Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons - Turgenev’s Ancestry
100 Days of Charming Rotten Scoundrels tutorial - Goethe, Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev
100 Days of Charming Rotten Scoundrels tutorial - Goethe, Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev
February 20 - May 31, 2024
Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons
Sunday, May 5
Turgenev’s ancestry
Next reading assignment:
Monday, May 6, Chapters 1 and 2
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, born in 1818, is the oldest of the holy trinity of bushy-bearded dudes of the Russian literary pantheon!!! Along with Dostoevsky, born in 1821, and Tolstoy, born in 1828, Turgenev is responsible for the vast and voluminous output of what we call the Golden Age of the Russian novel. The fact that all three have spectacular beards is not an accident. With his Westernizing reforms of the early 18th century, Peter the Great introduced the habit of shaved faces for men - which was resisted so vehemently that Peter had to institute a beard tax - men preferred to lose their heads over losing their beards!!! Thus no beards for Pushkin and Lermontov - Russian men of the elite classes spoke French and emulated all things European in every possible way!!! But 1812 changed everything. With the Napoleonic invasion Russian elites reassessed their elegance to Europe and Russia started looking inward for inspiration - thus an explosion of what we treasure today as Russian music, art AND literature - AND facial hair for men - much more consistent with traditional Russian peasant culture!!!
Significantly, all three writers had fathers who served in 1812 - Tolstoy and Turgenev’s fathers were officers in the army that defeated Napoleon - Dostoevsky’s father served as an army doctor.
Turgenev’s father Sergei Turgenev (1793–1834) was a cavalry colonel in 1812 - he descended from a 15th century Tatar khan who came to rule Russian lands with the Mongol invasion. Turgenev’s mother Varvara (1787-1850) descended from the ancient Lutovinov family - Turgenev grew up on her ancestral estate.
Varvara Turgeneva was an imperious woman who ruled her three sons with an iron fist - the father remained distant and did not get involved in family affairs. Turgenev depicted his mother in less then flattering light in his 1854 short story “Mumu” (the most depressing short story ever written - don’t read it - trust me - you will never recover from it) and the 1860 autobiographical novella “First Love" - which is GORGEOUS - AND devastating - do read, it is a masterpiece!!!
Turgenev portrait painted in 1874 - by Russia's greatest artist, Ilya Repin!!! Turgenev's father and mother.