Biography
The first Russian Nobel laureate, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, is called a jeweler of words, a prose writer, a genius of Russian literature and the brightest representative of the Silver Age. Literary critics agree that Bunin’s works have kinship with the paintings of Viktor Vasnetsov, and in their worldview, Ivan Alekseevich’s stories and tales are similar to the paintings of Mikhail Vrubel.
First madness in love
In 1927, while living in Grasse, not far from Nice, Bunin, as a boy, fell in love with the Russian poetess Galina Kuznetsova, who was vacationing there with her husband. The latter found out about their feelings and rushed away in his hearts. At that time, the writer was in a bad mood, having a hard time experiencing emigration. He saw how rapidly the world was changing, but he himself was not ready to let go of the past.
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Galina became a ray of light that illuminated the dark room. Ivan Alekseevich determined to keep the angel who had descended from heaven next to him at all costs. By any means. There was no talk of divorce from Vera - they had experienced too much together, becoming close in soul and body.
Bunin used a trick and somehow managed to convince Muromtseva that his love for Kuznetsova was purely platonic. He hired Galina to work as a secretary so that she would formally have a reason to live together under the same roof.
Childhood and youth
Contemporaries of Ivan Bunin claim that the writer felt a “breed”, an innate aristocracy. There is nothing to be surprised: Ivan Alekseevich is a representative of the oldest noble family, dating back to the 15th century. The Bunin family coat of arms is included in the armorial of the noble families of the Russian Empire. Among the writer’s ancestors is the founder of romanticism, writer of ballads and poems Vasily Zhukovsky.
Portrait of Ivan Bunin
Ivan Alekseevich was born in October 1870 in Voronezh, in the family of a poor nobleman and petty official Alexei Bunin, married to his cousin Lyudmila Chubarova, a meek but impressionable woman. She bore her husband nine children, four of whom survived.
Ivan Bunin in childhood
The family moved to Voronezh 4 years before Ivan’s birth to educate their eldest sons Yuli and Evgeniy. We settled in a rented apartment on Bolshaya Dvoryanskaya Street. When Ivan was four years old, his parents returned to the Butyrki family estate in the Oryol province. Bunin spent his childhood on the farm.
The love of reading was instilled in the boy by his tutor, a student at Moscow University, Nikolai Romashkov. At home, Ivan Bunin studied languages, focusing on Latin. The first books the future writer read on his own were Homer’s “Odyssey” and a collection of English poems.
Ivan Bunin in childhood
In the summer of 1881, his father brought Ivan to Yelets. The youngest son passed the exams and entered the 1st grade of the men's gymnasium. Bunin liked to study, but this did not concern the exact sciences. In a letter to his older brother, Vanya admitted that he considered the math exam “the worst.” After 5 years, Ivan Bunin was expelled from the gymnasium in the middle of the school year. A 16-year-old boy came to his father’s Ozerki estate for the Christmas holidays, but never returned to Yelets. For failure to appear at the gymnasium, the teachers' council expelled the guy. Ivan’s older brother Julius took over Ivan’s further education.
Literature
The creative biography of Ivan Bunin began in Ozerki. On the estate, he continued work on the novel “Passion”, which he began in Yelets, but the work did not reach the reader. But the poem of the young writer, written under the impression of the death of his idol - the poet Semyon Nadson - was published in the magazine "Rodina".
Ivan Bunin in his youth
On his father's estate, with the help of his brother, Ivan Bunin prepared for the final exams, passed them and received a matriculation certificate.
From the autumn of 1889 to the summer of 1892, Ivan Bunin worked in the Orlovsky Vestnik magazine, where his stories, poems and literary critical articles were published. In August 1892, Julius called his brother to Poltava, where he gave Ivan a job as a librarian in the provincial government.
In January 1894, the writer visited Moscow, where he met with his congenial Leo Tolstoy. Like Lev Nikolaevich, Bunin criticizes urban civilization. In the stories “Antonov Apples”, “Epitaph” and “New Road”, nostalgic notes for a bygone era are discerned, and regret for the degenerating nobility is felt.
Ivan Bunin in his youth
In 1897, Ivan Bunin published the book “To the End of the World” in St. Petersburg. A year earlier, he translated Henry Longfellow's poem The Song of Hiawatha. Poems by Alcaeus, Saadi, Francesco Petrarch, Adam Mickiewicz and George Byron appeared in Bunin's translation.
In 1898, Ivan Alekseevich’s poetry collection “Under the Open Air” was published in Moscow, warmly received by literary critics and readers. Two years later, Bunin presented poetry lovers with a second book of poems, “Falling Leaves,” which strengthened the author’s authority as a “poet of the Russian landscape.” The St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences awarded Ivan Bunin the first Pushkin Prize in 1903, followed by the second.
But in the poetic community, Ivan Bunin earned a reputation as an “old-fashioned landscape painter.” At the end of the 1890s, “fashionable” poets Valery Bryusov, who brought the “breath of city streets” to Russian lyrics, and Alexander Blok with his restless heroes became favorites. Maximilian Voloshin, in a review of Bunin’s collection “Poems,” wrote that Ivan Alekseevich found himself on the sidelines “from the general movement,” but from the point of view of painting, his poetic “canvases” reached the “end points of perfection.” Critics cite the poems “I Remember a Long Winter Evening” and “Evening” as examples of perfection and adherence to the classics.
Ivan Bunin the poet does not accept symbolism and looks critically at the revolutionary events of 1905–1907, calling himself “a witness of the great and the vile.” In 1910, Ivan Alekseevich published the story “The Village,” which laid the foundation for “a whole series of works that sharply depict the Russian soul.” The continuation of the series is the story “Sukhodol” and the stories “Strength”, “Good Life”, “Prince among Princes”, “Lapti”.
In 1915, Ivan Bunin was at the peak of his popularity. His famous stories “The Master from San Francisco”, “The Grammar of Love”, “Easy Breathing” and “Chang’s Dreams” were published. In 1917, the writer left revolutionary Petrograd, avoiding the “terrible proximity of the enemy.” Bunin lived in Moscow for six months, from there in May 1918 he left for Odessa, where he wrote the diary “Cursed Days” - a furious denunciation of the revolution and Bolshevik power.
Portrait of "Ivan Bunin". Artist Evgeny Bukovetsky
It is dangerous for a writer who so vehemently criticizes the new government to remain in the country. In January 1920, Ivan Alekseevich left Russia. He leaves for Constantinople, and in March ends up in Paris. A collection of short stories entitled “Mr. from San Francisco” was published here, which the public greeted enthusiastically.
Since the summer of 1923, Ivan Bunin lived at the Belvedere villa in ancient Grasse, where Sergei Rachmaninov visited him. During these years, the stories “Initial Love”, “Numbers”, “Rose of Jericho” and “Mitya’s Love” were published.
In 1930, Ivan Alekseevich wrote the story “The Shadow of a Bird” and completed the most significant work created in exile, the novel “The Life of Arsenyev.” The description of the hero’s experiences is filled with sadness about the departed Russia, “which perished before our eyes in such a magically short time.”
Ivan Bunin's apartment in Paris
In the late 1930s, Ivan Bunin moved to the Villa Zhannette, where he lived during the Second World War. The writer worried about the fate of his homeland and joyfully greeted the news of the slightest victory of the Soviet troops. Bunin lived in poverty. He wrote about his difficult situation:
“I was rich - now, by the will of fate, I suddenly became poor... I was famous throughout the world - now no one in the world needs me... I really want to go home!”
The villa was dilapidated: the heating system did not function, there were interruptions in electricity and water supply. Ivan Alekseevich spoke in letters to friends about the “constant famine in the caves.” In order to get at least a small amount of money, Bunin asked a friend who had left for America to publish the collection “Dark Alleys” on any terms. The book in Russian with a circulation of 600 copies was published in 1943, for which the writer received $300. The collection includes the story “Clean Monday”. Ivan Bunin’s last masterpiece, the poem “Night,” was published in 1952.
Researchers of the prose writer's work have noticed that his stories and stories are cinematic. For the first time, a Hollywood producer spoke about film adaptations of Ivan Bunin’s works, expressing a desire to make a film based on the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco.” But it ended with a conversation.
Ivan Bunin
In the early 1960s, Russian directors drew attention to the work of his compatriot. A short film based on the story “Mitya’s Love” was directed by Vasily Pichul. In 1989, the film “Unurgent Spring” based on Bunin’s story of the same name was released.
In 2000, the biographical film “His Wife’s Diary,” directed by Alexei Uchitel, was released, which tells the story of relationships in the prose writer’s family.
The premiere of the drama “Sunstroke” by Nikita Mikhalkov in 2014 caused a resonance. The film is based on the story of the same name and the book “Cursed Days.”
First love
In January 1889, 19-year-old Bunin arrived in Orel, where he was offered a job in the Orlovsky Vestnik publication as an assistant editor. By that time, Vanya had already written several poems and was considered a promising guy.
He published his stories, poems and reviews in the literary section of the newspaper, which attracted the attention of an older and more experienced colleague, Varvara Pashchenko. The acquaintance quickly transformed into passionate mutual love.
However, being the daughter of a respected doctor in the province, she could not immediately receive her father’s blessing for marriage. And when I received it, I didn’t even want it. However, strict moral standards did not prevent them from being lovers. Later, Varvara married Bunin’s friend, and their connection was severed.
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Nobel Prize
Ivan Bunin was first nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1922. Nobel Prize laureate Romain Rolland worked on this. But then the prize was given to the Irish poet William Yates.
In the 1930s, Russian emigrant writers joined the process, and their efforts were crowned with victory: in November 1933, the Swedish Academy awarded Ivan Bunin a prize for literature. The address to the laureate said that he deserved the award for “recreating in prose a typical Russian character.”
Honoring the awarding of Ivan Bunin with the Nobel Prize
Ivan Bunin quickly squandered the 715 thousand francs of his prize. In the very first months, he distributed half of it to those in need and to everyone who turned to him for help. Even before receiving the award, the writer admitted that he had received 2,000 letters asking for financial help.
3 years after receiving the Nobel Prize, Ivan Bunin plunged into habitual poverty. Until the end of his life he never had his own home. Bunin best described the state of affairs in a short poem “The Bird Has a Nest,” which contains the lines:
The beast has a hole, the bird has a nest. How my heart beats, sadly and loudly, When I enter, crossing myself, into someone else’s rented house With my already old knapsack!
Personal life
The young writer met his first love when he worked at Orlovsky Vestnik. Varvara Pashchenko, a tall beauty in pince-nez, seemed too arrogant and emancipated to Bunin. But soon he found an interesting interlocutor in the girl. A romance broke out, but Varvara’s father did not like the poor young man with vague prospects. The couple lived without a wedding. In his memoirs, Ivan Bunin calls Varvara “the unmarried wife.”
Ivan Bunin and Varvara Pashchenko
After moving to Poltava, already difficult relations worsened. Varvara, a girl from a wealthy family, was fed up with her miserable existence: she left home, leaving Bunin a farewell note. Soon Pashchenko became the wife of actor Arseny Bibikov. Ivan Bunin had a hard time with the breakup; his brothers feared for his life.
Ivan Bunin and Anna Tsakni
In 1898, in Odessa, Ivan Alekseevich met Anna Tsakni. She became Bunin's first official wife. The wedding took place that same year. But the couple did not live together for long: they separated two years later. The marriage produced the writer’s only son, Nikolai, but in 1905 the boy died of scarlet fever. Bunin had no more children.
The love of Ivan Bunin’s life is his third wife Vera Muromtseva, whom he met in Moscow at a literary evening in November 1906. Muromtseva, a graduate of the Higher Women's Courses, was fond of chemistry and spoke three languages fluently. But Vera was far from literary bohemia.
Ivan Bunin with his wife Vera
The newlyweds got married in exile in 1922: Tsakni did not give Bunin a divorce for 15 years. The best man at the wedding was Alexander Kuprin. The couple lived together until Bunin's death, although their life could not be called cloudless. In 1926, rumors about a strange love triangle appeared among the emigrants: a young writer Galina Kuznetsova lived in the house of Ivan and Vera Bunin, for whom Ivan Bunin had far from friendly feelings.
Ivan Bunin and Galina Kuznetsova
Kuznetsova is called the writer’s last love. She lived in the villa of the Bunins for 10 years. Ivan Alekseevich experienced a tragedy when he learned about Galina’s passion for the sister of the philosopher Fyodor Stepun, Margarita. Kuznetsova left Bunin’s house and went to Margot, which became the reason for the writer’s protracted depression. Friends of Ivan Alekseevich wrote that Bunin at that time was on the verge of madness and despair. He worked day and night, trying to forget his beloved.
After breaking up with Kuznetsova, Ivan Bunin wrote 38 short stories, included in the collection “Dark Alleys”.
Personal life tragedy
In 1905, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin suffered a grave grief: his son Nikolai, whom Anna Tsakni gave birth to, died. This fact can definitely be attributed to the writer’s personal life tragedy. However, as follows from the biography, Ivan Bunin held firm, was able to endure the pain of loss and, despite such a sad event, give the whole world many literary “pearls”! What else is known about the life of the Russian classic?
Death
In the late 1940s, doctors diagnosed Bunin with pulmonary emphysema. At the insistence of doctors, Ivan Alekseevich went to a resort in the south of France. But my health did not improve. In 1947, 79-year-old Ivan Bunin spoke for the last time before an audience of writers.
Poverty forced him to turn to Russian emigrant Andrei Sedykh for help. He obtained a pension for a sick colleague from the American philanthropist Frank Atran. Until the end of Bunin’s life, Atran paid the writer 10 thousand francs monthly.
Ivan Bunin in recent years
In the late autumn of 1953, Ivan Bunin's health deteriorated. He didn't get out of bed. Shortly before his death, the writer asked his wife to read Chekhov's letters.
On November 8, the doctor confirmed the death of Ivan Alekseevich. Its cause was cardiac asthma and pulmonary sclerosis. The Nobel laureate was buried in the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery, the place where hundreds of Russian emigrants found rest.
First Swedish family
But you can’t hide an sew in a bag. Gradually, the relationship grew from platonic to intimate. The second wife had to come to terms with what was happening, because she still loved her husband in her own way. In addition, difficult times were coming; there was not enough money to live on.
In the end, both women had to share one man. But Bunin seemed to like this symbiosis. Gradually they stopped hiding their unusual relationship, and they started whispering about it all over the area, and then the news spread around the world.
Ivan was in awe of his young passion, who was 30 years younger. Slender, curvy, smart, talented - with her mere presence she caused attacks of inspiration, passion, regret, apathy and inspiration again. For 15 years, the great writer did not dare to let Galya out of his hands, clinging to the fragments of his youth.
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