Writer Bunin biography. Unknown facts about famous writers. Ivan Bunin. Political views of the writer

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. Born on October 10 (22), 1870 in Voronezh - died on November 8, 1953 in Paris. Russian writer, poet, honorary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1909), the first Russian laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1933).

Ivan Bunin was born on October 22, 1870 into an old noble family in Voronezh. Since 1867, the Bunin family rented an apartment in the Germanovskaya estate (Revolutsii Ave., 3), where the future writer was born and lived for the first three years of his life. Father - Alexei Nikolaevich Bunin (1827-1906), in his youth was an officer, mother - Lyudmila Alexandrovna Bunina (nee Chubarova; 1835-1910).

Later, the family moved to the Ozerki estate in the Oryol province (now the Lipetsk region). Until the age of 11 he was brought up at home, in 1881 he entered the Yelets district gymnasium, in 1886 he returned home and continued his education under the guidance of his elder brother Julius. He did a lot of self-education, taking a great interest in reading world and national literary classics. At the age of 17, he began to write poetry, in 1887 - his debut in print. In 1889 he moved to Oryol and went to work as a proofreader for the local newspaper "Orlovsky Vestnik". By this time, his long relationship with an employee of this newspaper, Varvara Pashchenko, with whom, against the wishes of relatives, they moved to Poltava (1892).

Collections "Poems" (Eagle, 1891), "Under the open sky" (1898), "Leaf fall" (1901).

“There was Russia, there was a great house bursting with all belongings, inhabited by a mighty family, created by the blessed labors of many and many generations, consecrated by the worship of God, the memory of the past and all that is called cult and culture. What did they do with it? housekeeper by the complete destruction of literally the whole house and unheard of fratricide, all that nightmare-bloody booth, the monstrous consequences of which are incalculable ... The planetary villain, overshadowed by a banner with a mocking call for freedom, brotherhood, equality, sat high on the neck of the Russian "savage" trample conscience, shame, love, mercy ... A geek, a moral idiot from birth, Lenin showed the world something monstrous, amazing, just in the midst of his activities, he ruined the world's greatest country and killed millions of people, and in broad daylight they argue: he is a benefactor of mankind or not?"

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933 for "the rigorous skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose."

He spent the Second World War (from October 1939 to 1945) in the rented Villa Jeannette in Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes department).

Much and fruitfully he was engaged in literary activity, becoming one of the main figures in the Russian Diaspora.

In emigration, Bunin wrote his best works, such as: "Mitya's Love" (1924), "Sunstroke" (1925), "The Case of the Cornet Elagin" (1925), and, finally, "The Life of Arseniev" (1927-1929, 1933 ) and a cycle of stories "Dark Alleys" (1938-40). These works became a new word both in Bunin's work and in Russian literature as a whole. According to KG Paustovsky, "Life of Arseniev" is not only the summit work of Russian literature, but also "one of the most remarkable phenomena of world literature."

According to the Chekhov Publishing House, in the last months of his life Bunin worked on a literary portrait of A. P. Chekhov, the work remained unfinished (in the book: Looped Ears and Other Stories, New York, 1953). He died in a dream at two o'clock in the morning from 7 to 8 November 1953 in Paris. According to eyewitnesses, on the bed of the writer lay a volume of Leo Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection". Buried in the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery in France.

In 1929-1954. Bunin's works were not published in the USSR. Since 1955 - the most published writer of the first wave of Russian emigration in the USSR (several collected works, many one-volume editions).

Some works ("Cursed Days", etc.) in the USSR were published only with the beginning of perestroika.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is the last Russian classic who captured Russia in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. “... One of the last rays of some wonderful Russian day,” wrote the critic GV Adamovich about Bunin.

Ivan Bunin is a famous Russian poet, writer and translator. In 1933 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Ivan Bunin became the last pre-revolutionary Russian classic and the first among Russian writers to receive the Alfred Nobel Prize. He was distinguished by independence of judgment, Georgy Adamovich said that he sees through people and could at first glance see what a person preferred to be silent about. Bunin's work found a response not only in the hearts of his compatriots, his works have been translated into many languages ​​and are popular abroad. World fame came to him during his lifetime, which is not so often.

Childhood and youth

The family tree of Ivan Bunin is rooted in the most ancient noble family. The coat of arms of the Bunin family was awarded a place of honor in the coat of arms of the most famous nobles in Russia. One of the ancestors of the famous writer was Vasily Zhukovsky, the author of poems and ballads. Therefore, it is not surprising that Bunin possessed an innate aristocracy, the "breed" was clearly visible in him.

Ivan Bunin was born on October 22, 1870 in Voronezh. His father was a petty official and an almost ruined nobleman Alexei Bunin. Ivan's mother's name was Lyudmila Chubarova, she was her husband's cousin, and was distinguished by a meek and impressionable disposition. They had nine children, but only four were lucky enough to survive.

At the time of Ivan's birth, the family had been living in Voronezh for four years, where they came to receive education with their older children - their sons Julius and Yevgeny. They did not have the opportunity to purchase their own housing, so the Bunins rented an apartment on Bolshaya Dvoryanskaya Street. 4 years after the birth of Vanechka, the parents decided to return to the family nest. It was the estate of Butyrka near Orel, where the childhood years of the future classic of literature passed.

A tutor was hired for the boy - a young man named Nikolai Romashkov, who at that time was studying at Moscow University.

It was he who taught the child to read and in every possible way supported his interest in books. Vanya studied languages ​​at home, he was especially interested in Latin. The first books the boy read were not children's fairy tales, but Homer's Odysseus and a book of poetry in English.

In 1881, father and son came to Yelets to enroll in a gymnasium. Ivan coped with the exams perfectly and he was admitted to the men's gymnasium. He studied easily, new knowledge quickly fit into his head, but this only concerned humanitarian subjects. Bunin was absolutely not on friendly terms with the exact sciences, and even confessed to his brother that he was most afraid of the mathematics exam. Five years later, Bunin was expelled from the gymnasium, and did not even finish his studies until the end of the school year. 16-year-old Ivan came home to Ozerki for Christmas, but after the end of the holidays he did not return to the gymnasium. This was the reason for the expulsion. Then Bunin studied under the guidance of his older brother Julia.

Literature

Bunin began his creative biography in the Ozerki family estate. While studying in Yelets, he began to write a novel called "Hobby", and continued to work on it already at home. But this novel never made it to the public. And here is a verse dedicated to the memory of the poet Semyon Nadson, was published on the pages of the magazine "Rodina".

Ivan's persistence and active assistance in the education of his brother Yuli bore fruit - Bunin managed to pass the school curriculum, perfectly prepared for passing the final exams, and after successfully passing them, together with everyone, he received a certificate.

In 1889, Bunin got a job at the editorial office of the "Orlovsky Vestnik" magazine. On its pages there was a place for the works of Bunin himself. At this time, he actively writes poetry, stories, critical notes. At the end of the summer of 1892, at the invitation of his brother Yuli, Ivan moved to Poltava and got a job as a librarian at the provincial council.

At the beginning of 1894, Ivan ended up in Moscow, where he met with the writer Leo Tolstoy. They had a lot in common, they both became disillusioned with urban civilization, regretted the passing era, regretted that the nobility was degenerating as a class. These moods of Bunin are clearly traced in his prose - "Epitaph", "Antonov apples", "New road".

In 1897, Bunin's book "To the End of the World" was published. A year earlier, Ivan had translated the poem "The Song of Hiawatha," by Henry Longfellow. Bunin also worked on translations of the poetry of other famous poets - Petrarch, Mitskevich, Saadi.

In 1898, Bunin published another collection of poetry, entitled "Under the open sky". And if the first book was published in St. Petersburg, then this collection was published in Moscow. Critics and readers alike appreciated the skills of the young poet, he received many accolades. In 1900, the poet delighted fans of his work with a new book of poems called "Leaf Fall". After that, he was not called otherwise than the poet of the Russian landscape. In 1903, Ivan Bunin received the first Pushkin Prize from the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. After her, a second appeared.

However, his colleagues did not share the enthusiastic mood of his fans and called Bunin an old-fashioned landscape painter. At this time, poetry is just becoming fashionable, from the lines of which the city streets breathed, and, with its incredible characters. Maximilian Voloshin published his review of the poet's next collection, Poems. He said that Bunin seemed to have "dropped out" of the fashion movement, but managed to reach the pinnacle of perfection in his poetry. The most striking works of Ivan Bunin of that period were the poems "Evening" and "I remember a long winter evening."

Ivan Bunin - Evening We always only remember about happiness. And happiness is everywhere. Maybe it is - This autumn garden behind the barn And clean air pouring through the window. In the bottomless sky, a light white edge Rises, a cloud shines. I have been following him for a long time ... We see little, we know, And happiness is given only to those who know. The window is open. A bird squeaked and sat on the windowsill. And from the books I look away tired for a moment. The day is getting dark, the sky is empty. The rumble of the thresher is heard in the threshing floor ... I see, I hear, I'm happy. Everything is in me.

For Bunin, symbolism seems absolutely unacceptable; he does not accept the 1905 revolution. He records himself as a "witness to the great and vile." In 1910, his new story was published, under the laconic title "Village". It was with her that the cycle of works began, in which the mysterious Russian soul is captured. The stories "Good life", "Power", "Lapti", "A prince in princes", and the story "Sukhodol" soon came out of the same series.

1915 brought Ivan Bunin to the pinnacle of popularity. He publishes some of his best works - the stories "The Grammar of Love", "The Lord from San Francisco", "Chang's Dreams", "Light Breathing". In 1917, the writer left the rebellious Petrograd, not wanting to live in "terrible closeness with the enemy." For 6 months he has been living in Moscow, next May he moves to Odessa. In this city, he publishes a diary entitled "Cursed Days", in which he denounces the revolutionary movement and the new power of the Bolsheviks.

For such a fierce opponent of the current government, further residence in the country was dangerous. At the beginning of 1920, Bunin left the country. The writer immediately settled in Constantinople, and in March he moved to Paris.

It is in France that the poet publishes a new collection of his works, which he called "The gentleman from San Francisco." Fans of Ivan Bunin expressed their delight on this occasion.

In the summer of 1923, Bunin moved to the Villa Belvedere in Grasse. He often met with. At this time, he continues to work fruitfully and publishes new prose - "The Rose of Jericho", "Initial Love", "Mitya's Love", "Figures".

In 1930, another story of the writer was published - "The Shadow of a Bird", and soon Bunin's fans received a new gift in the form of the novel "The Life of Arseniev". He became the largest in his work abroad. It clearly traces the homesickness, which, according to the author, "perished in the shortest possible time."

Closer to the 40s, Bunin settled in the Jeannette villa, where he survived the entire war. He was very worried about his homeland, rejoiced at even the most insignificant victory of our troops. During these years, the writer learned what real poverty is. He described his difficult situation as follows: “I was rich, and now, by the will of fate, I learned what poverty is. I have known the world fame, and now I turned out to be unnecessary to anyone ... I want to go home so badly! "

The villa gradually fell into decay. The heating stopped working, there was often no electricity or water. Bunin wrote to his friends that his existence is like a caveman's continuous hunger. "

In order to somehow get hold of money, the writer asked one of his friends living in the United States to publish his book "Dark Alleys". Bunin was ready for any conditions, and was very happy when in 1943 the book went on sale. For the sold six hundred copies, the writer received only three hundred dollars, but he was incredibly happy with this money. Among other works in this collection, a story called "Clean Monday" was published. In 1952, Bunin published his last poem "Night".

Connoisseurs of cinema have repeatedly noted that literally all of the writer's works can be filmed. The first time the idea of ​​the film adaptation came to the head of a director from Hollywood. He was going to make a picture based on the story "The gentleman from San Francisco". However, the matter did not go further than talk.

In the 1960s, the same idea was visited by Russian filmmakers. The first to decide on an experiment was director Vasily Pichul, who shot the short film "Mitya's Spring". In 1989, another work by Bunin was filmed - the story "Non-Urgent Spring".

In 2000, the director began to create a biography film "The Diary of His Wife", which sheds light on the family relationship between Bunin and his relatives.

The loudest was the adaptation of the story "Sunstroke" and the book "Cursed Days", which was presented to the audience in 2014 by director Nikita Mikhalkov.

Nobel Prize

The first time the name of Ivan Bunin appeared in the list of applicants for the Nobel Prize in 1922. It was Romain Rolland's initiative. However, that year the prize went to the poet from Ireland, William Yates.

In the early 1930s, thanks to the efforts of emigrant writers from Russia, the name of Bunin was again among the applicants for this award. This time, fortune was on the side of Ivan Alekseevich, and in 1933, by the decision of the Swedish Academy, he received a well-deserved prize in the field of literature. The award was given to a writer for "revealing a typically Russian character" in prose.

Bunin received an amount of 715 thousand francs, which sold out very quickly. Half went to the needy, he did not refuse to help anyone who turned to him. Long before receiving a monetary reward, Bunin received over two thousand letters, which contained a request for help.

Only three years passed, and nothing remained of the money. The time has come for beggarly survival. He never bought his own house, until the end of his days he lived in a rented apartment. He eloquently describes this in the verse "The bird has a nest."

Personal life

The first time Bunin seriously fell in love while working in the newspaper "Orlovsky Vestnik". Her name was Varvara Pashchenko, she was tall, beautiful, wore pince-nez. At the beginning of their acquaintance, Ivan took her for an emancipated and arrogant person, but when he got to know her better, he completely changed his mind about her. The romance was stormy, but Varvara's father was categorically opposed to such a choice of his daughter. At that time Ivan was a poor, not promising youth. They lived in a civil marriage. Many years later, Ivan called Varvara "unmarried wife."

Relations between the spouses began to worsen, and when they moved to Poltava, it became very bad. Varvara was the daughter of wealthy parents, and she was tired of begging. One day she just left, leaving behind only a note. A little time passed, and Varvara married the artist Arseny Bibikov. And Ivan suffered a lot, the brothers were even afraid that he would do something to himself.

The personal life of the writer changed in 1898, when Anna Tsakni appeared in it. They got married the same year, but the marriage only lasted 2 years. Anna gave birth to a son, Nikolai, who fell ill with scarlet fever in 1905 and died. The writer no longer had children.

November 1906 was a happy year for Bunin. It was at this time that he met his third wife, Vera Muromtseva. She graduated from the Higher Courses for Women, loved chemistry and knew three languages. However, the art world was unfamiliar to her.

The lovers managed to conclude a legal marriage only in 1922, after emigration from Russia. The second wife did not agree to a divorce for a very long time, and for 15 years they lived simply in a civil marriage. The duties of the best man at the wedding were entrusted. This was the last marriage of the writer, which lasted until his death. There were some oddities in this union. In 1926, the Bunin family sheltered the writer Galina Kuznetsova in their house, who became more than just a friend for Ivan.

It is she who is spoken of as the last love of a famous writer. Galina lived in their house for ten years, and when she went to Margarita Stepun, the writer experienced a real tragedy. After Galina left, Bunin began a protracted depression, from despair he almost lost his mind. The work helped, he did not leave his office for days. The result of this seclusion was 38 stories, which were included in his new book "Dark Alleys".

Death

Emphysema of the lungs Bunin fell ill in the 40s, and on the recommendation of doctors went to France for treatment. However, this was not reflected in the results. The last time Bunin appeared in public was in 1947, when he turned 79.

There was no money for treatment, so Bunin asked for help from Andrei Sedykh, an emigrant from Russia. He, in turn, contacted the American philanthropist Frank Atran, and he agreed to help the famous writer. The writer received from Atran a monthly sum of 10 thousand francs.

In the fall of 1953, Bunin felt really bad. He could no longer get out of bed. Before his death, he asked his wife to read Anton Chekhov's correspondence to him.

Ivan Bunin died on November 8, 1953. He died of pulmonary sclerosis and cardiac asthma. The graveyard of hundreds of emigrants from Russia, Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois, became the writer's eternal resting place.

Collections of poems

• "Open air"
• "Leaf fall"
• Favorites
• "On Nevsky"

Stories

• "To the End of the World and Other Stories"
• "Antonovskie apples"
• "Wildflowers"
• "Shadow of the Bird"
• "John the Weptler"
• "Cup of life"
• "The gentleman from San Francisco"
• "Easy breath"
• "Chang's Dreams"
• "Dark alleys"
• "Temple of the Sun"
• "Initial love"
• "Scream"
• "Mowers"
• The Rose of Jericho
• Sunstroke"
• "Youth"
• "God's tree"
• "Spring in Judea"
• "Looped Ears and Other Stories"

“Through the centuries says
Poet - and his syllable rings -
Painted autumn in scarlet.
And the cemetery sleeps sadly
Where in a foreign land he lies.
And sadly looks down from above ... "
From a poem by Tamara Khanzhina in memory of Bunin

Biography

An amazing fact, but this talented, brilliant, educated and sophisticated person did not receive a good education in his youth. Most of his knowledge and interest in literature, philosophy and psychology, Ivan Bunin was instilled by his older brother, who graduated with honors from the university and studied a lot with the boy. Perhaps it was thanks to his brother Julia Bunin that he was able to reveal his literary talent.

Bunin's biography can be read like a novel with an exciting plot. Throughout his life, Bunin changed cities, countries and, what’s no secret, women. One thing remained unchanged - his passion for literature. He published his first poem at the age of 16 and already at 25 - shone in the literary circles of both capitals of Russia. The first wife of Bunin was the Greek Anna Tsakni, but this marriage did not last long, Bunin's only son died at the age of five, and after a while the writer met the main woman in his life - Vera Muromtseva. It was with her, who later became the official wife of Bunin, that the writer emigrated to France, never being able to accept the Bolshevik power.

While living in France, Bunin continued to write, where he created his best works. But he did not stop thinking about Russia, yearning for her, deeply experiencing his renunciation. However, these experiences only benefited his work, it is not for nothing that Bunin's stories, poems and stories are considered today the golden heritage of Russian literature. For the skill with which he developed the traditions of Russian classical prose, the eighty-year-old Bunin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature - the first of Russian writers. All the years of emigration, next to Bunin was his wife, Vera, who steadfastly endured both her husband's difficult character and his hobbies on the side. Until the very last day, she remained a faithful friend to him, and not just his wife.

While in France, Bunin constantly thought about returning to Russia. But seeing what was happening to his compatriots, who believed in the favor of the Soviet government and returned home, the writer gave up this idea year after year. Bunin's death came in the 84th year of his life in his modest apartment in Paris. The cause of Bunin's death, according to the doctor, was a whole bunch of diseases - heart failure, cardiac asthma and pulmonary sclerosis. The funeral service for Bunin took place in a Russian church in Paris, then the body was placed in a zinc coffin in a temporary crypt - Bunin's wife hoped that she would still be able to bury her husband in Russia. But, alas, this was not given to happen, and on January 30, 1954, Bunin was buried with the transfer of his coffin from the temporary crypt. Bunin's grave is located in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris.

Bunin's wives - first wife Anna (left) and second wife Vera (right)

Life line

October 10, 1870 Date of birth of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin.
1881 g. Admission to the Yeletsk gymnasium.
1892 g. Moving to Poltava, work in the newspapers "Poltavskie gubernskiye vedomosti", "Kievlyanin".
1895 g. Success in the literary society of Moscow and St. Petersburg, meeting with Chekhov.
1898 g. Marriage with Anna Tsakni.
1900 g. Parting with Tsakni, a trip to Europe.
1901 g. The release of the collection of poems by Bunin "Leaf fall".
1903 g. Bunin was awarded the Pushkin Prize.
1906 g. The beginning of a relationship with Vera Muromtseva.
1909 g. Bunin was awarded the Pushkin Prize, and was elected an honorary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature.
1915 g. Publication of the complete collected works of Bunin in the appendix to the magazine "Niva".
1918 g. Moving to Odessa.
1920 g. Emigration to France, to Paris.
1922 g. Official marriage with Vera Muromtseva.
1924 g. Writing Bunin's story "Mitya's Love".
1933 g. Bunin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
1934-1936 Publication of Bunin's collected works in Berlin.
1939 g. Moving to Grasse.
1945 g. Return to Paris.
1953 g. Completion of the collection of stories by Bunin "Dark Alleys".
November 8, 1953 Date of death of Bunin.
November 12, 1953 Funeral service, placing the body in a temporary crypt.
January 30, 1954 Funeral of Bunin (reburial).

Memorable places

1. The village of Ozerki, the former estate of the Bunins, where the writer spent his childhood.
2. House of Bunin in Voronezh, where he was born and lived the first three years of his life.
3. Literary and Memorial Museum of Bunin in Yelets, in the house where Bunin lodged as a high school student.
4. House-Museum of Bunin in Efremov, where Bunin periodically lived and worked in 1906-1910. and on which a memorial plaque in memory of Bunin is installed.
5. St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, of which Bunin was elected Honorary Academician.
6. Bunin's house in Odessa, where Bunin and Muromtseva lived in 1918-1920. before leaving for France.
7. House of Bunin in Paris, where he lived periodically from 1922 to 1953. and where he died.
8. House of Bunin in Grasse, villa "Jeannette", at the entrance to which there is a memorial plaque in memory of Bunin.
9. House of Bunin in Grasse, Villa Belvedere.
10. Monument to Bunin in Moscow.
11. Monument to Bunin in Orel.
12. Monument to Bunin in Voronezh.
13. Cemetery Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, where Bunin is buried.

Episodes of life

Bunin possessed not only literary but also acting talent. He had a very rich facial expression, he moved and danced well, was an excellent rider. It is known that Konstantin Stanislavsky himself invited Bunin to play the role of Hamlet in the theater, but he refused.

The last years of his life, Ivan Bunin lived practically in poverty. The money that he received as a Nobel laureate, the writer immediately let go to parties and receptions, helping emigrants, and then unsuccessfully invested in some business and completely burned out.

It is known that Ivan Bunin, like many writers, kept a diary. He made his last entry on May 2, 1953, a few months before his death, which, apparently, he already had a presentiment due to deteriorating health: “It's still amazing to tetanus! After a very short time I will be gone - and the deeds and destinies of everything, everything will be unknown to me! "

Covenant

“What a joy to exist! Only to see, at least to see only this smoke and this light. If I did not have arms and legs and I could only sit on a bench and look at the setting sun, then I would be happy with that. One need only - to see and breathe. "

A documentary film dedicated to Ivan Bunin, from the cycle "Geniuses and Villains"

Condolences

"The great mountain was Tsar Ivan!"
Don-Aminado (Aminodav Peisakhovich Shpolyansky), poet-satirist

“He was an extraordinary writer. And he was an extraordinary man. "
Mark Aldanov, prose writer, publicist

“Bunin is a rare phenomenon. In our literature, in terms of language, this is the peak above which no one can rise. "
Sergey Voronin, prose writer

“All his life Bunin waited for happiness, wrote about human happiness, looked for ways to it. He found it in his poetry, prose, love for life and for his homeland and said great words that happiness is given only to those who know. Bunin lived a difficult, sometimes contradictory life. He saw a lot, knew, loved and hated a lot, worked a lot, sometimes made severe mistakes, but all his life the greatest, most tender, unchanging love of his was his native country, Russia ”.
Konstantin Paustovsky, writer

Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:	Voronezh, Russian Empire
Date of death:
A place of death:	Paris, France
Occupation:	Poet, novelist
	Pushkin Prize I degree for the translation of "Song of Hiawatha" by Longfellow. Nobel Prize in Literature (1933) "for the strict skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose."

Perpetuation of the name

Artworks

Screen adaptations

Perpetuation of the name

(October 10 (22), 1870, Voronezh - November 8, 1953, Paris) - Russian writer, poet, honorary academician of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1909), Nobel Prize laureate in literature in 1933.

Biography

Ivan Bunin was born on October 10 (22), 1870 in an old impoverished noble family in Voronezh, where he lived the first three years of his life. Later the family moved to the Ozerki estate near Yelets (Oryol province, now Lipetsk region). Father - Alexei Nikolaevich Bunin, mother - Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Bunina (nee Chubarova). Until the age of 11 he was brought up at home, in 1881 he entered the Yelets district gymnasium, in 1885 he returned home and continued his education under the guidance of his elder brother Julius. He did a lot of self-education, taking a great interest in reading world and national literary classics. At the age of 17, he began to write poetry, in 1887 - his debut in print. In 1889 he moved to Oryol and went to work as a proofreader for the local newspaper "Orlovsky Vestnik". By this time, his long relationship with an employee of this newspaper, Varvara Pashchenko, with whom, against the wishes of relatives, they moved to Poltava (1892).

Collections "Poems" (Oryol, 1891), "Under the open sky" (1898), "Leaf fall" (1901; Pushkin Prize).

1895 - personally met with Chekhov, before that we corresponded.

In the 1890s he traveled on the steamer "Chaika" (" bark with firewood») Along the Dnieper and visited the grave of Taras Shevchenko, whom he loved and later translated a lot. Several years later he wrote an essay "On the Seagull", which was published in the children's illustrated magazine "Shoots" (1898, No. 21, November 1).

In 1899 he married Anna Nikolaevna Tsakni, the daughter of the revolutionary-populist N.P. Tsakni. The marriage was short-lived, the only child died at the age of 5 (1905). In 1906, Bunin entered into a civil marriage (officially registered in 1922) with Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, niece of SA Muromtsev, chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Empire of the 1st convocation.

In his lyric poetry, Bunin continued the classical traditions (the collection Listopad, 1901).

In stories and stories he showed (sometimes with a nostalgic mood)

Bunin was awarded the Pushkin Prize three times. On November 1, 1909, he was elected an honorary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature.

In the summer of 1918, Bunin moved from Bolshevik Moscow to Odessa, occupied by German troops. As the Red Army approached the city in April 1919, it did not emigrate, but remained in Odessa. He welcomes the capture of the city by the Volunteer Army in August 1919, personally thanks General A. I. Denikin, who arrived in the city on October 7, actively cooperates with the OSVAG (propaganda and information agency) under V. S. Yu. R. In February 1920, when the Bolsheviks approached, he leaves Russia. Emigrates to France. During these years he kept a diary "Cursed Days", partially lost, amazed his contemporaries with the accuracy of his language and passionate hatred of the Bolsheviks. In emigration, he was active in social and political activities: he gave lectures, collaborated with Russian political parties and organizations (conservative and nationalist trends), and regularly published journalistic articles. He delivered the famous manifesto on the tasks of the Russian Diaspora in relation to Russia and Bolshevism: "The Mission of the Russian Emigration." Laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933.

He spent the Second World War (from October 1939 to 1945) in the rented Villa Jeannette in Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes department).

Bunin refused any form of cooperation with the Nazi occupiers and tried to constantly monitor events in Russia. In 1945 the Bunins returned to Paris. Bunin repeatedly expressed a desire to return to Russia, called in 1946 the decree of the Soviet government “On the restoration of citizens of the former Russian Empire to USSR citizenship ...” as a “generous measure”, but Zhdanov’s decree on the magazines “Zvezda” and “Leningrad” (1946), which trampled on A. Akhmatova and M. Zoshchenko, led to the fact that Bunin forever abandoned the intention to return to his homeland.

Much and fruitfully he was engaged in literary activity, becoming one of the main figures in the Russian Diaspora.

In emigration, Bunin wrote his best works, such as: "Mitya's Love" (1924), "Sunstroke" (1925), "The Case of the Cornet Elagin" (1925), and, finally, "Life of Arseniev" (1927-1929, 1933 ) and a cycle of stories "Dark Alleys" (1938-40). These works became a new word both in Bunin's work and in Russian literature as a whole. According to KG Paustovsky, "Life of Arseniev" is not only the summit work of Russian literature, but also "one of the most remarkable phenomena of world literature." In the last years of his life he wrote the extremely subjective "Memoirs".

According to the Chekhov Publishing House, in the last months of his life Bunin worked on a literary portrait of A. P. Chekhov, the work remained unfinished (in the book: Looped Ears and Other Stories, New York, 1953).

He died in a dream at two o'clock in the morning from 7 to 8 November 1953 in Paris. According to eyewitnesses, on the bed of the writer lay a volume of Leo Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection". Buried in the cemetery in France, Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.

In 1929-1954. Bunin's works were not published in the USSR. Since 1955 - the most published writer of the first wave of Russian emigration in the USSR (several collected works, many one-volume editions).

Some works ("Cursed Days", etc.) in the USSR were published only with the beginning of perestroika.

Perpetuation of the name

• In Moscow there is Buninskaya alley street, next to the metro station of the same name.
• In the city of Moscow on Povarskaya Street, not far from the house where the writer lived, a monument has been erected to him.
• In Orel, on October 17, 1992, a monument to I. A. Bunin was unveiled. The sculptor Uvarov OA Around the same time, the Krupskaya Central Library was renamed into the Bunin Library (abbreviated by the locals as "Buninka").
• One of the streets in the center of Odessa is named after the great writer and poet I.A. Bunin

Artworks

• On the "Seagull"
• 1900 - "Antonov apples"
• 1910 - The Village
• 1911 - "Dry land"
• 1915 - "Master from San Francisco"
• 1916 - Light Breathing
• 1918 - "Cursed Days" (published 1925)
• 1924 - "Mitya's love"
• 1925 - Sunstroke
• 1925 - "The case of the cornet Elagin"
• 1930 - "The Life of Arseniev"
• "Mothers"
• 1896 - "Song of Hiawatha" (translated from English into Russian)
• "Lapti"
• 1938 - "Dark Alleys"
• 1937 - "Caucasus"

Screen adaptations

• "Summer of Love" - ​​melodrama based on the story "Natalie", directed by Felix Falk, Poland-Belarus, 1994
• "The Grammar of Love" - ​​a film-performance based on the stories "Tanya", "In Paris", "The Grammar of Love", "Cold Autumn" from the cycle "Dark Alleys", directed by Lev Tsutsulkovsky, Lentelefilm, 1988

Perpetuation of the name

• There is Buninskaya alley in Moscow, next to the metro station of the same name.
• There is Bunin Street in Lipetsk. In addition, streets with the same name are located in Yelets and Odessa.
• A monument to Bunin was erected in Voronezh; library number 22 is named after him; a memorial plaque is installed on the house where the writer was born.
• In the village of Ozerki, Stanovlyansky District, Lipetsk Region, where Bunin spent his childhood and adolescence on his parents' estate, a manor house was recreated on a genuine foundation in the 90s; a cross and a memorial stele were installed on the site of the non-preserved Butyrki farm, 4 km from Ozyorok, where Bunin lived with his grandmother in childhood.
• In 1957, in the city of Oryol, in the Museum of Oryol Writers of the Oryol United Literary Museum of I.S.Turgenev, a hall dedicated to the life and work of Bunin was opened. In the following decades, the unique Bunin collection, the largest in Russia, was collected in Orel, numbering more than six thousand units of storage of original materials: iconography, manuscripts, letters, documents, books, personal belongings of the writer. The overwhelming part of this collection is made up of materials from the pre-revolutionary archive of Bunin, transferred to the Oryol Literary Museum by the widow of the writer's nephew K.P. Pusheshnikova. Genuine personal belongings of Bunin - photographs, autographs, books - associated with the emigre period of his work, were received by the museum from V.N. Muromtseva-Bunina, L.F. Zurov, A. Ya. Polonsky, T.D. Green. The furniture from Bunin's Paris office was kept for a long time in the family of the writer N.V. Kodryanskaya, who sent it in 1973 to Oryol from Paris through the Soviet embassy in France. On December 10, 1991, the Museum of I.A.Bunin was opened in Orel in Georgievsky Lane in a noble mansion of the 19th century.
• In Efremov in the house in which in 1909-1910. Bunin lived, his museum was opened.
• In Moscow, on Povarskaya Street, not far from the house where the writer lived, on October 22, 2007, a monument to Bunin was erected. The author is the sculptor A. N. Burganov. The writer is shown standing in full growth, lost in thought, a cloak thrown over his hand. Aristocracy and grandeur are emphasized in his stately figure, calm gesture of folded hands, proudly raised head and penetrating gaze.
• In Orel, on October 17, 1992, a monument to I. A. Bunin was unveiled. The author is the famous sculptor V. M. Klykov. Around the same time, the Krupskaya Central Library was renamed into the Bunin Library (abbreviated as "Buninka" by the locals).
• In Voronezh, on October 13, 1995, a monument to I. A. Bunin was unveiled. The author is the Moscow sculptor A. N. Burganov. The opening of the monument was timed to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the birth of the writer. Bunin is depicted sitting on a fallen tree with a dog at his feet. According to the sculptor himself, the writer is depicted at the time of parting with Russia, experiencing anxiety and at the same time hope, and a dog clinging to his feet is a symbol of the outgoing nobility, a symbol of loneliness.

• In 2000, a film dedicated to Bunin, The Diary of His Wife, was shot.
• In the city of Efremov, in front of the railway station, on October 22, 2010, a monument to Bunin was unveiled to mark the 140th anniversary of the writer. The monument is a repetition of a statue (this time only to the waist), previously installed in Moscow (sculptor A. N. Burganov).
• One of the streets in the center of Odessa is named after the great writer and poet I. A. Bunin
• In 2006, the Russia TV channel released the author's film by Alexei Denisov “Cursed Days. Ivan Bunin ”, based on the writer’s diary“ Cursed Days ”.

ru.wikipedia.org

Biography

Ivan Bunin was born on October 10 (22), 1870 in Voronezh, where he lived the first three years of his life. Later the family moved to the Ozerki estate near Yelets, (Oryol province, now Lipetsk region). Father - Alexei Nikolaevich Bunin, mother - Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Bunina (nee Chubarova). Until the age of 11 he was brought up at home, in 1881 he entered the Yelets district gymnasium, in 1885 he returned home and continued his education under the guidance of his elder brother Julius.

At the age of 17, he began to write poetry, in 1887 - his debut in print. In 1889 he went to work as a proofreader for the local newspaper "Orlovsky Vestnik". By this time, his long relationship with an employee of this newspaper, Varvara Pashchenko, with whom, against the wishes of relatives, moved to Poltava (1892).

Collections "Poems" (Oryol, 1891), "Under the open sky" (1898), "Leaf fall" (1901; Pushkin Prize).

1895 - personally met with Chekhov, before that we corresponded.

In the 1890s he traveled on the steamer "Chaika" ("bark with firewood") along the Dnieper and visited the grave of Taras Shevchenko, whom he loved and later translated a lot. Several years later he wrote an essay "On the Seagull", which was published in the children's illustrated magazine "Shoots" (1898, No. 21, November 1).

In 1899 he married Anna Nikolaevna Tsakni (Kakni), the daughter of a Greek revolutionary. The marriage was short-lived, the only child died at the age of 5 (1905). In 1906 Bunin entered into a civil marriage (officially registered in 1922) with Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, niece of SA Muromtsev, the first chairman of the First State Duma.

In his lyric poetry, Bunin continued the classical traditions (the collection Listopad, 1901).

In stories and stories he showed (sometimes with a nostalgic mood)
Depletion of noble estates ("Antonovskie apples", 1900)
The cruel face of the village ("The Village", 1910, "Sukhodol", 1911)
The disastrous oblivion of the moral foundations of life ("The Lord of San Francisco", 1915).
Sharp rejection of the October Revolution and the Bolshevik regime in the diary book "Cursed Days" (1918, published in 1925).
In the autobiographical novel The Life of Arseniev (1930) - a recreation of the past of Russia, childhood and youth of the writer.
The tragedy of human existence in the story ("Mitya's Love", 1925; collection of stories "Dark Alleys", 1943), as well as in other works, wonderful examples of Russian short prose.
He translated "The Song of Hiawatha" by the American poet G. Longfellow. It was first published in the newspaper "Orlovsky Vestnik" in 1896. At the end of the same year, the newspaper's printing house published The Song of Hiawatha as a separate book.

Bunin was awarded the Pushkin Prize three times; in 1909 he was elected an academician in the category of fine literature, becoming the youngest academician of the Russian Academy.

In the summer of 1918, Bunin moved from Bolshevik Moscow to Odessa, occupied by German troops. As the Red Army approached the city in April 1919, it did not emigrate, but remained in Odessa and was going through a period of Bolshevik rule there. Welcomes the capture of the city by the Volunteer Army in August 1919, personally thanks General A.I.Denikin, who arrived in the city on October 7, actively cooperates with the OSVAG (propaganda and information agency) under V.S. Bolsheviks leaves Russia. Emigrates to France.

In emigration, he was active in social and political activities: he gave lectures, collaborated with Russian political parties and organizations (conservative and nationalist trends), and regularly published journalistic articles. He delivered the famous manifesto on the tasks of the Russian Diaspora in relation to Russia and Bolshevism: "The Mission of the Russian Emigration."

In 1933 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

He spent the Second World War in a rented villa in Grasse.

Much and fruitfully he was engaged in literary activity, becoming one of the main figures in the Russian Diaspora.

In emigration, Bunin creates his best works: Mitya's Love (1924), Sunstroke (1925), The Case of Yelagin's Cornet (1925) and, finally, Arseniev's Life (1927-1929, 1933). These works became a new word both in Bunin's work and in Russian literature as a whole. And according to K. G. Paustovsky, "Life of Arseniev" is not only the summit work of Russian literature, but also "one of the most remarkable phenomena of world literature." Laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933.

According to the publishing house named after Chekhov, in the last months of his life Bunin worked on a literary portrait of A. P. Chekhov, the work remained unfinished (in the book: Looped Ears and Other Stories, New York, 1953).

He died in a dream at two o'clock in the morning from 7 to 8 November 1953 in Paris. Buried in the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery.

In 1929-1954, Bunin's works were not published in the USSR. Since 1955 - the most published writer of the "first wave" in the USSR (several collected works, many one-volume editions).

Some works ("Cursed Days", etc.) in the USSR were published only with the beginning of perestroika.

Perpetuation of the name

In the city of Moscow there is Buninskaya alley street, next to the metro station of the same name. Also on Povarskaya Street, not far from the house where the writer lived, a monument was erected to him.
In the city of Lipetsk, there is a Bunin street. In addition, streets with the same name are located in Yelets and Odessa.

In Voronezh, a monument to Bunin is erected in the city center. A memorial plaque is installed on the house where the writer was born.
Bunin museums are located in Orel and Yelets.
In Efremov there is a house-museum of Bunin, where he lived in 1909-1910.

Biography

Russian writer: prose writer, poet, publicist. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was born on October 22 (according to the old style - October 10), 1870 in Voronezh, in the family of an impoverished nobleman who belonged to an old noble family. The "Armorial of Noble Clans" says that there are several old noble families of the Bunins, descended, according to legend, from Simeon Bunikevsky (Bunkovsky), who had a noble origin and left Poland in the 15th century to the Grand Duke Vasily Vasilyevich. His great-grandson, Alexander Lavrentiev's son Bunin, served in Vladimir, was killed in 1552 during the capture of Kazan. Poetess Anna Petrovna Bunina (1775-1828), poet V.A. Zhukovsky (illegitimate son of A.I.Bunin). Ivan Bunin's father is Alexei Nikolaevich Bunin, his mother is Lyudmila Alexandrovna Bunina, nee Chubarova. The Bunin family had nine children, but five died; older brothers - Julius and Eugene, younger sister - Maria. The noble family of the Chubarovs also had ancient roots. Lyudmila Alexandrovna's grandfather and father had family estates in the Oryol and Trubchevsky districts. The great-grandfather of Ivan Bunin on his father's side was also rich, his grandfather owned small plots of land in the Oryol, Tambov and Voronezh provinces, while his father was so wasteful that he went bankrupt, which was facilitated by the Crimean campaign and the move of the Bunin family in 1870 to Voronezh.

The first three years of Ivan Bunin's life were spent in Voronezh, then his father, who had a weakness for clubs, cards and wine (he became addicted to wine during the Crimean campaign), was forced to move with his family to his estate - to the Butyrki farm in the Yeletsky district of the Oryol province. The lifestyle of Alexei Nikolaevich led to the fact that not only his own fortune, but also that which belonged to his wife was squandered or distributed. Ivan Bunin's father was an unusually strong, healthy, cheerful, determined, generous, quick-tempered, but easy-going man. Alexei Nikolaevich did not like to study, which is why he did not study at the Oryol gymnasium for long, but he loved to read, reading everything that came to hand. Ivan Bunin's mother was kind, gentle, but with a strong character.

Ivan Bunin received his first education from his home tutor - the son of the leader of the nobility, who once studied at the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages, who taught in several cities, but then broke all family ties and turned into a wanderer through villages and estates. Educator Ivan Bunin spoke three languages, played the violin, painted with watercolors, wrote poetry; Ivan taught his pupil to read from Homer's Odyssey. Bunin wrote his first poem at the age of eight. In 1881 he entered the gymnasium in Yelets, but studied there for only five years, since the family did not have the means to educate their youngest son. Further education took place at home: to fully master the program of the gymnasium, and then the university, Ivan Bunin was helped by his elder brother Julius, who by that time had graduated from the university, spent a year in prison for political reasons and was sent home for three years. In adolescence, Bunin's work was imitative: "most of all he imitated M. Lermontov, partly A. Pushkin, whom he tried to imitate even in his handwriting" (IA Bunin "Autobiographical Note"). In May 1887, a work by Ivan Bunin appeared in print for the first time - the Petersburg weekly magazine Rodina published one of his poems. In September 1888 his poems appeared in Books of the Week, where the works of L.N. Tolstoy, Shchedrin, Polonsky.

An independent life began in the spring of 1889: Ivan Bunin, following his brother Julius, moved to Kharkov. Soon he visited the Crimea, and in the autumn began to work at the "Orlovsky Vestnik". In 1891, Ivan Bunin's student book "Poems. 1887-1891" was published in the supplement to the newspaper "Orlovsky Vestnik". At the same time, Ivan Bunin met Varvara Vladimirovna Pashchenko, who worked as a proofreader for the newspaper "Orlovsky Vestnik". In 1891 she married Bunin, but since Varvara Vladimirovna's parents were against this marriage, the couple lived unmarried. In 1892 they moved to Poltava, where brother Julius was in charge of the statistical bureau of the provincial zemstvo. Ivan Bunin was sent to serve as a librarian of the zemstvo council, and then - as a statistician in the provincial council. During his life in Poltava, Ivan Bunin met L.N. Tolstoy. At various times Bunin worked as a proofreader, statistician, librarian, newspaper reporter. In April 1894, the first prose work of Bunin appeared in print - the story "A Village Sketch" was published in "Russian Wealth" (the title was chosen by the publishing house).

In January 1895, after his wife's betrayal, Ivan Bunin left the service and moved first to St. Petersburg, and then to Moscow. In 1898 (some sources indicate 1896) Bunin married Anna Nikolaevna Tsakni, a Greek woman, daughter of a revolutionary and emigrant N.P. Tsakni. Family life was again unsuccessful and in 1900 the couple divorced, and in 1905 their son Nikolai died. In Moscow, the young writer got acquainted with many famous artists and writers: with Balmont, in December 1895 - with A.P. Chekhov, in late 1895 - early 1896 - with V.Ya. Bryusov. After meeting D. Teleshov, Bunin became a member of the literary circle "Wednesday". In the spring of 1899, in Yalta, he met M. Gorky, who later invited Bunin to cooperate with the Znaniye publishing house. Later, in his "Memoirs", Bunin wrote: "The beginning of that strange friendship that united us with Gorky - strange because for almost two decades we were considered great friends, but in reality they were not, - the beginning is by 1899. And the end - by 1917. Then it happened that a man with whom I had not had a single personal reason for enmity for twenty years, suddenly turned out to be an enemy for me, which for a long time aroused horror and indignation in me. " In the spring of 1900 in the Crimea, Bunin met S.V. Rachmaninov and the actors of the Art Theater, whose troupe toured in Yalta. Literary fame to Ivan Bunin came in 1900 after the publication of the story "Antonov apples". In 1901, the Scorpion publishing house of the Symbolists published a collection of Bunin's poems "Listopad". For this collection and for the translation of the poem of the American romantic poet G. Longfellow "The Song of Hiawatha" (1898, some sources indicate 1896), the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded Ivan Alekseevich Bunin the Pushkin Prize. In 1902 the publishing house "Knowledge" published the first volume of the works of I.A. Bunin. In 1905, Bunin, who lived in the National Hotel, witnessed the December armed uprising.

In 1906, Bunin met in Moscow with Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva (1881-1961), who in 1907 became his wife and faithful companion until the end of her life. Later V.N. Muromtseva, gifted with literary abilities, wrote a series of books-memories of her husband ("Bunin's Life" and "Conversations with Memory"). In 1907, the young couple went on a trip to the countries of the East - Syria, Egypt, Palestine. In 1909, the Russian Academy of Sciences elected Ivan Alekseevich Bunin an honorary academician in the category of fine literature. In 1910 Bunin set off on a new journey - first to Europe, and then to Egypt and Ceylon. In 1912, in connection with the 25th anniversary of Bunin's creative activity, he was honored at Moscow University; in the same year he was elected an honorary member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature (in 1914-1915 he was the chairman of this society). In the fall of 1912 - in the spring of 1913, Bunin again went abroad: to Trebizond, Constantinople, Bucharest, and the Bunins spent three winters in 1913-1915 in Capri. In addition to the listed places in the period from 1907 to 1915, Bunin visited Turkey more than once, in the countries of Asia Minor, in Greece, in Oran, Algeria, Tunisia and on the outskirts of the Sahara, in India, traveled to almost all of Europe, especially Sicily and Italy, was to Romania and Serbia.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was extremely hostile to the February and October revolutions of 1917 and perceived them as a catastrophe. On May 21, 1918, Bunin left Moscow for Odessa, and in February 1920 he emigrated first to the Balkans and then to France. In France, at first he lived in Paris; from the summer of 1923 he moved to the Alpes-Maritimes and came to Paris only for some winter months. In emigration, relations with prominent Russian emigres were difficult for the Bunins, especially since Bunin himself did not have a sociable character. In 1933, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, the first Russian writer, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The official Soviet press explained the decision of the Nobel Committee by the intrigues of imperialism. In 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, the Bunins settled in the south of France, in Grasse, at the Villa Jeannette, where they spent the entire war. Bunin refused any form of cooperation with the Nazi occupants and tried to constantly monitor events in Russia. In 1945 the Bunins returned to Paris. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin repeatedly expressed a desire to return to Russia, in 1946 he called the decree of the Soviet government "On the restoration of citizens of the former Russian Empire ..." , which trampled on A. Akhmatova and M. Zoshchenko, led to the fact that Bunin forever abandoned the intention to return to his homeland. The last years of the writer were spent in poverty. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin died in Paris. On the night of November 7-8, 1953, two hours after midnight, Bunin died: he died quietly and calmly, in his sleep. On his bed was a novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "Resurrection". Buried Ivan Alekseevich Bunin at the Russian cemetery Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois, near Paris.

In 1927-1942, a friend of the Bunin family was Galina Nikolaevna Kuznetsova, who became a deep late affection of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin and wrote a number of memoirs ("Grasse Diary", article "In Memory of Bunin"). In the USSR, the first collected works of I.A. Bunin was published only after his death - in 1956 (five volumes in the Ogonyok Library).

Among the works of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin - a novel, novellas, short stories, short stories, essays, poems, memoirs, translations of works of the classics of world poetry: "Poems" (1891; collection), "To the End of the World" (January 1897; collection of stories), "Under open air "(1898; collection of poems)," Antonov apples "(1900; story)," Pines "(1901; story)," New road "(1901; story)," Leaf fall "(1901; collection of poems; Pushkin Prize ), "Chernozem" (1904; story), "Temple of the Sun" (1907-1911; a cycle of essays about a trip to the countries of the East), "Village" (1910; story), "Sukhodol" (1911; story), "Brothers" (1914), "The Cup of Life" (1915; collection of short stories), "The gentleman from San Francisco" (1915; story), "Cursed Days" (1918, published 1925; diary entries about the events of the October Revolution and its aftermath), Mitya's Love (1925; collection of short stories), The Case of the Cornet Elagin (1927), Sunstroke (1927; collection of short stories), Life of Arseniev (1927-1929, 1933; autobiographical novel; a separate edition was published in 1930 in Paris); "Dark Alleys", (1943; cycle of short stories; published in New York), "Liberation of Tolstoy" (1937, philosophical and literary treatise on Leo Tolstoy, published in Paris), "Memoirs" (1950; printed in Paris ), "About Chekhov" (published posthumously in 1955, New York), translations - "Song of Hiawatha" by G. Longfellow (1898, in some sources - 1896; Pushkin Prize).

Biography

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was born on October 22, 1870 in Voronezh into a noble family. He spent his childhood and youth in the impoverished estate of the Oryol province. The future writer did not receive a systematic education, which he regretted all his life. True, the elder brother Julius, who graduated from the university with brilliance, went with Vanya the entire gymnasium course. They studied languages, psychology, philosophy, social and natural sciences. It was Julius who had a great influence on the formation of Bunin's tastes and views.

Bunin began to write early. He wrote essays, sketches, poems. In May 1887, the Rodina magazine published the poem "The Beggar" by sixteen-year-old Vanya Bunin. From that time on, his more or less constant literary activity began, in which there was a place for both poetry and prose.

Outwardly, Bunin's poems looked traditional both in form and in subject matter: nature, joy of life, love, loneliness, sadness of loss and a new rebirth. And yet, despite the imitativeness, there was some special intonation in Bunin's poems. This became more noticeable with the publication in 1901 of the poetry collection "Listopad", which was enthusiastically received by both readers and critics.

Bunin wrote poetry until the end of his life, loving poetry with all his soul, admiring its musical structure and harmony. But already at the beginning of his career, a prose writer was more and more clearly manifested in him, and so strong and deep that the first stories of Bunin immediately earned the recognition of the eminent writers of that time Chekhov, Gorky, Andreev, Kuprin.

In 1898, Bunin married a Greek woman, Anna Tsakni, after experiencing a strong love and subsequent strong disappointment with Varvara Pashchenko. However, by his own admission, Ivan Alekseevich, he never loved Tsakni.

In the 1910s, Bunin traveled a lot, going abroad. He visits Leo Tolstoy, meets Chekhov, actively collaborates with the Gorky publishing house "Knowledge", meets the niece of the chairman of the first Duma A. S. Muromtsev Vera Muromtseva. And although Vera Nikolaevna actually became "Mrs. Bunina" already in 1906, they were able to officially register their marriage only in July 1922 in France. Only by this time Bunin managed to achieve a divorce from Anna Tsakni.

Vera Nikolaevna was devoted to Ivan Alekseevich until the end of his life, becoming his faithful assistant in all matters. Possessing great spiritual strength, helping to endure all the hardships and hardships of emigration, Vera Nikolaevna also had a great gift of patience and forgiveness, which was important when dealing with such a difficult and unpredictable person like Bunin.

After the resounding success of his stories, Bunin's first major work, which immediately became famous, appears in print. This is a bitter and very courageous work, in which a semi-insane Russian reality with all its contrasts, precariousness, and fractured destinies appeared before the reader. Bunin, perhaps one of the few Russian writers of that time, was not afraid to tell the hard-hitting truth about the Russian village and the downtrodden of the Russian peasant.

The Village and the Sukhodol that followed it defined Bunin's attitude to his heroes - the weak, disadvantaged and restless. But hence the sympathy for them, pity, the desire to understand what is happening in the suffering Russian soul.

In parallel with the village theme, the writer developed in his stories and lyric, which was previously outlined in poetry. Female characters appeared, albeit barely outlined - the charming, airy Olya Meshcherskaya (the story "Light Breathing"), the ingenuous Klasha Smirnova (the story "Klasha"). Later, female types with all their lyrical passion will appear in emigrant stories and stories by Bunin - "Ida", "Mitya's Love", "The Case of Yelagin's Cornet" and, of course, in his famous cycle "Dark Alleys".

In pre-revolutionary Russia, Bunin, as they say, "rested on his laurels" - three times he was awarded the Pushkin Prize; in 1909 he was elected an academician in the category of fine literature, becoming the youngest academician of the Russian Academy.

In 1920, Bunin and Vera Nikolaevna, who did not accept either the revolution or the Bolshevik power, emigrated from Russia, "having drunk the unspeakable cup of mental suffering," as Bunin later wrote in his biography. They arrived in Paris on March 28th.

Ivan Alekseevich returned to literary work slowly. Longing for Russia, uncertainty about the future oppressed him. Therefore, the first collection of stories "The Scream", published abroad, consisted only of stories written in the happiest time for Bunin - in 1911-1912.

Yet the writer gradually overcame the feeling of oppression. In the story "The Rose of Jericho" there are such heartfelt words: "There are no partings and losses, as long as my soul is alive, my Love, Memory! In the living water of my heart, in the pure moisture of love, sorrow and tenderness, I immerse the roots and stems of my past ... "

In the mid-1920s, the Bunins moved to the small resort town of Grasse in the south of France, where they settled in the Belvedere villa, and later settled in the Janet villa. Here they were destined to live most of their lives, survive the Second World War. In 1927, in Grasse, Bunin met the Russian poetess Galina Kuznetsova, who was on vacation there with her husband. Bunin was fascinated by a young woman, she, in turn, was delighted with him (and Bunin knew how to charm women!). Their romance received widespread publicity. The offended husband left, Vera Nikolaevna suffered from jealousy. And here the incredible happened - Ivan Alekseevich managed to convince Vera Nikolaevna that his relationship with Galina is purely platonic, and they have nothing but the relationship between a teacher and a scholar. Vera Nikolaevna, as it seems incredible, believed. She believed because she could not imagine her life without Jan. As a result, Galina was invited to live with the Bunins and become a "family member."

For almost fifteen years Kuznetsova shared a common shelter with Bunin, playing the role of an adopted daughter and experiencing all the joys, troubles and hardships with them.

This love of Ivan Alekseevich was both happy and painfully difficult. She also turned out to be immensely dramatic. In 1942, Kuznetsova left Bunin, carried away by the opera singer Margo Stepun.

Ivan Alekseevich was shocked, he was oppressed not only by the betrayal of his beloved woman, but also by the one with whom she had cheated! "How she (G.) poisoned my life - she still poisons me! 15 years! Weakness, lack of will ...", - he wrote in his diary on April 18, 1942. This friendship between Galina and Margot was like a bleeding wound for Bunin for the rest of his life.

But despite all the hardships and endless hardships, Bunin's prose was gaining new heights. The books "The Rose of Jericho", "Mitya's Love", collections of stories "Sunstroke" and "God's Tree" were published in a foreign land. And in 1930, the autobiographical novel "The Life of Arseniev" was published - a fusion of memoirs, memoirs and lyric-philosophical prose.

On November 10, 1933, newspapers in Paris came out with huge headlines "Bunin - Nobel Laureate". For the first time during the existence of this prize, a literature award was presented to a Russian writer. All-Russian fame of Bunin grew into worldwide fame.

Every Russian in Paris, even the one who did not read a single line of Bunin, took it as a personal holiday. The Russian people experienced the sweetest of feelings - the noble feeling of national pride.

The awarding of the Nobel Prize was a huge event for the writer himself. Recognition came, and along with it (albeit for a very short period, the Bunins were extremely impractical) material security.

In 1937, Bunin finished the book "The Liberation of Tolstoy", which, according to experts, has become one of the best books in all the literature about Lev Nikolaevich. And in 1943 in New York, "Dark Alleys" was published - the pinnacle of the writer's lyrical prose, a true encyclopedia of love. In "Dark Alley" you can find everything - and sublime experiences, and conflicting feelings, and violent passions. But the closest thing to Bunin was pure, light love, like the harmony of the earth with the sky. In "Dark Alleys", it is usually short, and sometimes instant, but its light illuminates the whole life of the hero.

Some critics of that time accused Bunin's "Dark Alleys" either of pornography or of senile sensuality. Ivan Alekseevich was offended by this: "I think" Dark Alleys "is the best that I have written, and they, idiots, think that I have disgraced my gray hairs with them ... They do not understand, the Pharisees, that this is a new word, a new approach to life", - he complained to I. Odoevtseva.

Until the end of his life, he had to defend his favorite book from the "Pharisees". In 1952, he wrote to FA Stepun, the author of one of the reviews of Bunin's works: “It's a pity that you wrote that in“ Dark Alley ”there is a certain excess of consideration of female seductions ... What a“ excess ”there! a thousandth part of how men of all tribes and peoples "consider" everywhere, always women from their ten years of age to 90 years. "

The writer devoted the last years of his life to working on a book about Chekhov. Unfortunately, this work remained unfinished.

Ivan Alekseevich made his last diary entry on May 2, 1953. "It's still amazing to the point of tetanus! After some, a very short time, I will be gone - and the deeds and destinies of everything, everything, will be unknown to me!"

At two o'clock in the morning from 7 to 8 November 1953, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin died quietly. The funeral service was solemn - in the Russian church on Rue Daru in Paris, with a large crowd of people. All newspapers - both Russian and French - had extensive obituaries.

And the funeral itself took place much later, on January 30, 1954 (before that, the ashes were in a temporary crypt). They buried Ivan Alekseevich at the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve de Bois near Paris. Next to Bunin, seven and a half years later, the faithful and selfless companion of his life, Vera Nikolaevna Bunina, found her peace.

Literature.

Elena Vasilieva, Yuri Pernatiev. "100 Famous Writers", "Folio" (Kharkov), 2001.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. Biography

"No, it is not the landscape that attracts me,
I'm not trying to notice paints,
And what shines in these colors -
Love and joy of being. "
I. Bunin

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was born on October 23, 1870 (October 10 according to the old style) in Voronezh, on Dvoryanskaya Street. The impoverished landowners Bunins belonged to a noble family, among their ancestors - V.A. Zhukovsky and poet Anna Bunina.

In Voronezh, the Bunins appeared three years before the birth of Vanya, to train their elder sons: Julia (13 years old) and Evgeny (12 years old). Julius was unusually capable of languages ​​and mathematics, he studied brilliantly, Eugene studied poorly, or rather, did not study at all, dropped out of the gymnasium early; he was a gifted artist, but in those years he was not interested in painting, he chased pigeons more. As for the youngest, his mother, Lyudmila Aleksandpovna, always said that "Vanya was different from the other children from the very birth", that she always knew that he was "special", "no one has such a soul as him." ...

In 1874, the Bunins decided to move from town to village to the Butyrki farm, to the Yeletsk district of the Oryol province, to the family’s last estate. This spring, Julius graduated from the gymnasium course with a gold medal, and in the fall he had to leave for Moscow to enter the mathematical faculty of the university.

In the village, little Vanya "heard a lot" of songs and fairy tales from his mother and households. Memories of his childhood - from the age of seven, as Bunin wrote, - were blessed with him "with the field, with peasant huts" and their inhabitants. He spent whole days in the nearest villages, grazing cattle with the peasant children, went to the night, with some of them he walked around.

Podpazhivaya podpaska, he and his sister Masha ate black bread, red, "rough and lumpy cucumbers", and for this trip, "without realizing it, they communicated with the earth itself, all that sensual, material, from which the world was created", - wrote Bunin in the autobiographical novel "Life of Arseniev". Even then, with a rare power of perception, he felt, by his own conception, "the divine splendor of the world" - the main motive of his creativity. It was in this age that an artistic perception of life was found in him, which, in particular, was expressed in the ability to depict people with facial expressions and gestures; he was a talented storyteller even then. About eight years Bunin wrote his first poem.

In the eleventh year, he entered the Yelets gymnasium. I studied well at first, everything was easy; could, from one reading, memorize a poem in a whole page, if it interested him. But from year to year, the studies went worse, in the third grade I remained for the second year. Most of the teachers were gray and insignificant people. In the gymnasium, he wrote poetry, imitating Lermontov, Pushkin. He was not attracted by what is usually read at this age, but read, as he said, "whatever".

He did not graduate from high school, and then studied independently under the guidance of his elder brother Yulia Alekseevich, a university candidate. In the autumn of 1889 he began his work in the editorial office of the newspaper "Orlovsky Vestnik", often he was an actual editor; published in it his stories, poems, literary criticism articles, and notes in the permanent section "Literature and Printing". He lived by literary work and was in great need. Father fell apart, in 1890 he sold the estate in Ozerki without a manor, and having lost his manor, in 1893 he moved to Kmenka to his sister, mother and Masha to Vasilievskoye to Bunin’s cousin Sofya Nikolayevna Pusheshnikova. There was nowhere to wait for the young poet for help.

In the editorial office, Bunin met Varvara Vladimirovna Pashchenko, the daughter of the Yelets doctor, who worked as a cofounder. His passionate love for her was at times overshadowed by quarrels. In 1891 she got married, but their marriage was not legalized, they lived without getting married, the father and mother did not want to marry their daughter to a poor poet. Bunin's youthful romance formed the plot basis of the fifth book "The Life of Arseniev", which was published separately under the title "Lika".

Many imagine Bunin as dry and cold. VN Mutomtseva-Bunina says: "It is true, sometimes he wanted to seem like that - he was a first-rate actor," but "whoever did not know him to the end cannot imagine what kind of tenderness his soul was capable of." He was one of those who did not open up before everyone. He was distinguished by the great strangeness of his nature. It is hardly possible to name another Russian writer who, with such self-forgetfulness, so abruptly expressed his feeling of love, as he did in letters to Varvara Pashchenko, combining in his dreams the image with everything beautiful that he acquired in nature, in poetry and music. With this aspect of his life - restraint in passion and the search for the ideal in love - he reminds Goethe, who, by his own admission, in "Vertere" is much autobiographical.

At the end of August 1892, Bunin and Pashchenko moved to Poltava, where Yuliy Alekseevich worked as a statistician in the provincial zemstvo administration. He took over both Pashchenko and his younger brother. In the Poltava Zemstvo there was a group of intelligentsia, partly to the people's movement of the 70-80s. The Bunin brothers were included in the editorial board of the Poltava Provincial Gazette, which had been under the influence of the progressive intelligentsia since 1894. Bunin published his works in this newspaper. By order of the zemstvo, he also wrote essays "on the fight against harmful insects, on the harvest of bread and grasses." As he believed, so many of them were printed that they could make up three or four volumes.

He also collaborated with the Kievlyanin newspaper. Now poems and prose of Bunin began to appear more often in "thick" magazines - "Bulletin of Europe", "Peace of God", "Russian wealth" - and attracted the attention of the corphews of literary criticism. NK Mikhailovsky praised the story "Derevensky Sketch" (later titled "Tanka") and wrote about the author that he would become a "great writer". At this time, Bunin's lyrics acquired a more objective character; autobiographical motifs characteristic of the first collection of poems (it was published in Orel as an appendix to the newspaper "Orlovsky Vestnik" in 1891), by definition of the author himself, not to the least intimate, gradually disappeared from his work, which received now more forms.

In 1893-1894, Bunin, in his words, "from falling in love with Tolstoy as an artist", was a Tolstoyan and "applied to bondar craft". He visited the colonies of Tolstoyans near Poltava and went to the Sumy district to the sectarians with. Pavlovka - "Malevans", in their views close to the Tolstoyans. At the very end of 1893, he visited the Tolstoyans of the Khilkovo farm, which belonged to Prince. YES. Khilkov. From there he went to Moscow to Tolstoy and visited him on one of the days between 4 and 8 January 1894. The meeting produced on Bunin, as he wrote, "an amazing impression." Tolstoy and dissuaded him from "becoming empty to the end."

In the spring and summer of 1894 Bunin traveled around Ukraine. "In those years," he recalled, "I was in love with Little Russia in its villages and steppes, eagerly sought rapprochement with its people, eagerly listened to songs, to his soul." 1895 was a turning point in Bunin's life: after the "flight" of Pashchenko, who left Bunin and married his friend Arseny Bibikov, in January he left service in Poltava and went to Petersburg, and then to Moscow. Now he entered the literary environment. The great success at the literary evening, held on November 21 in the hall of the Credite Society in St. Petersburg, encouraged him. There he read the story "To the Edge of the World".

His impressions from more and more new meetings with writers were varied and cut. D.V. Grigorovich and A.M. Zhemchuzhnikov, one of the founders of Kozma Putkov, who continued the classic 19th century; people of N.K. Mikhailovsky and N.N. Zlatovpatsky; symbolists and decadents K.D. Balmont and F.K. Solgub. In December, in Moscow, Bunin met the leader of the Symbolists V.Ya. Bryusov, December 12 at the "Big Moscow" hotel - with Chekhov. He was very interested in V.G. Bunin's talent. Korolenko - Bunin met him on December 7, 1896 in St. Petersburg on the anniversary of K.M. Stanyukovich; in the summer of 1897 - with Kuppin in Lustdorf, near Odessa.

In June 1898, Bunin left for Odessa. Here he became close to members of the "Association of South Russian Artists" who were going to "Thursday", befriended the artists E.I. Bukovetsky, V.P. Kurovsky (about her in Bunin's poem "In Memory of a Friend") and P.A. Nilus (from him Bunin took something for the stories "Galya Ganskaya" and "Dreams of Chang").

In Odessa, Bunin married Anna Nikolaevna Tsakni (1879-1963) on September 23, 1898. Family life did not go well, Bunin and Anna Nikolaevna separated at the beginning of March 1900. Their son Kolya died on January 16, 1905.

In early April 1899, Bunin visited Yalta, met with Chekhov, and met Gorky. During his trips to Moscow, Bunin visited N.D. Teleshov, who united prominent realist writers, willingly read his unpublished works; the atmosphere in this circle reigned friendly, someone did not take offense at the open, sometimes destructive criticism. On April 12, 1900, Bunin arrived in Yalta, where the Art Theater staged for Chekhov his "The Seagull", "Uncle Vanya" and other performances. Bunin met Stanislavsky, Knipper, S.V. Rachmaninov, with whom he had a friendship forever.

The 1900s were a new era in Bunin's life. Repeated travels to the countries of Europe and to the East widened the world before his gaze, so eager for new impressions. And in the literature of the beginning decade, with the release of new books, he won recognition as one of the best writers of his time. He acted mainly with poetry.

September 11, 1900 went with Kurovsky to Berlin, Paris, Switzerland. In the Alps, they climbed to great heights. Upon his return from abroad, Bunin ended up in Yalta, lived in Chekhov's house, and spent a "wonderful week" with Chekhov, who had arrived from Italy a little later. In the Chekhov family, Bunin became, in his words, "his own man"; with his sister Maria Pavlovna he was in "almost brotherly relationship." Chekhov was invariably "gentle, courteous, caring like an elder" with him. Bunin met with Chekhov, starting in 1899, every year, in Yalta and in Moscow, during the four years of their friendship, until Anton Pavlovich's departure abroad in 1904, where he died. Chekhov said that a "great writer" would emerge from Bunin; he wrote in the story "The Pines" as "very new, very fresh and very good." "Magnificent", in his opinion, "Dreams" and "Golden Bottom" - "there are places just surprisingly."

At the beginning of 1901, a collection of poems "Leaf Fall" was published, which caused numerous criticism. Kuppin wrote about a "rare artistic subtlety" in the transmission of mood. Blok for "Leaf Fall" and other poems recognized Bunin as "one of the main places" among contemporary Russian poetry. "Falling Leaves" and the translation of "Songs about Hiawatha" by Longfellow were awarded the Pushkin Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences, awarded to Bunin on October 19, 1903. Since 1902, the collection of works by Bunin began to appear in separate numbered volumes at the Znanie publishing house of Gorky. And again travel - to Constantinople, to France and Italy, across the Caucasus, and so all his life he was attracted by different cities and countries.

Photo of Vera Muromtseva with Bunin's inscription on the back: V.N. Bunin, early 1927, Paris

On November 4, 1906, Bunin met in Moscow, in the house of B.K. Zaitseva, with Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, daughter of a member of the Moscow City Administration and niece of the Chairman of the First State Duma S.A. Mutomtseva. On April 10, 1907, Bunin and Vera Nikolaevna departed from Moscow to the countries of the East - Egypt, Syria, Palestine. On May 12, having completed their "first distant journey", they went ashore in Odessa. Their life together began with this journey. About this country - a cycle of stories "The Shadow of the Bird" (1907-1911). They combine diary entries - descriptions of cities, ancient ruins, art monuments, pyramids, tombs - and legends of ancient peoples, excursions into the history of their culture and the death of kingdoms. About the depiction of the East by Bunin Yu.I. Eichenwald wrote: "He is captivated by the East, the" luminous countries ", which he now recalls with an unusual lyric word ... For the East, biblical and modern, Bunin is able to find the appropriate style, solemn and at times, as if flooded with the sultry waves of the sun, adorned precious incrustations and Arabesque images; and when it comes to this about a gray-haired old man, lost in the distance of religion and morphology, you get the impression that some stately chariot of humanity is moving in front of us. "

Bunin's prose and verses have now acquired new colors. A wonderful colorist, he, according to P.A. Nilus, "principles of painting" resolutely accepted literature. The preceding prose, as Bunin himself noted, was such that "made some critics treat" him, for example, "as a melancholic lyricist or a singer of noble estates, a singer of idylls," and his literary gift was discovered, 1909 years ". These new features offered Bunin's story "The Shadow of the Bird". The Academy of Sciences awarded Bunin in 1909 the second Pushkin Prize for poetry and translations by Byron; the third - also for poetry. In the same year, Bunin was elected an honorary academician.

The story "The Village", published in 1910, caused great controversy and was the beginning of Bunin's immense popularity. For "Depevnya", the first big thing, followed by other stories and stories, as Bunin wrote, "sharply depicting the Russian soul, its light and dark, often tragic foundations", and his "merciless" works evoked "passionate hostile responses." During these years, I felt that every day my literary strength was growing more and more. ”Gorky wrote to Bunin that“ no one took a village so deeply, so historically. ”Bunin broadly captured the life of the Russian people, concerns the problems of historical, national what was the spite of the day - war and revolution - depicts, in his opinion, "in the footsteps of Radishchev," the village of his day without any ado. it became impossible to portray the peasants in the tone of folk idealization.

Bunin developed his view of the Russian countryside partly under the influence of travel, "after cutting a foreign slap in the face." The village is depicted not motionless, new trends penetrate into it, new people appear, and Tikhon Ilyich himself thinks about his existence as a shopkeeper and innkeeper. The novel "Village" (which Bunin also called a novel), like his work as a whole, confirmed the realist traditions of Russian classical literature in an age when they were attacked and rejected by the modernists and decadents. It captures the wealth of observations and paints, the strength and beauty of the language, the harmony of the picture, the sincerity of tone and honesty. But "Village" is not traditional. People who were mostly new in Russian literature appeared in it: the brothers Krasovs, the wife of Tikhon, Rodka, Molodaya, Nikolka Sery and his son Denisk, girls and women at the wedding of Molodoy and Denis. This was noted by Bunin himself.

In the middle of December 1910, Bunin and Vera Nikolaevna went to Egypt and further to the tropics - to Ceylon, where they stayed for half a month. We returned to Odessa in the middle of April 1911. The diary of their voyage is "Many waters". There are also stories about this journey "Brotherhood", "City of Kings of Kings". What the Englishman felt in The Brothers is autobiographical. According to Bunin, travel played a "huge role" in his life; regarding his troubles even developed, as he said, "a certain philosophy." The diary of 1911 "Many waters", published almost unchanged in 1925-1926, is a high sample of lyric prose new both for Bunin and for Russian literature.

He wrote that "it is something like Maupassant." Close to this prose are the stories that immediately precede the diary - "The Shadow of the Bird" - the poem in the way the author himself defined their genre. From their diary - a transition to "Sukhodol", which synthesized the experience of the author of "Village" in the creation of everyday and lyrical prose. "Sukhodol" and the stories, soon written later, marked Bunin's new creative rise after "Village" - in the sense of the great psychological depth and complexity of the images, as well as the novelty of the genre. In "Sukhodol" in the foreground is not historical Russia with its way of life, as in "Derevna", but "the soul of a Russian person in the deep sense of the word, an image of the devil of the psyche of a Slav," Bunin said.

Bunin went his own way, did not adhere to any fashionable literary stitching or groupings, as he put it, "did not throw out any banners" and did not proclaim any husks. Kritika noted the powerful language of Bunin, his art of raising the "everyday phenomena of life" into the world of poetry. There were no "low" topics unworthy of the poet's attention for him. In his poems - a huge sense of history. The reviewer of the "Herald of Europe" magazine wrote: "His historical syllable is unparalleled in our poetry ... Proposition, precision, beauty of the language have been brought to the limit. There is hardly another poet whose syllable would be so unadorned, everyday as here; Dozens of pages you will not find a single epithet, no other comparison, not a single metaphor ... such a simplification of the poetic language without damage to poetry is only possible for true talent ... In terms of pictorial accuracy, Mr. Bunin has no rivals among Russian poets " ...

The book "The Cup of Life" (1915) touches upon the deep problems of human existence. French writer, poet and literary critic Rene Gil wrote to Bunin in 1921 about the Chalice of Life created in French: “How complicated it is psychologically! accurate observation of reality: an atmosphere is created where you breathe with something strange and disturbing, emanating from the very act of life! This kind of suggestion, the suggestion of that secret that surrounds the action, we also know in Dostoevsky; but in him it comes from the unbalance of the characters , because of his nervous passion, which hovers, like some exciting aura, around some cases of madness. inescapable, breaking the usual on a clear norm. "

Bunin worked out his ethical ideal under the influence of Socrates, whose views are set forth in the writings of his students Xenophon and Plato. More than once he read a semi-philosophical, semi-poetic work of "divine Plato" (Pushkin) in the form of a dialogue - "Fidon". After reading the dialogues, he wrote in his diary on August 21, 1917: "How much Socrates said that in Indian, in Jewish philosophy!" "The last minutes of Socrates," he notes in his diary the next day, the next day, "as always, worried me very much."

Bunin was fascinated by his doctrine of the value of the human person. And he saw in each of the people to some extent "concentration ... of high forces", to the knowledge of which, Bunin wrote in the story "Returning to Rome", cried Socrates. In his enthusiasm for Socrates, he followed Tolstoy, who, as V. Ivanov said, went "along the paths of Socrates in search of a norm of goodness." Tolstoy was close to Bunin and the fact that for him goodness and beauty, ethics and aesthetics are hot. "Beauty is the crown of goodness," wrote Tolstoy. Bunin asserted in his work the eternal values ​​- goodness and beauty. This gave him a sense of connection, fusion with the past, the historical continuity of being. "Brothers", "Lord from San Francisco", "Looped ears", based on the real facts of modern life, are not only accusatory, but deeply philosophical. "Brotherhood" is a particularly illustrative example. This is a story about the eternal themes of love, life and death, and not only about the dependent existence of colonial peoples. The embodiment of the intention of this story is equally based on the impressions of the trip to Ceylon and on the myth of Mary - the legend of the god of life and death. Mara is an evil demon of Buddhists - at the same time - the personification of being. Bunin took a lot for prose and poetry from Russian and world folklore, his attention was attracted by Buddhist and Muslim legends, Syrian traditions, Chaldean, Egyptian myths and myths of idolaters of the Ancient East, legends of the Arabs.

He had a huge sense of homeland, language, history. Bunin said: "all these sublime words, the wondrous beauty of the song, cathedrals - all this is needed, all this has been created for centuries ...". One of the sources of his creativity was folk speech. Poet and literary critic G.V. Adamovich, who knew Bunin well and communicated closely with him in France, wrote to the author of this article on December 19, 1969: Bunin, of course, “knew, loved, appreciated folk art, but was exceptionally clear about forgeries and ostentatious style russe. - and the correct one - his review of Gorodetsky's poems is an example of this. Even Blok's "Kulikovo field" is a wonderful thing, in my opinion, it annoyed him precisely because of his "too Russian" style ... He said - "this is Vasnetsov" But he had a different attitude to the fact that it was not “maskarad”: I remember, for example, something about “The Word about Igor's regiment.” The meaning of his words was approximately the same as in the words of Pushkin: all the poets who have come together cannot compose such a miracle! But the translations of "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" outraged him, in particular, Balmont's translation. there was a rare rumor about falsehood, to the "pedal": as soon as he heard falsehood, gave in a rage. Because of this, he loved Tolstoy so much and as once, I remember, said: "Tolstoy, who nowhere does not have a single exaggerated word ..."

In May 1917, Bunin arrived in the village of Glotovo, in the Vasilievskoye estate, Oryol province, lived here all summer and autumn. On October 23, my wife and I left for Moscow, on October 26 we arrived in Moscow, lived on Povarskaya (now - Vorovskogo street), in Baskakov's house No. 26, apt. 2, at the parents of Vera Nikolaevna, the Mutomtsevs. The time was troubling, there were battles, "past their windows, wrote AE Gruzinsky. On November 7, AB Derman, - along the Povarskaya gun, the gun was blazing." In Moscow, Bunin lived through the winter of 1917-1918. A watch was set up in the lobby of the house where the Muttsevs' apartment was; the doors were locked, the gates were laid with logs. Bunin was also on duty.

A house on the Vasilievsky estate (the village of Glotovo, Oryol province), where, according to Bunin's testimony, the story "Light Breathing" was written

Bunin became involved in literary life, which, in spite of everything, for all the rapidity of social, political and military events, despite the chaos and hunger, nevertheless did not stop. He visited the "Book publishing of writers", participated in his work, in the literary circle "Wednesday" and in the Art magazine.

On May 21, 1918, Bunin and Vera Nikolaevna left Moscow - through Orsha and Minsk to Kiev, then to Odessa; January 26, Art. 1920 sailed to Constantinople, then through Sofia and Belgrade arrived in Paris on March 28, 1920. Long years of emigration began - in Paris and in the south of France, in Grasse, near Cannes. Bunin told Vera Nikolaevna that "he cannot live in a new world, that he belongs to the old world, to the world of Goncharov, Tolstoy, Moscow, Petersburg; that poetry is only there, but in the new world he does not catch it."

Bunin as an artist all the time growing up. "Mitya's Love" (1924), "Sunstroke" (1925), "The Case of Kornet Elagin" (1925), and then "The Life of Arseniev" (1927-1929, 1933) and many other works marked new achievements in Russian culture. Bunin himself spoke of the "piercing lyricism" of "Mitya's love". This is most exciting in his stories and stories of the last three decades. They also - one might say in the words of their author - a certain "fashion", poetry. In the course of these years, the sensory perception of life has been excitingly transferred. Contemporaries noted the great philosophical meaning of such works as "Mitya's love" or "Life of Arseniev". In them Bunin broke through "to a deep metaphysical sensation of the tragic nature of man." K.G. Paustovsky wrote that "The Life of Arseniev" is "one of the most remarkable phenomena in world literature."

In 1927-1930, Bunin wrote short stories ("The Elephant", "The Sky Above the Wall" and many others) - in a page, half a page, and sometimes in several lines, they were included in the book "God's Tree". What Bunin wrote in this genre was the result of a bold search for new forms of extremely laconic writing, which was initiated not by Tergenev, as some of his contemporaries claimed, but by Tolstoy and Chekhov. Professor of the Sofia University P. Bitsilli wrote: “It seems to me that the collection“ God's Tree ”is the most perfect of all Bunin's creations and the most revealing. Therefore, nothing else contains so much data for studying his method, for understanding what lies at its basis and on what it, in essence, disappears. and a valuable quality that Bunin shares with the most honest Russian writers, with Pushkin, Tolstoy, Chekhov: honesty, hatred of any falsehood ... ".

In 1933, Bunin was awarded the Nobel Prize, as he believed, primarily for "Life of Arseniev". When Bunin arrived in Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize, in Sweden he was already recognized by sight. Bunin's photographs could be seen in every newspaper, in shop windows, on the screen of the cinematography. On the street, the Swedes, seeing a Russian writer, looked around. Bunin pulled a fleece hat over his eyes and grumbled: - What is it? Perfect tenor success.

The remarkable Russian writer Boris Zaitsev told about the Nobel days of Bunin: "... You see, what - we were some last people there, emigres, and suddenly the emigre writer was awarded an international prize! To the Russian writer! .. And they were not awarded for some political writings, but still for artistic ... I was writing at that time in the newspaper "Vozrozhdenie" ... So I was urgently instructed to write a front page about receiving the Nobel Prize. It was very late, I remember what happened ten in the evening, when I was informed. The first time in my life I went to the printing house and wrote at night ... I remember that I went out in such an excited state (from the printing house), went out to place d "Italie and there, you know, I went around everything bistro and in every bistro he drank a glass of cognac to the health of Ivan Bunin! .. I arrived home in such a cheerful frame of mind .. at three o'clock in the morning, at four, maybe ... "

In 1936, Bunin set off on a trip to Germany and other countries, as well as to meet with publishers and translators. In the German city of Lindau, for the first time, he faced fascist practices; he was arrested and subjected to a traceless and humiliating search. In October 1939, Bunin settled in Grass at the villa "Jeannette", lived here throughout the war. Here he wrote the book "Dark Alleys" - stories about love, as he himself said, "about its" dark "and most often very dark and cruel alleys." This book, according to Bunin, "speaks of the tragic and many tender and beautiful, - I think this is the best and most original thing that I have written in my life."

With the Germans, Bunin did not publish anything, although he lived in great lack of money and hunger. He treated the conquerors with hatred, rejoiced at the victories of the Soviet and allied troops. In 1945 he parted with Grass forever and returned to Paris on the first of May. He has been ill a lot in recent years. Nevertheless, he wrote a book of memoirs and worked on the book "About Chekhov", which he did not manage to finish. In total, while emigrating, Bunin wrote ten new books.

In letters and diaries, Bunin speaks of his desire to return to Moscow. But in old age and in illness, it was not easy to take such a step. The main thing was that there was no certainty whether the hopes for a quiet life and for the publication of books would come true. Bunin hesitated. The "case" of Akhmatova and Zoshchenko, the noise in the press around these names finally determined his solution. He wrote to M.A. Aldanov on September 15, 1947: "Today I wrote a letter from Teleshov in the evening of September 7 ..." What a pity that you did not feel the time when your big book was typed, when you were so expected here, when you could have been full over the head, and rich and in such high esteem! "After reading this, I tore my hair for an hour. And then I immediately calmed down, remembering what could have been to me instead of satiety, wealth and honor from Zhdanov and Fadeev ..."

Bunin is now read in all European languages ​​and in some eastern ones. We have it published in millions of copies. On his 80th birthday, in 1950, François Moriak wrote to him about his admiration for his work, about the sympathy that inspired his personality and such a cruel fate. Andre Gide, in a letter published in the newspaper Figaro, says that on the threshold of his 80th birthday he turns to Bunin and greets him “on behalf of France”, calls him a great artist and writes: “I don’t know writers ... who have sensations would be more accurate and at the same time unexpected. " Bunin's creativity was admired by R. Rolland, who called him "a brilliant artist", Anri de Rainier, T. Mann, R.-M. Rilke, Jerome Jerome, Yaroslav Ivashkevich. Reviews German, French, English, etc. the press from the beginning of the 1920s and later were for the most part voted on, confirming the world recognition behind it. As early as 1922, the English magazine The Nation and Athenaeum wrote of The Master of San Francisco and The Village as extremely significant; in this review everything is sprinkled with great praises: "A new planet in our sky !!.", "Apocalyptic force ...". In the end: "Bunin won a place for himself in all the literature." Bunin's prose was compared to the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, saying at the same time that he "renewed" Russian art "both in form and in content. In the realism of the last century, he introduced new features and new paints, which brought him closer to the Impressionists.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin died on the night of November 8, 1953 in the hands of his wife in extreme poverty. In his memoirs, Bunin wrote: “I was born too late. Had I been born before, my writer's memories would not have been like that. , Lenin, Stalin, Hitler ... How not to envy our father Noah! Only one flood fell to his lot ... "Bunin was buried at the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery near Paris, in a crypt, in a zinc coffin.

You are a thought, you are a dream. Through a smoky blizzard
Crosses are running - outstretched hands.
I listen to a brooding spruce -
Singing ringing ... Everything is just a thought and sounds!
What lies in the grave, do you?
Parting, sadness was marked
Your hard way. Now they are gone. CREST
They only keep the good. Now you are a thought. You are eternal.