Turgenev's past and present lives

See Turgenev's soul

Text/Sun Yue Writer and translator in Russia

This article was first published in China News Weekly, No. 892

On November 10, 2018, the inauguration of the bronze statue of Turgenev was held on a corner of Ostoranka Street in Moscow.

President Putin and Moscow Mayor Sobyanin went to cut the ribbon. The museum in Turgenev's hometown in Tula Oblast, the Rutovinov Estate, has also been bricked and painted. Both the inauguration of the statue and the re-installation of the museum are part of a campaign to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Turgenev's birth, in accordance with an order signed by Putin in 2014.

According to incomplete statistics, Russia held about 40 commemorative events in 2018. All this shows that the glorious Russian literature is still Russia's most successful soft power in international competition.

It is said that the choice of where the statue of Turgenev was placed was quite difficult. There are so many beautiful places to choose from in Moscow, and the authorities finally chose to place it in front of a building on Ostoranka Street because Turgenev's mother had lived here 200 years earlier. Putin exclaimed that 200 years ago, the street was still a suburb of Moscow, and after two centuries of change, it is a miracle that the house is still preserved.

Turgenev's father was an officer in the Tsarist Guards Heavy Cavalry Regiment, handsome and handsome, but a lover of gambling, alcoholism and petting, and was a typical playboy, who became a flower ghost at the age of 42. Turgenev's mother, who was mentally ill from stimulation, became violent and controlling, making Turgenev intolerable.

Sherekin, vice-president of the International Federation of Writers' Associations of Russia, writer and translator, told me that the statue of Turgenev was erected here of great significance. In his famous short story "Mu mu", there is an almost fierce hostess, who is based on Turgenev's mother. Muscovites placed the statue of Turgenev in front of his mother's former residence, and the statue and the former residence were integrated to form a new cultural landscape , the writer Turgenev's Corner.

Then there's Turgenev's Museum of The Estate of Rutovinovo, a manor house in oryol that is surrounded by tranquility, birds and flowers. But after the writer's death in 1883, the manor was full of bad luck.

First of all, Turgenev's collection of books, paintings, manuscripts, souvenirs, and various precious objects were all divided up by relatives as family property and lost forever. In 1906, a fire reduced much of the manor's building to ashes. Later, fortunately, the volunteer Garkhov funded the reconstruction, retrieved the remaining books and other items in the ashes, cleaned up and arranged them, created the Turgenev Library, and later recovered some of the furniture and books used by Turgenev, and even some manuscripts and personal belongings, which gave the former residence of Turgenev Manor a prototype.

In 1918, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Turgenev's birth, the library and former residence were opened to the public. Garachov said that Turgenev's library and former residence were state-owned assets, and that he had personally funded their construction. Then the Russian Civil War broke out, the manor was forcibly demolished and robbed, and Turgenev's bedroom was rented out for money. The manor's vegetation and gardening were also destroyed, leaving the landscape dilapidated and deserted.

On October 22, 1921, the Soviet authorities ordered the manor to be listed as a state cultural relics protection unit, and after large-scale collection and collation of cultural relics, the exhibits of the manor were enriched, and finally became a fixed and open national museum. From the 1930s to the 1970s, the Soviet government collected and supplemented cultural relics for the manor many times, and carried out many repairs inside and outside the manor according to historical photos and materials, accurately restoring the historical scene. In 1997, Yeltsin ordered that the estate be included in the historical and cultural heritage of the peoples of all ethnic groups in Russia.

Putin said Turgenev wrote about the pain of Russia because his heart was filled with a genuine love for Russian traditions and culture. The Historian of Russian Literature Mirsky commented that Turgenev was the first Russian writer to captivate Western readers.

Turgenev was also one of the first Russian writers to be known to Chinese, and his works have been translated almost entirely into Chinese.

Whether it is Ostoranka Street or Rutovinov Manor, all of them are shining with the spiritual light of Turgenev. They are the inspiration of great writers, and only by being there can you glimpse Turgenev's noble soul.