The Presidential Library marking Ivan Turgenev’s 205th anniversary

The Presidential Library’s portal features the collection Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883) marking the anniversary of the classic. It contains digital copies of books, archival documents, articles from periodicals, visual materials dedicated to the life and career of the writer. 

Ivan Turgenev was born on October 28 (November 9, new style) 1818 in the Oryol province. His family belonged to an old noble family. The writer's mother had a despotic character and knew only one educational tool - the rod. Turgenev was the middle of three sons. The children were raised under the guidance of French and German tutors. The boy lived on the family estate until he was nine years old, and in 1827 the family bought a house in Moscow, where they moved to give their children an education.

At the age of 15, Turgenev entered Moscow University at the Faculty of Literature, and a year later he moved to St. Petersburg University. After a trip abroad in 1838, where he took courses at the University of Berlin for three semesters, Turgenev began to think about a career as a scientist. He even passed the exam for a master's degree in philosophy; all that remained was to write a dissertation, but the young man was completely absorbed in literary activity.

One of Turgenev's first major works - the story in verse "Parasha" - was liked by readers and evoked an enthusiastic review from the famous literary critic Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky.

At the beginning of 1847, the publisher of the Sovremennik magazine, Ivan Panaev, asked Turgenev to write some kind of “short story” for the first issue.

In 1843, the writer met the famous singer Pauline Viardot-Garcia. This acquaintance gave new impetus to his work. A big fan of music, Turgenev undertook to compose texts for operettas with fantastic plots for Viardot’s students.

The Presidential Library’s collections contain the 1901 edition of “Turgenev’s Letters to Madame Viardot and his French Friends 1846–1882”. The book's preface tells the story of these letters, thought to be lost. They were found by chance among other papers in a box purchased from a Berlin second-hand bookseller.  

In 1855, Turgenev went abroad. At this time, his largest works appeared. Turgenev writes the stories “Rudin”, “Asya”, the comedy “Breakfast at the Leader”, the story in nine letters “Faust” and others.

The author of the biographical sketch “Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev” (1883), Nikolai Plissky, notes that very few writers could boast of such deep respect as Turgenev enjoyed.

In 1881, Ivan Turgenev visited Russia for the last time - at the end of the same year, alarming news about his health came to his homeland from Bougival (a suburb of Paris), where the writer lived. At the beginning of 1883, the writer’s illness began to progress rapidly. On August 22, 1883, Ivan Turgenev died.

The writer bequeathed to be buried in St. Petersburg, at the Volkovskoye cemetery, which was carried out.

The book “Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. Life. Personality. Oeuvre” which is available in the Presidential Library’s collections, cites the following fact: shortly before Turgenev’s death, a certain Italian writer approached him and decided to compile his biography; The response of the classic of Russian literature was short: “My entire biography is in my writings”.