Bunin full name and patronymic. Short biography of Bunin: only the main and important

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin (1870-1953), Russian prose writer, poet, translator.

Ivan Bunin was born on October 22, 1870 in the city of Voronezh in a well-born, but impoverished noble family. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin spent his childhood partly on a hereditary estate near Yelets (now in the Lipetsk region), and partly in Voronezh.

Absorbing, like a sponge, songs and legends from his parents and courtyards, he early discovered in himself artistic abilities and a rare impressionability. Having entered the Yelets gymnasium in 1881, Bunin was forced to leave it in 1886: he did not have enough money to pay for education. The course of the gymnasium, and then part of the university, he passed at home under the guidance of his older brother, Julius from Narodnaya Volya.

Ivan Bunin published his first collection of poems in 1891, and five years later he published his first translation of the poem "The Song of Hiawatha" by the American romantic poet G. Longfellow, this translation, together with the later poetry collection "Falling Leaves" (1901 .), brought Ivan Bunin in 1903 the Pushkin Prize of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

In 1909, Bunin was elected an honorary academician and received the second Pushkin Prize. AT late XIX century, he increasingly speaks with his stories, at first similar to picturesque sketches. Over time, Ivan Bunin becomes more and more prominent both as a prose writer and as a poet.

wide popular recognition came to the writer with the publication of his story "The Village" (1910), which showed modern rural life. The destruction of ancient foundations and patriarchal life is depicted in the story with a rare harshness for those times. The very end of the story, where the wedding is described by the writer as a funeral, takes on a symbolic meaning. Immediately after the release of The Village, on the basis of family traditions, Ivan Bunin wrote the story Sukhodol in 1911. Here, with unprecedented majestic gloominess, the degeneration of the Russian nobility was depicted.

Ivan Bunin himself always lived in anticipation of the impending catastrophe in Russia. He clearly felt the inevitability of a new historical break. This feeling can be seen in the stories of the 1910s. "John Rydalets" (1913), "Light Breath" (1916), "Grammar of Love", "The Gentleman from San Francisco" (both 1915), "Chang's Dreams" (1918).

Ivan Bunin met the events of the revolution with great rejection, capturing "this bloody madness" in his diary, later published in exile under the title " cursed days(1918, published 1925).

Together with his wife Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva in January 1920, the writer sailed from Odessa to Constantinople. Since then, Bunin moved to Europe and lived in France, mainly in the city of Paris and Grasse. In exile, Bunin was spoken of as the first among contemporary Russian writers.

contemporaries perceived as live classics his story "Mitya's Love" (1925), a book of short stories " Sunstroke" (1927) and "God's tree" (1931). In the 30s. Short stories began to appear in Ivan Bunin, where the writer showed his exceptional ability to compress meaning, huge material in just one or two rich pages, and sometimes in a few lines.

In Paris in 1930, the novel "The Life of Arseniev" was published with an obvious autobiographical "lining".
In 1933, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was awarded Nobel Prize. This - the event became a landmark, behind which, in essence, stood the fact of recognition of the literature of emigration.

During the years of World War II 1939-1945, Bunin lived in Grasse, eagerly followed military events, lived in poverty, often hid Jews from the Gestapo in his house, and was very happy about the victories of the Soviet troops. At this time, Ivan Bunin wrote stories about love (they were included in the 1943 book "Dark Alleys"), the writer himself considered them the best of everything he had created.

post-war warming Soviet power the writer was short-lived, but it managed to well quarrel him with many old friends. Ivan Bunin spent his last years in poverty, while working on a book about his literary teacher Anton Pavlovich Chekhov.

Ivan Alekseevich died on November 8, 1953 in Paris, and was buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.

Bunin Ivan Alekseevich (1870 - 1953), Russian writer, honorary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1909). In 1920 he emigrated. In the lyrics, the classic continued. traditions (collection "Listopad", 1901). In stories and novels he showed (sometimes with a nostalgic mood) impoverishment noble estates ("Antonov apples, 1900), the cruel face of the village ("Village", 1910, "Sukhodol", 1911), disastrous oblivion moral foundations life ("The Gentleman from San Francisco", 1915). a sharp rejection of the October Revolution in the diary book "Cursed Days" (1918, publ. 1925). AT autobiographical novel"The Life of Arseniev" (1930) is a recreation of the past of Russia, childhood and youth of the writer. Tragic human existence in short stories about love ("Mitya's love", 1925; book. " Dark alleys", 1943). Memoirs. Translated "The Song of Hiawatha" by G. Longfellow (1896). Nobel Prize winner (1933).
Large encyclopedic Dictionary, M. - SPb., 1998

Biography

Born on October 10 (22 n.s.) in Voronezh in a noble family. Childhood years were spent in the family estate on the Butyrka farm of the Oryol province, among the "sea of ​​bread, herbs, flowers", "in the deepest field silence" under the supervision of a teacher and educator, a "strange person", who captivated his student with painting, from which he "had quite a long insanity," which otherwise did little.

In 1881 he entered the Yelets Gymnasium, which he left four years later due to illness. He spent the next four years in the village of Ozerki, where he grew stronger and matured. His education ended in an unusual way. His older brother Julius, who graduated from the university and spent a year in prison on political affairs, was exiled to Ozerki and took the entire gymnasium course with younger brother, studied with him languages, read the beginnings of philosophy, psychology, social and natural sciences. Both were especially passionate about literature.

In 1889, Bunin left the estate and was forced to look for work in order to secure a modest existence for himself (he worked as a proofreader, statistician, librarian, and collaborated in a newspaper). He often moved - he lived either in Orel, then in Kharkov, then in Poltava, then in Moscow. In 1891, his collection Poems was published, full of impressions from his native Oryol region.

In 1894, in Moscow, he met with L. Tolstoy, who kindly received the young Bunin, and the following year he became acquainted with A. Chekhov. In 1895, the story "To the End of the World" was published, which was well received by critics. Inspired by success, Bunin completely turns to literary creativity.

In 1898, a collection of poems "Under open sky", in 1901 - the collection "Leaf Fall", for which he was awarded the highest prize of the Academy of Sciences - the Pushkin Prize (1903). In 1899 he met M. Gorky, who attracted him to cooperate with the publishing house "Knowledge", where the best stories of that time appeared : "Antonov apples" (1900), "Pines" and " new road"(1901), "Chernozem" (1904). Gorky writes: "... if they say about him: this is the best stylist of our time, there will be no exaggeration." In 1909, Bunin became an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The story "Village", published in 1910, brought its author a wide readership.In 1911 - the story "Sukhodol" - a chronicle of the degeneration of the estate nobility. In subsequent years, a series of significant stories and stories appeared: " ancient man", "Ignat", "Zakhar Vorobyov", " A good life"," Gentleman from San Francisco ".

Having met the October Revolution with hostility, the writer left Russia forever in 1920. Through the Crimea, and then through Constantinople, he emigrated to France and settled in Paris. Everything written by him in exile concerned Russia, Russian people, Russian nature: Mowers, Bast Shoes, Far, Mitina's Love, the cycle of short stories Dark Alleys, the novel Arseniev's Life, 1930, etc. In 1933 Bunin was awarded the Nobel Prize. He wrote books about L. Tolstoy (1937) and A. Chekhov (published in New York in 1955), the book "Memoirs" (published in Paris in 1950).

Bunin lived a long life, survived the invasion of fascism in Paris, rejoiced at the victory over him.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin can rightfully be attributed to one of the largest writers and poets of Russia of the 20th century. He received worldwide recognition for his works, which became classics during his lifetime.

short biography Bunina will help you understand what life path passed this outstanding writer, and for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

This is all the more interesting because great people are motivated and inspire the reader to new achievements.

Short biography of Bunin

Conventionally, the life of our hero can be divided into two periods: before emigration, and after. After all, it was the Revolution of 1917 that drew a red line between the pre-revolutionary existence of the intelligentsia and the Soviet system that replaced it. But first things first.

Childhood, youth and education

Ivan Bunin was born into a simple noble family on October 10, 1870. His father was a poorly educated landowner who graduated from only one class of the gymnasium. He was distinguished by a sharp disposition and extraordinary energy.

Ivan Bunin

The mother of the future writer, on the contrary, was a very meek and pious woman. Perhaps it was thanks to her that little Vanya was very impressionable and began to learn the spiritual world early.

Bunin spent most of his childhood in the Oryol province, which was surrounded by picturesque landscapes.

Own elementary education Ivan got home. Studying biographies prominent personalities it is impossible not to notice the fact that the vast majority of them received their first education at home.

In 1881, Bunin managed to enter the Yelets Gymnasium, which he never graduated from. In 1886, he returned to his home again. The thirst for knowledge does not leave him, and thanks to his brother Julius, who graduated with honors from the university, he is actively working on self-education.

Personal life, family, children

In Bunin's biography, it is noteworthy that he was constantly unlucky with women. His first love was Barbara, but they never managed to marry, due to various circumstances.

First official wife The writer was 19-year-old Anna Tsakni. There was a rather cold relationship between the spouses, and this could be called a forced friendship rather than love. Their marriage lasted only 2 years, and Kolya's only son died of scarlet fever.

The second wife of the writer was 25-year-old Vera Muromtseva. However, this marriage was also unhappy. Upon learning that her husband was cheating on her, Vera left Bunin, although she later forgave everything and returned.

Literary activity

Ivan Bunin wrote his first poems in 1888 at the age of seventeen. A year later, he decides to move to Orel and gets a job as an editor of a local newspaper.

It was at this time that many poems began to appear in him, which would later form the basis of the book "Poems". After the publication of this work, he first received a certain literary fame.

But Bunin does not stop, and a few years later, collections of poems “Under the open sky” and “Leaf fall” come out from under his pen. The popularity of Ivan Nikolaevich continues to grow and over time he manages to meet such outstanding and recognized masters of the word as Gorky, Tolstoy and Chekhov.

These meetings turned out to be significant in Bunin's biography, and left an indelible impression in his memory.

A little later, collections of short stories "Antonov apples" and "Pines" appeared. Of course, a short biography does not imply complete list extensive works of Bunin, so we will manage to mention the key works.

In 1909, the writer was awarded the title of honorary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

Life in exile

Ivan Bunin was alien to the Bolshevik ideas of the 1917 revolution, which swallowed up all of Russia. As a result of this, he forever leaves his homeland, and his further biography consists of countless wanderings and travels around the world.

Being in a foreign land, he continues to work actively and writes some of his best works - Mitina's Love (1924) and Sunstroke (1925).

It was thanks to The Life of Arseniev that in 1933 Ivan became the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Naturally, this can be considered a peak creative biography Bunin.

The prize was presented to the writer by the Swedish king Gustav V. The laureate was also issued a check for 170,330 Swedish kronor. He gave part of his fee to needy people who found themselves in a difficult life situation.

Final years and death

By the end of his life, Ivan Alekseevich was often ill, but this did not stop him from working. His goal was to create literary portrait A.P. Chekhov. However, this idea remained unrealized due to the death of the writer.

Bunin died in Paris on November 8, 1953. An interesting fact is that until the end of his days he remained a stateless person, being, in fact, a Russian exile.

He never managed to fulfill the main dream of the second period of his life - a return to Russia.

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Name: Ivan Bunin

Age: 83 years old

Place of Birth: Voronezh, Russia

Place of death: Paris, France

Activity: Russian writer and poet

Family status: was married to Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva

Ivan Bunin - Biography

Bunin was born on October 22, 1870 in Voronezh. He belonged to an ancient but impoverished family that gave Russia Vasily Zhukovsky, the illegitimate son of the landowner Afanasy Bunin. Ivan Bunin's father, Alexei Nikolaevich, fought in the Crimea in his youth, then he lived on his estate in the usual, many times described landlord life - hunting, welcoming guests, drinking and cards. His carelessness eventually brought the family to the brink of ruin.

All household chores lay on the shoulders of the mother, Lyudmila Alexandrovna Chubarova, a quiet, devout woman, five of whose nine children died in infancy. The death of Sasha's beloved sister seemed to little Vanya a terrible injustice, and he forever ceased to believe in good God, about which both mother and in the church spoke.

Three years after Vanya's birth, the family moved to Butyrka's grandfather's estate in the Oryol province. “Here, in the deepest field silence,” he recalled later writer about the beginning of my biography - and my childhood passed, full of sad and peculiar poetry. His childhood impressions were reflected in the autobiographical novel "The Life of Arseniev", which Bunin himself considered his main book.

He noted that he acquired amazing sensitivity early: “My vision was such that I saw all seven stars in the Pleiades, heard the whistle of a marmot in the evening field a mile away, got drunk, smelling the smell of lily of the valley or old book". Parents paid little attention to their son, and his tutor was his brother Julius, who graduated from the university, managed to participate in the revolutionary circles of the Chernoperedel, for which he spent a year in prison and was expelled from Moscow for three years.

In 1881, Bunin entered the Yelets Gymnasium. He studied average, and from the sixth grade he was expelled for non-payment - the family's affairs became very bad. The estate in Butyrki was sold, and the family moved to neighboring Ozerki, where Ivan had to finish the gymnasium course as an external student, under the guidance of his older brother. “Not even a year has passed,” said Julius, “how he grew so mentally that I could already talk with him almost as an equal on many topics.” In addition to studying languages, philosophy, psychology, social and natural sciences, Ivan, thanks to his brother, a writer and journalist, was especially interested in literature.

At the age of 16, Ivan Bunin began to "write poetry with particular zeal" and "wrote a lot of paper" before he decided to send the poem to the Rodina magazine in the capital. To his surprise, it was printed. He forever remembered the delight with which he came from the post office with fresh issue magazine, constantly rereading his poems. They were dedicated to the memory of the fashionable poet Nadson, who died of consumption.

Weak, frankly imitative verses did not stand out among hundreds of their kind. Many years passed before Bunin's true talent manifested itself in poetry. Until the end of his life, he himself considered himself primarily a poet and was very angry when friends said that his works were exquisite, but old-fashioned - "now nobody writes like that." He really avoided any newfangled trends, remaining true to the tradition of the XIX century

Early, barely visible dawn, The heart of sixteen years.
The drowsy haze of the garden With lime light of warmth.
Quiet and mysterious house With the ultimate cherished window.
A curtain in the window, and behind it the Sun of my universe.

This is a memory of the very first youthful love for Emilia Fekhner (the prototype of Ankhen in The Life of Arseniev), a young governess of the daughters of O.K. Tubbe, distiller of the landowner Bakhtiyarov. Tubba's stepdaughter, Nastya, was married in 1885 by the writer's brother Eugene. Young Bunin was so carried away by Emilia that Tubbe considered it good to send her back home.

Soon from Ozerki, having received the consent of his parents, he went to adulthood and young poet. At parting, the mother blessed her son, whom she considered “special from all her children”, with a generic icon depicting the meal of the Three Wanderers with Abraham. It was, as Bunin wrote in one of his diaries, "a shrine that connects me with a tender and reverent connection with my family, with the world where my cradle, my childhood." The 18-year-old young man left his native home as an almost fully formed person, “with a certain life baggage - knowledge of the real people, and not fictional, with knowledge of small-scale life, the village intelligentsia, with a very subtle sense of nature, almost a connoisseur of the Russian language, literature, with heart open to love.

He met love in Orel. 19-year-old Bunin settled there after long wanderings in the Crimea and southern Russia. Having settled down in the Orlovsky Vestnik newspaper, he became friends with the young daughter of a doctor, Varya Pashchenko - she worked as a proofreader in the same newspaper. With the money of their brother Julius, they rented an apartment in Poltava, where they lived in a civil marriage - Father Varya was against the wedding. Three years later, Dr. Pashchenko, seeing Bunin's boundless passion, nevertheless gave his permission for marriage, but Varya hid her father's letter. She preferred the poor writer to his wealthy friend Arseny Bibikov. “Ah, to hell with them,” Bunin wrote to his brother, “here, obviously, 200 acres of a country land played a role.”

Since 1895, Bunin left the service and, having moved to Moscow, devoted himself entirely to literature, earning money with poetry and short stories. His idol of those years was Leo Tolstoy, and he even went to the count to ask for advice on how to live. Gradually, he became familiar with the editorial offices of literary magazines, met with famous writers, even became friends with Chekhov and learned a lot from him. He was appreciated by both realists-populists and innovators-symbolists, but neither of them considered "their own".

He himself was more inclined towards realists and constantly visited the “environments” of the writer Teleshov, where Gorky, the Wanderer, Leonid Andreev visited. In summer - Yalta with Chekhov and Stanyukovich and Lustdorf near Odessa with writers Fedorov and Kuprin. “This beginning of my new life was the darkest spiritual time, inwardly the most dead time all my youth, although outwardly I then lived very diversely, sociablely, in public, so as not to be alone with myself.

In Lustdorf, Bunin, unexpectedly for everyone, even for himself, married 19-year-old Anna Tsakni. She was the daughter of an Odessa Greek publisher, the owner of the Southern Review newspaper, with which Bunin collaborated. They got married after a few days of dating. “At the end of June, he went to Lustdorf to Fedorov. Kuprin, Kartashevs, then Tsakni, who lived in a dacha at the 7th station. Suddenly made an offer in the evening,” Bunin wrote in his diary in 1898.

He was fascinated by her large black eyes and enigmatic silence. After the wedding, it turned out that Anya was very talkative. Together with her mother, she mercilessly scolded her husband for lack of money and frequent absences. Less than a year later, they broke up with Anna, two years later this "vaudeville" marriage broke up. Their son Nicholas, who was born to them, died of scarlet fever at the age of five. Unlike Varvara Pashchenko, Anna Tsakni left no traces in Bunin's work. Barbara can also be recognized in Lika from The Life of Arseniev, and in many heroines of Dark Alleys.

The first success in his creative biography came to Bunin in 1903. For the collection of poems Falling Leaves, he received the Pushkin Prize, the highest award of the Academy of Sciences.

Recognized by critics and his prose. The story "Antonov apples" secured the title of "singer of noble nests" for the writer, although he portrayed the life of the Russian village by no means graciously and was not inferior in terms of the "bitter truth" himself. In 1906 on literary evening at the writer Zaitsev, where Bunin read his poems, he met Vera Muromtseva, the niece of the chairman of the first State Duma. "A quiet young lady with Leonard's eyes" immediately attracted Bunin. Here is how Vera Nikolaevna told about their meeting:

“I stopped in thought: should I go home? Bunin appeared at the door. "How did you get here?" - he asked. I was angry, but calmly replied: "Just like you." - "But who are you?" -"Man". - "What do you do?" - “Chemistry. I study at the natural faculty of the Higher Women's Courses. “But where else can I see you?” “Only at our house. We accept on Saturdays. The rest of the days I'm very busy." After listening to talk about the dissolute life of people of art,

Vera Nikolaevna was frankly afraid of the writer. Nevertheless, she could not resist his persistent courtship and in the same 1906 she became "Ms. Bunina", although they were only able to officially register their marriage in July 1922 in France.

AT Honeymoon they left for a long time to the East - to Egypt, Palestine, Syria. We got in our wanderings to Ceylon itself. Travel routes were not planned in advance. Bunin was so happy with Vera Nikolaevna that he admitted that he would quit writing: “But my business is gone - I’m sure I won’t write anymore ... A poet should not be happy, he should live alone, and the better for him, the worse for scriptures. The better you are, the worse ... ”- he said to his wife. “In that case, I will try to be as bad as possible,” she joked.

Nevertheless, the next decade was the most fruitful in the writer's work. He was awarded another prize of the Academy of Sciences and was elected its honorary academician. “Just at the hour when a telegram arrived with congratulations to Ivan Alekseevich in connection with his election to the academician in the category of fine literature,” Vera Bunina said, “the Bibikovs dined with us. Bunin did not have a bad feeling for Arseny, they even, one might say, were friends. Bibikova got up from the table, was pale, but calm. A minute later, separately and dryly, she said: “Congratulations.”

After a "sharp foreign slap in the face," as he called his travels, Bunin was no longer afraid to "exaggerate." The First World War did not cause him a patriotic upsurge. He saw the weakness of the country, was afraid of its death. In 1916 he wrote many poems, including these:

Here the rye burns, the grain flows.
But who will reap, knit?
Here the smoke is burning, the alarm is buzzing.
But who dares to pour?
Here the demoniac army will rise, and like Mamai, all of Russia will pass ...
But the world is empty - who will save? But there is no God - who should be punished?

Soon this prophecy was fulfilled. After the start of the revolution, Bunin and his family left the Oryol estate for Moscow, from where he watched with bitterness the death of everything that was dear to him. These observations were reflected in a diary published later under the title "Cursed Days". Bunin considered the culprits of the revolution not only the “possessed” Bolsheviks, but also the beautiful-hearted intelligentsia. “It was not the people who started the revolution, but you. The people did not care at all about everything we wanted, what we were unhappy with ...

Even helping the starving was somehow literary in our country, only out of a thirst to once again kick the government, to bring an extra dig under it. It is terrible to say, but it is true: if there were no national disasters, thousands of intellectuals would be downright miserable people: how then to sit, protest, what to shout and write about?

In May 1918, Bunin and his wife with difficulty got out of hungry Moscow to Odessa, where they survived the change of many authorities. In January 1920 they fled to Constantinople. In Russia, Bunin was no longer holding - his parents died, his brother Julius was dying, former friends became enemies or left the country even earlier. Leaving his homeland on the ship Sparta overloaded with refugees, Bunin felt like the last inhabitant of the sunken Atlantis.

In the autumn of 1920, Bunin arrived in Paris and immediately set to work. Ahead were 33 years of emigration, during which he created ten books of prose. old friend Bunin Zaitsev wrote: “The exile even benefited him. It sharpened the sense of Russia, irrevocable, and thickened the previously strong juice of his poetry.

Europeans also learned about the phenomenon of new talent.

In 1921, a collection of short stories by Bunin, The Gentleman from San Francisco, was published in French. The Paris press was filled with responses: “a real Russian talent”, “bleeding, uneven, but courageous and truthful”, “one of the greatest Russian writers”. Thomas Mann and Romain Rolland, who in 1922 first nominated Bunin as a candidate for the Nobel Prize, were delighted with the stories. However, the tone in the culture of that time was set by the avant-garde, with which the writer did not want to have anything in common.

He never became a world celebrity, but the emigration read him avidly. And how could one not burst into nostalgic tears from such lines: “And a minute later, glasses and wine glasses appeared in front of us, bottles of multi-colored vodkas, pink salmon, swarthy-skinned balyk, blue with shells opened on ice fragments, an orange chester square, black shiny a lump of pressed caviar, a tub of champagne white and sweaty from the cold ... We started with peppercorns ... "

Past feasts seemed even more abundant in comparison with the poverty of the emigrants. Bunin published a lot, but his existence was far from idyllic. Reminiscent of his age, the Parisian winter dampness caused bouts of rheumatism. He and his wife decided to go south for the winter and in 1922 they rented a villa in the town of Grasse with the magnificent name "Belvedere". There, their guests were the leading emigration writers - Merezhkovsky, Gippius, Zaitsev, Khodasevich and Nina Berberova.

Mark Aldanov and Bunin's secretary, writer Andrei Tsvibak (Sedykh) lived here for a long time. Bunin willingly helped needy fellow countrymen from his poor means. In 1926, a young writer Galina Kuznetsova came to visit him from Paris. Soon a romance began between them. Thin, delicate, understanding everything, Vera Nikolaevna wanted to think that love experiences were necessary for her "Yan" for a new creative upsurge.

Soon the triangle in the Belvedere turned into a quadrangle - this happened when the writer Leonid Zurov, who settled in the Bunin house, began to look after Vera Nikolaevna. The complex ups and downs of their relationship became the subject of emigrant gossip, got into the pages of memoirs. Endless quarrels and reconciliations spoiled a lot of blood for all four, and Zurov was completely driven to madness. However, this "autumn romance", which lasted for 15 years, inspired all of Bunin's later work, including the novel "The Life of Arseniev" and the collection of love stories "Dark Alleys".

This would not have happened if Galina Kuznetsova had been an empty-headed beauty - she also became a real assistant for the writer. In her Grasse Diary, one can read: “I am happy that each chapter of his novel was previously, as it were, experienced by both of us in long conversations.” The novel ended unexpectedly - in 1942, Galina became interested in the opera singer Marga Stepun. Bunin could not find a place for himself, exclaiming: “How she poisoned my life - she still poisons me!”

In the midst of the novel, news came that Bunin had been awarded the Nobel Prize. The entire Russian emigration took it as their triumph. In Stockholm, Bunin was met by the king and queen, descendants of Alfred Nobel, dressed up society ladies. And he looked only at the deep white snow, which he had not seen since his departure from Russia, and dreamed of running through it like a boy ... At the ceremony, he said that for the first time in history, the prize was awarded to an exile who did not stand behind his country. The country, through the mouths of its diplomats, persistently protested against the presentation of the award to the "White Guard".

The prize of that year was 150 thousand francs, but Bunin very quickly distributed them to the petitioners. During the war years, he hid in Grasse, where the Germans did not reach, several Jewish writers who were threatened with death. About that time he wrote: “We live badly, very badly. Well, we eat frozen potatoes. Or some water with something vile floating in it, some kind of carrot. It's called soup... We live in a commune. Six persons. And no one has a penny for the soul. Despite the hardships, Bunin rejected all the offers of the Germans to go to their service. Hatred of the Soviet regime was temporarily forgotten - like other emigrants, he closely followed the events at the front, moving the flags on the map of Europe that hung in his office.

In the autumn of 1944, France was liberated, and Bunin and his wife returned to Paris. On a wave of euphoria, he visited the Soviet embassy and said there that he was proud of his country's victory. The news spread that he drank to Stalin's health. Many Russian Parisians recoiled from him. But the visits to him began Soviet writers through which proposals to return to the USSR were transmitted. He was promised royal conditions, better than those that Alexei Tolstoy had. The writer answered one of the tempters: “I have nowhere to return. There are no more places or people that I knew.

The flirtation of the Soviet authorities with the writer ended after the release of his book "Dark Alleys" in New York. They saw almost pornography. He complained to Irina Odoevtseva: “I consider “Dark Alleys” to be the best thing I have written, and they, idiots, believe that I have dishonored my gray hairs with them ... Pharisees do not understand that this is a new word, new approach to life". Life has put the dots - detractors have long been forgotten, and "Dark Alleys" remains one of the most lyrical books in Russian literature, a true encyclopedia of love.

In November 1952, Bunin wrote last poem, and in May next year did last entry in his diary: “It is still amazing to the point of tetanus! After some, a very short time, I will not be - and the deeds and fates of everything, everything will be unknown to me! At two o'clock in the morning from November 7 to 8, 1953, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin died in a rented apartment in Paris in the presence of his wife and his last secretary Alexei Bakhrakh.

He worked up to last days- the manuscript of a book about Chekhov remained on the table. All major newspapers placed obituaries, and even in the Soviet Pravda appeared short message: "Emigrant writer Ivan Bunin died in Paris." He was buried in the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois, and seven years later Vera Nikolaevna found her last shelter next to him. By that time, Bunin's works, after 40 years of oblivion, began to be published again in their homeland. His dream came true - compatriots were able to see and recognize the Russia he saved, which has long sunk into history.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin Russian writer, poet, honorary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1909), the first Russian Nobel Prize in Literature (1933), was born on October 22 (Old Style - October 10), 1870 in Voronezh, in the family of an impoverished nobleman who belonged to the old noble family. Bunin's father is a petty official, his mother is Lyudmila Alexandrovna, nee Chubarova. Of their nine children, five died in early age. Ivan's childhood passed on the Butyrka farm in the Oryol province in communication with peasant peers.

In 1881, Ivan went to the first grade of the gymnasium. In Yelets, the boy studied for about four and a half years - until the middle of the winter of 1886, when he was expelled from the gymnasium for non-payment of tuition. Having moved to Ozerki, under the guidance of his brother Julius, a candidate of the university, Ivan successfully prepared for the matriculation exams.

In the autumn of 1886, the young man began to write the novel Passion, which he finished on March 26, 1887. The novel was not published.

Since the autumn of 1889, Bunin worked in the Orlovsky Vestnik, where his stories, poems and literary criticism were published. The young writer met the newspaper's proofreader Varvara Pashchenko, who married him in 1891. True, due to the fact that Pashchenko's parents were against marriage, the couple did not get married.

At the end of August 1892, the newlyweds moved to Poltava. Here the elder brother Julius took Ivan to his office. He even came up with a position for him as a librarian, which left enough time for reading and traveling around the province.

After the wife got along with Bunin's friend A.I. Bibikov, the writer left Poltava. For several years he led a hectic life, never staying anywhere for long. In January 1894, Bunin visited Leo Tolstoy in Moscow. Echoes of Tolstoy's ethics and his criticisms of urban civilization are heard in Bunin's stories. The post-reform impoverishment of the nobility evoked nostalgic notes in his soul (“Antonov apples”, “Epitaph”, “New road”). Bunin was proud of his origin, but was indifferent to the "blue blood", and the feeling of social restlessness grew into a desire to "serve the people of the earth and the God of the universe, the God whom I call Beauty, Reason, Love, Life, and who permeates everything."

In 1896, G. Longfellow's poem "The Song of Hiawatha" was published in Bunin's translation. He also translated Alcaeus, Saadi, Petrarch, Byron, Mickiewicz, Shevchenko, Bialik and other poets. In 1897, Bunin's book "To the End of the World" and other stories were published in St. Petersburg.

Having moved to the Black Sea, Bunin began to collaborate in the Odessa newspaper "Southern Review", published his poems, stories, literary criticism. Newspaper publisher N.P. Tsakni invited Bunin to take part in the publication of the newspaper. Meanwhile, Ivan Alekseevich liked the daughter of Tsakni Anna Nikolaevna. On September 23, 1898, their wedding took place. But the life of the young did not work out. In 1900 they divorced, and in 1905 their son Kolya died.

In 1898, a collection of Bunin's poems Under the Open Sky was published in Moscow, which strengthened his fame. The collection Falling Leaves (1901) was greeted with enthusiastic reviews, which, together with the translation of the Song of Hiawatha, was awarded the Pushkin Prize of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1903 and earned Bunin the fame of "the poet of the Russian landscape." The continuation of poetry was the lyrical prose of the beginning of the century and travel essays(“Shadow of a Bird”, 1908).

“Even then, Bunin’s poetry was distinguished by devotion to the classical tradition, this feature will continue to permeate all of his work,” writes E.V. Stepanyan. - The poetry that brought him fame was formed under the influence of Pushkin, Fet, Tyutchev. But she possessed only her inherent qualities. So, Bunin gravitates towards a sensually concrete image; the picture of nature in Bunin's poetry is made up of smells, sharply perceived colors, and sounds. special role plays in Bunin's poetry and prose an epithet used by the writer, as it were, emphatically subjectively, arbitrarily, but at the same time endowed with the persuasiveness of sensory experience.

Not accepting symbolism, Bunin joined the neorealist associations - the Knowledge partnership and the Moscow literary circle Sreda, where he read almost all of his works written before 1917. At that time, Gorky considered Bunin "the first writer in Russia."

Bunin responded to the revolution of 1905–1907 with several declarative poems. He wrote about himself as "a witness to the great and mean, a powerless witness to atrocities, executions, torture, executions."

Then Bunin met his true love - Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, daughter of Nikolai Andreevich Muromtsev, a member of the Moscow City Council, and niece of Sergei Andreyevich Muromtsev, chairman of the State Duma. G.V. Adamovich, who knew the Bunins well in France for many years, wrote that Ivan Alekseevich found in Vera Nikolaevna “a friend not only loving, but also devoted to his whole being, ready to sacrifice himself, to yield in everything, while remaining a living person, without turning into a voiceless shadow".

From the end of 1906, Bunin and Vera Nikolaevna met almost daily. Since the marriage with his first wife was not dissolved, they could only get married in 1922 in Paris.

Together with Vera Nikolaevna, Bunin traveled in 1907 to Egypt, Syria and Palestine, in 1909 and 1911 he was with Gorky in Capri. In 1910-1911 he visited Egypt and Ceylon. In 1909, Bunin was awarded the Pushkin Prize for the second time and he was elected an honorary academician, and in 1912 an honorary member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature (until 1920 he was a deputy chairman).

In 1910, the writer wrote the story "The Village". According to Bunin himself, this was the beginning of "a whole series of works that sharply depict the Russian soul, its peculiar interweaving, its light and dark, but almost always tragic foundations." The story "Dry Valley" (1911) is a confession of a peasant woman, convinced that "the masters had the same character as the serfs: either rule or be afraid." The heroes of the stories "Strength", "Good Life" (1911), "The Prince of Princes" (1912) are yesterday's serfs, losing their human image in money-grubbing; the story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" (1915) is about the miserable death of a millionaire. At the same time, Bunin painted people who had nowhere to apply their natural talent and strength (“Cricket”, “Zakhar Vorobyov”, “John Rydalets”, etc.). Declaring that he is “most of all occupied by the soul of a Russian person in deep sense, the image of the mental traits of a Slav”, the writer was looking for the core of the nation in the folklore element, in excursions into history (“Six-winged”, “Saint Procopius”, “The Dream of Bishop Ignatius of Rostov”, “Prince Vseslav”). This search was intensified by the First World War, to which Bunin's attitude was sharply negative.

October Revolution and Civil War summed up this socio-artistic study. “There are two types among the people,” wrote Bunin. - In one, Russia prevails, in the other - Chud, Merya. But in both there is a terrible changeability of moods, appearances, "shakyness", as they used to say in the old days. The people themselves said to themselves: "From us, as from a tree - both a club and an icon," depending on the circumstances, on who will process the tree.

From revolutionary Petrograd, avoiding the "terrible proximity of the enemy", Bunin left for Moscow, and from there on May 21, 1918 to Odessa, where the diary "Cursed Days" was written - one of the most violent denunciations of the revolution and the power of the Bolsheviks. In poems, Bunin called Russia a "harlot", he wrote, referring to the people: "My people! Your guides led you to death." “Having drunk the cup of unspeakable mental suffering,” on January 26, 1920, the Bunins left for Constantinople, from there to Bulgaria and Serbia, and arrived in Paris at the end of March.

In 1921, Bunin's collection of short stories "The Gentleman from San Francisco" was published in Paris. This publication caused numerous responses in the French press. Here is just one of them: “Bunin ... a real Russian talent, bleeding, uneven, and at the same time courageous and big. His book contains several stories worthy of Dostoevsky's strength" (Nervie, December 1921).

“In France,” Bunin wrote, “I lived for the first time in Paris, from the summer of 1923 I moved to the Alpes-Maritimes, returning to Paris only for some winter months.”

Bunin settled in the Villa Belvedere, and below the amphitheater is the old Provencal town of Grasse. The nature of Provence reminded Bunin of the Crimea, which he loved very much. Rachmaninoff visited him in Grasse. Novice writers lived under Bunin's roof - he taught them literary skills, criticized what they wrote, expounded his views on literature, history and philosophy. He talked about meetings with Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gorky. Bunin's closest literary circle included N. Teffi, B. Zaitsev, M. Aldanov, F. Stepun, L. Shestov, as well as his "studios" G. Kuznetsova ( last love Bunin) and L. Zurov.

All these years, Bunin wrote a lot, almost every year his new books appeared. Following "The Gentleman from San Francisco" in 1921, the collection " Initial love”, in 1924 in Berlin - “Rose of Jericho”, in 1925 in Paris - “Mitina's Love”, in the same place in 1929 - “Selected Poems” - the only one in exile poetry collection Bunin caused positive feedback from V. Khodasevich, N. Teffi, V. Nabokov. In "blissful dreams of the past" Bunin returned to his homeland, recalled his childhood, adolescence, youth, "unsatisfied love."

As E.V. Stepanyan: “The binarity of Bunin's thinking - the idea of ​​the drama of life, associated with the idea of ​​the beauty of the world - gives Bunin's plots the intensity of development and tension. The same intensity of being is palpable in Bunin's artistic detail which has acquired even greater sensual authenticity in comparison with the works of early creativity.

Until 1927, Bunin spoke in the Vozrozhdenie newspaper, then (for financial reasons) in latest news”, not adjoining any of the émigré political groups.

In 1930, Ivan Alekseevich wrote "The Shadow of a Bird" and completed, perhaps, the most significant work of the emigration period - the novel "Arseniev's Life".

Vera Nikolaevna wrote in the late twenties to the wife of the writer B.K. Zaitsev about Bunin's work on this book:

“Yan is in a period (do not jinx it) of drunken work: he sees nothing, hears nothing, writes all day without stopping ... As always in these periods, he is very meek, gentle with me in particular, sometimes he reads what he has written to me alone "a huge honor". And very often he repeats that he never in his life could equate me with anyone, that I am the only one, etc. ”

The description of Aleksey Arseniev's experiences is covered with sadness about the past, about Russia, "which perished before our eyes in such a magically short time." Bunin managed to translate even purely prosaic material into poetic sound (series short stories 1927-1930: "The Calf's Head", "The Hunchback's Romance", "The Rafters", "The Killer", etc.).

In 1922, Bunin was first nominated for the Nobel Prize. R. Rolland put forward his candidacy, which was reported to Bunin by M.A. Aldanov: "...Your candidacy has been declared and declared by a person who is extremely respected throughout the world."

However, the Nobel Prize in 1923 went to the Irish poet W.B. Yeats. In 1926, negotiations were underway again to nominate Bunin for the Nobel Prize. Since 1930, Russian émigré writers have resumed their efforts to nominate Bunin for the prize.

The Nobel Prize was awarded to Bunin in 1933. The official decision to award Bunin the prize states:

"By decision of the Swedish Academy of November 9, 1933, the Nobel Prize in Literature for this year was awarded to Ivan Bunin for the rigorous artistic talent with which he recreated the typical Russian character in literary prose."

Bunin distributed a significant amount of the prize received to those in need. A committee was set up to allocate funds. Bunin told Segodnya correspondent P. Nilsky: “... As soon as I received the prize, I had to distribute about 120,000 francs. Yes, I don't know how to handle money. Now this is especially difficult. Do you know how many letters I received asking for help? In the shortest possible time, up to 2,000 such letters came.

In 1937, the writer completed the philosophical and literary treatise "The Liberation of Tolstoy" - the result of lengthy reflections based on his own impressions and testimonies of people who knew Tolstoy closely.

In 1938 Bunin visited the Baltic states. After this trip, he moved to another villa - "Jannette", where he spent the entire Second World War in difficult conditions. world war. Ivan Alekseevich was very worried about the fate of the Motherland and enthusiastically received all reports of the victories of the Red Army. Bunin dreamed of returning to Russia until last minute but this dream was not destined to come true.

The book "On Chekhov" (published in New York in 1955) Bunin failed to complete. His latest masterpiece- the poem "Night" - dated 1952.

On November 8, 1953, Bunin died and was buried in the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris.

According to the materials "100 great Nobel laureates» Musskiy S.

• Biography