Ivan Turgenev
Russian novelist and popularizer of Russian literature in the West.
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818–1883) worked as a novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, and translator, and helped make Russian literature known in Western Europe. His first important book, the short story collection *A Sportsman’s Sketches* (1852), marked a key moment in Russian realism. His novel *Fathers and Sons* (1862) is considered a major work of 19th-century fiction.
Turgenev was born on 9 November 1818 in Oryol to noble parents. His father, Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev, was a cavalry colonel who fought in the Patriotic War of 1812; his mother, Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva, came from a wealthy noble family. The Turgenev family traced its roots to a Tatar mirza who converted to Christianity and served Vasily II of Moscow in the 15th century. His mother had a difficult childhood under a cruel stepfather, then inherited a large fortune from her uncle at age 26. She married Turgenev’s father in 1816. Ivan and his brothers Nikolai and Sergei were raised by their mother, an educated but authoritarian woman, at the family estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo, which had been granted to an ancestor by Ivan the Terrible. She later inspired the landlady in Turgenev’s story *Mumu*. The brothers had foreign governesses, and Ivan became fluent in French, German, and English; the family spoke French at home, even during prayers. Their father was often absent, which hurt Ivan’s feelings, and this relationship is described in the autobiographical novel *First Love*. When Ivan was four, the family traveled through Germany and France. In 1827 they moved to Moscow for the children’s education.
After standard schooling, Turgenev studied for a year at the University of Moscow, then moved to the University of Saint Petersburg from 1834 to 1837, focusing on Classics, Russian literature, and philology. During this time his father died of kidney stone disease, and his younger brother Sergei died of epilepsy. From 1838 to 1841 he studied philosophy (especially Hegel) and history at the University of Berlin. He returned to Saint Petersburg to complete his master’s examination. Impressed by German society, he believed Russia could improve by adopting ideas from the Age of Enlightenment and opposed serfdom. In 1841 he began working for the Russian civil service, spending two years at the Ministry of Interior.
As a child, a family serf read to him verses from Mikhail Kheraskov’s *Rossiad*. His early poems and sketches showed promise and were praised by critic Vissarion Belinsky. Later in life, Turgenev lived mostly abroad, in Baden-Baden or Paris, often near the family of opera singer Pauline Viardot, with whom he had a lifelong affair. He never married but had affairs with serfs, fathering an illegitimate daughter, Paulinette. He was tall and broad-shouldered but timid, restrained, and soft-spoken. At age 19, while traveling on a steamboat in Germany, the boat caught fire; rumors spread that he behaved cowardly, which he denied, but the story followed him and inspired his tale “A Fire at Sea.” His closest literary friend was Gustave Flaubert; both rejected extreme political views and held a nonjudgmental, pessimistic outlook. His relations with Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky were often strained, as both disliked his preference for Western Europe. Unlike them, Turgenev lacked religious themes in his work and was considered agnostic. Tolstoy initially found him boring and, after a quarrel in 1861, challenged him to a duel, then apologized. They did not speak for 17 years, but in 1878 Tolstoy wrote asking forgiveness and acknowledged Turgenev’s role in his own literary fame. Dostoyevsky parodied Turgenev in *The Devils* (1872) as the vain novelist Karmazinov, but in 1880 Dostoyevsky’s Pushkin Speech moved Turgenev to tears and brought a reconciliation. Turgenev visited England occasionally, and in 1879 Oxford University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree. In 1878 he served as vice-chairman of the literary congress in Paris, alongside Victor Hugo. His health declined in his later years.
- born
- 9 November [O.S. 28 October] 1818 in Oryol
- died
- 3 September [O.S. 22 August] 1883 in Bougival near Paris
- field
- Novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, translator
- nationality
- Russian
- known_for
- A Sportsman's Sketches (1852) and Fathers and Sons (1862)
Verified Timeline
Lore & Background
Turgenev was born on 9 November [O.S. 28 October] 1818 in Oryol to noble Russian parents. His father, Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev, was a colonel in the Russian cavalry who took part in the Patriotic War of 1812; his mother, Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva, came from a wealthy noble Lutovinov house. Ivan and his brothers Nikolai and Sergei were raised by their mother at the Spasskoye-Lutovinovo family estate. He became fluent in French, German, and English. After standard schooling, Turgenev studied for one year at the University of Moscow and then moved to the University of Saint Petersburg from 1834 to 1837, focusing on Classics, Russian literature, and philology. From 1838 until 1841, he studied philosophy, particularly Hegel, and history at the University of Berlin. He returned to Saint Petersburg to complete his master's examination. In 1841, he started his career in the Russian civil service and spent two years working for the Ministry of Interior (1843–1845). Turgenev's early attempts in literature were favorably spoken of by Vissarion Belinsky, then the leading Russian literary critic. During the latter part of his life, Turgenev lived either at Baden-Baden or Paris, often in proximity to the family of the celebrated opera singer Pauline Viardot, with whom he had a lifelong affair. He never married, but had an affair with a family serf that resulted in the birth of his illegitimate daughter, Paulinette. His closest literary friend was Gustave Flaubert. His relations with Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky were often strained. In 1879, the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law was conferred upon him by the University of Oxford. In 1878, Turgenev was a vice-chairman of the literary congress in Paris, next to Hugo. Turgenev's health declined during his later years. In January 1883, an aggressive malignant tumor (liposarcoma) was removed from his suprapubic region, but by then the tumor had metastasized in his upper spinal cord. On 3 September [O.S. 22 August] 1883, Turgenev died of a spinal abscess, a complication of the metastatic liposarcoma, in his house at Bougival near Paris. His remains were taken to Russia and buried in Volkovo Cemetery in St. Petersburg. On his deathbed, he pleaded with Tolstoy: 'My friend, return to literature!' Turgenev's brain was found to be one of the largest on record, weighing 2,012 g (4 lb 7 oz).
Reader's Guide
Turgenev first made his name with A Sportsman's Sketches, a collection of short stories based on his observations of peasant life and nature while hunting in the forests around his mother's estate of Spasskoye. The book is credited with having influenced public opinion in favour of the abolition of serfdom in 1861. Turgenev himself considered the book to be his most important contribution to Russian literature. In 1852, Turgenev wrote an obituary for Nikolai Gogol; the censor of Saint Petersburg banned publication, but the Moscow censor allowed it. Turgenev was held responsible, imprisoned for a month, and then exiled to his country estate for nearly two years. During this time he wrote the short story Mumu (1854), which takes aim at the cruelties of a serf society. While still in Russia in the early 1850s, he wrote several novellas: The Diary of a Superfluous Man, Faust, and The Lull. The following years produced the novel Rudin, the story of a man unable to put his talents and idealism to any use in the Russia of Nicholas I. Unlike Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, Turgenev lacked religious motives in his writings, representing the more social aspect to the reform movement. He was considered to be an agnostic.
Did You Know?
- Turgenev's brain weighed 2,012 g (4 lb 7 oz), one of the largest on record.
- On his deathbed, Turgenev pleaded with Tolstoy: 'My friend, return to literature!'
- Turgenev was imprisoned for a month and exiled for nearly two years after publishing an obituary for Nikolai Gogol.
- His closest literary friend was Gustave Flaubert, with whom he shared similar social and aesthetic ideas.
- In 1879, the University of Oxford conferred on Turgenev the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law.
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