Biography of Turgenev and interesting facts of his life. The most interesting facts from the life of Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev left an indelible mark on the history of world literature. Being not only a prose writer, but also a playwright and a poet, he brought a lot of kindness and light lyrics to this world, which really warms the soul.

Facts from the biography of Turgenev

The mother of the future writer was a domineering and despotic lady, and she often beat her children. Her pet, young Ivan, also got it.
Both by mother and father, Turgenev is a descendant of noble families.
At the age of 14, Turgenev entered the university. At the same age, the famous poet Tyutchev () became a student.
His favorite treat was gooseberry jam. However, the writer always loved to eat well, and at the table did not deny himself anything.
Turgenev spent more time abroad than in Russia.
Once, with a weapon in his hands, he stood up for a serf girl who was intended to be returned to her rightful owners. As a result, a criminal case was opened against him. The writer was and remained an opponent of serfdom all his life.
Anatomists found that Turgenev's brain weighed about two kilograms, which is significantly more than the brain of most other prominent people.
While studying in Germany, young Turgenev carelessly spent everything that his mother sent him. This way of life bothered his harsh parent, and she stopped the allowance. Soon he received from her a large and heavy parcel, the delivery of which had not yet been paid. Having paid the last money for her, he discovered that the stern mother had stuffed the parcel with bricks.
Turgenev wrote not only in Russian, but also in French.
The writer's voice was high and thin, which contrasted sharply with his heroic physique.
Laughing, he lost control of himself. According to contemporaries, he could easily fall on all fours or roll on the floor in a fit of laughter.
Turgenev was incredibly clean, changing underwear at least twice a day. In addition, he was an obvious perfectionist - he could get out of bed at night, remembering that he had not put some thing in its proper place.
Turgenev wrote his famous story "Mumu" while under arrest for a month. Under arrest by royal order, he fell for the publication of one of his articles.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was distinguished by absent-mindedness, which in his youth also bordered on carelessness. It cost him nothing to invite guests to his place and simply forget that they would come to him. On the appointed day and hour, the invitees drove up to the house, but found only surprised servants there, and not the owner. Belinsky called such behavior boyish, and the writer himself - a boy.

Ivan Sergeevich practically did not experience financial difficulties, since his mother, a wealthy landowner, did not refuse her son anything and regularly provided him with money. But when the young man went to Germany to gnaw at the granite of science, he began to waste money already thoughtlessly and never even thanked his parent for the gifts and Money transfers. Mother was tired of all this, and she stopped "sponsoring" the offspring. And once she sent a heavy parcel to Germany huge size, which turned out to be filled to the top with bricks.

The writer took great care appearance and dressed rather smartly. For his penchant for eccentric outfits, he received from another critic - Herzen - the apt nickname "Khlestakov". When looking at a man dressed in a blue tailcoat with shiny gold buttons a la lion heads, in plaid trousers and with a multi-colored tie tied, many people surely compared him with Gogol's character.

The love of life for Turgenev was the famous opera diva Pauline Viardot. The famous artist did not reciprocate his feelings, but had a great influence on his work. She often became the muse of the writer, prompting him to create new literary masterpieces.

During his lifetime and after Turgenev's death, anatomists were very interested in his brain. After all, this organ weighed two kilograms, which was much higher than that of others. famous people. But the writer's skull bones were incredibly thin. The latter fact often played a bad joke on him: it was enough for Ivan Sergeevich to receive a slight blow to the head in order to faint or feel on the verge of losing consciousness.

The writer was an ardent opponent of serfdom, fought for its abolition and rejoiced when the peasants, forced to the landowners, finally gained freedom.

Many contemporaries of Turgenev noted the discrepancy between the inner world of this man and his appearance. A real athlete in physique, he had a thin, almost feminine voice and a very gentle character. Ivan Sergeevich was emotional: when he found fun, he laughed to the point of exhaustion. But periods of gaiety could be replaced by the deepest melancholy.

The most serious "quarrel" between the writer and the authorities occurred after the publication of his obituary on Gogol's death. Ivan Sergeevich was exiled for a year to his own estate and even upon his return to St. Petersburg remained under police supervision. Observation of Turgenev ceased only after the death of Nicholas I and the accession to the throne of Alexander II in 1855.

Like many people who are completely devoid of a voice, the writer loved to sing and, not really stewed, demonstrated to others the lack of vocal abilities. His ugly singing produced a bewitching effect on the listeners and greatly amused them. Turgenev was self-critical about his own voice and compared it to a pig squeal.

Thanks to the writer and his work, the expression "Turgenev's girl" appeared in Russian literature. So we call a person with strong character capable of sacrificing much, almost everything, for the sake of love or beliefs. But the male characters in the works of Ivan Sergeevich seem to be woven from contradictions: they are indecisive, prone to incomprehensible actions and very often reveal a weakness of character.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (October 28, 1818, Orel, Russian empire- August 22, 1883, Bougival, France) - Russian realist writer, poet, publicist, playwright, translator.

One of the classics of Russian literature, who made the most significant contribution to its development in the second half of the 19th century. Corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of Russian language and literature (1860), honorary doctor of Oxford University (1879).

He was a propagandist of Russian literature and dramaturgy in the West.

Passion for hunting

Dmitriev-Orenburgsky Nikolay Dmitrievich
Portrait of I.S. Turgenev dressed as a hunter
Literary Museum of Pushkin House Russian Academy Sciences, St. Petersburg

I. S. Turgenev was at one time one of the most famous hunters in Russia. The love of hunting was instilled in the future writer by his uncle Nikolai Turgenev, a recognized connoisseur of horses and hunting dogs in the district, who raised the boy during his summer holidays in Spassky.

He also taught hunting to the future writer AI Kupfershmidt, whom Turgenev considered his first teacher. Thanks to him, Turgenev is already in youth could call himself a gun hunter. Even Ivan's mother, who previously looked at the hunters as idlers, was imbued with her son's passion.

Over the years, the hobby has grown into a passion. It happened that for whole seasons he did not let go of his gun, went thousands of miles across many provinces of the central strip of Russia. Turgenev said that hunting is generally characteristic of a Russian person, and that Russian people have loved hunting since time immemorial.

In 1837, Turgenev met Afanasy Alifanov, a peasant hunter, who later became his frequent hunting companion. The writer bought it for a thousand rubles; he settled in the forest, five miles from Spassky. Athanasius was an excellent storyteller, and Turgenev often came to him to sit over a cup of tea and listen to hunting stories.

The story "About Nightingales" (1854) was recorded by the writer from the words of Alifanov. It was Athanasius who became the prototype of Yermolai from the Hunter's Notes. He was also known for his talent as a hunter among the writer's friends - A. A. Fet, I. P. Borisov. When Athanasius died in 1872, Turgenev was very sorry for his old hunting companion and asked his manager to provide possible assistance to his daughter Anna.

In 1839, the writer's mother, describing the tragic consequences of the fire that occurred in Spasskoye, does not forget to say: "your gun is intact, but the dog has gone crazy." The resulting fire hastened the arrival of Ivan Turgenev in Spasskoye. In the summer of 1839, he first went hunting in the Teleginsky swamps (on the border of the Bolkhovsky and Oryol counties), visited the Lebedyanskaya fair, which was reflected in the story "Lebedyan" (1847). Varvara Petrovna purchased five packs of greyhounds, nine bowhounds and horses with saddles especially for him.

In the summer of 1843, Ivan Sergeevich lived in a dacha in Pavlovsk and also hunted a lot. This year he met Pauline Viardot. The writer was introduced to her with the words: “This is a young Russian landowner. A good hunter and a bad poet." The husband of the actress Louis was, like Turgenev, a passionate hunter. Ivan Sergeevich invited him more than once to hunt in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. They repeatedly went hunting with friends to the Novgorod province and to Finland. And Pauline Viardot gave Turgenev a beautiful and expensive game bag.

In the late 1840s, the writer lived abroad and worked on the "Notes of a Hunter". The writer spent 1852-1853 in Spasskoye under police supervision. But this exile did not oppress him, since the hunt was again waiting in the village, and quite successful. And on next year he went on hunting expeditions 150 miles from Spassky, where, together with I.F. Yurasov, he hunted on the banks of the Desna. This expedition served as material for Turgenev to work on the story "A Trip to Polissya" (1857).

In August 1854, Turgenev, together with N. A. Nekrasov, went hunting to the estate of the titular adviser I. I. Maslov Osmino, after which both continued to hunt in Spassky. In the mid-1850s, Turgenev met the Tolstoy family. The elder brother of Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai, also turned out to be an avid hunter and, together with Turgenev, made several hunting trips around Spassky and Nikolsko-Vyazemsky.

Sometimes they were accompanied by the husband of M. N. Tolstoy - Valerian Petrovich; some traits of his character were reflected in the image of Priimkov in the story "Faust" (1855). In the summer of 1855, Turgenev did not hunt because of the cholera epidemic, but in subsequent seasons he tried to make up for lost time. Together with N. N. Tolstoy, the writer visited Pirogovo, the estate of S. N. Tolstoy, who preferred to hunt with greyhounds and had excellent horses and dogs. Turgenev, on the other hand, preferred to hunt with a gun and a setter dog, and mainly for game birds.

Turgenev kept a kennel of seventy hounds and sixty greyhounds. Together with N. N. Tolstoy, A. A. Fet and A. T. Alifanov, he made a number of hunting expeditions in the central Russian provinces. In the years 1860-1870, Turgenev mainly lived abroad. He also tried to recreate the rituals and atmosphere of Russian hunting abroad, but from all this only a distant resemblance was obtained even when he, together with Louis Viardot, managed to rent quite decent hunting grounds.

In the spring of 1880, having visited Spasskoe, Turgenev specially drove to Yasnaya Polyana in order to persuade Leo Tolstoy to take part in the Pushkin celebrations. Tolstoy declined the invitation because he considered formal dinners and liberal toasts in front of the starving Russian peasantry inappropriate. Nevertheless, Turgenev fulfilled his old dream - he hunted with Leo Tolstoy.

A whole hunting circle even formed around Turgenev - N. A. Nekrasov, A. A. Fet, A. N. Ostrovsky, N. N. and L. N. Tolsty, artist P. P. Sokolov (illustrator of the "Notes of a Hunter") . In addition, he happened to hunt with the German writer Karl Muller, as well as with representatives of the royal houses of Russia and Germany - Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich and Prince of Hesse.

Ivan Turgenev went with a gun over his shoulders Oryol, Tula, Tambov, Kursk, Kaluga provinces. He was well acquainted with the best hunting grounds in England, France and Germany.

He wrote three specialized works dedicated to hunting: “On the notes of the rifle hunter of the Orenburg province S. T. Aksakov”, “Notes of the gun hunter of the Orenburg province” and “Fifty shortcomings of a gun hunter or fifty shortcomings of a cop dog”.

We recently celebrated the 200th anniversary of the great Russian writer Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. For many generations of people have grown up on his works, which have become classics of the world fiction. In this review, we have collected interesting facts from his biography, which allow us to see the writer as a person - on the one hand, high in his actions and thoughts, but also endowed with certain shortcomings, on the other.

"Mothers and Children"

The writer had a difficult relationship with his own mother all his life. His father, Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev, married the rich old maid Lutovinova (the bride who sat in the girls was already 28 years old!). Varvara Petrovna was 6 years older than her husband and remained a real domestic tyrant all her life. Ivan Sergeevich wrote in his memoirs: “I have nothing to remember my childhood. Not a single happy memory. I was afraid of my mother like fire. I was punished for every trifle - in a word, they drilled me like a recruit. A rare day passed without a rod; when I dared to ask why I was punished, my mother categorically stated: “You better know about it, guess.”

Turgenev's parents: father Sergei Nikolaevich and mother Varvara Petrovna Probably the mother became the "muse" thanks to which Turgenev hated serfdom and fought it in every way possible. It was she who he described in the image of a lady in the story "Mu-mu". He completely stopped relations with her after, for the solemn meeting of her son, the imperious woman lined up all the serfs along the driveway with the order to greet Ivan Sergeyevich with loud cries. Immediately turning around and leaving back to Petersburg, Turgenev did not see his mother again until her death.

Real male passion

It seems that besides literature, Turgenev's true passion was hunting. The writer indulged in this hobby constantly, a lot and willingly. For the sake of hunting expeditions, he traveled around the Orel, Tula, Tambov, Kursk, Kaluga provinces, and also studied the best lands of England, France and Germany, trying to recreate the atmosphere and rituals of Russian hunting abroad. He kept a kennel for almost 150 dogs (hounds and greyhounds). In addition to fiction, which glorified hunting, he was the author of three specialized books on this subject. Tempting his fellow writers with this occupation, he even created a kind of hunting circle, which included Nekrasov, Fet, Ostrovsky, Nikolai and Lev Tolstoy, the artist P. P. Sokolov (the first illustrator of the Hunter's Notes). It is known that in 1843, at the time of meeting Polina Viardot, a mutual acquaintance introduced him as follows: “This is a young Russian landowner. A glorious hunter and a bad poet ”(Turgenev at the beginning of his literary activity was going to become a poet and wrote poems that were published in Sovremennik).

I.S. Turgenev on the hunt, N.D. Dmitriev-Orenburgsky, 1879

Character features

Turgenev was a perfect illustration of the idea that genius should be scattered. This trait of his reached the point of absurdity. However, contemporaries for his forgetfulness found other, less flattering terms, for example, "all-Russian negligence" and "Oblomovism." It was said that the writer could invite guests to dinner and forget about it, going about his business. Several times he, having taken an advance payment for the manuscript, simply did not give it to print. And once, due to the optionality of the famous writer, the Russian revolutionary Arthur Benny was seriously injured, since Turgenev did not bring a letter to London justifying the slander against him, having forgotten the envelope at home.

Ivan Turgenev in his youth. Drawing by K. A. Gorbunov, 1838 At the age of 20, Turgenev showed society an example of obvious cowardice, the trace of this event cast a shadow on his reputation for a long time. In 1838, while traveling in Germany, the young writer sailed on a ship. There was a fire, which, fortunately, was quickly extinguished, but during the panic, Turgenev, according to eyewitnesses, behaved not at all like a gentleman, pushing women and children near the lifeboats. He bribed a sailor, promising him a reward from his rich mother if he would save him. Having safely reached the shore, he was immediately ashamed of his momentary weakness, but rumors about her and ridicule could no longer be stopped. Like a true writer, Turgenev creatively reworked this life lesson and described it in the short story "Fire at Sea".

Features of physiology

After the death of the brilliant writer, his body was examined by Sergei Petrovich Botkin himself and it turned out that the French doctors made a mistake with the diagnosis. AT last years Turgenev was treated for angina pectoris and intercostal neuralgia. Botkin wrote in his conclusion that " true reason death was clarified only after the autopsy”, it turned out to be spinal microsarcoma. At the same time, a study of the writer's brain was carried out. It turned out that his weight was 2012 grams, which is about 600 grams more than the average person. This fact is included in many study guides in anatomy, although physiologists are wary of the idea of a direct link between intelligence and brain size.