Iwan Sergejewitsch Turgenew (also Turgenjew or Turgenev, * 9 November 1818 near Orjol † 3 September 1883 in Bougival near Paris) was a Russian writer and is regarded as one of the most important representatives of Russian realism. From 1863 to 1870, Turgenew had his permanent residence in Baden-Baden. He resided in the Villa Turgenew on Fremersbergstraße. In 2000, a monument in his memory was erected in the Lichtentaler Allee.
Life
Turgenew was born on 9 November 1818 on his parents’ estate of Spasskoje near Orjol in Russia. His family came from an old aristocratic line and was very wealthy. Several thousand serfs worked on the estate. Turgenjew later recalled the living conditions of these serfs and his own childhood: “I was born and grew up in an atmosphere where punches, kicks, beatings, slaps and the like were the order of the day. I too was beaten almost daily for every little thing.“[1]
At first Turgenew was taught by private tutors on his parents’ estate. From 1827 he attended a boarding school in Moscow, where he engaged more intensively with European culture. From 1833 he studied literature, first in Moscow, then from 1834 to 1837 in St. Petersburg. He then travelled to Berlin and Heidelberg for further studies.
In 1843 he met the soprano Pauline Viardot-Garcia for the first time in St. Petersburg. A long-standing love affair developed. After his mother’s death, Turgenew took over the estate and freed the serfs.
The appearance of his work “A Sportsman’s Sketches” in 1852 brought Turgenew his first renown. In the stories he draws a realistic picture of the living conditions of the Russian rural population and their exploitation by the aristocratic landowners. The publication was probably made possible only by an oversight on the part of the censorship authorities. In the same year Turgenew was arrested for the unauthorised publication of an obituary on the death of Gogol and was banished to his estate for a year and a half.
In 1855 he travelled to Paris to be with his beloved. He returned to Russia only occasionally thereafter. The publication of his novel “Fathers and Sons” in 1862 led to controversial debates in Russia.
In Baden-Baden
When the Viardot family moved to Baden-Baden in 1863, Turgenew too settled in the town on the Oos. At first he lived at Schillerstraße 17, then he acquired the property next to the Viardots’ country house on what is now Fremersbergstraße, where the Villa Turgenew was built between 1864 and 1867.[2]
Turgenew thereby belonged to the spa town’s large Russian colony. The Viardots’ house, with its concert and theatre hall, became a social meeting place for artists and spa guests. It was during these years that Turgenew’s novel “Smoke” (Russian “Dym”) also took shape, appearing in 1867. It is set in Baden-Baden and paints a critical picture of Russian society and the goings-on at the spa town’s gaming tables.[3]
In the summer of 1867, a meeting with Fyodor Dostojewski took place in Baden-Baden that ended in estrangement. Behind the personal quarrel lay a difference in worldview: Turgenew was a convinced Westerniser, Dostojewski an advocate of a distinct Russian path.[4]
Turgenew was also fond of chess. In 1870 he was among the organisers of the international chess tournament in Baden-Baden.[5]
After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, he followed the Viardots first to London and later to Bougival near Paris, where he died in 1883 of cancer of the spinal cord.
Sources
- Turgenew in the German Wikipedia
References:
- ↑ Klaus Dornacher (ed.): Turgenjew für unsere Zeit. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin and Weimar 1989, p. XXIV.
- ↑ Andrea Hahn: Russische Schriftsteller und Schriftstellerinnen in Baden-Württemberg. (Archived)
- ↑ Rauch (Roman) in the German Wikipedia.
- ↑ Duell in Baden-Baden – Die innige Feindschaft zwischen Dostojewski und Turgenjew (ARD Audiothek). (Archived)
- ↑ Iwan Sergejewitsch Turgenew in the German Wikipedia.