The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1918-11-10
TURGENIEFF CENTENARY

IURGENlEFF CEN1ENAh4
English literary circles have devoted consider
able attention this week to an observance of the
ivan Turgenieff centenary. Turgenief spent
some years of his life in London and cordial
ly received and publicly honored by the English
people. Second only to Tolstoi among modern
Russian 11ovelsts, his works and teachings have
been given added interest in the light of recent
affairs in Russia 1t was he who invented the
word "nihilism' His Fathers and Children
appeared in 1862, and in this he described the
doctrines that were slowly and surely becoming
vital forces in Russia, and he called them nihil-
istic-coining the word.
Turgenieff was only 16 years of age when
his father died. There was another brother,
Nicholas, and the two boys grew to manhood
under the direct charge of their mother. The
Turgenief family important and old one,
and the mother Litvinoff-a family with
immense estates and many serfs and she was
heiress to all these When the time came for
Ivan to perfect his education as Russian gen.
tleman he went to the universities of Moscow,
st. Petersburg and Berlin.
His home education to prepare for his college
life had been carried on with German and French
tutors. French was the court language of Russia,
and Nine. Turgenieff allowed Russian to be
spoken only in connection with the servants.
Through one of their serfs Ivan gained his
first insight into Russian literature. What he
learned made profound impression on the young
man.
There another influence in VANS life that
had been making its impress all through his
youth. His mother presented one of the sad ex-
amples of the abuse of power. She was cruel to
the last degree with her servants, and the abso-
lutte control she had of them allowed her to go
To i'm MN for
as great faults
VANS heart went out to these unhappy crea-
lures. He saw only one hope for them, and that
was in emancipation. So when his mind had
naturally considered all sides of the question of
this wretched state of slavery he decided to make
literature profession and devote all his powers
to showing the unhappy condition of the Russian
serf. Nine. Turgenieff furious with her son
and felt he had degraded the family. But Ivan
held to his course, for he had passed beyond the
bounds of her influence
His literary work did much to hasten the mat
ter of emancipation. In telling of the condition
of the peasants there startling truth. The
emperor read with keen interest stories that
moved his heart
In 1868 Turgenieff went to live at Baden
Baden, then greater resort for interesting folk
than it is today. He spent much of his time
with Louis Viardot and his wife, who was the
famous singer, Pauline Garcia Louis Viardot
the writer of many historic works. So their
literary tastes made the friendship close one
For many years Turgenieff continued to make
his home with them.
The English literary world found in Tur-
geniefs work the originality that holds attention
While in England he made many warm friends
in the highest circles. In 1879 Oxford University
honored him with degree.
When he came to die Turgenieff requested that
his body be taken to st. Petersburg to rest in his
native land. So his grave is in the Volkoff ceme-
terry of what is the city of Petrograd, near
The tomb of early friend, the critic Bielinski,
who was the first literary person to take kindly
note of his writings.
Like most of the novels that have the strength
and force to bring about reforms, the stories of
Turgenieff marvels in their realism and sim
plicity. There is profound undercurrent of
sorrow in most of them. There is also in his
work depth of love for nature in all her moods.