Editing Ivan Turgenev (section)

==Life==
[[File:Дом И.С.Тургенева в усадьбе Спасское-Лутовиново.jpg|thumb|left|[[Spasskoye-Lutovinovo]], Turgenev's estate near [[Oryol]]]]

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was born in [[Oryol]] (modern-day [[Oryol Oblast]], Russia) to [[Russian nobility|noble Russian]] parents Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev (1793–1834), a colonel in the Russian cavalry who took part in the [[French invasion of Russia|Patriotic War of 1812]], and Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva (née Lutovinova; 1787–1850). His father belonged to an old, but impoverished Turgenev family of [[Tula, Russia|Tula]] aristocracy that traces its history to the 15th century when a [[Tatar people|Tatar]] [[Mirza (noble)|Mirza]] Lev Turgen (Ivan Turgenev after baptizing) left the [[Golden Horde]] to serve [[Vasily II of Moscow]].<ref>[https://gerbovnik.ru/arms/503.html Turgenev coat of arms], ''All-Russian Armorials of Noble Houses of the Russian Empire. Part 4'', December 7, 1799 (in Russian)</ref><ref>{{cite book | first= Richard | last= Pipes| authorlink= Richard Pipes| title= U.S.–Soviet Relations in the Era of Détente: a Tragedy of Errors| publisher=[[Westview Press]] | year= 1981| page= 17}}</ref> Ivan's mother came from a wealthy noble Lutovinov house of the [[Oryol Governorate]].<ref name='lut'>[https://gerbovnik.ru/arms/1110.html Lutovinov coat of arms], ''All-Russian Armorials of Noble Houses of the Russian Empire. Part 8'', January 25, 1807 (in Russian)</ref> She spent an unhappy childhood under her tyrannical stepfather and left his house after her mother's death to live with her uncle. At age 26, she inherited a huge fortune from him.<ref name= 'lebedev'>{{cite book| authorlink= :ru:Лебедев, Юрий Владимирович (литературовед)| first= Yuri | last= Lebedev| year=1990 | title= Turgenev | place= Moscow| publisher= [[Molodaya Gvardiya (publisher)|Molodaya Gvardiya]]| pages= 8–103| isbn=5-235-00789-1}}</ref> In 1816, she married Turgenev.

Ivan and his brothers Nikolai and Sergei were raised by their mother, an educated, authoritarian woman. Their residence was the [[Spasskoye-Lutovinovo]] family estate that was granted to their ancestor Ivan Ivanovich Lutovinov by [[Ivan the Terrible]].<ref name='lut' /> Varvara Turgeneva later served as an inspiration for the landlady from Turgenev's ''[[Mumu (Turgenev)|Mumu]]''. The brothers had foreign governesses; Ivan became fluent in French, German, and English. The family members used French in everyday life, including prayers.<ref>Зайцев Б. К. Жизнь Тургенева. — Париж: YMCA Press, 1949. С. 14.</ref> Their father spent little time with the family. Although he was not hostile toward them, his absence hurt Ivan's feelings. Their relations are described in the autobiographical novel ''[[First Love (novella)|First Love]]''. When Ivan was four years old, the family journeyed through Germany and France. In 1827, the Turgenevs relocated to Moscow to enable the children to have a proper education.<ref name='lebedev' />

After the standard schooling for a son of a gentleman, Turgenev studied for one year at the [[University of Moscow]] and then moved to the [[University of Saint Petersburg]]<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Turgueniev, Ivan |volume=27 |page=417 |first= William Richard |last=Morfill |author-link=William Morfill}}</ref> from 1834 to 1837, focusing on [[Classics]], [[Russian literature]], and [[philology]]. During that time his father died from [[kidney stone disease]], followed by his younger brother Sergei who died from [[epilepsy]].<ref name='lebedev' /> 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.

Turgenev was impressed with German society and returned home believing that Russia could best improve itself by incorporating ideas from the [[Age of Enlightenment]]. Like many of his educated contemporaries, he was particularly opposed to [[Russian serfdom|serfdom]]. In 1841, Turgenev started his career in the Russian civil service and spent two years working for the Ministry of Interior (1843–1845).

When Turgenev was a child, a family serf had read to him verses from the ''Rossiad'' of [[Mikhail Kheraskov]], a celebrated poet of the 18th century. Turgenev's early attempts in literature, poems, and sketches gave indications of genius and were favorably spoken of by [[Vissarion Belinsky]], then the leading Russian literary critic. During the latter part of his life, Turgenev did not reside much in Russia: he lived either at [[Baden-Baden]] or [[Paris]], often in proximity to the family of the celebrated opera singer [[Pauline Viardot]],<ref name=EB1911/> with whom he had a lifelong affair.

Turgenev never married, but he had some affairs with his family's serfs, one of which resulted in the birth of his illegitimate daughter, Paulinette. He was tall and broad-shouldered, but was timid, restrained, and soft-spoken. When Turgenev was 19, while traveling on a steamboat in Germany, the boat caught fire. According to rumours by Turgenev's enemies, he reacted in a cowardly manner. He denied such accounts, but these rumours circulated in Russia and followed him for his entire career, providing the basis for his story "[[A Fire at Sea]]".<ref>{{cite book |last= Schapiro | first= Leonard |title= Turgenev, His Life and Times |date= 1982 |publisher= Harvard University Press |isbn= 9780674912977 |page=18 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NYLcP0IoYbEC&pg=PA18 |access-date=1 February 2020}}</ref> His closest literary friend was [[Gustave Flaubert]], with whom he shared similar social and aesthetic ideas. Both rejected extremist right and left political views, and carried a nonjudgmental, although rather pessimistic, view of the world. His relations with [[Leo Tolstoy]] and [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]] were often strained, as the two were, for various reasons, dismayed by Turgenev's seeming preference for Western Europe.

[[File:Turgenev Oxford.JPG|thumb|right|Turgenev received an honorary doctorate from the [[University of Oxford]] in 1879]]

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]].<ref>{{cite book| title=Ivan Turgenev| url= https://archive.org/details/ivanturgenevbloo00bloo| url-access=limited |year= 2003| publisher=Chelsea House Publishers| isbn= 9780791073995| pages=[https://archive.org/details/ivanturgenevbloo00bloo/page/n103 95]–96| editor-first= Harold| editor-last= Bloom| quote= For example, Leonard Schapiro, Turgenev, His Life and Times (New York: Random, 1978) 214, writes about Turgenev's agnosticism as follows: 'Turgenev was not a determined atheist; there is ample evidence which shows that he was an agnostic who would have been happy to embrace the consolations of religion, but was, except perhaps on some rare occasions, unable to do so'; and Edgar Lehrman, ''Turgenev's Letters'' (New York: Knopf, 1961) xi, presents still another interpretation for Turgenev's lack of religion, suggesting literature as a possible substitution: 'Sometimes Turgenev's attitude toward literature makes us wonder whether, for him, literature was not a surrogate religion—something in which he could believe unhesitatingly, unreservedly, and enthusiastically, something that somehow would make man in general and Turgenev in particular a little happier.'}}</ref> Tolstoy, more than Dostoyevsky, at first anyway, rather despised Turgenev. While traveling together in Paris, Tolstoy wrote in his diary, "Turgenev is a bore." His rocky friendship with Tolstoy in 1861 wrought such animosity that Tolstoy challenged Turgenev to a duel, afterwards apologizing. The two did not speak for 17 years, but never broke family ties. Dostoyevsky parodies Turgenev in his novel ''[[The Possessed (novel)|The Devils]]'' (1872) through the character of the vain novelist Karmazinov, who is anxious to ingratiate himself with the radical youth. However, in 1880, [[Dostoevsky's Pushkin Speech]] at the unveiling of the [[Alexander Pushkin]] monument brought about a reconciliation of sorts with Turgenev, who, like many in the audience, was moved to tears by his rival's eloquent tribute to the Russian spirit.

Turgenev occasionally visited England, and in 1879 the honorary degree of [[Doctor of Civil Law]] was conferred upon him by the [[University of Oxford]].<ref name=EB1911/>

Turgenev's health declined during his later years. In January 1883, an aggressive malignant tumor ([[liposarcoma]]) was removed from his [[Hypogastrium|suprapubic]] region, but by then the tumor had [[metastasis|metastasized]] in his upper [[spinal cord]], causing him intense pain during the final months of his life. On 3 September 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.<ref>{{cite journal| last1= Ceelen| first1= W | last2= Creytens| first2= D| last3= Michel| first3= L. | title= The Cancer Diagnosis, Surgery and Cause of Death of Ivan Turgenev| journal= Acta Chirurgica Belgica | volume= 115| number= 3 | year= 2015| pages= 241–46| doi= 10.1080/00015458.2015.11681106 | pmid= 26158260 | s2cid= 10869743 | url= https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/7036742/file/7036823 }}</ref> On his deathbed, he pleaded with [[Leo Tolstoy|Tolstoy]]: "My friend, return to literature!" After this, Tolstoy wrote such works as ''[[The Death of Ivan Ilyich]]'' and ''[[The Kreutzer Sonata]]''.

Ivan Turgenev's brain was found to be one of the largest on record, weighing {{cvt|2,012|g|lboz|sigfig=2}}.<ref>{{cite journal | last= Spitzka | first= EA| title= A study of the brains of six eminent scientists and scholars belonging to the American Anthropometric Society. Together with a description of the skull of Professor E D Cope| journal= Trans Am Philos Soc | date=| volume= 1907| number= 21 | pages= 175–308}}</ref>