Biographies Characteristics Analysis

In what style did Bunin write. Bunin's short biography is the most important

I. A. Bunin was born on October 22, 1870 in Voronezh. His childhood was spent on the family estate, located in the Oryol province.

At the age of 11, Bunin began to study at the Yelets Gymnasium. In the fourth year of study, due to an illness, he was forced to leave his studies and go to live in the village. After recovery, Ivan Bunin continues his studies with his older brother, both were very interested in literature. At the age of 19, Bunin was forced to leave the estate and provide for himself on his own. He changes several positions, working as an extra, proofreader, librarian, he often has to move. From 1891 he began to publish poems and stories.

Having received approval from L. Tolstoy and A. Chekhov, Bunin focuses his activities on the literary sphere. As a writer, Bunin receives the Pushkin Prize, and also becomes an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Bunin's great fame in literary circles was brought by the story "The Village".

The October Revolution was perceived negatively by him, in connection with which he left Russia, emigrating to France. In Paris, he writes many works relating to Russian nature.

I. A. Bunin dies in 1953, having survived the Second World War.

Short biography of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin Grade 4

Childhood

Bunin Ivan Alekseevich was born on October 10 or 22, 1870 in the city of Voronezh. A little later, he and his parents moved to the estate of the Oryol province.

He spends his childhood in the estate, in the middle of nature.

Without graduating from the gymnasium in the city of Yelets (1886), Bunin receives his subsequent education from his brother Julius, who graduated with honors from the university.

Creative activity

The first works of Ivan Alekseevich were published in 1888, and the first collection of his poems with the same name was published in 1889. Thanks to this collection, glory comes to Bunin. Soon, in 1898, his poems were published in the collection Under the Open Air, and later, in 1901, in the collection Falling Leaves.

Later, Bunin was awarded the title of academician at the Academy of Sciences of the city of St. Petersburg (1909), after which he left Russia, being an opponent of the revolution.

Life abroad and death

Abroad, Bunin does not leave his creative activity and writes works that will be doomed to success in the future. It was then that he wrote one of the most famous works, The Life of Arseniev. For him, the writer receives the Nobel Prize.

Bunin's last work - the literary image of Chekhov was never completed.

Ivan Bunin died in the capital of France - in the city of Paris and was buried there.

4th grade for children, 11th grade

The life and work of Ivan Bunin

1870 is a significant year for Russia. On October 10 (October 22), a brilliant poet and writer who won world fame, I.A. Bunin, was born in a Voronezh noble family. From the age of three, the Oryol province becomes native for the future writer. Ivan spends his childhood in the family, at the age of 8 he begins to try himself in the literary field. Due to illness, he was unable to complete his studies at the Yelets gymnasium. He corrected his health in the village of Ozerki. Unlike his younger brother, another member of the Bunin family, Julius, is studying at the university. But after spending a year in prison, he was also sent to the village of Ozerki, where he became a teacher for Ivan, teaching him many sciences. Literature enjoyed special love among the brothers. The debut in the newspaper took place in 1887. Two years later, due to the need to earn money, Ivan Bunin leaves his home. The modest positions of a newspaper employee, an extra, a librarian, a proofreader brought a small income for existence. He often had to change his place of residence - Orel, Moscow, Kharkov, Poltava were his temporary homeland.

Thoughts about his native Oryol region did not leave the writer. His impressions were reflected in his first collection called "Poems", which was published in 1891. Bunin was especially impressed by the meeting with the famous writer Leo Tolstoy 3 years after the release of Poems. He remembered the next year as the year of his acquaintance with A. Chekhov, before that Bunin only corresponded with him. Criticism was well received by Bunin's story "To the End of the World" (1895). After which he decides to devote himself to this art. The subsequent years of Ivan Bunin's life are completely connected with literature. Thanks to his collections "Under the open sky", "Leaf fall", in 1903 the writer becomes the owner of the Pushkin Prize (this prize was awarded to him twice). The marriage with Anna Tsakni, which took place in 1898, was short-lived, their only 5-year-old child dies. After living with V. Muromtseva.

In the period from 1900 to 1904, well-known stories beloved by many were published: "Chernozem", "Antonov apples", no less significant "Pines" and "New Road". These works made an indelible impression on Maxim Gorky, who will highly appreciate the writer's work, calling him the best stylist of our time. Readers especially liked the story "The Village".

In 1909, the Russian Academy of Sciences acquired a new honorary member. They rightfully became Ivan Alekseevich. Bunin could not accept the October Revolution, spoke sharply and negatively about Bolshevism. Historical events in his homeland force him to leave his country. His path lay in France. Crossing the Crimea, Constantinople, the writer decides to stop in Paris. In a foreign land, all his thoughts are about his homeland, the Russian people, natural beauty. Active literary activity resulted in significant works: "Bastes", "Mitina's Love", "Mowers", "Far", the short story "Dark Alleys", in the novel "Arseniev's Life", written in 1930, he tells about his childhood and youth. These works were called the best in Bunin's work.

Three years later, another significant event occurred in his life - Ivan Bunin was awarded the honorary Nobel Prize. Famous books about Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov were written abroad. One of his last books, Reminiscences, appeared in France. Ivan Bunin survived the historical events in Paris - the attack of the fascist army, saw their defeat. Vigorous activity made him one of the most important figures of the Russian Diaspora. The date of death of the famous writer is 11/8/1953.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was born on October 22, 1870 in Voronezh into a noble family. His childhood and youth were spent in the impoverished estate of the Oryol province.

He spent his early childhood in a small family estate (the Butyrki farm in the Yelets district of the Oryol province). Ten years old he was sent to the Yelets gymnasium, where he studied for four and a half years, was expelled (for non-payment of tuition fees) and returned to the village. The future writer did not receive a systematic education, which he regretted all his life. True, the older brother Julius, who graduated with flying colors from the university, went through the entire gymnasium course with Vanya. They were engaged in languages, psychology, philosophy, social and natural sciences. It was Julius who had a great influence on the formation of Bunin's tastes and views.

An aristocrat in spirit, Bunin did not share his brother's passion for political radicalism. Julius, feeling the literary abilities of his younger brother, introduced him to Russian classical literature, advised him to write himself. Bunin enthusiastically read Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, and at the age of 16 he began to write poetry himself. In May 1887, Rodina magazine published the poem "The Beggar" by sixteen-year-old Vanya Bunin. Since that time, his more or less constant literary activity began, in which there was a place for both poetry and prose.

Since 1889, an independent life began - with a change of professions, with work both in provincial and metropolitan periodicals. Collaborating with the editorial office of the Orlovsky Vestnik newspaper, the young writer met the newspaper's proofreader Varvara Vladimirovna Pashchenko, who married him in 1891. The young spouses, who lived unmarried (Pashchenko's parents were against marriage), subsequently moved to Poltava (1892) and began to serve as statisticians in the provincial government. In 1891, Bunin's first collection of poems, still very imitative, was published.

1895 was a turning point in the life of the writer. After Pashchenko agreed with Bunin's friend A.I. Bibikov, the writer left the service and moved to Moscow, where he made literary acquaintances with L.N. Tolstoy, whose personality and philosophy had a strong influence on Bunin, with A.P. Chekhov, M. Gorky, N.D. Teleshov.

Since 1895 Bunin has been living in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Literary recognition came to the writer after the publication of such stories as “On the Farm”, “News from the Motherland” and “At the End of the World”, dedicated to the famine of 1891, the cholera epidemic of 1892, the resettlement of peasants in Siberia, and impoverishment and the decline of the petty nobility. Bunin called his first collection of short stories At the End of the World (1897). In 1898, Bunin published a poetry collection Under the Open Air, as well as a translation of Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha, which received a very high appraisal and was awarded the Pushkin Prize of the first degree.

In 1898 (some sources indicate 1896) he married Anna Nikolaevna Tsakni, a Greek woman, the daughter of a revolutionary and emigrant N.P. Click. Family life again turned out to be unsuccessful and in 1900 the couple divorced, and in 1905 their son Nikolai died.

On November 4, 1906, an event occurred in Bunin's personal life that had an important impact on his work. While in Moscow, he met Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, the niece of the same S.A. Muromtsev, who was chairman of the First State Duma. And in April 1907, the writer and Muromtseva went on their "first long journey" together, visiting Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. This journey not only marked the beginning of their life together, but also gave birth to a whole cycle of Bunin's stories "The Shadow of a Bird" (1907 - 1911), in which he wrote about the "light-bearing countries" of the East, their ancient history and amazing culture.

In December 1911, in Capri, the writer completed the autobiographical story "Sukhodol", which, being published in the "Bulletin of Europe" in April 1912, was a huge success with readers and critics. On October 27-29 of the same year, the entire Russian public solemnly celebrated the 25th anniversary of I.A. Bunin, and in 1915 in the St. Petersburg publishing house A.F. Marx published his complete works in six volumes. In 1912-1914. Bunin took a close part in the work of the "Book Publishing House of Writers in Moscow", and collections of his works were published in this publishing house one after another - "John Rydalets: stories and poems 1912-1913." (1913), "The Cup of Life: Stories 1913-1914." (1915), "The Gentleman from San Francisco: Works 1915-1916." (1916).

The First World War brought Bunin "a great spiritual disappointment." But it was precisely during this senseless world slaughter that the poet and writer especially acutely felt the meaning of the word, not so much journalistic as poetic. In January 1916 alone, he wrote fifteen poems: "Svyatogor and Ilya", "Land without history", "Eve", "The day will come - I will disappear ...", etc. In them, the author fearfully expects the collapse of the great Russian state. Bunin reacted sharply negatively to the revolutions of 1917 (February and October). The pathetic figures of the leaders of the Provisional Government, as the great master believed, were only capable of leading Russia to the abyss. This period was devoted to his diary - the pamphlet "Cursed Days", first published in Berlin (Sobr. soch., 1935).

In 1920, Bunin and his wife emigrated, settling in Paris and then moving to Grasse, a small town in southern France. About this period of their life (until 1941) can be read in the talented book by Galina Kuznetsova "Grasse Diary". A young writer, a student of Bunin, she lived in their house from 1927 to 1942, becoming the last very strong hobby of Ivan Alekseevich. Infinitely devoted to him, Vera Nikolaevna made this, perhaps the biggest sacrifice in her life, understanding the emotional needs of the writer (“Being in love is even more important for a poet than traveling,” Gumilyov used to say).

In exile, Bunin creates his best works: "Mitina's Love" (1924), "Sunstroke" (1925), "The Case of Cornet Elagin" (1925) and, finally, "The Life of Arseniev" (1927-1929, 1933). These works have become a new word in Bunin's work, and in Russian literature as a whole. And according to K. G. Paustovsky, "The Life of Arseniev" is not only the pinnacle work of Russian literature, but also "one of the most remarkable phenomena of world literature."
In 1933, Bunin was awarded the Nobel Prize, as he believed, primarily for "The 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 cinema screen.

With the outbreak of World War II, in 1939, the Bunins settled in the south of France, in Grasse, at the Villa Jeannette, where they spent the entire war. The writer closely followed the events in Russia, refusing any form of cooperation with the Nazi occupation authorities. He experienced the defeat of the Red Army on the eastern front very painfully, and then sincerely rejoiced at its victories.

In 1945, Bunin returned to Paris again. Bunin repeatedly expressed a desire to return to his homeland, calling the decree of the Soviet government of 1946 "On the restoration of citizenship of the USSR subjects of the former Russian Empire ..." called "a generous measure." However, the Zhdanov decree on the magazines "Zvezda" and "Leningrad" (1946), which trampled on A. Akhmatova and M. Zoshchenko, forever turned the writer away from the intention to return to his homeland.

Although Bunin's work received wide international recognition, his life in a foreign land was not easy. Written in the dark days of the Nazi occupation of France, Dark Alleys, the latest collection of short stories, has gone unnoticed. Until the end of his life, he had to defend his favorite book from the "Pharisees". In 1952, he wrote to F. A. Stepun, the author of one of the reviews of Bunin’s works: “It’s a pity that you wrote that in Dark Alleys there is a certain excess of considering female charms ... What an “excess” there! I gave only a thousandth how men of all tribes and peoples "consider" everywhere, always women from their ten years of age until they are 90 years old.

At the end of his life, Bunin wrote a number of more stories, as well as the extremely caustic Memoirs (1950), in which Soviet culture is sharply criticized. A year after the appearance of this book, Bunin was elected the first honorary member of the Pen Club. representing writers in exile. In recent years, Bunin also began work on memoirs about Chekhov, which he was going to write back in 1904, immediately after the death of a friend. However, the literary portrait of Chekhov remained unfinished.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin died on the night of November 8, 1953 in the arms of his wife in dire poverty. In his memoirs, Bunin wrote: “I was born too late. If I had been born earlier, my writing memories would not have been like that. , Stalin, Hitler ... How not to envy our forefather Noah! Only one flood fell to his lot ... "Bunin was buried in the cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris, in a crypt, in a zinc coffin.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was born on October 10 (22), 1870 in Voronezh in an old impoverished noble family. The childhood of the future writer was spent in the family estate - on the Butyrki farm of the Yelets district of the Oryol province, where the Bunins moved in 1874. In 1881 he was enrolled in the first class of the Yelets gymnasium, but did not finish the course, expelled in 1886 for failure to appear from the holidays and non-payment for education. Return from Yelets I.A. Bunin had already moved to a new place - to the Ozerki estate in the same Yelets district, where the whole family moved in the spring of 1883, fleeing ruin by selling land in Butyrki. He received further education at home under the guidance of his elder brother Yuli Alekseevich Bunin (1857-1921), an exiled populist-black-peredel, who forever remained one of the closest to I.A. Bunin people.

At the end of 1886 - beginning of 1887. wrote the novel "Passion" - the first part of the poem "Pyotr Rogachev" (not published), but made his debut in print with the poem "Over Nadson's Grave", published in the newspaper "Rodina" on February 22, 1887. Within a year, in the same "Motherland" appeared and other poems by Bunin - "The Village Beggar" (May 17) and others, as well as the stories "Two Wanderers" (September 28) and "Nefedka" (December 20).

At the beginning of 1889, the young writer left his parental home and began an independent life. At first, he, following his brother Julius, went to Kharkov, but in the fall of the same year he accepted an offer of cooperation in the Orlovsky Vestnik newspaper and settled in Orel. In the "Bulletin" I.A. Bunin "was everything that was necessary - and a proofreader, and a leader, and a theater critic", lived exclusively by literary work, barely making ends meet. In 1891, Bunin's first book, Poems 1887-1891, was published as an appendix to the Orlovsky Vestnik. The first strong and painful feeling belongs to the Oryol period - love for Varvara Vladimirovna Pashchenko, who agreed at the end of the summer of 1892 to move with I.A. Bunin to Poltava, where at that time Julius Bunin served in the zemstvo city government. The young couple also got a job in the council, and the newspaper Poltavskiye Provincial Gazette published numerous essays by Bunin, written by order of the Zemstvo.

Literary day labor oppressed the writer, whose poems and stories in 1892-1894. have already begun to appear on the pages of such reputable metropolitan magazines as Russkoe bogatstvo, Severny vestnik, Vestnik Evropy. At the beginning of 1895, after a break with V.V. Pashchenko, he leaves the service and leaves for St. Petersburg, and then to Moscow.

In 1896, Bunin’s translation into Russian of G. Longfellow’s poem “The Song of Hiawatha” was published as an addendum to the Orlovsky Vestnik, which discovered the undoubted talent of the translator and has remained unsurpassed in fidelity to the original and the beauty of the verse to this day. In 1897, the collection “To the End of the World” and Other Stories” was published in St. Petersburg, and in 1898 in Moscow, a book of poems “Under the Open Sky”. In the spiritual biography of Bunin, the rapprochement during these years with the participants in the “environments” of the writer N.D. Teleshov and especially the meeting at the end of 1895 and the beginning of friendship with A.P. Chekhov. Bunin carried admiration for Chekhov's personality and talent throughout his life, dedicating his last book to him (the unfinished manuscript "On Chekhov" was published in New York in 1955, after the author's death).

At the beginning of 1901, the Moscow publishing house "Scorpion" published the poetry collection "Leaf Fall" - the result of Bunin's short collaboration with the Symbolists, which brought the author in 1903, along with the translation of "The Song of Hiawatha", the Pushkin Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Acquaintance in 1899 with Maxim Gorky led I.A. Bunin in the early 1900s. for cooperation with the publishing house "Knowledge". In the "Collections of the Knowledge Partnership" his stories and poems were published, and in 1902-1909. in the publishing house "Knowledge" the first collected works of I.A. Bunin (volume six was published already thanks to the publishing house "Public benefit" in 1910).

The growth of literary fame brought I.A. Bunin and relative material security, which allowed him to fulfill his long-standing dream - to travel abroad. In 1900-1904. the writer visited Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy. Impressions from a trip to Constantinople in 1903 formed the basis of the story "The Shadow of a Bird" (1908), from which a series of brilliant travel essays began in Bunin's work, subsequently collected in a cycle of the same name (the collection "The Shadow of a Bird" was published in Paris in 1931 G.).

In November 1906, in the Moscow house of B.K. Zaitseva Bunin met Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva (1881-1961), who became the writer's companion until the end of his life, and in the spring of 1907, the lovers set off on their "first long journey" - to Egypt, Syria and Palestine.

In the autumn of 1909, the Academy of Sciences awarded I.A. Bunin the second Pushkin Prize and elected him an honorary academician, but the story “The Village”, published in 1910, brought him genuine and wide fame. Bunin and his wife still travel a lot, visiting France, Algeria and Capri, Egypt and Ceylon. In December 1911, in Capri, the writer completed the autobiographical story "Sukhodol", which, being published in the "Bulletin of Europe" in April 1912, was a huge success with readers and critics. On October 27-29 of the same year, the entire Russian public solemnly celebrated the 25th anniversary of I.A. Bunin, and in 1915 in the St. Petersburg publishing house A.F. Marx published his complete works in six volumes. In 1912-1914. Bunin took a close part in the work of the "Book Publishing House of Writers in Moscow", and collections of his works were published in this publishing house one after another - "John Rydalets: stories and poems 1912-1913." (1913), "The Cup of Life: Stories 1913-1914." (1915), "The Gentleman from San Francisco: Works 1915-1916." (1916).

October Revolution of 1917 I.A. Bunin did not accept decisively and categorically, in May 1918, together with his wife, he left Moscow for Odessa, and at the end of January 1920, the Bunins left Soviet Russia forever, sailing through Constantinople to Paris. A monument to the moods of I.A. Bunin's diary "Cursed Days", published in exile, remained.

The whole subsequent life of the writer is connected with France. Most of the year from 1922 to 1945, the Bunins spent in Grasse, near Nice. In exile, only one Bunin’s own poetic collection was published - “Selected Poems” (Paris, 1929), but ten new books of prose were written, including “The Rose of Jericho” (published in Berlin in 1924), “Mitina’s Love” ( in Paris in 1925), "Sunstroke" (ibid., 1927). In 1927-1933. Bunin worked on his largest work - the novel "The Life of Arseniev" (first published in Paris in 1930; the first complete edition was published in New York in 1952). In 1933, the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize "for the truthful artistic talent with which he recreated a typical Russian character in fiction."

The Bunins spent the years of World War II in Grasse, which for some time was under German occupation. Written in the 1940s the stories made up the book Dark Alleys, first published in New York in 1943 (the first complete edition was published in Paris in 1946). Already in the late 1930s. attitude I.A. Bunin to the Soviet country becomes more tolerant, and after the victory of the USSR over Nazi Germany and unconditionally benevolent, however, the writer never could return to his homeland.

In the last years of his life, I.A. Bunin published his "Memoirs" (Paris, 1950), worked on the already mentioned book about Chekhov and constantly made corrections to his already published works, mercilessly shortening them. In the "Literary Testament" he asked to continue to print his works only in the latest author's edition, which formed the basis of his 12-volume collected works, published by the Berlin publishing house "Petropolis" in 1934-1939.

Died I.A. Bunin November 8, 1953 in Paris, was buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.

1870 , October 10 (22) - was born in Voronezh in the old impoverished noble family of the Bunins. He spent his childhood on the Butyrka farm in the Oryol province.

1881 - enters the Yelets gymnasium, but, without completing four classes, continues his education under the guidance of his older brother Julius, an exiled Narodnaya Volya.

1887 - the first poems "The Village Beggar" and "Over the Grave of Nadson" are published in the patriotic newspaper "Motherland".

1889 - moves to Oryol, starts working as a proofreader, statistician, librarian, newspaper reporter.

1890 - Bunin, having studied English on his own, translates G. Longfellow's poem "The Song of Hiawatha".

1891 - in Orel, the collection "Poems of 1887-1891" is published.

1892 - Bunin, together with his common-law wife V.V. Pashchenko, moved to Poltava, where he served in the land municipal government. Bunin's articles, essays, stories appear in the local newspaper.
In 1892–94 Bunin's poems and stories begin to be published in the capital's magazines.

1893–1894 - Bunin is greatly influenced by Leo Tolstoy, who is perceived by him as a "demigod", the highest embodiment of artistic power and moral dignity; Bunin's religious-philosophical treatise "The Liberation of Tolstoy" (Paris, 1937) would later become the apotheosis of such an attitude.

1895 - Bunin leaves the service and leaves for St. Petersburg, then to Moscow, gets acquainted with N.K. Mikhailovsky, A.P. Chekhov, K.D. Balmont, V.Ya. Bryusov, V.G. Korolenko, A.I. Kuprin and others. Initially friendly relations with Balmont and Bryusov in the early 1900s. acquired a hostile character, and until the last years of his life, Bunin extremely sharply assessed the work and personality of these poets.

1897 - the release of Bunin's book "To the End of the World" and other stories.

1898 - poetry collection "Under the open sky".

1906 - Acquaintance with V.N. Muromtseva (1881–1961), future wife and author of the book "The Life of Bunin".

1907 travel to Egypt, Syria, Palestine. The result of trips to the East is a cycle of essays "Temple of the Sun" (1907-1911)

1909 - The Academy of Sciences elects Bunin an honorary academician. During a trip to Italy, Bunin visits Gorky, who then lived on about. Capri.

1910 - Bunin's first big thing comes out, which has become an event in literary and social life - the story "The Village".

1912 - the collection "Dry Valley. Novels and Stories" is published.
In the future, other collections were published ("John Rydalets. Stories and Poems 1912-1913", 1913; "The Cup of Life. Stories 1913-1914", 1915; "The Gentleman from San Francisco. Works 1915-1916." , 1916).

1917 - Bunin takes the October Revolution with hostility. Writes a pamphlet diary "Cursed Days".

1920 - Bunin emigrates to France. Here he is in 1927-33. working on the novel "The Life of Arseniev".

1925–1927 - Bunin maintains a regular political and literary column in the Vozrozhdenie newspaper.
In the second half of the 1920s, Bunin experienced his "last love". She became the poetess Galina Nikolaevna Kuznetsova.

1933 , November 9 - Bunin was awarded the Nobel Prize "for the truthful artistic talent with which he recreated a typical Russian character in fiction."
By the end of the 30s. Bunin increasingly feels the dramatic nature of the break with the Motherland, avoids direct political statements about the USSR. Fascism in Germany and Italy is sharply condemned by him.

Period of the 2nd World War- Bunin in Grasse, in the south of France. Victory meets with great joy.

post-war period Bunin is returning to Paris. He is no longer a staunch opponent of the Soviet regime, but he does not recognize the changes that have taken place in Russia either. In Paris, Ivan Alekseevich visits the Soviet ambassador and gives an interview to the Soviet Patriot newspaper.
In recent years, he has been living in great lack of money, starving. During these years, Bunin created a cycle of short stories "Dark Alleys" (New York, 1943, in full - Paris, 1946), published a book about Leo Tolstoy ("Liberation of Tolstoy", Paris, 1937), "Memoirs" (Paris, 1950), etc.

1953 November 8 - Ivan Alekseevich Bunin dies in Paris, becomes the first emigration writer, who in 1954 begins to be published again in his homeland.

1. Childhood and youth. First publications.
2. Family life and work of Bunin.
3. Emigrant period. Nobel Prize.
4. The value of Bunin's work in literature.

How can we forget the Motherland?

Can a person forget his homeland?

She is in the soul. I am a very Russian person.

It doesn't disappear over the years.
I. A. Bunin

I. A. Bunin was born in Voronezh on October 10, 1870. Bunin's father Alexei Nikolaevich, a landowner in the Oryol and Tula provinces, a participant in the Crimean War, went bankrupt because of his love for cards. The impoverished nobles of the Bunins had such ancestors as the poetess A.P. Bunina and the father of V.A. Zhukovsky - A.I. Bunin. At the age of three, the boy was transferred to the estate on the Butyrki farm in the Yelets district of the Oryol province, his childhood memories are closely connected with him.

From 1881 to 1886, Bunin studied at the Yelets Gymnasium, from where he was expelled for failing to appear from the holidays. He did not finish the gymnasium, having received an education at home under the guidance of his brother Julius. Already at the age of seven he wrote poetry, imitating Pushkin and Lermontov. In 1887, his poem "Above Nadson's Grave" was first published in the Rodina newspaper, and his critical articles began to be published. Elder brother Julius became his best friend, mentor in study and life.

In 1889, Bunin moved to his brother in Kharkov, associated with the populist movement. Being carried away by this movement himself, Ivan soon departs from the populists and returns to Orel. He does not share the radical views of Julius. Works in the "Orlovsky Bulletin", lives in a civil marriage with V. V. Pashchenko. Bunin's first book of poems appeared in 1891. These were poems saturated with passion for Pashchenko - Bunin experienced his unhappy love. At first, Varvara's father forbade them to marry, then Bunin had to learn many disappointments in family life, to be convinced of the complete dissimilarity of their characters. Soon he settled in Poltava with Julius, in 1894 he parted with Pashchenko. There comes a period of creative maturity of the writer. Bunin's stories are published in leading magazines. He corresponds with A.P. Chekhov, is fond of the moral and religious preaching of L.N. Tolstoy, and even meets with the writer, trying to live according to his advice.

In 1896, a translation of the "Song of Hiawatha" by H. W. Longfellow was published, which was highly appreciated by contemporaries (Bunin received the Pushkin Prize of the first degree for it). Especially for this work, he independently studied English.

In 1898, Bunin again married a Greek woman, A.N. Tsakni, the daughter of a revolutionary emigrant. A year later, they divorced (the wife left Bunin, causing him suffering). Their only son died at the age of five from scarlet fever. His creative life is much richer than his family life - Bunin translates Tennyson's poem "Lady Godiva" and "Manfred" by Byron, Alfred de Musset and Francois Coppé. At the beginning of the 20th century, the most famous stories were published - "Antonov apples", "Pines", a prose poem "The Village", the story "Dry Valley". Thanks to the story "Antonov apples" Bunin became widely known. It so happened that for the topic close to Bunin, the ruin of noble nests, he was criticized by M. Gorky: “Antonov apples smell good, but they smell by no means democratic.” Bunin was a stranger to his raznochintsy contemporaries, who perceived his story as a poeticization of serfdom. In fact, the writer poetized his attitude to the passing past, to nature, to his native land.

In 1909, Bunin became an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Much has also changed in his personal life - he met V. N. Muromtseva at the age of thirty-seven, finally creating a happy family. The Bunins travel through Syria, Egypt, Palestine, and Bunin writes the book "Shadow of a Bird" based on travel impressions. Then - a trip to Europe, again to Egypt and Ceylon. Bunin reflects on the teachings of the Buddha, which is close to him, but with many postulates of which he does not agree. The collections Sukhodol: Novels and Stories 1911-1912, John Rydalets: Stories and Poems 1912-1913, The Gentleman from San Francisco: Works 1915-1916, a six-volume collected works were published.

The First World War was for the writer the beginning of the collapse of Russia. He expected disaster from the victory of the Bolsheviks. He did not accept the October Revolution, all thoughts about the coup are reflected by the writer in his diary "Cursed Days" (he is depressed by what is happening). Not thinking of their existence in Bolshevik Russia, the Bunins leave Moscow for Odessa, and then emigrate to France - first to Paris, and then to Grasse. The uncommunicative Bunin had almost no contact with Russian emigrants, but this did not prevent his creative inspiration - ten books of prose became a fruitful result of his work in exile. They included: "The Rose of Jericho", "Sunstroke", "Mitina's Love" and other works. Like many books by emigrants, they were imbued with homesickness. In Bunin's books - nostalgia for pre-revolutionary Russia, another world that has remained forever in the past. Bunin also headed the Union of Russian Writers and Journalists in Paris, led his column in the Vozrozhdenie newspaper.

In emigration, Bunin was overtaken by an unexpected feeling - he met his last love, G. N. Kuznetsova. She lived for many years with the Bunin couple in Grasse, helping Ivan Alekseevich as a secretary. Vera Nikolaevna had to put up with this, she considered Kuznetsova to be something like an adopted daughter. Both women valued Bunin and agreed to voluntarily live on such terms. Also, a young writer L.F. Zurov lived with his family for about twenty years. Bunin had to support four.

In 1927, work began on the novel "The Life of Arseniev", Kuznetsova helped Ivan Alekseevich in rewriting. After seven years of living in Grasse, she left. The novel was completed in 1933. This is a fictional autobiography with many real and fictional characters. Memory, which travels the life-long path of the hero, is the main theme of the novel. “Stream of Consciousness” is a feature of this novel that makes the author related to M. J. Proust.

In 1933, Bunin was awarded the Nobel Prize "for the rigorous skill with which he develops the traditions of Russian classical prose" and "for the truthful artistic talent with which he recreated a typically Russian character in artistic prose." It was the first prize for a Russian writer, especially an exiled writer. The emigration considered Bunin's success their own, the writer allocated 100 thousand francs in favor of Russian emigrant writers. But many were unhappy that they were given no more. Few people thought about the fact that Bunin himself lived in unbearable conditions, and when the telegram about the award was brought, he did not even have a tip for the postman, and the received award was only enough for two years. According to the wishes of readers, Bunin published an eleven-volume collected works in 1934-1936.

In Bunin's prose, a special place was occupied by the theme of love - an unexpected element of "sunstroke", which cannot be sustained. In 1943, a collection of love stories "Dark Alleys" was published. This is the pinnacle of the writer's work.