Ivan Aleksandrovich Bunin biography. Brief information about Bunin

He opened new horizons for the most demanding readers. He skillfully wrote captivating stories and stories. He had a keen sense of literature and his native language. Ivan Bunin is a writer, thanks to whom people looked at love differently.

On October 10, 1870, a boy, Vanya, was born in Voronezh. He grew up and was brought up in the family of a landowner in the Oryol and Tula provinces, who became impoverished because of his love for cards. However, despite this fact, aristocracy was felt in the writer for a reason, because his family roots lead us to the poetess A.P. Bunina and V.A. Zhukovsky’s father, A.I. Bunin. The Bunin family was a worthy representative of the noble families of Russia.

Three years later, the boy’s family moved to an estate on the Butyrka farm in Oryol province. Many of Bunin’s childhood memories are associated with this place, which we can see between the lines in his stories. For example, in “Antonov Apples” he describes with love and reverence the family nests of relatives and friends.

Youth and education

In 1881, having successfully passed the exams, Bunin entered the Yelets Gymnasium. The boy showed interest in learning and was a very capable student, but this did not apply to the natural and exact sciences. In his letter to his older brother, he wrote that the math exam was “the worst” for him. He did not graduate from high school, as he was expelled due to absence from the holidays. He continued his studies with his brother Julius at his parental estate Ozerki, with whom he later became very close. Knowing the child’s preferences, the relatives focused on the humanities.

His first literary works date back to this period. At 15, the young writer creates the novel “Passion,” but it is not published anywhere. The first published poem was “Over the grave of S. Ya. Nadson” in the magazine “Rodina” (1887).

Creative path

This is where the period of Ivan Bunin’s wanderings begins. Beginning in 1889, he worked for 3 years in the Orlovsky Vestnik magazine, which published his short literary works and articles. Later he moves to his brother in Kharkov, where he gets him a job in the provincial government as a librarian.

In 1894 he went to Moscow, where he met Leo Tolstoy. As mentioned earlier, the poet already then subtly senses the surrounding reality, which is why in the stories “Antonov Apples”, “New Road” and “Epitaph” nostalgia for the bygone era will be so keenly traced and dissatisfaction with the urban environment will be felt.

1891 is the year of publication of Bunin’s first collection of poems, in which the reader first encounters the theme of the bitterness and sweetness of love, which permeates the works dedicated to the unhappy love for Paschenko.

In 1897, a second book appeared in St. Petersburg - “To the End of the World and Other Stories.”

Ivan Bunin also distinguished himself as a translator of works by Alcaeus, Saadi, Francesco Petrarch, Adam Mickiewicz and George Byron.

The writer's hard work yielded results. In Moscow in 1898, the poetry collection “Under the Open Air” appeared. In 1900, a collection of poems “Falling Leaves” was published. In 1903, Bunin was awarded the Pushkin Prize, which he received from the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

Every year the talented writer enriched literature more and more. 1915 is the year of his creative success. His most famous works were published: “The Mister from San Francisco”, “Easy Breathing”, “Chang’s Dreams” and “The Grammar of Love”. The dramatic events in the country greatly inspired the master.

He turned a new page in his book of life after moving to Constantinople in the 1920s. Later he ends up in Paris as a political emigrant. He did not accept the coup and condemned the new government with all his heart. The most significant novel created during the period of emigration is “The Life of Arsenyev.” For it, the author received the Nobel Prize in 1933 (the first for a Russian writer). This is a grandiose event in our history and a big step forward for Russian literature.

During the Second World War, the writer lives very poorly in the Villa Janet. His work abroad does not find the same response as at home, and the author himself suffers from longing for his native land. Bunin's last literary work was published in 1952.

Personal life

1. The first was Varvara Pashchenko. This love story cannot be called happy. At first, the obstacle to their relationship was the young lady’s parents, who were categorically against their daughter’s marriage to a failed young man, who was also a year younger than her. Then the writer himself became convinced of the dissimilarity of the characters. As a result, Pashchenko married a wealthy landowner, with whom she had a close relationship secret from Bunin. The author dedicated poetry to this gap.
2. In 1898, Ivan married the daughter of the migrant revolutionary A. N. Tsakni. It was she who became a “sunstroke” for the writer. However, the marriage did not last long at all, since the Greek woman did not experience the same strong attraction to her husband.
3. His third muse was his second wife, Vera Muromtseva. This woman truly became Ivan’s guardian angel. Just as after the wreck of a ship during a storm there is a calm lull, so Vera appeared at the most necessary moment for Bunin. They lived in marriage for 46 years.
4. But everything was going smoothly only until Ivan Alekseevich brought his student, the aspiring writer Galina Kuznetsova, into the house. It was a fatal love - both were not free, both were separated by a gap in age (she was 26, and he was 56 years old). Galina left her husband for him, but Bunin was not ready to do the same with Vera. So the three of them lived together for 10 years until Marga appeared. Bunin was in despair: his second wife was taken away by another woman. This event was a big blow for him.

Death

In the last years of his life, Bunin became nostalgic for Russia and really wanted to go back. But his plans never came to fruition. November 8, 1953 is the date of death of the great writer of the Silver Age, Ivan Bunin.

He made a huge contribution to the development of literary creativity in Russia and became a symbol of Russian emigrant prose of the 20th century.

If you missed anything in this article, write in the comments and we’ll add it.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin was born on October 10 (22), 1870 in Voronezh into an old impoverished noble family. The future writer spent his childhood on the family estate - on the Butyrki farm in 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 complete the course, expelled in 1886 for failure to appear from vacation and non-payment of tuition. Return from Yelets I.A. Bunin had to move to a new place - to the Ozerki estate in the same Yeletsky district, where the whole family moved in the spring of 1883, fleeing ruin from the sale of land in Butyrki. He received further education at home under the guidance of his older brother Yuli Alekseevich Bunin (1857-1921), an exiled populist from the Black Revolution, who forever remained one of the closest to I.A. Bunin people.

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

At the beginning of 1889, the young writer left his parents' home and began an independent life. At first, following his brother Julius, he went to Kharkov, but in the fall of the same year he accepted an offer to collaborate in the Orlovsky Vestnik newspaper and settled in Orel. In the “Bulletin” I.A. Bunin “was everything he had to be - a proofreader, an editorial writer, and a theater critic”; he lived exclusively by literary work, barely making ends meet. In 1891, Bunin’s first book, “Poems of 1887-1891,” was published as a supplement to the Orlovsky Messenger. The first strong and painful feeling dates back 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 Yuliy Bunin served in the zemstvo city government. The young couple also got a job in the government, and the newspaper Poltava Provincial Gazette published numerous essays by Bunin, written at the request 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 “Russian Wealth”, “Northern Messenger”, “Bulletin of Europe”. 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 appendix to the Orlovsky Messenger, which revealed the undoubted talent of the translator and has remained unsurpassed to this day in its fidelity to the original and the beauty of the verse. In 1897, the collection “To the End of the World and Other Stories” was published in St. Petersburg, and in 1898, a book of poems “Under the Open Air” was published in Moscow. In Bunin’s spiritual biography, the rapprochement during these years with the participants in the “environments” of the writer N.D. is important. Teleshov and especially the meeting at the end of 1895 and the beginning of friendship with A.P. Chekhov. Bunin carried his admiration for Chekhov’s personality and talent throughout his life, dedicating his last book to him (the unfinished manuscript “About 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 "Falling Leaves" - the result of Bunin's short collaboration with the Symbolists, which in 1903 brought the author, along with the translation of "The Song of Hiawatha", the Pushkin Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Acquaintance with Maxim Gorky in 1899 led I.A. Bunin in the early 1900s. to cooperation with the publishing house "Knowledge". His stories and poems were published in the “Collections of the Knowledge Partnership”, and in 1902-1909. The publishing house "Znanie" publishes the first collected works of I.A. in five separate unnumbered volumes. Bunin (volume six was published 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 “Shadow of a Bird” (1908), with which in Bunin’s work begins a series of brilliant travel essays, later collected in the cycle of the same name (the collection “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 fall of 1909, the Academy of Sciences awarded I.A. Bunin received the second Pushkin Prize and elected him an honorary academician, but it was the story “The Village,” published in 1910, that brought him genuine and widespread 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 “Bulletin of Europe” in April 1912, was a huge success among readers and critics. On October 27-29 of the same year, the entire Russian public solemnly celebrated the 25th anniversary of I.A.’s literary activity. 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 an intimate 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 of 1912-1913.” (1913), "The Cup of Life: Stories of 1913-1914." (1915), "Mr. from San Francisco: Works 1915-1916." (1916).

October Revolution of 1917 I.A. Bunin did not accept it decisively and categorically; in May 1918, he and his wife 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 sentiments of I.A. Bunin's diary "Cursed Days", published in exile, remained from the revolutionary time.

The entire subsequent life of the writer is connected with France. The Bunins spent most of the year from 1922 to 1945 in Grasse, near Nice. In exile, only one actual poetry collection of Bunin was published - “Selected Poems” (Paris, 1929), but ten new books of prose were written, including “The Rose of Jericho” (published in Berlin in 1924), “Mitya’s Love” ( in Paris in 1925), “Sunstroke” (ibid. in 1927). In 1927-1933. Bunin worked on his largest work, the novel “The Life of Arsenyev” (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 the typical Russian character in artistic prose.”

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

In the last years of I.A.’s life. Bunin published his “Memoirs” (Paris, 1950), worked on the already mentioned book about Chekhov and constantly amended his already published works, mercilessly shortening them. In his “Literary Testament,” he asked from now on to publish 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.

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

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

A short biography of Bunin will help you understand the life path of this outstanding writer, and why he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

This is all the more interesting because great people motivate and inspire the reader to new achievements. By the way, .

Ivan Bunin

Brief 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 and youth

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 gymnasium. He was distinguished by a cool disposition and extreme energy.

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 explore the spiritual world early.

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

Ivan received his primary education at home. Studying the biographies of outstanding personalities, one cannot help but notice the fact that the vast majority of them received their first education at home.

In 1881, Bunin managed to enter the Yeletsk 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 from the university with honors, he is actively working on self-education.

Personal life

What is noteworthy in Bunin’s biography is that he was constantly unlucky with women. His first love was Varvara, but they never managed to get married due to various circumstances.

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

The writer’s second wife was 25-year-old Vera Muromtseva. However, this marriage also turned out to be unhappy. Having learned 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 Oryol and gets a job as editor of a local newspaper.

It was at this time that he began to write many poems, which would later form the basis of the book “Poems”. After the publication of this work, he first received some literary fame.

But Bunin does not stop, and a few years later the collections of poems “Under the Open Air” and “Falling Leaves” came out from his pen. Ivan Nikolaevich's popularity continues to grow and over time he manages to meet such outstanding and recognized masters of words as 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, the collections of stories “Antonov Apples” and “Pines” appeared. Of course, a short biography does not imply a complete list of Bunin’s extensive works, so we will make do with mentioning key works.

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

Life in exile

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

While in a foreign land, he continues to work actively and writes some of his best works - “Mitya’s Love” (1924) and “Sunstroke” (1925).

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

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 difficult life situations.

Last years

Towards the end of his life, Ivan Alekseevich was often sick, but this did not stop him from working. He had a goal - to create a literary portrait of A.P. Chekhov. However, this idea remained unrealized due to the death of the writer.

Bunin died 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 - returning to Russia.

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

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

1887 – the first poems “The Village Beggar” and “Over the Grave of Nadson” are published in the patriotic newspaper “Rodina”.

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

1890 – Bunin, having independently studied English, translates G. Longfellow’s poem “The Song of Hiawatha.”

1891 – the collection “Poems of 1887-1891” is published in Orel.

1892 – Bunin, together with his common-law wife V.V. Pashchenko, moves to Poltava, where he serves in the city land administration. Articles, essays, and stories by Bunin appear in the local newspaper.
In 1892–94 Bunin's poems and stories begin to be published in metropolitan 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; The apotheosis of this attitude would later become Bunin’s religious and philosophical treatise “The Liberation of Tolstoy” (Paris, 1937).

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

1897 – publication of Bunin’s book “To the End of the World” and other stories.”

1898 - collection of poems "Under the Open Air".

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 his trips to the East is the series of essays “Temple of the Sun” (1907–1911)

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

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

1912 – the collection “Sukhodol. Tales and Stories” is published.
Subsequently, other collections were published (“John the Rydalec. Stories and Poems of 1912-1913,” 1913; “The Cup of Life. Stories of 1913-1914,” 1915; “The Gentleman from San Francisco. Works of 1915-1916.” , 1916).

1917 – Bunin is hostile to the October Revolution. Writes a diary-pamphlet “Cursed Days”.

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

1925–1927 – Bunin writes a regular political and literary column in the newspaper Vozrozhdenie.
In the second half of the 20s, 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 the typical Russian character in artistic prose."
By the end of the 30s. Bunin increasingly feels the drama of the break with his homeland and avoids direct political statements about the USSR. He sharply condemns fascism in Germany and Italy.

World War 2 period– Bunin in Grasse, in the south of France. He greets victory with great joy.

Post-war period– Bunin returns to Paris. He is no longer an adamant opponent of the Soviet regime, but he also does not recognize the changes that have occurred in Russia. In Paris, Ivan Alekseevich visits the Soviet ambassador and gives an interview to the newspaper “Soviet Patriot”.
In recent years he has been living in great poverty, starving. During these years, Bunin created a cycle of short stories “Dark Alleys” (New York, 1943, in its entirety – Paris, 1946), published a book about Leo Tolstoy (“The 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.

Bunin Ivan Alekseevich(1870-1953), prose writer, poet, translator. He was the first Russian winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He spent many years of his life in exile, becoming one of the main writers of the Russian diaspora.

Born in Voronezh into the family of an impoverished nobleman. I was unable to finish high school due to lack of money. Having only 4 classes at the gymnasium, Bunin regretted all his life that he did not receive a systematic education. However, this did not stop him twice

Receive the Pushkin Prize. The writer's older brother helped Ivan study languages ​​and sciences, going through the entire gymnasium course with him at home.

Bunin wrote his first poems at the age of 17, imitating Pushkin and Lermontov, whose work he admired. They were published in the collection "Poems".
In 1889 he began working. In the newspaper "Orlovsky Vestnik", with which Bunin collaborated, he met the proofreader Varvara Pashchenko, and in 1891 he married her. They moved to Poltava and became statisticians in the provincial government. In 1891, the first collection of Bunin's poems was published. The family soon broke up. Bunin moved to Moscow. There he made literary acquaintances with Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Gorky.
Bunin's second marriage, with Anna Tsakni, was also unsuccessful; in 1905, their son Kolya died. In 1906, Bunin met Vera Muromtseva, married, and lived with her until his death.
Bunin's work gained fame soon after the publication of his first poems. Bunin's following poems were published in the collections “Under the Open Air” (1898), “Leaf Fall” (1901).
Meeting the greatest writers leaves a significant imprint on Bunin’s life and work. Bunin's stories "Antonov Apples" and "Pines" are published. Bunin's prose was published in the Complete Works (1915).

The writer in 1909 became an honorary academician of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. Bunin reacted rather harshly to the ideas of the revolution, and left Russia forever.

Bunin moved and traveled almost all his life: Europe, Asia, Africa. But he never stopped engaging in literary activities: “Mitya’s Love” (1924), “Sunstroke” (1925), as well as the main novel in the writer’s life, “The Life of Arsenyev” (1927-1929, 1933), which brought Bunin the Nobel Prize in 1933. In 1944, Ivan Alekseevich wrote the story “Clean Monday”.

Before his death, the writer was often ill, but at the same time he did not stop working and creating. In the last few months of his life, Bunin was busy working on a literary portrait of A.P. Chekhov, but the work remained unfinished

Bunin always dreamed of returning to Russia. Unfortunately, the writer never managed to accomplish this before his death. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin died on November 8, 1953. He was buried in the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois cemetery in Paris.