Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev was a Russian writer. He was born in 1818 in a wealthy family. He spent most of his childhood in his mother’s estate and foreign teachers helped his education.

He was only five when he traveled through west Europe with his family and lived six months in Paris. Even though he had everything as a child he never liked talking about it because of the relationship between his parents. He found his rescue in studying in Moscow, Petersburg, and Berlin.

In 1841 he came back to Russia wanting to teach but it didn’t go well as planned so he dedicated himself to writing, even though his mother didn’t approve of his decision.

Two years after coming back to Russia he published a poem which was accepted by the critics. In 1843 he met an opera singer Pauline Viardot and left his office in the ministry and went out of Russia to pursue his writing.

In 1852 he published "The Hunter’s Sketches" and he was well known for his stories in which he described the relationship between peons and their superiors. He described peons like human beings and he did it 9 years before peonage was over. His ideas were thought to be revolutionary.

In 1856 he published his first novel "Rudin". His other novels are "A Nest of Gentlefolk", "On the Eve", "Fathers and sons", "Smoke"…

He died in 1883 near Paris and he was buried in Petersburg.