The Presidential Library illustrates the correspondence between Ivan Turgenev and Pauline Viardot

October 28 (November 9, new style) 2023 marks the 205th anniversary of the birth of the Russian writer, poet, publicist Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883). The Presidential Library’s portal features Letters of Ivan Turgenev to Pauline Viardot (1900). Turgenev himself called them letters-diaries, letters-reports. According to researchers, Turgenev wrote at least 500 letters to Pauline Viardot. They contain the writer’s thoughts about art, nature, and the people around him.

Turgenev met Polina Viardot in November 1843. The famous singer gave concerts in St. Petersburg. It is not surprising that the inspired singing of the young Spanish woman (Pauline Viardot was then 22 years old) shocked the enthusiastic young man, who was barely 25 years old. The Russian writer, who soon became popular not only in Russia but also abroad, will maintain friendly relations with Pauline Viardot until the end of his days and will follow her abroad, where he will spend most of his life.

Pauline Viardot was not only an outstanding singer, but also a wonderful teacher who continued the traditions of her father, the famous Spanish tenor and singing teacher Manuel Garcia. She herself composed music to the words of German, French, Russian poets (including Turgenev), comic operas, and even tried her hand at the genre of grand opera. The published letters cover almost the entire forty-year period of acquaintance between Turgenev and Viardot.

The preface to the publication Letters of I. S. Turgenev to Pauline Viardot illustrates the “mysterious” history of these letters, which were considered lost. They were found by chance among other papers in a box purchased from a Berlin second-hand bookseller.

Ivan Turgenev traveled a lot around France, stopping in different parts of it. From there he shared his impressions with Viardot.

While Viardot toured Europe, Turgenev lived for several years on her estate in the town of Courtavnel, 70 kilometers from Paris. In one of his letters, Turgenev admires the nature of these places.

On the estate of the Viardot family, the writer not only works, but also does physical labor, which he reports to the owners of the estate.

In his letters, Turgenev again and again returns to his favorite theme of nature.

In correspondence with Viardot, much attention is paid to her concert activities. Perhaps under the impression of this communication, Turgenev, leaving the hospitable Courtavnel, will leave his owner a surprise - his musical work, about which he will later write to her from Paris.

“Ivan Sergeevich lived a significant part of his life abroad, but none of those who read his numerous works, and especially those who knew him personally, will doubt that he was a true patriot who passionately loved his homeland and firmly believed in its future greatness, into her universal human calling…”, - writes Nikolai Plissky, the author of the biographical sketch Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1883).

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