Turgenev's novels.

Novel “Fathers and Sons” Summary

“Fathers and Sons” is one of the most famous works of the Russian writer I.S. Turgenev. One of the fun facts: L.N. Tolstoy fell asleep while reading this novel. Why did it happen so?

In the book by P. Weil and A. Genis “Native Speech”, in the chapter dedicated to Turgenev’s novel, it is said in black and white that “Fathers and Sons” are perceived as something official. The problem is simple: the last thing art wants to do is serve anything or anyone. On the contrary, art requires sacrifice.

Turgenev relied on objectivity - and the result was a situation where it was impossible to understand whose side the writer was on.

A brief retelling of the plot of Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons”

Arkady Kirsanov returns home with his friend Evgeny Bazarov. The young people had just graduated from university. They develop a difficult relationship with the older Kirsanovs - Arkady's father and his uncle. There is a clash between two generations - fathers and children. The elders adhere to patriarchal views, and the younger ones are infected with the youth’s vision of the world and nihilism. Two generations argue and cannot find a common language.

After some time, Arkady and Evgeny meet the young widow Anna Odintsova and her younger sister Katerina. The young people simultaneously fall in love with Anna. Bazarov’s foundations, in particular, the denial of marriage and feelings, are crumbling. He confesses his love to Anna, but gets turned around. Arkady abandons nihilism and realizes that he is in love with Katerina. A duel takes place between Evgeniy and Uncle Arkady. Fortunately, everyone remains alive. Evgeny goes to his parents and soon dies, contracting typhus, and his friend marries Katerina. Uncle Arkady is leaving the country. Anna Odintsova is getting married again.

Novel “Fathers and Sons” Summary in parts

Part one

The story begins in mid-May 1859. Arkady, the high-society bear, is about to return to the estate of Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov. But before talking about the master's son, the writer spoke in detail about the master himself. Nikolai Kirsanov was not known for his courage, and avoided military service by breaking his leg and remaining lame for life. The master's parents died, unable to adapt to life in St. Petersburg.

Nikolai Petrovich married, and lived as a family man for twelve years. Having been widowed, the master went abroad, but the Hungarian Revolution broke out, and he had to return to Russia.

The memories of the prematurely aged widower master were interrupted by the sound of wheels. Arkady Kirsanov arrived on a tarantass. And not alone, but in the company of a friend - Evgeny Vasilyevich Bazarov. We learn that Bazarov is a graduate of a medical university. And since he is a doctor, his character is harsh and cynical.

A little later it turned out that Evgeny Bazarov is not only a supporter of progress. Talking with the yard boys, the young doctor decided to go after the frogs. To the logical question “what do you need frogs for?” Bazarov said that he wanted to find out how the frog’s body works. And knowledge will be useful if you have to treat a person.

In a conversation with his father and uncle, Arkady Kirsanov reveals the secret of his friend. It turns out that Bazarov is a nihilist, that is, he does not recognize any authorities and looks at everything critically.

In a conversation with the Kirsanov family, Bazarov, an expert in medicine and natural sciences, began to glorify science with all his might. It turned out that the Germans should be honored - their science is very advanced, not like in Russia. On top of that, the young doctor directly says that a decent chemist is much better than any poet.

Part two

Arkady Kirsanov, in a conversation with Evgeny Bazarov, remembers his uncle. It turned out that Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov at one time fell in love with a married lady. It would be nice if she was a beauty, but no, she didn’t see much beauty. The reason for everything turned out to be a mysterious look, and it became the beginning of the drama.

At first, love brought joy to both the secular leopard and the tigress in human form. But, alas, sooner or later they had to part, and this happened. Love left, and Pavel Kirsanov suffered terribly. He retired. Several years passed, and Kirsanov learned the sad news: the princess died. The ring with the figurine of the sphinx returned to Pavel Petrovich, only on the figurine there was an image of a cross. It turned out that the married lady bore a heavy cross when during the day she pretended to be a social coquette, and at night she suffered from the fact that she was terribly sinning before God.

After listening to his friend’s story, Bazarov spoke ironically about Pavel Petrovich, and then stated that the so-called mysterious look had nowhere to come from. Moreover, the doctor expressed an interesting opinion: “Let’s go and look at the beetle.”

Part three

Arkady Kirsanov became a typical gentleman with sybarite habits. But Evgeny Bazarov worked hard, learned the wisdom of physics and chemistry, as well as medicine. It is interesting that Arkady sincerely believed that his friend was right, and Nikolai Petrovich admitted a lot. But Pavel Petrovich did not hide his dissatisfaction - nihilism was too unpleasant for him. And sometimes Bazarov attacked art - he denied the greatness of Raphael, declared that there was no need to read Pushkin, something businesslike would be better.

Later, both Kirsanov brothers breathed a sigh of relief: Bazarov decided to visit the landowners, and together with a friend he went on this trip. And after visiting those weirdos, the friends visited the so-called advanced woman (however, given her vulgar and simply abnormal habits, a word suggests itself, which is an antonym of the word “advanced”).

During the conversation, it turned out that Bazarov and this “advanced” woman are friends, which is not surprising. Now is the time to remember the saying “tell me who your friend is, and I will tell you who you are.” The emancipated fool did not consider smoking and drinking to be vices (outrageous!), denied the existence of God, and sincerely rejoiced at her childlessness (got it!). It is precisely these women that L.N. Tolstoy couldn't stand it.

True, the friendship with the “advanced” woman was short-lived, because Bazarov soon lost interest in her.

Part four

During the governor's ball, Arkady Kirsanov met with Odintsova. Although the age difference between them was small, the young socialite felt, at best, like a high school student. The style of their conversation was forced at first, but then a relaxed conversation about life began. At the end of the conversation, Odintsova expressed her desire to meet Bazarov.

The friends started talking, and the doctor once again amazed the secular gentleman with his cynicism. The friends calmly left, and the emancipated “woman” was offended by the fact that she turned out to be inconspicuous (which is not surprising, because excessive vulgarity quickly brings on terrible boredom).

A little later we learn something from the life of the young princess-widow, and then an interesting intrigue unfolds: Bazarov and Kirsanov come to Anna Odintsova’s room. A conversation ensued between the social bear and the nihilist, and it turned out that Odintsova did not waste time and managed to read several good books. It is interesting that when meeting the widow and saying goodbye to her, Bazarov was embarrassed (and surprised at himself).

On the street, a secular romantic decided to find out what the nihilist thought about Odintsova. Bazarov again flashed his signature medical humor, speaking about a “rich body” and “anatomical theater.”

Part five

A little later, the friends end up at the estate of Princess Odintsova. Oddly enough, it was with the young widow that the cynical nihilist quickly found a common language. They calmly discussed the problems of society associated with bad upbringing, then calmly played a game of preference. Bazarov lost, and, oddly enough, this insignificant loss hurt him a little. But much bigger troubles awaited the nihilist. But that happened later.

So far there was no reason for trouble: during dinner the widow started talking about botany and expressed a desire to learn the Latin names of plants the next day. And Arkady Kirsanov had a fun time with Katya, the sister of the widow princess.

So fifteen days passed. Bazarov constantly wondered at himself: how can one be a nihilist, and at the same time understand that it is impossible to command the heart to immediately stop loving Odintsova. It turned out to be a situation where they say “the mind and the heart are not in harmony.”

On the thirteenth day, Evgeny Bazarov decided to look at his father. Having met his teacher, Evgeniy Vasilyevich asked about his parents and found out that they were in good health. Bazarov decided to visit his parents and made the teacher promise that he would inform about the upcoming visit.

That evening, the nihilist and the widow princess talked for a long time about happiness. The next day the conversation resumed, and at one point Odintsova decided to find out why Bazarov was so tense and restrained. It turned out that mad love was to blame for everything (although it was more of a passion, fierce, bestial). The passion of the nihilist frightened the widow princess. In the evening, she realized the reason for her fear: looking beyond the line of prudence, Anna Odintsova saw something disgusting.

The next day, during a conversation with the princess, the nihilist said that he had to leave. After spending the last day at the Odintsov estate, the friends went to Bazarov’s parents. It is interesting that the cynic himself felt out of place, and it is not surprising: the exam related to love was completely failed. It was an unpleasant start.

Part six

For some time, Evgeny Bazarov felt calmer when he and Arkady Kirsanov arrived at his parents’ estate. Father and mother were delighted: finally, after so many years of separation, the son returned to his home!

Vasily Ivanovich Bazarov began a casual relationship with his son and his friend. During the conversation, opinions were expressed that many scientific theories become outdated after about twenty years. The imaginary science of phrenology (also known as craniology) was also mentioned. During the conversation, Bazarov Jr. notes that he is already ridiculing not only imaginary sciences, but also medicine, although he will become a district doctor.

Then the friends' paths diverged in different directions. Evgeny Bazarov delved into science with all his might, conducting chemical experiments with frogs, and Arkady Kirsanov had fun at the Odintsovs’ estate. Princess Katya once told Arkady that Bazarov was a stranger to them: he was one of the “predatory” ones, and they were one of the “tame” ones. It’s not hard to guess what these words meant: predatory – not tolerant of any rules, tame – recognizing the rules.

The nihilist soon returned to his parents and began practicing medicine. And once Evgeny Bazarov participated in the autopsy procedure of a man who died of typhus. During the autopsy, the young cynic managed to injure his finger, and cadaveric poison got into the wound. It was possible to cauterize the wound only a few hours later, when Bazarov returned to his father’s house.

Two days later, what is called sepsis began, that is, blood poisoning. The nihilist directly said that he would die in a few days. At one point, Bazarov noted that it is useless to deny death - because “it denies you, and that’s it!”

Anna Odintsova came to the dying cynic. This was their last conversation. By evening, Bazarov lost consciousness and died the next day.

Epilogue

The Bazarovs often come to their son's grave. There they stay for a long time, pray, and remember him.

What about the other characters? Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov and his son Arkady had a successful fate: both became married and happy men. Anna Odintsova found herself a good husband. And Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov settled in Germany, in Dresden.

Characters of the novel "Fathers and Sons"

Arkady Kirsanov - University graduate. He was a friend of Bazarov, but gradually their paths diverged. He experienced brotherly love for Princess Katya Odintsova, but gradually this feeling grew into true love. Soon they got married.
Evgeny Bazarov - a nihilist, his life principle is associated with the denial of various kinds of rules. According to Weil and Genis, this character managed to fail almost all life exams. At the end of the story, the cynic injured his finger while autopsying a man who died of typhus; cadaveric poison got into the wound. Bazarov died from blood poisoning.
Anna Odintsova - a young princess-widow. For some time she was friends with Bazarov, but the nature of the nihilist prevented a truly close friendship. At the end of the story she became the wife of a certain influential man.
Ekaterina Odintsova - Anna Odintsova’s younger sister. She became friends with Arkady Kirsanov. Gradually, friendship grew into love. At the end of the story, Catherine became the wife of Arkady and the mother of the family.
Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov - owner of the estate. He had serious problems with hired workers, but gradually everything went smoothly (his acquaintance with Bazarov had an impact). At the end of the story, he married the maid Fenya.
Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov - Uncle Arkady, a typical social dandy. He didn’t like Bazarov, and it was mutual. The enmity turned into a duel, then reconciliation. At the end of the story he settled in Dresden.
Vasily Ivanovich Bazarov - retired doctor. I am sincerely confident that his son Evgeniy will become a great man. The grief was even greater when my son died.
Evdoksiya Kukshina– obviously a minor character. A typical “advanced” dumbass, extremely unnatural. After a short friendship, Bazarov lost interest in her.

The most important feature of the amazing talent of I.S. Turgenev - a keen sense of his time, which is the best test for an artist. The images he created continue to live, but in another world, the name of which is the grateful memory of descendants who learned love, dreams and wisdom from the writer.

The clash of two political forces, liberal nobles and raznochintsy revolutionaries, found artistic expression in a new work, which was created during a difficult period of social confrontation.

The idea for “Fathers and Sons” is the result of communication with the staff of the Sovremennik magazine, where the writer worked for a long time. The writer had a hard time leaving the magazine, because the memory of Belinsky was connected with him. The articles of Dobrolyubov, with whom Ivan Sergeevich constantly argued and sometimes disagreed, served as a real basis for depicting ideological differences. The radically minded young man was not on the side of gradual reforms, like the author of Fathers and Sons, but firmly believed in the path of revolutionary transformation of Russia. The editor of the magazine, Nikolai Nekrasov, supported this point of view, so the classics of fiction - Tolstoy and Turgenev - left the editorial office.

The first sketches for the future novel were made at the end of July 1860 on the English Isle of Wight. The image of Bazarov was defined by the author as the character of a self-confident, hard-working, nihilist person who does not recognize compromises or authorities. While working on the novel, Turgenev involuntarily develops sympathy for his character. In this he is helped by the diary of the main character, which is kept by the writer himself.

In May 1861, the writer returned from Paris to his Spasskoye estate and made his last entry in the manuscripts. In February 1862, the novel was published in the Russian Bulletin.

Main problems

After reading the novel, you understand its true value, created by the “genius of proportion” (D. Merezhkovsky). What did Turgenev love? What did you doubt? What did you dream about?

Central to the book is the moral problem of intergenerational relationships. "Fathers" or "children"? The fate of everyone is connected with the search for an answer to the question: what is the meaning of life? For new people it lies in work, but the old guard sees it in reasoning and contemplation, because crowds of peasants work for them. In this fundamental position there is a place for irreconcilable conflict: fathers and children live differently. In this discrepancy we see the problem of misunderstanding of opposites. The antagonists cannot and do not want to accept each other, this impasse is especially evident in the relationship between Pavel Kirsanov and Evgeny Bazarov.
The problem of moral choice is also acute: on whose side is the truth? Turgenev believed that the past cannot be denied, because only thanks to it the future is built. In the image of Bazarov, he expressed the need to preserve the continuity of generations. The hero is unhappy because he is lonely and understood, because he himself did not strive for anyone and did not want to understand. However, changes, whether people of the past like it or not, will still come, and we must be prepared for them. This is evidenced by the ironic image of Pavel Kirsanov, who lost his sense of reality while putting on ceremonial tailcoats in the village. The writer calls for a sensitive response to changes and trying to understand them, and not indiscriminately criticize, like Uncle Arkady. Thus, the solution to the problem lies in the tolerant attitude of different people towards each other and an attempt to understand the opposite life concept. In this sense, the position of Nikolai Kirsanov, who was tolerant of new trends and was never in a hurry to judge them, won. His son also found a compromise solution.
However, the author made it clear that there is a high purpose behind Bazarov’s tragedy. It is precisely such desperate and self-confident pioneers who pave the way forward for the world, so the problem of recognizing this mission in society also occupies an important place. Evgeniy repents on his deathbed that he feels useless, this realization destroys him, but he could have become a great scientist or a skilled doctor. But the cruel mores of the conservative world are pushing him out, because they feel threatened by him.
The problems of the “new” people, the diverse intelligentsia, and difficult relationships in society, with parents, and in the family are also obvious. The commoners do not have profitable estates and a position in society, so they are forced to work and become embittered when they see social injustice: they work hard for a piece of bread, while the nobles, stupid and mediocre, do nothing and occupy all the upper floors of the social hierarchy, where the elevator simply does not reach . Hence the revolutionary sentiments and the moral crisis of an entire generation.
Problems of eternal human values: love, friendship, art, attitude to nature. Turgenev knew how to reveal the depths of human character in love, to test the true essence of a person with love. But not everyone passes this test; an example of this is Bazarov, who breaks down under the onslaught of feeling.

All the interests and plans of the writer were entirely focused on the most important tasks of the time, moving towards the most pressing problems of everyday life.

Characteristics of the characters in the novel

Evgeny Vasilievich Bazarov- comes from the people. Son of a regimental doctor. My grandfather on my father’s side “plowed the land.” Evgeniy makes his own way in life and receives a good education. Therefore, the hero is careless in clothes and manners; no one raised him. Bazarov is a representative of the new revolutionary-democratic generation, whose task is to destroy the old way of life and fight against those who hinder social development. A complex man, doubtful, but proud and adamant. Evgeniy Vasilyevich is very vague about how to correct society. Denies the old world, accepts only what is confirmed by practice.

The writer portrayed in Bazarov the type of young man who believes exclusively in scientific activity and denies religion. The hero has a deep interest in natural sciences. From childhood, his parents instilled in him a love of work.
He condemns the people for illiteracy and ignorance, but is proud of his origin. Bazarov's views and beliefs do not find like-minded people. Sitnikov, a talker and phrase-monger, and the “emancipated” Kukshina are worthless “followers”.
A soul unknown to him is rushing about in Evgeny Vasilyevich. What should a physiologist and anatomist do with it? It is not visible under a microscope. But the soul hurts, although it – a scientific fact – does not exist!
Turgenev spends most of the novel exploring the “temptations” of his hero. He torments him with the love of old people - his parents - what to do with them? What about love for Odintsova? The principles are in no way compatible with life, with the living movements of people. What remains for Bazarov? Just die. Death is his final test. He accepts her heroically, does not console himself with the spells of a materialist, but calls his beloved.
The spirit conquers the enraged mind, overcomes the errors of the schemes and postulates of the new teaching.

Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov - bearer of noble culture. Bazarov is disgusted by Pavel Petrovich’s “starched collars” and “long nails”. But the hero’s aristocratic manners are an internal weakness, a secret consciousness of his inferiority.

Kirsanov believes that respecting yourself means taking care of your appearance and never losing your dignity, even in the village. He organizes his daily routine in the English manner.
Pavel Petrovich retired, indulging in love experiences. This decision of his became a “retirement” from life. Love does not bring joy to a person if he lives only by its interests and whims.
The hero is guided by principles taken “on faith”, corresponding to his position as a gentleman - a serf owner. The Russian people are honored for their patriarchy and obedience.
In relation to a woman, strength and passion of feelings are manifested, but he does not understand them.
Pavel Petrovich is indifferent to nature. Denial of her beauty speaks of his spiritual limitations.
This man is deeply unhappy.

Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov- Arkady's father and Pavel Petrovich's brother. He failed to make a military career, but he did not despair and entered the university. After the death of his wife, he devoted himself to his son and the improvement of the estate.

The characteristic features of the character are gentleness and humility. The hero's intelligence evokes sympathy and respect. Nikolai Petrovich is a romantic at heart, loves music, recites poetry.
He is an opponent of nihilism and tries to smooth out any emerging disagreements. Lives in accordance with his heart and conscience.

Arkady Nikolaevich Kirsanov- a person who is not independent, deprived of his life principles. He completely obeys his friend. He joined Bazarov only because of his youthful enthusiasm, since he did not have his own views, so in the finale there was a break between them.

Subsequently, he became a zealous owner and started a family.
“A nice fellow,” but “a soft, liberal gentleman,” Bazarov says about him.
All the Kirsanovs are “more children of events than fathers of their own actions.”

Odintsova Anna Sergeevna- an “element” “related” to Bazarov’s personality. On what basis can this conclusion be made? The firmness of her outlook on life, “proud loneliness, intelligence - make her “close” to the main character of the novel. She, like Evgeny, sacrificed personal happiness, so her heart is cold and fearful of feelings. She herself trampled on them by marrying for convenience.

Conflict between "fathers" and "children"

Conflict – “clash”, “serious disagreement”, “dispute”. To say that these concepts have only a “negative connotation” means to completely misunderstand the processes of social development. “Truth is born in dispute” - this axiom can be considered a “key” that lifts the curtain on the problems posed by Turgenev in the novel.

Disputes are the main compositional device that allows the reader to determine his point of view and take a certain position in his views on a particular social phenomenon, area of development, nature, art, moral concepts. Using the “technique of debate” between “youth” and “old age,” the author affirms the idea that life does not stand still, it is multifaceted and multifaceted.

The conflict between “fathers” and “children” will never be resolved; it can be described as a “constant”. However, it is the conflict of generations that is the engine of development of everything on earth. On the pages of the novel there is a heated debate caused by the struggle of revolutionary democratic forces with the liberal nobility.

Main topics

Turgenev managed to saturate the novel with progressive thought: protest against violence, hatred of legalized slavery, pain for the suffering of the people, the desire to found their happiness.

The main themes in the novel “Fathers and Sons”:

Ideological contradictions of the intelligentsia during the preparation of the reform on the abolition of serfdom;
“Fathers” and “sons”: relationships between generations and the theme of family;
A “new” type of person at the turn of two eras;
Immense love for the homeland, parents, woman;
Human and nature. The world around us: workshop or temple?

What is the point of the book?

Turgenev’s work sounds an alarming alarm bell over all of Russia, calling on fellow citizens to unite, sanity, and fruitful activity for the good of the Motherland.

The book explains to us not only the past, but also the present day, reminds us of eternal values. The title of the novel does not mean the older and younger generations, not family relationships, but people of new and old views. “Fathers and Sons” is valuable not only as an illustration of history; the work touches on many moral issues.

The basis of the existence of the human race is the family, where everyone has their own responsibilities: the elders (“fathers”) look after the younger ones (“children”), pass on to them the experience and traditions accumulated by their ancestors, and instill moral feelings in them; the younger ones honor adults, adopt from them everything important and best that is necessary for the formation of a person of a new formation. However, their task is also the creation of fundamental innovations, impossible without some denial of past misconceptions. The harmony of the world order lies in the fact that these “connections” are not broken, but not in the fact that everything remains the old fashioned way.

The book has great educational value. Reading it at the time of forming your character means thinking about important life problems. “Fathers and Sons” teaches a serious attitude towards the world, an active position, and patriotism. They teach from a young age to develop strong principles, engaging in self-education, but at the same time honor the memory of their ancestors, even if it does not always turn out to be right.

Criticism about the novel

After the publication of Fathers and Sons, a fierce controversy erupted. M.A. Antonovich in the Sovremennik magazine interpreted the novel as a “merciless” and “destructive criticism of the younger generation.”
D. Pisarev in “Russian Word” highly appreciated the work and the image of a nihilist created by the master. The critic emphasized the tragedy of character and noted the firmness of a person who does not retreat from trials. He agrees with other writers of criticism that the “new” people may cause resentment, but it is impossible to deny them “sincerity.” The appearance of Bazarov in Russian literature is a new step in highlighting the social and public life of the country.

Can you agree with the critic on everything? Probably no. He calls Pavel Petrovich “a small-sized Pechorin.” But the dispute between the two characters gives reason to doubt this. Pisarev claims that Turgenev does not sympathize with any of his heroes. The writer considers Bazarov his “favorite child.”

What is "nihilism"?

For the first time, the word “nihilist” is heard in the novel from the lips of Arkady and immediately attracts attention. However, the concept of “nihilist” is in no way connected with Kirsanov Jr.

The word “nihilist” was taken by Turgenev from N. Dobrolyubov’s review of a book by the Kazan philosopher, conservative professor V. Bervy. However, Dobrolyubov interpreted it in a positive sense and assigned it to the younger generation. The word was introduced into widespread use by Ivan Sergeevich, which became synonymous with the word “revolutionary.”

The “nihilist” in the novel is Bazarov, who does not recognize authorities and denies everything. The writer did not accept the extremes of nihilism, caricaturing Kukshina and Sitnikov, but sympathized with the main character.

Evgeny Vasilyevich Bazarov still teaches us about his fate. Every person has a unique spiritual image, whether he is a nihilist or a simple layman. Respect and reverence for another person consists of respect for the fact that in him there is the same secret flicker of a living soul that is in you.

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Roman Semyonovich Turgenev(1682 - after 1755) - military and statesman of the Russian Empire, government representative under the Little Russian Hetman, Chief Kriegs Commissioner, Brigadier.

Biography

He came from an old noble family of the Turgenevs, the son of the steward Semyon Osipovich Turgenev, who died during the Azov campaign of 1696.

He entered service in 1700 as a tenant and in the same year took part in the battle with the Swedes near Narva. In 1703, at the review of Peter I, he was enrolled as a soldier in the 3rd company of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment, then transferred to the Selected Dragoon Squadron (squadron) of Field Marshal B.P. Sheremetev, where he was promoted to non-commissioned officer and in 1706 - to warrant officers. After the squadron was reorganized into the Arkhangelsk Dragoon Regiment, Turgenev was promoted to lieutenant (1708), and the following year, by the decision of Prince A.D. Menshikov, he was transferred to the dragoon life squadron (squadron) that formed the latter’s personal convoy with the rank of captain. In 1715, Turgenev was promoted to captain (with the rank of prime major), and in 1722 he was transferred with the rank of prime major to the St. Petersburg Dragoon Regiment.

During these years, Turgenev took part in many military actions, including the suppression of a riot in Astrakhan in 1706, the Battle of Poltava in 1709, and the Prut Campaign in 1711.

In 1726, “upon consideration of the book. Menshikov" was promoted to lieutenant colonel and enlisted as a corporal in the Cavalry Corps. Continuing his service in the cavalry guards, Turgenev took part in the events that accompanied the accession to the throne of Empress Anna Ioannovna, signing a petition for her acceptance of unlimited autocracy. In 1731 he was promoted to colonel.

On June 22, 1731, Anna Ioannovna issued a Personal Decree “ On the summons from Glukhov to Moscow of Major General, Prince Alexei Shakhovsky and Brigadier Arsenyev, with the order to transfer affairs and instructions on Little Russian affairs to Colonel Roman Turgenev, who was ordered to manage affairs under the Little Russian Hetman» .

In addition to other official duties, Turgenev, by decree of the State Collegium of Foreign Affairs dated August 17, 1731, was entrusted with “monitoring in Glukhov the ambassador sent to the hetman, from the Crimean Khan and from the Perekop kaymakan, Murza Aptruaman.”

Turgenev served as a representative of the government under Hetman Daniil the Apostle until the end of that year: on December 14, 1731, a decree was issued “ On the appointment of General Semyon Naryshkin as minister to the Hetman in Little Russia and on the assignment of Colonel Turgenev to the regiments in Little Russia» .

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Notes

Literature

Collection of biographies of cavalry guards. T. 1. 1724-1762/ Comp. edited by S. Panchulidzeva. - St. Petersburg, 1901. - P. 207-208.
List of military ranks of the 1st half of the 18th century // Senate archive. T. VII. - St. Petersburg, 1895. - P. 646.
Makidonov A.V. Personal composition of the administrative apparatus of Novorossiya in the 18th century. - Zaporozhye: Prosvita, 2011. - P. 284.

An excerpt characterizing Turgenev, Roman Semyonovich

Sonya struck the first chord of the prelude.
“My God, I am lost, I am a dishonest person. A bullet in the forehead, the only thing left to do is not sing, he thought. Leave? but where? anyway, let them sing!”
Nikolai gloomily, continuing to walk around the room, glanced at Denisov and the girls, avoiding their gaze.
“Nikolenka, what’s wrong with you?” – asked Sonya’s gaze fixed on him. She immediately saw that something had happened to him.
Nikolai turned away from her. Natasha, with her sensitivity, also instantly noticed her brother’s condition. She noticed him, but she herself was so happy at that moment, she was so far from grief, sadness, reproaches, that she (as often happens with young people) deliberately deceived herself. No, I’m having too much fun now to spoil my fun by sympathizing with someone else’s grief, she felt, and said to herself:
“No, I’m rightly mistaken, he should be as cheerful as I am.” Well, Sonya,” she said and went out to the very middle of the hall, where, in her opinion, the resonance was best. Raising her head, lowering her lifelessly hanging hands, as dancers do, Natasha, energetically shifting from heel to tiptoe, walked through the middle of the room and stopped.
"Here I am!" as if she was speaking in response to the enthusiastic gaze of Denisov, who was watching her.
“And why is she happy! - Nikolai thought, looking at his sister. And how isn’t she bored and ashamed!” Natasha hit the first note, her throat expanded, her chest straightened, her eyes took on a serious expression. She was not thinking about anyone or anything at that moment, and sounds flowed from her folded mouth into a smile, those sounds that anyone can make at the same intervals and at the same intervals, but which a thousand times leave you cold, in the thousand and first times they make you shudder and cry.
This winter Natasha began to sing seriously for the first time, especially because Denisov admired her singing. She no longer sang like a child, there was no longer in her singing that comic, childish diligence that was in her before; but she still did not sing well, as all the expert judges who listened to her said. “Not processed, but a wonderful voice, it needs to be processed,” everyone said. But they usually said this long after her voice had fallen silent. At the same time, when this raw voice sounded with irregular aspirations and with efforts of transitions, even the expert judges did not say anything, and only enjoyed this raw voice and only wanted to hear it again. In her voice there was that virginal pristineness, that ignorance of her own strengths and that still unprocessed velvet, which were so combined with the shortcomings of the art of singing that it seemed impossible to change anything in this voice without spoiling it.
“What is this? - Nikolai thought, hearing her voice and opening his eyes wide. -What happened to her? How does she sing these days? - he thought. And suddenly the whole world focused for him, waiting for the next note, the next phrase, and everything in the world became divided into three tempos: “Oh mio crudele affetto... [Oh my cruel love...] One, two, three... one, two... three... one... Oh mio crudele affetto... One, two, three... one. Eh, our life is stupid! - Nikolai thought. All this, and misfortune, and money, and Dolokhov, and anger, and honor - all this is nonsense... but here it is real... Hey, Natasha, well, my dear! Well, mother!... how will she take this si? I took it! God bless!" - and he, without noticing that he was singing, in order to strengthen this si, took the second to the third of a high note. "My God! how good! Did I really take it? how happy!” he thought.
ABOUT! how this third trembled, and how something better that was in Rostov’s soul was touched. And this was something independent of everything in the world, and above everything in the world. What kind of losses are there, and the Dolokhovs, and honestly!... It’s all nonsense! You can kill, steal and still be happy...

Rostov has not experienced such pleasure from music for a long time as on this day. But as soon as Natasha finished her barcarolle, reality came back to him again. He left without saying anything and went downstairs to his room. A quarter of an hour later the old count, cheerful and satisfied, arrived from the club. Nikolai, hearing his arrival, went to him.
- Well, did you have fun? - said Ilya Andreich, smiling joyfully and proudly at his son. Nikolai wanted to say “yes,” but he couldn’t: he almost burst into tears. The Count was lighting his pipe and did not notice his son’s condition.
“Oh, inevitably!” - Nikolai thought for the first and last time. And suddenly, in the most casual tone, such that he seemed disgusted to himself, as if he was asking the carriage to go to the city, he told his father.
- Dad, I came to you for business. I forgot about it. I need money.
“That’s it,” said the father, who was in a particularly cheerful spirit. - I told you that it won’t be enough. Is it a lot?
“A lot,” Nikolai said, blushing and with a stupid, careless smile, which for a long time later he could not forgive himself. – I lost a little, that is, a lot, even a lot, 43 thousand.
- What? Who?... You're kidding! - shouted the count, suddenly turning apoplectic red in the neck and back of his head, like old people blush.
“I promised to pay tomorrow,” said Nikolai.
“Well!...” said the old count, spreading his arms and sank helplessly onto the sofa.
- What to do! Who hasn't this happened to? - said the son in a cheeky, bold tone, while in his soul he considered himself a scoundrel, a scoundrel who could not atone for his crime with his whole life. He would have liked to kiss his father's hands, on his knees to ask for his forgiveness, but he said in a careless and even rude tone that this happens to everyone.
Count Ilya Andreich lowered his eyes when he heard these words from his son and hurried, looking for something.
“Yes, yes,” he said, “it’s difficult, I’m afraid, it’s difficult to get... never happened to anyone!” yes, who hasn’t happened to... - And the count glanced briefly into his son’s face and walked out of the room... Nikolai was preparing to fight back, but he never expected this.

Vladimir Goldin

HEROES IN THE NOVELS OF I. S. TURGENEV. Article 1

Turgenev wrote six novels: “Rudin” (1855), “The Noble Nest” (1859), “On the Eve” (1860), “Fathers and Sons” (1861), “Smoke” (1867), “New” (1876).
In order to publish novels in the press, let us briefly consider what the author wrote about in these works. Then it will be clear what the author wrote about, and it will be easier to understand the thoughts that Turgenev put into the mouths of his heroes. How these novels were perceived by his contemporaries, and how the author of this article perceived them. However, I would like to speak out, as one of Turgenev’s heroes, Volyntsev, said: “... let everyone express themselves as they please, there is nothing worse than the despotism of the so-called smart people. Damn them!

So, "RUDIN".

Turgenev, slowly, against the backdrop of a beautiful summer day, begins to introduce the reader to the heroes of the novel. The rich childless widow Lipina, Alexandra Pavlovna, her single brother, a retired officer, Volyntsev, Sergei Pavlovich, appear first on the pages of the novel. As it was customary in those distant times, parasites lived at the landowners' houses, so one is present here, this is: Konstantin Deomidovich Pandalevsky, a secret lover of young peasant women, musician, informer, informant and sycophant of the patroness lady Daria Mikhailovna Lasunskaya, who had three children: Natalya - 17 years old, Vanya and Petya are the same age. The rich, somewhat strange, but extremely intelligent Lasunskaya lived with a young teacher for boys - Basistov. As if by chance, for starters, one of the main characters of the novel flashed by: Lezhnev, Mikhailo Mikhailovich, “on a racing droshky, in some kind of linen bag, covered in dust...”

The rich house of Daria Mikhailovna Lasunskaya was always crowded with local nobility, among them the neighbor, the landowner Pigasov, Afrikan Semyonovich. “Bitter against everything and everyone - especially against women - he scolded from morning to evening, sometimes very accurately, sometimes rather stupidly, but always with pleasure.” Pegasov graduated from the university and considered himself knowledgeable in all shades of the surrounding reality.

In Lasunskaya’s house, everyone is waiting for the Moscow guest, who was supposed to read an article he wrote on problems of political economy. But the distinguished guest did not arrive. Instead, Rudin appears.

Rudin is an eloquent speaker: “possessed almost the highest secret - the music of eloquence,” conquered everyone, starting with the mistress of the house, and quietly became the manager of practically all the affairs of the landowner’s household, so Lasunskaya trusted him.

With the appearance of Rudin, the plot of the novel begins to develop. Rudin, with his presence, disrupted all the latent ripening lines of life of the village landowners and their children. Which affected the calmness of the other characters in the novel.

Pegasov hated Rudin, because he saw in him a rival who pushed him aside in society as an expert on all problems.

Natalya and Basistov admire Rudin’s “music of eloquence.” Alexandra Pavlovna was surprised at Rudin.

Volyntsev expresses himself vaguely about Rudin; a feeling of jealousy towards Rudin, about Natasha, began to arise in him. Lezhnev is reserved in his assessment of Rudin’s actions, but hints about his long-standing acquaintance with Rudin. Jealousy towards Rudin is also brewing in Lezhnev’s soul, since he has long had plans to unite the bonds of life with Alexandra Pavlovna.

The inhabitants of this novel have a different opinion about Rudin, only Rudin has a sweetly positive opinion about everyone, “he praises you - as if he’s promoting you to a rank... He starts to scold himself, mixes himself with dirt - well, you think, now he won’t look at the light of God . Which! He’ll even feel happier, as if he’s treated himself to bitter vodka.”

It is not difficult to understand the psychological fluctuations in the souls of the novel's heroes. The closed space of village life, a narrow circle of friends, a stagnant atmosphere of interests, where women cross-stitch, learn the musical opuses of the then fashionable composers Thalberg and Schubert, and read the works of the philosophers Hegel and Kant. All this is in words, but in reality it is really just words. And here Rudin, loud promises to perform some action - to write an article, about what? – he doesn’t know himself, but it sounds like a fait accompli. The amazing effect of a grenade that was thrown, everyone is waiting for the explosion, and the grenade smokes everything, but does not explode.

Rudin, in this case a “grenade,” fumes verbally, but does not explode. What do you do in such cases? – that’s right, the grenade is either thrown away, or everyone runs away from it in fear.

The meeting between Rudin and Lezhnev in the Lasunskaya reception room is the first step towards understanding Rudin’s actions and undermining his authority in society.

Experienced Rudin perfectly understands the psychological state of young Natalya, whose soul is ripe for love, and whose body is ripe for childbearing. It was not difficult for Rudin to seduce this fragile girl’s mind. He shows off in front of Natalya: “I will never give up the bliss of activity; but I gave up pleasure... love is not for me. Where should I turn other people's heads? God forbid you carry yours on your shoulders!”

The girl fell in love. But the girl sees in Rudin, first of all, a man of words, but not a man of action. She gives him advice to move from words to action. She tells Rudin that any apple tree that has given birth to fruit needs support. But it is not so easy for the person who gave birth to the idea to find such support among people,” Rudin objects to her. But Natalya is already in love and with her love she is ready to do any reckless act.

What goals does Rudin pursue when he falls in love with a young lady? Just marry a girl with a rich dowry and improve your unenviable financial situation? The author of the novel is silent about this, but at the same time pushes Rudin to do this act, and through this act he reveals the true face of the bright hero. However, Lezhnev, who knew him well and for a long time, begins to reveal the true face of Rudin: “He is a remarkably smart person, although, in essence, empty... I don’t even blame him for the fact that he is a despot at heart, lazy, not very knowledgeable... loves to live for someone else's score, playing a role, and so on... all this is in the order of things. But the bad thing is that he is cold as ice. He plays a dangerous game, dangerous not for him, of course: he himself doesn’t put a penny or a hair at stake - but others put their souls... There’s no doubt,” Lezhnev continued, “he is eloquent; only his eloquence is not Russian.”

“His eloquence is not Russian”!!! - let's remember this.

At the end of the novel, Lezhnev gives a final assessment of the man Rudin and notes: “... his eternal life at someone else’s expense, his loans”, “... there is no nature in him...”, there is his enthusiasm. “He won’t do anything himself precisely because he has no nature, no blood.” “Rudin’s misfortune is that he doesn’t know Russia, and this is definitely a big misfortune. Russia can do without each of us, but none of us can do without her.” “Cosmopolitanism is nonsense, there is no truth, no life, no nothing. Without physiognomy there is not even an ideal face; only a vulgar face is possible without a physiognomy.”

But Lezhnev does not condemn Rudin, he sympathizes with him: “But again, I’ll say, it’s not Rudin’s fault; this is his fate, a bitter and difficult fate, which we will not blame him for. It would take us very far if we wanted to figure out why the Rudins appear among us.”

Here Lezhnev, and therefore Turgenev, puts an end to it, but in our opinion it would be necessary to put a question mark. We must not forget that at the time the novel was published it was the middle of the nineteenth century. History itself has not yet accumulated sufficient experience of the lives of people like Rudin.

Everyone becomes aware of the secret meetings and conversations between Rudin and Natalya, including Natasha’s mother, landowner Lasunskaya. The novel reaches its climax. Natalya makes a date with Rudin in a remote place of the dried-up Avdyukhin pond. Natalya's confession puts Rudin in the position of a chess player who lost a game to a more experienced opponent.

The plot of the novel is practically exhausted at this point. Then there is a description of Rudin’s tossing, his letters to Natalya and Volyntsev, the experiences of other literary heroes on this occasion, but this is already superfluous. The plot was revealed. All the love lines that began to form in the lives of the novel’s heroes before Rudin’s arrival were successfully resolved. We especially emphasize that young Natalya understood the deep essence of Rudin’s character and did not rush into life’s embrace of his fate.

What remains is the epilogue. The chance meeting of Lezhnev and Rudin went like a meeting of old friends who had something to remember from their distant youth. They parted as friends. But the life of the eloquent Rudin ended, as it should have happened, with the death of Rudin on the barricades of Paris. This is where the content of the novel ends.
However, it is worth stopping and thinking about the personality of the literary hero, Dmitry Nikolaevich Rudin.

The publication of the novel found a wide response among literary critics of that time; we will not dwell on the bibliography of the novel, let us turn only to Dobrolyubov’s article “What is Oblomovism.” After Dobrolyubov’s speech, all the literary heroes of Russian literature: Onegin, Pechorin, Oblomov and others, the playmakers of life, received the general nickname “Obolomites”, that is, a kind of slackers, dreamers - boibaks. Dobrolyubov included Rudin in the Oblomov tribe. But now, after a century and a half of publication of the novel, after certain historical observations and knowledge, one can express one’s point of view somewhat different from that of Dobrolyubov, which will later be confirmed by examples from Turgenev’s novels and subsequent literary works that arose under the influence of Turgenev.

The revolution of 1848 in Europe could not pass by the consciousness of Turgenev. Judging by the memoirs of his contemporaries, he was interested in the new emerging revolutionary teachings. For this purpose, he specially went to London to see Herzen, and Herzen in our literature is portrayed as the first revolutionary in Russia who awakened someone there at one time. There in London, with Herzen, Turgenev could meet or hear about representatives of the Russian emigration and, on the basis of this knowledge, reveal the image of Rudin. At least this is what many of his compatriots are talking about. Turgenev could also learn the following detail from Herzen: “Time passed with terrible slowness, but it passed; revolution was not in sight anywhere except in their imagination, and real, merciless need cut down the food closer and closer, and this whole mass of people, most of them good, starved more and more. They had no habit of work; their minds, turned to the political arena, could not concentrate on business.” This is how life was for revolutionaries back then. Although Turgenev does not use the word “revolutionary” at all in the novel.

Who is the image of Rudin based on? Many have expressed the idea that Rudin is Bakunin. But this is not true. Bakunin’s name was well known, so they remembered him. The real prototype of Rudin was the little-known Russian revolutionary N.I. Sazonov. Herzen published an essay about him in Geneva in 1867. The novel “Rudin” was published in 1855. The fate of Sazonov through Herzen was familiar to Turgenev. It is known that Herzen consulted with Turgenev about the time of publication of certain sections of the novel “The Past and Thoughts”.

The last chapters and epilogue in Turgenev’s novel “Rudin” practically repeat the fate of Sazonov, described by Herzen, with some authorial processing of the presentation of the material. But even the style of presentation of the last chapters and epilogue in the novel is rather dry in comparison with the richness of the language, landscape sketches and salon conversations in Lasunskaya’s house.
Turgenev's merit lies in the fact that he was the first to show in fiction the emerging wandering preacher of “hatred of all violence and government tyranny.” This is all Rudin - Sazonov. Rudin-Sazonov is “Columbus without America and a ship,” and all propagandists like them are obsequious carriers of foreign ideas, remember the phrase about Rudin: “his eloquence is not Russian.” This is all from Herzen's essay.

Turgenev’s merit also lies in the fact that after the release of the novel “Rudin” they stopped writing in literary criticism about “Oblomovism”, and began to talk about “superfluous people”, people who are literate, active, but who do not know where to apply their knowledge.

The “sign of communism” began to ferment in Europe, but it had not yet taken hold of the masses and had not become a material force. The life of novice propagandists was formed as if in line with the verse of the young Karl Marx:

"I can't live in peace,
If the whole soul is on fire.
I can't live without a fight
And without a storm, half asleep.
So let's get into trouble
And we'll go on a long journey,
So that we don’t live a meager life
In empty vegetation.
Under the yoke of shameful laziness
We must not drag out this miserable age,
In boldness and aspiration
A man has full power"

Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter,” which appeared as a separate edition in 1852, anticipated the pathos of Russian literature of the 1860s and a special role in the artistic consciousness of the era of “folk thought.” And the writer’s novels turned into a kind of chronicle of the change of different mental trends in the cultural stratum of Russian society: an idealist-dreamer, an “extra person” of the 30-40s in the novel “Rudin”; the nobleman Lavretsky, striving to merge with the people, in “The Noble Nest”; “new man”, revolutionary commoner - first Dmitry Insarov in “On the Eve”, and then Evgeny Bazarov in “Fathers and Sons”; the era of ideological impassability in “Smoke”; a new wave of social upsurge in the 70s in Novi.

Novels in Turgenev's work represent a special variety (as opposed to stories). Turgenev created a very recognizable type of novel, endowed with stable features characteristic of 5 of his novels. First of all, there is stable composition, in the center always the plot young woman, which is characterized discreet beauty, development(which does not always mean that she is smart and educated), moral strength(she is always stronger than a man). A hero with a horse in a woman’s pocket is a very Turgenev move. In addition, a whole gallery of suitors for her hand, she chooses one and this one is main character novel, at the same time this is the type who most important for Turgenev and For Russia. This hero himself is built on connection of two spheres and two ways of assessing his personality and his actions: one sphere - historical, the other - universal. Turgenev builds the image in such a way that none of this dominates. The hero and heroine, as expected, fall in love with each other, but there is always some obstacle on the way to their happiness that does not give them the opportunity to immediately rush into each other’s arms. As the plot develops, these obstacles are removed, but at the moment when everything seemed to be fine, another fatal obstacle arises, because of which they cannot be together.

Turgenev's first novel "Rudin" scandalous circumstances of creation: the prototype of the main character is Bakunin. In the first version of the novel, which has not reached us, Bakunin was portrayed more satirically. In the image of Rudin, Turgenev portrayed a Hegelian, in the sense that Turgenev represented him... On the one hand, he is an intelligent person, a good speaker, capable of subjugating minds, but at the same time, it was those close to him who felt that there was nothing behind this - behind all the ideas there is no true faith. How to react to his preaching is an important question. And Dostoevsky, in the image of Stavrogin, will portray the hyperbolic Rudin. According to Dostoevsky, we should not trust these ideas. Turgenev has a different position: it doesn’t matter who speaks, what matters is whether you believe with your mind, and even if the person is weak and unable to embody his own words. Turgenev has a secular - European type - consciousness, relying on the independence of a person capable of independently drawing conclusions. Turgenev was concerned with the question of what a noble hero could do in modern conditions, when society was faced with specific practical issues.

At first the novel was called “Nature of Brilliant.” By “genius” Turgenev understood the ability to enlightenment, a versatile mind and broad education, and by “nature” - firmness of will, a keen sense of the urgent needs of social development, and the ability to translate words into deeds. As he worked on the novel, this title ceased to satisfy Turgenev. It turned out that when applied to Rudin, the definition of “genius nature” sounds ironic: he has “genius”, but no “nature”; he has the talent to awaken the minds and hearts of people, but does not have the strength and ability to lead them. Pandalevsky is a ghost man without social, national and family roots. The features of groundlessness in Pandalevsky are absurd, but symbolic in their own way. With his presence in the novel, he highlights the ghostly existence of some of the wealthy nobility.

Years of abstract philosophical work have dried up the living springs of the heart and soul in Rudin. The preponderance of the head over the heart is especially obvious in the scene of the love confession. Natalya’s retreating steps have not yet sounded, and Rudin indulges in reflection: “I’m happy,” he said in an undertone. “Yes, I’m happy,” he repeated, as if wanting to convince himself.” In love, Rudin clearly lacks “nature”. The hero does not pass the test, revealing his human and, consequently, social inferiority, his inability to move from words to deeds.

But at the same time, the love affair between Rudin and Natalya is not limited to exposing the social inferiority of the “superfluous person”: there is a deep artistic meaning in the hidden parallel that exists in the novel between the morning of Natalya’s life and Rudin’s joyless morning at the dry Avdyukhin pond.

After a love disaster, Rudin tries to find a worthy business for himself. And this is where it turns out that the “extra person” is guilty not only through his own fault. Of course, not content with little, the romantic enthusiast sets his sights on obviously impossible things: rebuilding the entire teaching system at the gymnasium single-handedly, making the river navigable, regardless of the interests of hundreds of owners of small mills on it. But the tragedy of Rudin the practitioner lies in something else: he is not capable of being Stolz, he does not know how and does not want to adapt and dodge.

Rudin in the novel has an antipode - Lezhnev, affected by the same disease of time, but only in a different version: if Rudin soars in the clouds, then Lezhnev huddles to the ground. Turgenev sympathizes with this hero, recognizes the legitimacy of his practical interests, but does not hide their limitations.

And yet Rudin’s life is not fruitless. In the novel there is a kind of passing of the baton. Rudin’s enthusiastic speeches are eagerly captured by the young commoner Basistov, in whom one senses the young generation of “new people”, the future Dobrolyubovs and Chernyshevskys. Rudin’s preaching bears fruit: “He still sows good seed.” And with his death, despite its apparent senselessness, Rudin defends the high value of the eternal search for truth, the indestructibility of heroic impulses. Rudin cannot be a hero of modern times, but he did everything possible in his position to make these heroes appear. This is the final result of the socio-historical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the “superfluous man”, the cultural nobleman of the era of the 30s - early 40s.

« Noble Nest"(1859 was received warmly, everyone liked it. The pathos is that a person renounces the claims of the Rudinsky scale. Hence the very image of a noble estate is somewhat in the Pushkin spirit. The belief that the noble family ties a person to the land and gives a sense of duty to his country , a duty that is higher than personal passions. Lavretsky is a hero who combines the best qualities of the patriotic and democratically minded part of the liberal nobility. He is not alone in the novel: he is followed by the backstory of an entire noble family. Turgenev introduces it into the novel not only in order to explain the character of the main character. The backstory enlarges the problems of the novel, creates the necessary epic background. We are talking not only about the personal fate of Lavretsky, but about the historical fate of an entire class, the last scion of which is the hero. Revealing the life story of the Lavretsky “nest”, Turgenev sharply criticizes the groundlessness of the nobility, the isolation of this class from their native culture, from Russian roots, from the people. The best pages of the novel are devoted to how the prodigal son regains his lost sense of homeland. Lavretsky’s devastated soul greedily absorbs forgotten impressions: long boundaries overgrown with Chernobyl, wormwood and field ash, fresh steppe bareness and wilderness, long hills, ravines, gray villages, a dilapidated manor house with closed shutters and a crooked porch, a garden with weeds and burdocks. , gooseberries and raspberries.

In “The Noble Nest” for the first time, the ideal image of Turgenev’s Russia was embodied, which constantly lived in his soul and largely determined his value orientation in the era of the 60-70s. This image is recreated in the novel with careful, filial love. He is covertly polemical in relation to the extremes of liberal Westernism and revolutionary maximalism. Turgenev warns: do not rush to reshape Russia in a new way, stop,

shut up, listen. Learn from the Russian plowman to do the historical work of renewal slowly, without fuss and chatter, without rash, rash steps. Matching this majestic, unhurried life, flowing silently, “like water through swamp grasses,” are the best characters of people from the nobility and peasants who grew up on its soil. This is Marfa Timofeevna, an old patriarchal noblewoman, Liza Kalitina’s aunt. The living personification of the homeland, people's Russia, is the central heroine of the novel, Liza Kalitina.

The catastrophe of the love affair between Lisa and Lavretsky is not perceived as a fatal accident. In it the hero sees retribution for neglect of public duty, for the life of his father, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, for the past of Lavretsky himself. Lisa also accepts what happened as retribution and decides to go to a monastery, thereby committing a moral feat.

In a letter to I. S. Aksakov in November 1859, Turgenev said this about the concept of the novel "The day before":“My story is based on the idea of the need for consciously heroic natures in order for things to move forward.” The social and everyday plot of the novel has symbolic overtones. Young Elena personifies young Russia “on the eve” of upcoming changes. Who does she need most now: people of science, people of art, honest officials or consciously heroic natures, people of civic achievement? Elena's choice of Insarova gives an unambiguous answer to this question. The artistic description of Insarov's strengths and weaknesses ends with a key episode with two statuettes of the hero, which were sculpted by Shubin. On the first of them, Insarov was presented as a hero, and on the second - as a ram, rising on its hind legs and bowing its horns to strike.

Next to the social plot, partly growing out of it, partly rising above it, the philosophical plot unfolds in the novel. The novel opens with a dispute between Shubin and Bersenev about happiness and duty. “Each of us wants happiness for ourselves,” argues Bersenev, “but is this word: “happiness” that would unite, ignite us both, force us to shake hands with each other? Isn’t it selfish, I want to say, isn’t this a divisive word?” The words unite people: “motherland, science, freedom, justice.” And - love, if it is not “love-pleasure”, but “love-sacrifice”.

The novel “On the Eve” is Turgenev’s weakest novel, it is the most schematic. In Insarov, Turgenev wanted to bring out a type of chela in which there is no discrepancy between words and action. Apparently, by making the main character a Bulgarian, he wanted to say that he does not see such types in Russia. The most interesting is the ending, where the influence of Schopenhauer was felt. It is not for nothing that Venice was chosen: a very beautiful city (for some, the epitome of beauty) and here this terrible, senseless evil is committed. The ideas of Schopenhauer were reflected here: he taught that the world is based on evil, a certain irrational will hostile to man, turning human life into a series of suffering, and the only thing that reconciles us with life is the beauty of this world, which is something like a veil. According to Sh., it is important that this veil, on the one hand, separates us from evil, and on the other, it is an expression of this evil.

In the novel "Fathers and Sons" the unity of the living forces of national life explodes into social conflict. Arkady, in the eyes of the radical Bazarov, is a weakling, a soft-spoken liberal baric. Bazarov does not want to accept and admit that Arkady’s kind-heartedness and Nikolai Petrovich’s dove-like meekness are also a consequence of the artistic talent of their natures, poetic, dreamy, sensitive to music and poetry. Turgenev considered these qualities to be deeply Russian; he endowed them with Kalinich, Kasyan, Kostya, and the famous singers from the Prytynny tavern. They are as organically connected with the substance of people's life as the impulses of Bazarov's negation. But in “Fathers and Sons” the unity between them disappeared, a tragic discord emerged, affecting not only political and social beliefs, but also enduring cultural values. In the ability of the Russian man to easily break himself, Turgenev now saw not only a great advantage, but also the danger of breaking the connection of times. Therefore, he gave broad national historical coverage to the social struggle of revolutionary democrats with liberals. It was about cultural continuity during the historical succession of one generation to another.

The conflict of the novel “Fathers and Sons” in family spheres, of course, is not limited to family spheres, but its tragic depth is verified by the violation of “family life”, in connections between generations, between opposing social trends. The contradictions went so deep that they touched the natural foundations of existence.

"Smoke" differs in many ways from Turgenev's novels. First of all, it lacks a typical hero around whom the plot is organized. Litvinov is far from his predecessors - Rudin, Lavretsky, Insarov and Bazarov. This is not an outstanding person, who does not pretend to be a public figure of the first magnitude. He strives for modest and quiet economic activity in one of the remote corners of Russia. We meet him abroad, where he improved his agronomic and economic knowledge, preparing to become a competent landowner. This novel touched a lot of people. An extreme Westerner was identified in the person of Potugin; Fet is considered one of the prototypes. “If Russia disappeared from the world map tomorrow, no one would notice,” is Potugin’s most famous maxim. Finally, the novel does not contain a typical Turgenev heroine, capable of deep and strong love, prone to selflessness and self-sacrifice. Irina is corrupted by secular society and deeply unhappy: she despises the life of people in her circle, but at the same time she cannot free herself from it.

The novel is also unusual in its basic tone. Satirical motifs, not very characteristic of Turgenev, play a significant role in it. In the tones of a pamphlet, “Smoke” paints a broad picture of the life of the Russian revolutionary emigration. The author devotes many pages to a satirical depiction of the ruling elite of Russian society in the scene of the generals' picnic in Baden-Baden.

The plot of the novel “Smoke” is also unusual. The satirical pictures that have grown in it, at first glance, are confused by digressions, loosely connected with Litvinov’s storyline. Yes, and Potuginskys

the episodes seem to fall out of the main plot of the novel.

The novel does weaken the cohesive storyline. Several artistic branches run from it in different directions: Gubarev’s circle, the generals’ picnic, the story of Potugin and his “Westernizing” monologues. But this plot looseness is meaningful in its own way. Seemingly going aside, Turgenev achieves a broad coverage of life in the novel. The unity of the book rests not on the plot, but on the internal roll calls of different plot motifs. The key image of “smoke” appears everywhere, an image of life that has lost its meaning.

Only 10 years later the novel comes out "Nove." Here the populists became the central types. An epigraph expresses the main idea best. Nov – uncultivated soil. “The new crop should be lifted not with a shallow plow, but with a deep-reaching plow.” It differs from other novels in that the main character commits suicide. The action of “Novi” dates back to the very beginning of “going to the people.” Turgenev shows that the populist movement did not arise by chance. The peasant reform disappointed expectations; the situation of the people after February 19, 1861 not only did not improve, but sharply worsened. The novel depicts a tragicomic picture of populist revolutionary propaganda led by Nezhdanov. Of course, Nezhdanov is not the only one to blame for the failures of “propaganda” of this kind. Turgenev also shows something else - the darkness of the people in civil and political matters. But one way or another, a blank wall of misunderstanding arises between the revolutionary intelligentsia and the people. And therefore, “going to the people” is portrayed by Turgenev as going through torment, where heavy defeats and bitter disappointments await the Russian revolutionary at every step. Finally, at the center of the novel “New” are not so much the individual fates of individual representatives of the era, but rather the fate of an entire social movement - populism. The breadth of coverage of reality increases, the social resonance of the novel becomes sharper. The love theme no longer occupies a central position in Novi and is not key in revealing Nezhdanov’s character.

“The physiognomy of Russian people of the cultural stratum” changed very quickly in Turgenev’s era - and this brought a special touch of drama to the writer’s novels, characterized by a rapid start and an unexpected denouement, “tragic, as a rule, endings.” Turgenev's novels are strictly confined to a narrow period of historical time; precise chronology plays a significant role in them. The life of Turgenev's hero is extremely limited compared to the heroes of the novels of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Goncharov. The characters of Onegin, Pechorin, Oblomov “reflected a century”; in Rudin, Lavretsky or Bazarov - the mental trends of several years. The life of Turgenev's heroes is like a spark that flashes brightly, but quickly fades. History, in its inexorable movement, measures out a tense, but too short-term fate for them. All Turgenev's novels are subject to the cruel rhythm of the annual natural cycle. The action in them begins, as a rule, in early spring, reaches its climax on the hot days of summer, and ends with the “whistle of the autumn wind” or “in the cloudless silence of the January frosts.” Turgenev shows his heroes in happy moments of maximum growth and flowering of their vitality. But these minutes turn out to be tragic: Rudin dies on the Parisian barricades, during a heroic takeoff, the life of Insarov, and then Bazarov, Nezhdanov, is unexpectedly cut short.

With Turgenev, the poetic image of the companion of the Russian hero, Turgenev's girl - Natalya Lasunskaya, Lisa Kalitina, Elena Stakhova, Marianna - entered not only literature, but also life. The writer depicts in his novels and stories the most flourishing period in a woman’s destiny, when, in anticipation of the chosen one, the female soul blossoms, and all its potential possibilities awaken to temporary triumph.

Together with the image of Turgenev’s girl, the image of “Turgenev’s love” enters into the writer’s work. This feeling is akin to revolution: “... the monotonously correct structure of established life is broken and destroyed in an instant, youth stands on the barricade, its bright banner flutters high, and no matter what awaits it ahead - death or a new life - it is all sends his enthusiastic greetings." All Turgenev's heroes undergo the test of love - a kind of test of viability not only in intimate, but also in public beliefs.

A loving hero is beautiful, spiritually inspired, but the higher he flies on the wings of love, the closer the tragic denouement and fall are. Love, according to Turgenev, is tragic because both weak and strong people are defenseless before its elemental power. Wayward, fatal, uncontrollable, love whimsically disposes of human destiny. This feeling is also tragic because the ideal dream to which a soul in love surrenders cannot be fully realized within the confines of the earthly natural circle.

And, however, the dramatic notes in Turgenev’s work are not the result of fatigue or disappointment in the meaning of life and history. Quite the opposite. They are generated by a passionate love for life, reaching the thirst for immortality, to the desire for human individuality not to fade away, so that the beauty of a phenomenon turns into an eternal, imperishable beauty that remains on earth. Momentary events, living characters and conflicts are revealed in Turgenev’s novels and stories in the face of eternity. The philosophical background enlarges the characters and takes the problems of the works beyond the limits of narrow temporal interests. A tense dialogical relationship is established between the writer’s philosophical reasoning and the direct depiction of the heroes of the time at the culminating moments of their lives. Turgenev loves to close moments for eternity and give timeless interest and meaning to a transitory phenomenon.