Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was born to a wealthy family in Russia in 1818, but had a very unhappy childhood. His father was often away from home with other women and his mother often used to beat him. This did not end even when he was sixteen and his father died. He studied Latin, Greek and Russian at universities in his homeland before taking a degree in philosophy and history at the University of Berlin. Turgenev is the Russian master of the short novel but, unlike Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, he is more interested in people’s feelings and actions than their beliefs and philosophies. He also thought that Russia should imitate western Europe in order to develop. His work concentrates on social issues like European literature, rather than the more religious ones of most Russian authors of the time. Actually, Turgenev spent most of his life living abroad – in Paris and various parts of Germany. He died in 1883 in France, but is today recognised as one of the greatest writers in Russian or any other language.