a Hunter” were written, Turgenev says: “... I could not breathe the same air, stay close to what I hated; It was necessary to move away from my enemy so that from my very distance I could attack him more powerfully. In my eyes, this enemy had a certain image, bore a well-known name: this enemy was serfdom. Under this name I collected and concentrated everything against which I decided to fight to the end - with which I vowed never to reconcile... This was my Hannibal oath."

Turgenev's categoricalness, however, refers only to the internal motives of "Notes of a Hunter", and not to their execution. The painfully picky censorship of the 40s would not have missed any bright “protest”, any bright picture of the outrages of the serfs. Indeed, serfdom itself is directly touched upon in “Notes of a Hunter” with restraint and caution. “Notes of a Hunter” is a “protest” of a very special kind, strong not so much in denunciation, not so much in hatred, but in love.

People's life is passed through here through the prism of the mental makeup of a person from the circle of Belinsky and Stankevich. The main feature of this type is the subtlety of feelings, admiration for beauty and, in general, the desire to be not of this world, to rise above the “dirty reality”. A significant part folk types"Notes of the Hunter" belongs to people of this type.

Here is the romantic Kalinich, who comes to life only when they tell him about the beauties of nature - mountains, waterfalls, etc., here is Kasyan from the Beautiful Sword, from whose quiet soul something completely unearthly emanates; here is Yasha (“Singers”), whose singing touches even the visitors to the tavern, even the tavern owner himself. Along with deeply poetic natures, “Notes of a Hunter” seeks out majestic types among the people. The single-palace Ovsyanikov, the rich peasant Khor (for whom Turgenev was already reproached for idealization in the 40s) are majestically calm, ideally honest and with their “simple but sound mind” they perfectly understand the most complex social-state relations. With what amazing calmness do the forester Maxim and the miller Vasily die in the essay “Death”; how much purely romantic charm there is in the darkly majestic figure of the inexorably honest Biryuk!

Of the female folk types in Notes of a Hunter, Matryona deserves special attention ( "Karataev"), Marina ( "Date") and Lukerya ( "Living Relics" ) ; the last essay lay in Turgenev’s briefcase and was published only a quarter of a century later, in the charity collection “Skladchina”, 1874): they are all deeply feminine, capable of high self-denial. And if we add to these male and female figures of “Notes of a Hunter” the amazingly cute children from "Bezhina Luga", then you get a whole one-color gallery of faces, about which it is impossible to say that the author gave here the people's life in its entirety. From the field folk life, on which nettles, thistles, and burdocks grow, the author picked only beautiful and fragrant flowers and made a wonderful bouquet of them, the fragrance of which was all the stronger because the representatives of the ruling class depicted in “Notes of a Hunter” amaze with their moral ugliness. Mr. Zverkov ("Ermolai and Melnichikha") considers himself a very kind person; he is even offended when a serf girl throws herself at his feet with a prayer, because in his opinion “a person should never lose his dignity”; but with deep indignation he refuses permission for this “ungrateful” girl to get married, because his wife will then be left without a good maid. Retired guards officer Arkady Pavlych Penochkin ( "The mayor") arranged his house completely in English; At his table everything is superbly served and his well-trained footmen serve excellently. But one of them served red wine unheated; the graceful European frowned and, not embarrassed by the presence of a stranger, ordered “about Fyodor... make arrangements.” Mardarii Apollonych Stegunov ( "Two Landowners") - he’s a very good-natured guy: he sits idyllically on the balcony on a beautiful summer evening and drinks tea. Suddenly the sound of measured and frequent blows reached our ears. Stegunov “listened, nodded his head, took a sip, and, putting the saucer on the table, said with the kindest smile and, as if involuntarily echoing the blows: chyuki-chyuki-chuk! chyuki-chuk! chyuki-chuk!” It turned out that they were punishing “the naughty Vasya,” the bartender “with big sideburns.” Thanks to the stupidest whim of a feisty lady ("Karataev"), Matryona's fate takes a tragic turn. These are the representatives of the landowner class in “Notes of a Hunter.” If there are decent people among them, then it is either Karataev, who ends his life as a tavern regular, or the brawler Tchertop-hanov, or the pathetic hanger-on - the Hamlet of Shchigrovsky district. Of course, all this makes “Notes of a Hunter” a one-sided work; but it is that holy one-sidedness that leads to great results. The content of “Notes of a Hunter”, in any case, was not invented - and that is why in the soul of every reader, in all its irresistibility, the conviction grew that it is impossible for people in whom best sides human nature are embodied so vividly, depriving the most basic human rights. In a purely artistic sense, “Notes of a Hunter” fully corresponds to the great idea underlying them, and in this harmony of design and form - main reason their success. All best qualities Turgenev's talent received vivid expression here. If conciseness is generally one of the main features of Turgenev, who did not write voluminous works at all, then in “Notes of a Hunter” it is brought to the highest perfection. In two or three strokes, Turgenev draws the most complex character: let us cite as an example the final two pages of the essay, where the spiritual appearance of “Biryuk” receives such unexpected illumination. Along with the energy of passion, the power of impression is increased by a general, surprisingly soft and poetic coloring. The landscape painting of "Notes of a Hunter" has no equal in all our literature. From the Central Russian, at first glance colorless, landscape, Turgenev was able to extract the most soulful tones, at the same time melancholic and sweetly invigorating. In general, Turgenev's Notes of a Hunter took first place among Russian prose writers in terms of technique. If Tolstoy surpasses him in breadth of scope, Dostoevsky in depth and originality, then Turgenev is the first Russian stylist.

Personal life of Turgenev

In his mouth, the “great, powerful, truthful and free Russian language,” to which the last of his “Prose Poems” is dedicated, received its most noble and elegant expression. Turgenev's personal life, at a time when his creative activity was unfolding so brilliantly, was not fun. Disagreements and clashes with his mother became more and more acute - and this not only unraveled him morally, but also led to an extremely cramped financial situation, which was complicated by the fact that everyone considered him a rich man.

Turgenev's mysterious friendship with the famous singer Viardot-Garcia began in 1845. Repeated attempts were made to use Turgenev’s story “Correspondence” to characterize this friendship, with an episode of the hero’s “doglike” affection for a foreign ballerina, a stupid and completely uneducated creature. It would, however, be a grave mistake to see this as directly autobiographical material.

Viardot is an unusually subtle artistic person; her husband was a wonderful man and an outstanding critic of art (see VI, 612), whom Turgenev greatly appreciated and who, in turn, highly regarded Turgenev and translated his works into French. There is also no doubt that in the early days of his friendship with Viardot’s family, Turgenev, to whom his mother did not give a penny for his affection for the “damned gypsy” for three whole years, bore very little resemblance to the type of “rich Russian” popular behind the scenes. But, at the same time, the deep bitterness that pervaded the episode told in “Correspondence” undoubtedly also had a subjective lining. If we turn to Fet’s memoirs and to some of Turgenev’s letters, we will see, on the one hand, how right Turgenev’s mother was when she called him “monogamous,” and on the other, that, having lived in close communication with the Viardot family for 38 years, he nevertheless felt deeply and hopelessly alone. On this basis, Turgenev’s depiction of love grew, so characteristic even of his always melancholic creative manner.

Turgenev is the singer of unsuccessful love par excellence. He has almost no happy ending, the last chord is always sad. At the same time, none of the Russian writers paid so much attention to love, no one idealized a woman to such an extent. This was an expression of his desire to lose himself in a dream.

Turgenev's heroes are always timid and indecisive in their affairs of the heart: Turgenev himself was like that. - In 1842, Turgenev, at the request of his mother, entered the office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was a very bad official, and the head of the office, Dahl, although he was also a writer, was very pedantic about his service. The matter ended with the fact that after serving for 1 1/2 years, Turgenev, much to the chagrin and displeasure of his mother, retired. In 1847, Turgenev, together with the Viardot family, went abroad, lived in Berlin, Dresden, visited the sick Belinsky in Silesia, with whom he had the closest friendship, and then went to France. His affairs were in the most deplorable situation; he lived on loans from friends, advances from editorial offices, and even by reducing his needs to the minimum. Under the pretext of the need for solitude, he spent the winter months in complete solitude, either in Viardot's empty dacha or in the abandoned castle of Georges Sand, eating whatever he could find. The February Revolution and the June days found him in Paris, but did not make a particular impression on him. Deeply imbued with the general principles of liberalism, Turgenev in his political convictions was always, in his own words, a “gradualist,” and the radical socialist excitement of the 40s, which captured many of his peers, affected him relatively little.

In 1850, Turgenev returned to Russia, but he never met his mother, who died that same year. Having shared his mother's large fortune with his brother, he eased the hardships of the peasants he inherited as much as possible.

In 1852, a thunderstorm unexpectedly struck him. After Gogol's death, Turgenev wrote an obituary, which was not missed by the St. Petersburg censorship, because, as the famous Musin-Pushkin put it, “it is criminal to speak so enthusiastically about such a writer.” Only in order to show that “cold” Petersburg was also excited by the great loss, Turgenev sent an article to Moscow, V.P. Botkin, and he published it in Moskovskie Vedomosti. This was seen as a “rebellion,” and the author of “Notes of a Hunter” was taken to the moving house, where he stayed for a whole month. Then he was exiled to his village and only thanks to the increased efforts of Count Alexei Tolstoy, after two years he again received the right to live in the capitals.

Literary activity Turgenev from 1847, when the first essays of the “Notes of a Hunter” appeared, until 1856, when “Rudin” began the period of great novels that most glorified him, was expressed, in addition to the “Notes of a Hunter” completed in 1851 and dramatic works, in a number more or less remarkable stories: “The Diary of an Extra Man” (1850), “Three Meetings” (1852), “Two Friends” (1854), “Mumu” ​​(1854), “The Calm” (1854), “Yakov Pasynkov” ( 1855), "Correspondence" (1856). Apart from “Three Meetings,” which is a rather insignificant anecdote, beautifully told and containing an amazingly poetic description of an Italian night and a Russian summer evening, all the other stories can easily be combined into one creative mood of deep melancholy and some kind of hopeless pessimism. This mood is closely connected with the despondency that gripped the thinking part of Russian society under the influence of the reaction of the first half of the 50s (see Russia, XXVIII, 634 et seq.). A good half of its significance owes to ideological sensitivity and the ability to capture “moments” public life, Turgenev reflected the despondency of the era more clearly than his other peers.

It was now in his creative synthesis that type of "extra person"- this is a terribly vivid expression of that phase of the Russian public, when a non-vulgar person, a wreck in matters of the heart, had absolutely nothing to do. The Hamlet of Shchigrovsky district ("Notes of a Hunter") who stupidly ends his cleverly started life, Vyazovnin who stupidly dies ("Two Friends"), the hero of "Correspondence", exclaiming with horror that "we Russians have no other life task, as the development of our personality", Veretyev and Masha ("Lull"), of which the first, the emptiness and aimlessness of Russian life leads to a tavern, and the second to a pond - all these types of useless and distorted people were born and embodied in very brightly written figures precisely in the years of that timelessness, when even the moderate Granovsky exclaimed: “good for Belinsky, who died on time.” Let us add here from the last essays of “Notes of a Hunter” the poignant poetry of “Singers,” “Date,” “Kasyan from the Beautiful Sword,” sad story Yakov Pasynkov, finally "Mumu", which Carlyle considered the most touching story in the world - and we get a whole streak of the darkest despair.

Far from it full meetings Turgenev's works (no poems and many articles) have gone through 4 editions since 1868. One collection of Turgenev's works (with poems) was given at Niva (1898). The poems were published under the editorship of S.N. Krivenko (2 editions, 1885 and 1891). In 1884, the Literary Fund published “The First Collection of Letters of I.S. Turgenev,” but many of Turgenev’s letters, scattered across various magazines, are still awaiting a separate publication. In 1901, letters from Turgenev to French friends, collected by I.D., were published in Paris. Galperin-Kaminsky. Part of Turgenev's correspondence with Herzen was published abroad by Drahomanov. Separate books and brochures about Turgenev were published by: Averyanov, Agafonov, Burenin, Byleev, Vengerov, Ch. Vetrinsky, Govorukha-Otrok (Yu. Nikolaev), Dobrovsky, Michel Delines, Evfstafiev, Ivanov, E. Kavelina, Kramp, Lyuboshits, Mandelstam, Mizko, Mourrier, Nevzorov, Nezelenov, Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky, Ostrogorsky, J. Pavlovsky (French), Evg. Soloviev, Strakhov, Sukhomlinov, Tursch (German), Chernyshev, Chudinov, Jungmeister and others. A number of extensive articles about Turgenev were included in the collected works of Annenkov, Belinsky, Apollo Grigoriev, Dobrolyubov, Druzhinin, Mikhailovsky, Pisarev, Skabichevsky, Nik. Solovyov, Chernyshevsky, Shelgunov. Significant excerpts from both these and other critical reviews (Avdeev, Antonovich, Dudyshkin, De-Poulay, Longinov, Tkachev, etc.) are given in the collection of V. Zelinsky: “Collection of critical materials for the study of the works of I.S. Turgenev” (3rd ed. 1899). Reviews by Renan, Abu, Schmidt, Brandes, de Vogüe, Merimee and others are given in the book: “Foreign Criticism about Turgenev” (1884). Numerous biographical materials scattered throughout magazines of the 1880s and 90s are listed in the “Review of the Works of Deceased Writers” by D.D. Yazykova, issue III - VIII.

CONTEMPORARIES unanimously admitted that she was not a beauty at all. Quite the contrary. The poet Heinrich Heine said that she resembled a landscape, at once monstrous and exotic, and one of the artists of the era described her as not just an ugly woman, but brutally ugly. This is exactly how the famous singer Pauline Viardot was described in those days. Indeed, Viardot’s appearance was far from ideal. She was stooped, with bulging eyes, large, almost masculine features, and a huge mouth.

But when the “divine Viardot” began to sing, her strange, almost repulsive appearance magically transformed. It seemed that before this, Viardot’s face was just a reflection in a distorting mirror, and only while singing did the audience get to see the original. At the moment of one of these transformations, the aspiring Russian writer Ivan Turgenev saw Pauline Viardot on the stage of the opera house.

This mysterious, attractive woman, like a drug, managed to chain the writer to her for the rest of her life. Their romance took 40 long years and divided Turgenev’s entire life into periods before and after his meeting with Polina.

Village passions

Turgenev's personal life was not going smoothly from the very beginning. The young writer's first love left a bitter aftertaste. Young Katenka, the daughter of Princess Shakhovskaya, who lived next door, captivated 18-year-old Turgenev with her girlish freshness, naivety and spontaneity. But, as it turned out later, the girl was not at all as pure and immaculate as the imagination of the young man in love had imagined. One day, Turgenev had to find out that Catherine had long had a permanent lover, and young Katya’s “heart friend” turned out to be none other than Sergei Nikolaevich, a well-known Don Juan in the area and... Turgenev’s father. Complete confusion reigned in the young man’s head, the young man could not understand why Katenka chose her father over him, because Sergei Nikolaevich treated women without any trepidation, was often rude to his mistresses, never explained his actions, could offend the girl with an unexpected word and caustic remark, while his son loved Katya with some special tenderness. All this seemed to the young Turgenev a huge injustice; now, looking at Katya, he felt as if he had unexpectedly stumbled upon something vile, similar to a frog crushed by a cart.
Having recovered from the blow, Ivan becomes disillusioned with the “noble maidens” and goes to seek love from simple and gullible serf peasant women. They, not spoiled by the kind attitude of their husbands, exhausted by work and poverty, happily accepted signs of attention from the affectionate master, it was easy to bring them joy, to light a warm light in their eyes, and with them Turgenev felt that his tenderness was finally appreciated. One of the serfs, the burning beauty Avdotya Ivanova, gave birth to the writer’s daughter.
Perhaps a connection with a master could play the role of a happy lottery ticket in the life of the illiterate Avdotya - Turgenev settled his daughter on his estate, planned to give her a good upbringing and, who knows, live happy life with her mother. But fate decreed otherwise.

Unanswered love

TRAVELING across Europe, in 1843 Turgenev met Pauline Viardot, and since then his heart belonged to her alone. Ivan Sergeevich does not care that his love is married; he gladly agrees to meet Pauline’s husband Louis Viardot. Knowing that Polina is happy in this marriage, Turgenev does not even insist on intimacy with his beloved and is content with the role of a devoted admirer.

Turgenev’s mother was cruelly jealous of her son’s “singer,” and therefore the trip around Europe (which soon came down to only visiting the cities where Viardot toured) had to be continued under cramped financial circumstances. But how can such little things as the dissatisfaction of relatives and lack of money stop the feeling that befell Turgenev? The Viardot family becomes a part of his life, he is attached to Polina, he has a kind of friendship with Louis Viardot, and their daughter has become dear to the writer. In those years, Turgenev practically lived in the Viardot family; the writer either rented houses in the neighborhood or stayed for a long time in the house of his beloved. Louis Viardot did not prevent his wife from meeting her new admirer. On the one hand, he considered Polina a reasonable woman and relied entirely on her common sense, and on the other, friendship with Turgenev promised quite material benefits: contrary to the will of his mother, Ivan Sergeevich spent a lot of money on the Viardot family. At the same time, Turgenev was well aware of his ambiguous position in the Viardot house; more than once he had to catch the sidelong glances of his Parisian acquaintances, who shrugged their shoulders in bewilderment when Polina, introducing Ivan Sergeevich to them, said: “And this is our Russian friend, please meet me.” . Turgenev felt that he, a hereditary Russian nobleman, was gradually turning into a lap dog, which began to wag its tail and squeal joyfully as soon as its owner cast a favorable glance at it or scratched it behind the ear, but he could not do anything about his unhealthy feeling. Without Polina, Ivan Sergeevich felt truly sick and broken: “I cannot live away from you, I must feel your closeness, enjoy it. The day when your eyes didn’t shine on me is a lost day,” he wrote to Polina and, without demanding anything in return, continued to help her financially, tinker with her children and forcefully smile at Louis Viardot.
As for his own daughter, her life on her grandmother’s estate is not at all cloudless. The powerful landowner treats her granddaughter like a serf. As a result, Turgenev invites Polina to take the girl to be raised by the Viardot family. At the same time, either wanting to please the woman he loved, or overwhelmed by the fever of love, Turgenev changes the name of his own daughter, and from Pelageya the girl turns into Polinette (of course, in honor of her beloved Polina). Of course, Polina Viardot’s agreement to raise Turgenev’s daughter further strengthened the writer’s feelings. Now Viardot has also become for him an angel of mercy, who snatched his child from the hands of a cruel grandmother. True, Pelageya-Polinet did not at all share her father’s affection for Pauline Viardot. Having lived in Viardot's house until she came of age, Polynette retained her resentment against her father and hostility toward her adoptive mother for the rest of her life, believing that she had taken her father's love and attention away from her.
Meanwhile, the popularity of Turgenev the writer is growing. In Russia, no one perceives Ivan Sergeevich as an aspiring writer any more - now he is almost a living classic. At the same time, Turgenev firmly believes that he owes his fame to Viardot. Before the premieres of plays based on his works, he whispers her name, believing that it brings him good luck.
In 1852–1853, Turgenev lived on his estate practically under house arrest. The authorities really didn’t like the obituary he wrote after Gogol’s death - the secret chancellery saw it as a threat to imperial power.
Having learned that in March 1853 Pauline Viardot was coming to Russia with concerts, Turgenev lost his head. He manages to get a fake passport, with which the writer, disguised as a tradesman, goes to Moscow to meet the woman he loves. The risk was huge, but, unfortunately, unjustified. Several years of separation cooled Polina's feelings. But Turgenev is ready to be content with simple friendship, if only from time to time to see how Viardot turns his thin neck and looks at him with his mysterious black eyes.

In someone else's arms

SOME time later, Turgenev nevertheless made several attempts to improve his personal life. In the spring of 1854, the writer met with the daughter of one of Ivan Sergeevich’s cousins, Olga. The 18-year-old girl captivated the writer so much that he even thought about marriage. But the longer their romance lasted, the more often the writer remembered Pauline Viardot. The freshness of Olga’s young face and her trustingly affectionate glances from under lowered eyelashes still could not replace the opium intoxication that the writer felt at every meeting with Viardot. Finally, completely exhausted by this duality, Turgenev admitted to the girl in love with him that he could not justify her hopes for personal happiness. Olga was very upset by the unexpected breakup, and Turgenev blamed himself for everything, but could not do anything about his newly rekindled love for Polina.
In 1879, Turgenev made his last attempt to start a family. Young actress Maria Savinova is ready to become his life partner. The girl is not even afraid of the huge age difference - at that moment Turgenev was already over 60.
In 1882, Savinova and Turgenev went to Paris. Unfortunately, this trip marked the end of their relationship. In Turgenev's house, every little thing reminded of Viardot, Maria constantly felt superfluous and was tormented by jealousy. That same year, Turgenev became seriously ill. Doctors made a terrible diagnosis - cancer. At the beginning of 1883, he was operated on in Paris, and in April, after the hospital, before returning to his place, he asks to be taken to Viardot’s house, where Polina was waiting for him.
Turgenev did not have long to live, but he was happy in his own way - his Polina was next to him, to whom he dictated latest stories and letters. On September 3, 1883, Turgenev died. According to his will, he wanted to be buried in Russia, and on his last journey to his homeland he is accompanied by Claudia Viardot, the daughter of Pauline Viardot. Turgenev was buried not in his beloved Moscow and not on his estate in Spassky, but in St. Petersburg - a city in which he was only passing through, in the necropolis of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Perhaps this happened due to the fact that the funeral was carried out, in essence, by people almost strangers to the writer.

Russian writer, corresponding member of the Puturburg Academy of Sciences (1880). In the cycle of stories “Notes of a Hunter” (1847 52) he showed the high spiritual qualities and talent of the Russian peasant, the poetry of nature. In the socio-psychological novels "Rudin" (1856), "The Noble Nest" (1859), "On the Eve" (1860), "Fathers and Sons" (1862), the stories "Asya" (1858), "Spring Waters" (1872 ) images of the passing noble culture and new heroes of the era - commoners and democrats, images of selfless Russian women were created. In the novels "Smoke" (1867) and "Nov" (1877) he depicted the life of Russian peasants abroad and the populist movement in Russia. In his later years he created the lyrical and philosophical “Poems in Prose” (1882). Master of Language and psychological analysis. Turgenev had a significant influence on the development of Russian and world literature.

Biography

Born on October 28 (November 9 n.s.) in Orel into a noble family. Father, Sergei Nikolaevich, a retired hussar officer, came from an ancient noble family; mother, Varvara Petrovna, from the wealthy landowner family of the Lutovinovs. Turgenev spent his childhood on the family estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo. He grew up in the care of “tutors and teachers, Swiss and Germans, home-grown uncles and serf nannies.”

When the family moved to Moscow in 1827, the future writer was sent to a boarding school and spent about two and a half years there. Further education continued under the guidance of private teachers. Since childhood, he knew French, German, and English.

In the fall of 1833, before reaching the age of fifteen, he entered Moscow University, and the following year he transferred to St. Petersburg University, from which he graduated in 1936 in the verbal department of the Faculty of Philosophy.

In May 1838 he went to Berlin to attend lectures on classical philology and philosophy. I met and became friends with N. Stankevich and M. Bakunin, meetings with whom were of much greater importance than the lectures of Berlin professors. Spent more than two years abroad academic years, combining classes with long travels: he traveled around Germany, visited Holland and France, and lived in Italy for several months.

Returning to his homeland in 1841, he settled in Moscow, where he prepared for master's exams and attended literary clubs and salons: he met Gogol, Aksakov, and Khomyakov. On one of the trips to St. Petersburg with Herzen.

In 1842 he successfully passed his master's exams, hoping to get a position as a professor at Moscow University, but since philosophy was taken under suspicion by the Nicholas government, philosophy departments were abolished in Russian universities, and he did not succeed in becoming a professor.

In 1843, Turgenev entered the service as an official of the “special office” of the Minister of Internal Affairs, where he served for two years. In the same year, an acquaintance with Belinsky and his entourage took place. Turgenev's social and literary views during this period were determined mainly by the influence of Belinsky. Turgenev published his poems, poems, dramatic works, stories. The critic guided his work with his assessments and friendly advice.

In 1847, Turgenev went abroad for a long time: his love for the famous French singer Pauline Viardot, whom he met in 1843 during her tour in St. Petersburg, took him away from Russia. He lived for three years in Germany, then in Paris and on the estate of the Viardot family. Even before leaving, he submitted the essay “Khor and Kalinich” to Sovremennik, which was a resounding success. The following essays from folk life were published in the same magazine for five years. In 1852 it was published as a separate book called “Notes of a Hunter.”

In 1850, the writer returned to Russia and collaborated as an author and critic with Sovremennik, which became a kind of center of Russian literary life.

Impressed by Gogol's death in 1852, he published an obituary, prohibited by censorship. For this he was 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.

Along with “hunting” stories, Turgenev wrote several plays: “The Freeloader” (1848), “The Bachelor” (1849), “A Month in the Country” (1850), “Provincial Girl” (1850). During his arrest and exile, he created the stories “Mumu” ​​(1852) and “The Inn” (1852) on a “peasant” theme. However, he was 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 the stories made the transition to the novel easier.

In the summer of 1855, the novel “Rudin” was written in Spassky, and in subsequent years the novels: in 1859 “The Noble Nest”; in 1860 “On the Eve”, in 1862 “Fathers and Sons”.

The situation in Russia was changing rapidly: the government announced its intention to free the peasants from serfdom, preparations for reform began, giving rise to numerous plans for the upcoming reorganization. Turgenev took an active part in this process, became an unofficial collaborator of Herzen, sending incriminating material to the magazine Kolokol, and collaborated with Sovremennik, which gathered around itself the main forces of advanced literature and journalism. Writers of different directions initially acted as a united front, but sharp disagreements soon emerged. There was a break between Turgenev and the Sovremennik magazine, the reason for which was Dobrolyubov’s article “When will the real one will come day? ", dedicated to Turgenev's novel "On the Eve", in which the critic predicted the imminent appearance of the Russian Insarov, the approach of the day of revolution. Turgenev did not accept such an interpretation of the novel and asked Nekrasov not to publish this article. Nekrasov took the side of Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky, and Turgenev left “Contemporary” dates back to 1862 1863, when Turgenev considered Herzen’s faith in the revolutionary and socialist aspirations of the peasantry to be unfounded.

Since 1863, the writer settled with the Viardot family in Baden-Baden. At the same time he began to collaborate with the liberal-bourgeois “Bulletin of Europe”, which published all his subsequent major works, including his last novel “New” (1876).

Following the Viardot family, Turgenev moved to Paris. During the days of the Paris Commune he lived in London, after its defeat he returned to France, where he remained until the end of his life, spending the winters in Paris and the summer months outside the city, in Bougival, and making short trips to Russia every spring.

The writer met the social upsurge of the 1870s in Russia, associated with the Narodniks’ attempts to find a revolutionary way out of the crisis, with interest, became close to the leaders of the movement, and provided financial assistance in the publication of the collection “Forward.” His long-standing interest in folk theme, returned to “Notes of a Hunter,” supplementing them with new essays, wrote the stories “Punin and Baburin” (1874), “The Clock” (1875), etc.

Social revival began among students and among broad sections of society. Turgenev's popularity, at one time shaken by his break with Sovremennik, has now recovered again and began to grow rapidly. In February 1879, when he arrived in Russia, he was honored at literary evenings and gala dinners, with strong invitations to stay in his homeland. Turgenev was even inclined to end his voluntary exile, but this intention was not carried out. 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).

August 22 (September 3, n.s.) 1883 Turgenev died in Bougival. According to the writer's will, his body was transported to Russia and buried in St. Petersburg.

Part 2.

Every love is happy, as well as unhappy, a real disaster when you give yourself completely to it.
I.S. Turgenev

Now let's get back to the topic of true love. Woman was the main supreme deity of the entire work of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev... K.D. Balmont, the great Russian poet, wrote: “... it was through Turgenev, who brought up our language, our polysong dreaminess, who taught us to understand through beautiful love, that the best and most faithful essence, reverent in artistic creativity, is the Girl-Woman "...

Yes, it was the Woman who was his Muse. He found inspiration only in love.
Traveling through Italy, Ivan Turgenev meets Moscow acquaintances in Rome - the Khovrin family. And he begins a short-term affair with Shushu, the Khovrins’ eldest daughter, Alexandra (later a children’s writer).

A year later, he became close to his mother’s civilian seamstress Avdotya Ermolaevna Ivanova, who gave birth to his daughter Pelageya. At the same time, he has a stormy romance with Tatyana Aleksandrovna Bakunina (sister of the revolutionary anarchist M.A. Bakunin).

Traveling around Europe, in 1843, Ivan Turgenev met Pauline Viardot (anal-cutaneous-visual with sound), and since then his heart belongs to her alone. Contemporaries unanimously admitted that she was not a beauty at all. Quite the contrary. Indeed, Viardot’s appearance was far from ideal. She was stooped, with bulging eyes, large, almost masculine features, and a huge mouth. But when she started singing, her appearance changed. At the moment of one of these transformations, the aspiring Russian writer Ivan Turgenev saw Pauline Viardot on the stage of the opera house.

Pauline Viardot

By the way, Turgenev himself loved to sing, but he had absolutely no hearing and had a very thin, almost feminine voice. And although he could not hit a single right note, the listeners were delighted with this comic spectacle. “What should I do? After all, I myself know that I don’t have a voice, but just a pig!” - Ivan Turgenev lamented (the sound artist often speaks in a barely audible, quiet voice and often does not like the sound of his voice).

Despite all the obstacles, the writer’s romance with the singer lasted more than 40 years. Ivan Turgenev knew that she was married to Louis Viardot, but passion captured him so much that he could no longer think about anyone else. He even meets her husband and they become friends. His further trips to Europe amounted only to visiting the cities where Viardot toured. But his indecision, characteristic of people with an anal vector, does not allow Turgenev to take any more active actions. He does not insist on intimacy with his beloved and is content with the role of a devoted admirer. Marriage for an anal person is sacred. They will never encroach on someone else’s property, including someone else’s woman.

Meanwhile, Pelageya’s daughter is growing up on her grandmother’s estate, about whom Ivan Turgenev still knows nothing. The powerful landowner treats her granddaughter like a serf. As a result, Turgenev invites Polina to take the girl into the Viardot family, where she will live until she comes of age (developed anals always take care of their offspring) together with Polina Viardot’s children.

Turgenev's daughter

By the way, Pauline Viardot also did not deny herself carnal pleasures (like a real skin-visual woman who undifferentiatedly releases pheromones for all men). Soon she gave birth to a son, Paul. But to this day it remains a mystery from whom: from Ivan Turgenev, from famous artist Ary Schaeffer, who painted her portrait, or...

A few years later, Viardot comes to Russia on tour. Turgenev hurries to meet her, but Polina’s feelings have already cooled down. Yes, if a visual person does not see the object of his adoration for a long time, then emotional ties quickly break. As the saying goes, “out of sight, out of mind.” But Ivan Turgenev is ready to be content with simple friendship, if only to see Viardot at least from time to time (anal-visual people can create very long-term emotional connections).

A year after this unpleasant event, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev meets his cousin’s daughter, 18-year-old Olga Turgeneva, and falls in love with her. He even begins to think about marriage for the first time. And, it must be said, that the young lady reciprocated the lovelace. But memory carefully preserved the image of Polina and helpfully sent it to a happy past. Ivan Sergeevich breaks off relations with Olga.

Olga Turgeneva

I.S. Turgenev 1880

In 1882, Savinova and Turgenev went to Paris. Unfortunately, this trip marked the end of their relationship. In Turgenev's house, every little thing reminded of Viardot, Maria constantly felt superfluous and was tormented by jealousy.
And yet, in the last minutes of his life, Polina was next to Ivan Turgenev. HIS PAULINE. In the last hours of his life, he no longer recognized anyone. When Pauline Viardot bent over him, Ivan Sergeevich said: “Here is the queen of queens!” These were his last words.
Ivan Turgenev died in Bougival, near Paris, on August 22 (September 3), 1883. Those who saw him during his farewell testify that his face was calm and beautiful as never before. It’s not for nothing that the classic said that “love is stronger than death and the fear of death.”