In the history of Russian literature, those who have been called the "Big Three" by later generations are Turgenev, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
They all have a lot in common, they are all in nineteenth-century Russia, they all come from aristocratic families, they belong to the same class, they are all literary people, and it is reasonable to say that they should all be good friends.
But in fact, Turgenev and Tolstoy, among the "Big Three", once had a 17-year-long history of confrontation, and even when the two turned their faces, they almost had to duel.
The reasons are still more complicated.
In the beginning, Tolstoy admired Turgenev, and Turgenev admired Tolstoy
Turgenev was ten years older than Tolstoy, as early as 1847, Turgenev had already published his masterpiece "Hunter's Notes" in the Russian progressive journal "Modern Man", and was already a hot writer in Russia, and at this time, Tolstoy had just dropped out of Kazan University and had not yet started his writing career.
In 1851, Tolstoy followed his brother to the Caucasus and began experimenting with writing, publishing his first novel, Childhood, the following year, also in the journal Modern Man.
Turgenev was so excited when he saw the novel that he couldn't wait to get to know the talented young man, whose pen name was "Leni". Tolstoy also admired Turgenev's literary style after reading "Hunter's Notes".
In 1854, Tolstoy was transferred with his army to the Danube and participated in the Siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War, which resulted in the fall of the city and the defeat of Russia. Tolstoy applied for a leave of absence in the army, but instead of returning home, he went directly to Turgenev's house.
Later, the two met with the editor of Modern Man, the famous Russian poet Nekrasov, and the three of them spent a pleasant day. Turgenev later said that he was admiring and caring for the young Tolstoy with "a strange, fatherly feeling."
"No one has a thousand days, no flower is a hundred days red", after a long time of communication, Turgenev and Tolstoy found a huge gap between each other. Turgenev was mild-mannered, While Tolstoy was more radical, in terms of literature, Tolstoy did not agree with the more popular literary views of the time, and violently attacked and judged it, which made Turgenev and other writers feel some doubts and even resentment towards Tolstoy from time to time.
On the surface, the two's final breakup was just a misunderstanding
One day in 1861, Turgenev and Tolstoy visited the writer Fett's house together, and while everyone was chatting, Turgenev mentioned his daughter, and her English governess, in order to cultivate the good character of her children, asked her to collect the torn clothes of the serfs, sew them by hand, and then return them to them.
Turgenev was quite comfortable with the tutor's practice between words, but this aroused Tolstoy's dissatisfaction and began to ridicule this practice, saying that it was nothing more than aristocratic hypocrisy and contrivance:
"But I think that a beautifully dressed girl with some dirty and smelly torn clothes on her knees is like playing an insincere play."
No matter how well a person's cultivation is, I am afraid it is difficult to tolerate others to ridicule his children, Turgenev is already unhappy, but Tolstoy still does not spare, continues to publish his own criticism, Turgenev finally can't bear it, shouted to Tolstoy:
"If you continue to speak in this tone, I will slap you..."
At this point, Tolstoy really stopped talking, and he got up and left in a gentleman's way, to a place not far from home, and sent someone to prepare a pistol and bullets for himself, and he was going to duel with Turgenev.
However, before making the decision to duel, Tolstoy calmly wrote a letter to Turgenev, hoping to get his apology to resolve the contradictions between the two.
After receiving the letter, Turgenev also realized his disrespect, and it was indeed impolite to say such rude things to Tolstoy in the presence of his friend Fett, especially In the presence of Madame Fett, so he wrote a letter back to Tolstoy, apologized to him, and sent someone to Tolstoy's house.
Turgenev did not know that Tolstoy was not at home at the time.
When the servant brought him back, Turgenev apologized for his negligence in the letter and sent someone to deliver it to Tolstoy's quarters.
However, it is a little late.
Tolstoy could not wait for Turgenev's apology letter, and thought that he refused to apologize to himself, so he immediately wrote a sternly worded letter to Turgenev and explicitly said to him, "I hope for a real duel."
After receiving this letter, Turgenev was also very aggrieved, he had already apologized, and the other party still held on to it, and actually had to duel with himself. The nobles valued their honor and dignity, and in desperation, Turgenev again explained his mistakes in his reply, but also accepted the proposal for a duel.
In the end, under the words of friends, the duel did not take place, but the boat of friendship between the two was completely overturned. This translation lasted for 17 years.
Secretly, this is related to the attitude of the two towards their illegitimate children
The daughter That Turgenev was talking about at the time was born to a seamstress when he was young. The seamstress was driven away by Turgenev's very strong mother, but took the little girl she had given birth to and brought her back to raise. Turgenev had only one child in his life, and he gave the child the title of daughter and later sent her to his sweetheart. Turgenev loved and supported this daughter all his life.
At that time, the Russian aristocratic families were very fond of Western European culture, and they basically did not speak Russian to each other, but spoke French. Therefore, they will definitely find a French or English tutor for their children, which also shows the importance Turgenev attaches to the education of his illegitimate daughter.
Similarly, Tolstoy had an illegitimate child with a serf in his family when he was young, but he did not give the child any name, let alone give him the education and care he deserved, and the child always existed as a small serf. But Tolstoy's eldest son was kind to this half-brother, let him drive a carriage for himself, and has been taking care of his life.
When Turgenev talked in front of everyone about his daughter's aristocratic education, Tolstoy was in a very awkward state, and it was no wonder that he was so excited that he even spared no effort to criticize this way of education.
The relationship between the two is still relatively awkward
Tolstoy had a younger sister, and the relationship between brothers and sisters was very close, and when Tolstoy ran away in his later years, his destination was to find his sister.
Previously, Turgenev had met Tolstoy's sister and had a good feeling for each other, but Tolstoy's sister was already married at that time, but the marriage was not happy.
In Russia at that time, divorce was a very difficult thing, Andeltoy's sister spent a lot of effort to finally get a divorce, but at this time Turgenev went to France to pursue his idol, a female star, which could not help but make Tolstoy have some views on Turgenev.
Interestingly, Tolstoy married in 1862, and his father-in-law, who had an affair with Turgenev's mother, gave birth to a daughter who was raised as an adopted daughter by Turgenev's mother.
That is to say, Tolstoy's wife, and Turgenev's half-sister, were half-sisters.
reconciliation
Although the boat of their friendship has overturned, they still appreciate each other's talents and pay attention to each other's works. Turgenev, who was far away in France, arranged for several people to translate several of Tolstoy's works into French, and to translate Tolstoy's novel Cossacks by himself.
Of course, Turgenev had to get Tolstoy's consent first. Turgenev wrote to Tolstoy, who wrote back to agree.
Later, Tolstoy suddenly began to reflect on his past life, feeling uneasy about some past "sins", he wanted to change his face and reshape his heart, so he sent a letter to Turgenev hoping that the two sides could reconcile.
When Turgenev received the letter, he was moved to tears and immediately returned a letter from Tolstoy, expressing his joy after receiving the letter.
Three months later Turgenev returned to Russia and immediately went to visit Tolstoy, and the two spent two pleasant days in Tolstoy's estate, talking about literature, hunting together, and everything was back to the way it had been seventeen years ago.
It is just that this public case has left a lot of talking points for future generations. The differences in personalities between Turgenev and Tolstoy, the differences in the way of dealing with the world, each has its own advantages and disadvantages, people have mixed praise and criticism of this, I wonder who has more mistakes?