The fate of Turgenev is of considerable interest to researchers, since it is full of bright events and is directly related to the complex fate of the homeland. Owing to the writer's powerful talent, readers all over the world were able to get acquainted with amazing and unforgettable works that are included in the annals of history. For almost a century and a half, we have gratefully and tremblingly been holding Turgenev’s favorite books in our hands and learning from him the ability to understand and feel the beauty of his native land, respect human dignity and value freedom as the highest gift.
Use of chronological table
When studying a historical era, stages of a particular civilization or the work of a representative of art, a researcher necessarily needs a chronological table to systematize. We begin to study Turgenev for the first time at school, in literature lessons. In the 5th grade - this is a touching story of Gerasim and Mumu, in the 6th - the story “Bezhin Meadow”, and then - “Biryuk”, “Asya”, “First Love” and “Poems in Prose”.
At a more mature age, we come into contact with his more serious works - novels that brought glory to Russian literature and won the love of foreign readers. Naturally, at each stage, while studying the biography of the writer, we learned about him new facts that help to better understand the work of this outstanding person. Indispensable help can be provided here by Turgenev's biographical chronological table, which allows you to organize data, identify the most important points and show the dynamics of events.
From the beginnings
The chronological table of Turgenev when working with her in the lessons at school, of course, begins with the most important event in the life of any person - from the moment of his birth. This is the starting point of all further fate. The writer was born in the ancient Russian city of Orel on October 28 (November 9), 1818. The ancestors on the part of the father belonged to the ancient, famous, noble nobility, who once played a prominent role in Russian history. On the mother’s side, the ancestors were not so noble, but they were rich. The chronological table of Turgenev must necessarily include an indication of the family nest - Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, which became for the writer the source of great love for Russia and passionate hatred for serfdom.
Childhood and adolescence
The diaries of the writer note a special role in the fate of Ivan Sergeyevich of his mother, Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova. When compiling a chronological table of Turgenev, briefly talk about this extraordinary and ambiguous woman is simply necessary. After all, many traits of her character and even many life events were reflected in the literary heroes - the lady from the "Mumu", Glafira Petrovna from the "Noble Nest", the grandmother from "Punin and Baburin." The personality of the father also left an indelible mark on the life of the future writer. Therefore, the chronological table of Turgenev should briefly tell about the complex relationship between them, because they found artistic reflection in one of the best lyric stories - “First Love”.
Education and the first steps in creativity
1827 is an important date from which Turgenev's biography changes dramatically. The chronological table should include it because this year the writer’s family moves to Moscow. And after a measured life in a manor house, with its well-established life, a narrow circle of close people, home education, Ivan Sergeyevich is introduced to a new existence - in a big city, in private boarding houses, where he receives training for university education.
1833 - admission to Moscow University, 1834 - transfer to Petersburg to the verbal department of the Faculty of Philosophy. In these same years, a young student begins to try himself in poetry and dramaturgy. And his first critic is P.A. Pletnev, a close friend of Pushkin. The student biography of Turgenev continues (a chronological table records this) already abroad, in Germany, where he went in 1838. Not only philosophy, but also familiarization with Western political movements, acquaintance with progressive social movements and ideologies make a real breakthrough in the formation of Turgenev’s personality. Holland, France, Italy also made a great impression on the future writer. The photo of Turgenev Ivan Sergeyevich taken from his portrait and presented to your attention below (author K.A. Gorbunov, 1838-1839) also belongs to this period.
First confession
Returning to the homeland, exams for
a master's degree, the desire to teach - all this fell on the beginning of the 40s. Turgenev is a professor of philosophy, but in Nikolaev Russia it is banned. And therefore, Ivan Sergeyevich becomes an official. And in 1843, the poem Parasha, the first truly Turgenev work, was published, and it already marked with a dotted line an amazing feminine character, known in literary criticism as the Turgenev Girl.
Photo by Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich is a daguerreotype dated to the 1840s. A tenacious, attentive look, frowning eyebrows and a deep fold between them indicate serious thoughts. Indeed, very soon, from 1847, stories begin to appear, which will then be compiled into a collection that brought the writer fame and recognition - “Notes of the Hunter”, “Mumu” and others. Therefore, be sure to mark the indicated date on the timeline! After all, Turgenev's stories are a real encyclopedia of folk life, an illustration of peasant life, the disclosure of the subtleties of the psychology of a simple Russian person.
Link to Spasskoye
The name of the writer was taken by censorship, and he himself was sent into exile in the family estate until the end of autumn 1853. Herzen did not in vain call Turgenev's stories "an indictment of serfdom." The mutilated fates, shattered hopes, derailed life are narrated by Raspberry Water and Yermolai and the Mill. The tremendous spiritual beauty and talent of the people are revealed in the work “Singers”. The destructive influence of serfdom is felt in every story.
"Notes of the hunter" became the first significant contribution of the writer to the implacable fight against shameful slavery. So she received the realization of the “Annibal oath” given to herself by Turgenev in his youth. And another very important point. In these stories one can already feel the hand of the Master, a subtle singer of Russian nature, and an amazing style, linguistic expressiveness, which the researchers will also call “Turgenev”. More V.G. Belinsky rightly praised the literary gift of the writer.
"The edge of another's nest"
Turgenev’s life is the eternal search for truth, the desire to comprehend the “mysterious Russian folk soul”. He possessed a unique talent: to notice, feel the just emerging ideas of social thought, to see new heroes appearing on the stage of the social and political struggle and to display them in his works. At the same time, one should not forget about the psychologism of Turgenev's prose and the poetry of his manner of narration. And also about love.
The theme of love is one of the main topics in all novels of the writer, in many of his novels. With love, he checks the value of his heroes, their compliance with the high rank of man. Ivan Sergeyevich makes the most stringent requirements for the personal life of his characters. Why is that? Probably because Turgenev’s personal life was quite dramatic. Polina Viardot, a French opera singer, became his muse, an unattainable dream, and her family and life - his family and his home, but the edge of the "alien nest". For he never got his own. And even the daughter of the writer, born of a courtyard girl at the time of his youth, was brought up in the Viardot family. To some extent, Turgenev’s life was divided into two halves - before meeting Polina and after. So, the year 1843 should be marked on the time scale also in connection with this most important event for Ivan Sergeyevich.
Collaboration and break with Sovremennik
The chronological table of Turgenev’s life should be continued with figures such as 1850 - the beginning of work in the Nekrasov Sovremennik, friendship and ideological cooperation with democratic intelligentsia: Nekrasov, Dobrolyubov, Chernyshevsky and others. 1855 - the writing of the novel "Rudin", 1859 - the appearance of the "Noble Nest", 1860 - the creation of "The Eve"; 1862 - the publication of the novel "Fathers and Sons".
Each of the works presented to the public is an answer to the question of what the current hero, an advanced public figure , can and should be . According to his socio-political views, the writer gravitated to liberals, believed that life in Russia should be changed through government reforms and did not accept the revolution with its violence and victims. Literature, Turgenev especially insisted on this, has no right to call "Russia to the ax." Artists have a huge responsibility, because they contribute to the formation of public consciousness. But the terror of the revolution will not bring the people anything good. On this basis, in 1860, relations with the leadership of Sovremennik became extremely strained for the writer, and in 1861 they completely ceased. On the chronological scale of Turgenev’s biography, this date must be recorded.
Life abroad
The starting point of a new period in the life of Ivan Sergeevich is 1863. He goes abroad, to France, lives with the Viardot family, collaborates with her husband in local publications. His last best things are written there - the novels “Smoke” and “Nov”, as well as the novel “Spring Water”. He comes to his homeland occasionally, in the spring, sadly noticing the traces of a noble culture that has receded into the past. And only in the 1870s, when a new wave of social liberation movement began in Russia, did mutual interest between the writer and his Russian readers come to life. The trips of Ivan Sergeyevich are marked by frequent meetings with young people, he is honored at literary evenings, and invited to return to his homeland forever. Turgenev thinks about it.
"Poems in Prose" and Death
During the last 4 years of his life, Ivan Sergeyevich wrote small lyrical miniatures, collected in a collection under the general title “Poems in Prose”. Capacious, laconic masterpieces, striking with the depth of thought and the perfection of expression. They became a kind of confession of the writer, his personal diary, reflecting Turgenev’s thoughts, feelings, moods. In 1882, the writer discovered a terrible disease - spinal cancer. And on August 22, 1883 (September 3) in Bougainville he died. The writer was buried in Russia, in St. Petersburg. These data are forever fixed on the biographical timeline.