Ivan Bunin: biography, personal life, creativity, interesting facts. Ivan Bunin: biography, personal life, creativity, interesting facts Brief biography of Bunin main topics ideas images

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A classic of Russian literature, an honorary academician in the category of belles-lettres, the first Russian writer, Nobel laureate, poet, prose writer, translator, publicist, literary critic Ivan Alekseevich Bunin has long won worldwide fame. His work was admired by T. Mann, R. Rolland, F. Mauriac, R. - M. Rilke, M. Gorky, K. Paustovsky, A. Tvardovsky and others. I. Bunin followed his own path all his life; he did not belong to any literary group, much less a political party. He stands apart, a unique creative personality in the history of Russian literature of the late 19th - 20th centuries.

The life of I. A. Bunin is rich and tragic, interesting and multifaceted. Bunin was born on October 10 (old style) 1870 in Voronezh, where his parents moved to educate his older brothers. Ivan Alekseevich came from an ancient noble family, which dates back to the 15th century. The Bunin family is very extensive and branched, and its history is extremely interesting. From the Bunin family came such representatives of Russian culture and science as the famous poet, translator Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky, poetess Anna Petrovna Bunina, and the outstanding geographer and traveler Pyotr Petrovich Semenov - Tyan-Shansky. The Bunins were related to the Kireevskys, Shenshins, Grots, and Voeikovs.

The very origin of Ivan Alekseevich is also interesting. Both the writer’s mother and father come from the Bunin family. Father - Alexey Nikolaevich Bunin married Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Chubarova, who was his niece. I. Bunin was very proud of his ancient family and always wrote about his origins in every autobiography. Vanya Bunin's childhood was spent in the wilderness, in one of the small family estates (the Butyrka farmstead of the Yeletsky district of the Oryol province). Bunin received his initial knowledge from his home teacher, a student at Moscow University, a certain N. O. Romashkov, a man... very talented - in painting, in music, and in literature, - the writer recalled, - probably his fascinating stories on winter evenings... and the fact that my first books to read were "The English Poets" (ed. Herbel) and Homer's Odyssey, awakened in me a passion for poetry, the fruit of which was several infant verses...\ “Bunin’s artistic abilities also showed up early. He could imitate or introduce someone he knew with one or two gestures, which delighted those around him. Thanks to these abilities, Bunin later became an excellent reader of his works.

For ten years, Vanya Bunin was sent to the Yeletsk gymnasium. While studying, he lives in Yelets with relatives and in private apartments. “Gymnasium and life in Yelets,” Bunin recalled, left me with far from joyful impressions, “we know what a Russian, and even a district gymnasium is, and what a district Russian city is!” The transition from a completely free life from the cares of a mother to life in the city, to the absurd strictures in the gymnasium and to the difficult life of those bourgeois and merchant houses where I had to live as a freeloader." But Bunin studied in Yelets for just over four years. In March 1886, he was expelled from the gymnasium for failure to appear from vacation and non-payment of tuition. Ivan Bunin settles in Ozerki (the estate of his deceased grandmother Chubarova), where, under the guidance of his older brother Yulia, he takes a gymnasium course, and in some subjects a university course. Yuliy Alekseevich was a highly educated man, one of the people closest to Bunin. Throughout his life, Yuli Alekseevich was always the first reader and critic of Bunin’s works.

The future writer spent his entire childhood and adolescence in the village, among fields and forests. In his "Autobiographical Notes" Bunin writes: "My mother and the servants loved to tell stories - from them I heard a lot of songs and stories... I also owe them my first knowledge of language - our richest language, in which “Thanks to geographical and historical conditions, so many dialects and dialects from almost all parts of Russia merged and were transformed.” Bunin himself went to the peasant huts in the evenings for gatherings, sang “suffering” on the streets with the village children, guarded the horses at night... All this had a beneficial effect on the developing talent of the future writer. At the age of seven or eight, Bunin began to write poetry, imitating Pushkin and Lermontov. He loved to read Zhukovsky, Maykov, Fet, Ya. Polonsky, A.K. Tolstoy.

Bunin first appeared in print in 1887. The St. Petersburg newspaper "Rodina" published the poems "Over the grave of S. Ya. Nadson" and "The Village Beggar." There, during this year, ten more poems and stories "Two Wanderers" and "Nefedka" were published. This is how I.A.’s literary activity began. Bunina. In the fall of 1889, Bunin settled in Orel and began to collaborate in the editorial office of the newspaper Orlovsky Vestnik, where he was everything he needed to be - a proofreader, an editorial writer, and a theater critic... At this time, the young writer lived only by literary work, he was in great need. His parents could not help him, since the family was completely ruined, the estate and land in Ozerki were sold, and his mother and father began to live separately, with their children and relatives. Since the late 1880s, Bunin has been trying his hand at literary criticism. He published articles about the self-taught poet E. I. Nazarov, about T. G. Shevchenko, whose talent HE admired from his youth, about N. V. Uspensky, G. I. Uspensky’s cousin. Later, articles appeared about the poets E. A. Baratynsky and A. M. Zhemchuzhnikov. In Orel, Bunin, in his words, was “struck..., to great... misfortune, by a long love” for Varvara Vladimirovna Pashchenko, the daughter of an Yelets doctor. Her parents were categorically against marriage with a poor poet. Bunin's love for Varya was passionate and painful, sometimes they quarreled and went to different cities. These experiences lasted about five years. In 1894, V. Pashchenko left Ivan Alekseevich and married his friend A. N. Bibikov. Bunin took this departure terribly hard, his relatives even feared for his life.

Bunin's first book - \"Poems 1887 - 1891\" was published in 1891 in Orel, as a supplement to \"The Oryol Bulletin\". As the poet himself recalls, it was a book of “purely youthful, overly intimate” poems. Reviews from provincial and metropolitan critics were generally sympathetic and impressed by the accuracy and picturesque nature of the pictures. A little later, the young writer’s poems and stories appear in thick metropolitan magazines - Russian Wealth, Severny Vestnik, Vestnik Evropy. Writers A. M. Zhemchuzhnikov and N. K. Mikhailovsky responded approvingly to Bunin’s new works, who wrote that Ivan Alekseevich would make a “great writer.”

In 1893 - 1894, Bunin experienced the enormous influence of the ideas and personality of L. N. Tolstoy. Ivan Alekseevich visited Tolstoyan colonies in Ukraine, decided to take up cooperage and even learned how to put hoops on barrels. But in 1894, in Moscow, Bunin met with Tolstoy, who himself dissuaded the writer from saying goodbye to the end. Leo Tolstoy for Bunin is the highest embodiment of artistic skill and moral dignity. Ivan Alekseevich literally knew entire pages of his works by heart and all his life he admired the greatness of Tolstoy’s talent. The result of this attitude was later Bunin’s deep, multifaceted book “The Liberation of Tolstoy” (Paris, 1937).

At the beginning of 1895, Bunin traveled to St. Petersburg and then to Moscow. From that time on, he entered the capital's literary environment: he met N.K. Mikhailovsky, S.N. Krivenko, D.V. Grigorovich, N.N. Zlatovratsky, A.P. Chekhov, A.I. Ertel, K. Balmont, V. Ya. Bryusov, F. Sologub, V. G. Korolenko, A. I. Kuprin. Particularly important for Bunin was his acquaintance and further friendship with Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, with whom he stayed for a long time in Yalta and soon became part of his family. Bunin recalled: “I didn’t have such a relationship with any of the writers as I did with Chekhov. For all that time, there was never the slightest hostility. He was invariably discreetly gentle with me, friendly, caring like an elder.” Chekhov predicted that Bunin would become a “great writer.” Bunin admired Chekhov, whom he considered one of “the greatest and most delicate Russian poets,” a man of “rare spiritual nobility, good manners and grace in the best meaning of these words, gentleness and delicacy with extraordinary sincerity and simplicity, sensitivity and tenderness with rare truthfulness." Bunin learned about the death of A. Chekhov in the village. In his memoirs, he writes: “On the Fourth of July 1904, I rode horseback to the village to the post office, took newspapers and letters there and went to the blacksmith to reshod the horse’s leg. It was a hot and sleepy steppe day, with a dull shine to the sky, with a hot south wind. I unfolded the newspaper, sitting on the threshold of the blacksmith's hut, and suddenly it was like an icy razor slashed across my heart."

Speaking about Bunin's work, it should be especially noted that he was a brilliant translator. In 1896, Bunin's translation of the poem by the American writer G. W. Longfellow "The Song of Hiawatha" was published. This translation was reprinted several times, and over the years the poet made amendments and clarifications to the translation text. “I tried everywhere,” the translator wrote in the preface, “to stay as close as possible to the original, to preserve the simplicity and musicality of speech, comparisons and epithets, characteristic repetitions of words and even, if possible, the number and arrangement of verses.” The translation, which retained maximum fidelity to the original, became a notable event in Russian poetry of the early twentieth century and is considered unsurpassed to this day. Ivan Bunin also translated J. Byron - \"Cain\", \"Manfred\", \"Heaven and Earth\"; \"Godiva\" by A. Tennyson; poems by A. de Musset, Lecomte de Lisle, A. Mickiewicz, T. G. Shevchenko and others. Bunin's translation activities made him one of the outstanding masters of poetic translation. Bunin's first book of stories "To the End of the World" was published in 1897 "among almost unanimous praise." In 1898, the collection of poems "Under the Open Air" was published. These books, along with the translation of G. Longfellow's poem, brought Bunin fame in literary Russia.

Often visiting Odessa, Bunin became close to members of the "Association of South Russian Artists": V.P. Kurovsky, E.I. Bukovetsky, P.A. Nilus. Bunin was always drawn to artists, among whom he found subtle connoisseurs of his work. Bunin has a lot to do with Odessa. This city is the setting for some of the writer's stories. Ivan Alekseevich collaborated with the editors of the newspaper "Odessa News". In 1898, in Odessa, Bunin married Anna Nikolaevna Tsakni. But the marriage turned out to be unhappy, and already in March 1899 the couple separated. Their son Kolya, whom Bunin adored, died in 1905 at the age of five. Ivan Alekseevich took the loss of his only child seriously. All his life Bunin carried a photograph of Kolinka with him. In the spring of 1900, in Yalta, where the Moscow Art Theater was located in his time, Bunin met the founders of the theater and its actors: K. Stanislavsky, O. Knipper, A. Vishnevsky, V. Nemirovich-Danchenko, I. Moskvin. And also on this visit, Bunin met the composer S.V. Rachmaninov. Later, Ivan Alekseevich recalled this \"meeting when, after talking almost all night on the seashore, he hugged me and said: \"We will be friends forever!\" And indeed, their friendship lasted all their lives.

At the beginning of 1901, the publishing house "Scorpio" in Moscow published a collection of Bunin's poems "Falling Leaves" - the result of the writer's short collaboration with the Symbolists. Critical response was mixed. But in 1903, the collection "Falling Leaves" and the translation of "Songs of Hiawatha" were awarded the Pushkin Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The poetry of I. Bunin has won a special place in the history of Russian literature thanks to many advantages inherent only to it. A singer of Russian nature, a master of philosophical and love lyrics, Bunin continued the classical traditions, opening up the unknown possibilities of “traditional” verse. Bunin actively developed the achievements of the golden age of Russian poetry, never breaking away from the national soil, remaining a Russian, original poet. At the beginning of his creativity, landscape lyrics, which have amazing specificity and precision of designation, are most characteristic of Bunin's poetry. philosophical lyrics. Bunin is interested in both Russian history with its legends, fairy tales, traditions, and the origins of disappeared civilizations, the ancient East, ancient Greece, early Christianity. The Bible and the Koran are the poet’s favorite reading during this period. And all this is embodied in poetry and write in prose Philosophical lyricism penetrates the landscape and transforms it.In its emotional mood, Bunin's love lyrics are tragic.

I. Bunin himself considered himself, first of all, a poet, and only then a prose writer. And in prose, Bunin remained a poet. The story "Antonov Apples" (1900) is a clear confirmation of this. This story is a "prose poem" about Russian nature. From the beginning of the 1900s, Bunin's collaboration with the publishing house "Znanie" began, which led to a closer relationship between Ivan Alekseevich and A. M. Gorky, who headed this publishing house. Bunin often published in the collections of the Znanie partnership, and in 1902 - 1909, the Znanie publishing house published the first Collected Works of the writer in five volumes. Bunin's relationship with Gorky was uneven. At first, a friendship seemed to begin, they read their works to each other, Bunin visited Gorky more than once in Capri. But as the revolutionary events of 1917 in Russia approached, Bunin’s relationship with Gorky became increasingly cool. After 1917, there was a final break with the revolutionary-minded Gorky.

Since the second half of the 1890s, Bunin has been an active participant in the literary circle "Sreda", organized by N.D. Teleshov. Regular visitors to "Wednesday" were M. Gorky, L. Andreev, A. Kuprin, Yu. Bunin and others. Once on "Wednesday" V.G. Korolenko and A.P. Chekhov were present. At the "Wednesday" meetings the authors read and discussed their new works. Such an order was established that everyone could say whatever they thought about this literary creation without any offense on the part of the author. The events of the literary life of Russia were also discussed, sometimes heated debates flared up, and people stayed up long after midnight. It is impossible not to mention the fact that F. I. Chaliapin often sang at the “Wednesday” meetings , and S. V. Rachmaninov accompanied him. These were unforgettable evenings! Bunin’s wandering nature was manifested in his passion for travel. Ivan Alekseevich did not stay anywhere for long. All his life Bunin never had his own home, he lived in hotels, with relatives and friends. hotels, relatives and friends. In his wanderings around the world, he established a certain routine for himself: "... in winter the capital and the countryside, sometimes a trip abroad, in the spring the south of Russia, in the summer mainly the countryside."

In October 1900, Bunin traveled with V.P. Kurovsky in Germany, France, and Switzerland. From the end of 1903 and the beginning of 1904, Ivan Alekseevich, together with the playwright S.A. Naydenov, was in France and Italy. In June 1904, Bunin traveled around the Caucasus. Impressions from travel formed the basis of some of the writer's stories (for example, the cycle of stories 1907 - 1911 "Shadow of a Bird" and the story "Many Waters" 1925 - 1926), revealing to readers another facet of Bunin's work: travel essays.

In November 1906, in Moscow, in the house of the writer B.K. Zaitsev, Bunin met Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva (1881 - 1961). An educated and intelligent woman, Vera Nikolaevna shared her life with Ivan Alekseevich, becoming a devoted and selfless friend of the writer. After his death, she prepared Ivan Alekseevich’s manuscripts for publication, wrote the book “The Life of Bunin” containing valuable biographical data and her memoirs “Conversations with Memory”. Bunin told his wife: “Without you, I would not have written anything. I would have disappeared!”

Ivan Alekseevich recalled: “Since 1907, V.N. Muromtseva has shared her life with me. From then on, the thirst to travel and work took possession of me with special force... Invariably spending the summer in the village, we gave almost the rest of the time to foreign lands. I visited Turkey more than once, along the shores of Asia Minor, Greece, Egypt up to Nubia, traveled through Syria, Palestine, was in Oran, Algeria, Constantine, Tunisia and on the outskirts of the Sahara, sailed to Ceylon, traveled almost all of Europe, especially Sicily and Italy (where we spent the last three winters in Capri), was in some cities of Romania, Serbia...\".

In the fall of 1909, Bunin was awarded the second Pushkin Prize for the book "Poems 1903 - 1906", as well as for the translation of Byron's drama "Cain" and Longfellow's book "From the Golden Legend". In the same 1909, Bunin was elected honorary academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature. At this time, Ivan Alekseevich was working hard on his first big story - from the Village, which brought the author even greater fame and was a whole event in the literary world of Russia. Fierce debate flared up around the story, mainly discussing the objectivity and truthfulness of this work. A. M. Gorky responded about the story this way: “No one has taken a village so deeply, so historically.”

In December 1911, in Cyprus, Bunin finished the story "Sukhodol", dedicated to the theme of the extinction of noble estates and based on autobiographical material. The story was a huge success among readers and literary critics. The great master of words, I. Bunin studied the folklore collections of P. V. Kireevsky, E. V. Barsov, P. N. Rybnikov and others, making numerous extracts from them. The writer himself made folklore recordings. “I am interested in the reproduction of genuine folk speech, the folk language,” he said. The writer called the over 11 thousand ditties and folk jokes he collected “an invaluable treasure.” Bunin followed Pushkin, who wrote that "the study of ancient songs, fairy tales, etc. is necessary for perfect knowledge of the properties of the Russian language." On January 17, 1910, the Art Theater celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of A.P. Chekhov. V. I. Nemirovich - Danchenko asked Bunin to read his memoirs about Chekhov. Ivan Alekseevich talks about this significant day: “The theater was crowded. In the literary box on the right side sat Chekhov’s relatives: mother, sister, Ivan Pavlovich and his family, probably other brothers, I don’t remember.

My speech caused real delight, because I, reading our conversations with Anton Pavlovich, conveyed his words in his voice, his intonations, which made an amazing impression on the family: my mother and sister cried. A few days later, Stanislavsky and Nemirovich came to me and offered to join their troupe." On October 27-29, 1912, the 25th anniversary of I. Bunin’s literary activity was solemnly celebrated. At the same time, he was elected an honorary member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature at Moscow University and until 1920 he was a fellow chairman, and later temporary chairman of the Society.

In 1913, on October 6, at the celebration of the half-century anniversary of the newspaper "Russian Vedomosti", Bunin said: The literary and artistic circle instantly became famous with a speech directed against "ugly, negative phenomena" in Russian literature. When you read the text of this speech now, you are struck by the relevance of Bunin’s words, but this was said 80 years ago!

In the summer of 1914, while traveling along the Volga, Bunin learned about the beginning of the First World War. The writer always remained her determined opponent. The elder brother Yuli Alekseevich saw in these events the beginning of the collapse of the state foundations of Russia. He predicted \"Well, it's the end of us! Russia's war for Serbia, and then the revolution in Russia. The end of our entire former life!\" Soon this prophecy began to come true...

But, despite all the recent events in St. Petersburg, in 1915 the publishing house of A.F. Marx published the Complete Works of Bunin in six volumes. As the author wrote, it “includes everything that I consider more or less worthy of publication.”

Bunin's books \"John Rydalets: Stories and Poems 1912 - 1913\" (M., 1913), \"The Cup of Life: Stories 1913 - 1914\" (M., 1915), \"Mr. from San - Francisco: Works of 1915 - 1916" (M., 1916) contain the best creations of the writer of the pre-revolutionary era.

In January and February 1917, Bunin lived in Moscow. The writer perceived the February Revolution and the ongoing First World War as terrible omens of an all-Russian collapse. Bunin spent the summer and autumn of 1917 in the village, spending all his time reading newspapers and observing the growing wave of revolutionary events. On October 23, Ivan Alekseevich and his wife left for Moscow. Bunin did not accept the October Revolution decisively and categorically. He rejected any violent attempt to rebuild human society, assessing the events of October 1917 as "bloody madness" and "general madness." The writer's observations of the post-revolutionary period were reflected in his diary of 1918 - 1919, "Cursed Days." This is a bright, truthful, sharp and apt journalistic work, permeated with a fierce rejection of the revolution. This book shows unquenchable pain for Russia and bitter prophecies, expressed with melancholy and powerlessness to change anything in the ongoing chaos of the destruction of centuries-old traditions, culture, and art of Russia. On May 21, 1918, the Bunins left Moscow for Odessa. Recently in Moscow, Bunin lived in the Muromtsevs’ apartment at 26 Povarskaya Street. This is the only house preserved in Moscow where Bunin lived. From this apartment on the first floor, Ivan Alekseevich and his wife went to Odessa, leaving Moscow forever. In Odessa, Bunin continues to work, collaborates with newspapers, and meets with writers and artists. The city changed hands many times, power changed, orders changed. All these events are reliably reflected in the second part of "Cursed Days".

On January 26, 1920, on the foreign steamer "Sparta", the Bunins sailed to Constantinople, leaving Russia forever - their beloved Motherland. Bunin suffered painfully from the tragedy of separation from his homeland. The writer's state of mind and the events of those days are partly reflected in the story "The End" (1921). By March, the Bunins reached Paris, one of the centers of Russian emigration. The entire subsequent life of the writer is connected with France, not counting short trips to England, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, and Estonia. The Bunins spent most of the year in the south of the country in the town of Grasse, near Nice, where they rented a dacha. The Bunins usually spent the winter months in Paris, where they had an apartment on Jacques Offenbach Street.

Bunin was not immediately able to return to creativity. In the early 1920s, books of pre-revolutionary stories by the writer were published in Paris, Prague, and Berlin. In exile, Ivan Alekseevich wrote few poems, but among them there are lyrical masterpieces: \"And flowers, and bumblebees, and grass, and ears of corn...\", \"Mikhail\", \"The bird has a nest, the beast has hole...\", \"Rooster on the church cross\". In 1929, the final book of Bunin, the poet, “Selected Poems,” was published in Paris, establishing the writer as one of the first places in Russian poetry. Mainly in exile, Bunin worked on prose, which resulted in several books of new stories: \"Rose of Jericho\" (Berlin, 1924), \"Mitya's Love\" (Paris, 1925), \"Sunstroke\" (Paris, 1927), \"Tree of God\" (Paris, 1931) and others.

It should be especially noted that all of Bunin’s works of the emigrant period, with very rare exceptions, are based on Russian material. The writer recalled his Motherland in a foreign land, its fields and villages, peasants and nobles, its nature. Bunin knew the Russian peasant and the Russian nobleman very well; he had a rich stock of observations and memories of Russia. He could not write about the West, which was alien to him, and never found a second home in France. Bunin remains faithful to the classical traditions of Russian literature and continues them in his work, trying to solve eternal questions about the meaning of life, about love, about the future of the whole world.

Bunin worked on the novel "The Life of Arsenyev" from 1927 to 1933. This is the writer’s largest work and the main book in his work. The novel "The Life of Arsenyev" seemed to combine everything that Bunin wrote about. Here are lyrical pictures of nature and philosophical prose, the life of a noble estate and a story about love. The novel was a huge success. It was immediately translated into different languages ​​of the world. The translation of the novel was also a success. \"The Life of Arsenyev\" is a novel - a reflection on the bygone Russia, with which Bunin's entire creativity and all his thoughts are connected. This is not the writer’s autobiography, as many critics believed, which infuriated Bunin. Ivan Alekseevich argued that “every work of any writer is autobiographical to one degree or another. If a writer does not put part of his soul, his thoughts, his heart into his work, then he is not a creator... - True, and autobiographical is something must be understood not as the use of one’s past as the outline of a work, but, namely, as the use of one’s own, unique to me, vision of the world and one’s own thoughts, reflections and experiences evoked in connection with this."

On November 9, 1933, it arrived from Stockholm; news of the Nobel Prize being awarded to Bunin. Ivan Alekseevich was nominated for the Nobel Prize back in 1923, then again in 1926, and since 1930 his candidacy has been considered annually. Bunin was the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize. This was global recognition of the talent of Ivan Bunin and Russian literature in general.

The Nobel Prize was awarded on December 10, 1933 in Stockholm. Bunin said in an interview that he received this prize possibly for a body of work: “I think, however, that the Swedish Academy wanted to crown my last novel, “The Life of Arsenyev.” In the Nobel diploma, made especially for Bunin in the Russian style, it was It is written that the prize was awarded "for artistic excellence, thanks to which he continued the traditions of Russian classics in lyrical prose" (translated from Swedish).

Bunin distributed about half of the prize he received to those in need. He gave Kuprin only five thousand francs at once. Sometimes money was given to complete strangers. Bunin told Segodya newspaper correspondent P. Pilsky, “As soon as I received the prize, I had to give away about 120,000 francs. Yes, I don’t know how to handle money at all. Now it’s especially difficult.” As a result, the prize dried up quickly, and it was necessary to help Bunin himself. In 1934 - 1936 in Berlin, the publishing house "Petropolis" published the Collected Works of Bunin in 11 volumes. In preparing this building, Bunin carefully corrected everything previously written, mainly mercilessly abbreviating it. In general, Ivan Alekseevich always took a very demanding approach to each new publication and tried to improve his prose and poetry every time. This collection of works summed up Bunin's literary activity for almost fifty years.

In September 1939, the first salvos of the Second World War rang out. Bunin condemned the advancing fascism even before the outbreak of hostilities. The Bunins spent the war years in Grasse at the Villa Jeannette. M. Stepun and G. Kuznetsova, L. Zurov also lived with them, and A. Bakhrakh lived for some time. Ivan Alekseevich greeted the news of the start of the war between Germany and Russia with particular pain and excitement. Under pain of death, Bunin listened to Russian radio and noted the situation at the front on the map. During the war, the Bunins lived in terrible beggarly conditions and went hungry. Bunin greeted Russia's victory over fascism with great joy.

Despite all the hardships and hardships of the war, Bunin continues to work. During the war, he wrote a whole book of stories under the general title "Dark Alleys" (first complete edition - Paris, 1946). Bunin wrote: \"All the stories in this book are only about love, about its \"dark\" and most often very gloomy and cruel alleys\"~. The book "Dark Alleys" is 38 stories about love in its various manifestations. In this brilliant creation, Bunin appears as an excellent stylist and poet. Bunin "considered this book the most perfect in skill." Ivan Alekseevich considered “Clean Monday” to be the best of the stories in the collection; he wrote about it like this: “I thank God that he gave me the opportunity to write “Clean Monday”.

In the post-war years, Bunin followed literature in Soviet Russia with interest and spoke enthusiastically about the work of K. G. Paustovsky and A. T. Tvardovsky. Ivan Alekseevich wrote about A. Tvardovsky’s poem “Vasily Terkin” in a letter to N. Teleshov: a. I (the reader, as you know, is picky and demanding) am completely delighted with his talent - this is a truly rare book: what freedom, what wonderful prowess, what accuracy, precision in everything and what an extraordinary folk, soldier's language - not a hitch, not a single false, ready-made, that is, literary - vulgar word! It is possible that he will remain the author of only one such book, will begin to repeat himself, write worse, but even this can be forgiven for "Terkin."

After the war, Bunin met more than once in Paris with K. Simonov, who invited the writer to return to his homeland. At first there were hesitations, but in the end, Bunin abandoned this idea. He imagined the situation in Soviet Russia and knew very well that he would not be able to work under orders from above and also would not hide the truth. this and knew perfectly well that he would not be able to work on orders from above and would also not hide the truth. This is probably why, and maybe for some other reasons, Bunin never returned to Russia, suffering all his life due to separation from his homeland.

I. Bunin's circle of friends and acquaintances was large. Ivan Alekseevich always tried to help young writers, gave them advice, corrected their poems and prose. He did not shy away from youth, but, on the contrary, carefully observed the new generation of poets and prose writers. Bunin was rooting for the future of Russian literature. The writer himself had young people living in his house. This is the already mentioned writer Leonid Zurov, whom Bunin wrote out to live with him for a while until he got a job, but Zurov remained to live with Bunin. The young writer Galina Kuznetsova, the journalist Alexander Bakhrakh, and the writer Nikolai Roshchin lived for some time. Often young writers who knew I. Bunin, and even those who had not met him, considered it an honor to give Ivan Alekseevich their books with dedicatory inscriptions, in which they expressed their deep respect for the writer and admiration for his talent.

Bunin was familiar with many famous writers of the Russian emigration. Bunin's closest circle included G.V. Adamovich, B.K. Zaitsev, M.A. Aldanov, N.A. Teffi, F. Stepun and many others.

In Paris in 1950, Bunin published the book "Memoirs", in which he openly wrote about his contemporaries, without embellishing anything, and expressed his thoughts about them in poisonously sharp assessments. Therefore, some essays from this book were not published for a long time. Bunin was more than once reproached for being too critical of some writers (Gorky, Mayakovsky, Yesenin, etc.). We will not justify or condemn the writer here, but only one thing should be said: Bunin was always honest, fair and principled and never made any compromises. And when Bunin saw lies, falsehood, hypocrisy, meanness, deceit, hypocrisy - no matter who it came from - he openly spoke about it, because he could not tolerate these human qualities.

At the end of his life, Bunin worked hard on a book about Chekhov. This work proceeded gradually for many years; the writer collected a lot of valuable biographical and critical material. But he did not have time to complete the book. The unfinished manuscript was prepared for printing by Vera Nikolaevna. The book "About Chekhov" was published in New York in 1955; it contains valuable information about the brilliant Russian writer, Bunin's friend - Anton Pavlovich Chekhov.

Ivan Alekseevich wanted to write a book about M. Yu. Lermontov, but did not have time to realize this intention. M. A. Aldanov recalls his conversation with Bunin three days before the death of the writer: “I always thought that our greatest poet was Pushkin,” said Bunin, “no, it’s Lermontov! It’s simply impossible to imagine to what height this the man would have risen if he had not died at the age of twenty-seven." Ivan Alekseevich recalled Lermontov’s poems, accompanying them with his assessment: “How extraordinary! Neither Pushkin nor anyone else! Amazing, there is no other word.” The life of the great writer ended in a foreign land. I. A. Bunin died on November 8, 1953 in Paris, and was buried in the Russian cemetery of Saint. - Genevieve de Bois near Paris.

In the final version, the story "Bernard" (1952), whose hero remarked before his death: "I think I was a good sailor," ended with the author's words: "It seems to me that I, as an artist, have earned the right to say about to myself, in my last days, something similar to what Bernard said while dying."

I. Bunin bequeathed to us to treat the Word with caution and care, he called for preserving it, having written back in January 1915, when a terrible world war was going on, a deep and noble poem "The Word", which still sounds just as relevant; So let’s listen to the great master of words:
The tombs, mummies and bones are silent, -
Only the word is given life
From ancient darkness, on the world graveyard,
Only the Letters sound.
And we have no other property!
Know how to take care
At least to the best of my ability, in days of anger and suffering,
Our immortal gift is speech.

In this material we will look briefly at the biography of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin: only the most important things from the life of the famous Russian writer and poet.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin(1870-1953) - famous Russian writer and poet, one of the main writers of the Russian diaspora, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

On October 10 (22), 1870, a boy was born into the noble, but at the same time poor family of the Bunins, who was named Ivan. Almost immediately after birth, the family moved to an estate in the Oryol province, where Ivan spent his childhood.

Ivan received the basics of education at home. In 1881, young Bunin entered the nearest gymnasium, Yeletskaya, but was unable to graduate and in 1886 returned to the estate. His brother Julius helped Ivan with his education, he studied excellently and graduated from the university as one of the best in his class.

After returning from high school, Ivan Bunin became intensely interested in literature, and his first poems were published already in 1888. A year later, Ivan moved to Oryol and got a job as a proofreader in a newspaper. Soon the first book was published with the simple title “Poems”, in which, in fact, the poems of Ivan Bunin were collected. Thanks to this collection, Ivan gained fame, and his works were published in the collections “Under the Open Air” and “Leaf Fall.”

Ivan Bunin was not only interested in poetry - he also wrote prose. For example, the stories “Antonov Apples”, “Pines”. And this is all for good reason, because Ivan was personally acquainted with Gorky (Peshkov), Chekhov, Tolstoy and other famous writers of that time. Ivan Bunin's prose was published in the collections "Complete Works" in 1915.

In 1909, Bunin became an honorary academician of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.

Ivan was quite critical of the idea of ​​revolution and left Russia. His entire subsequent life consisted of traveling - not only to different countries, but also to continents. However, this did not stop Bunin from doing what he loved. On the contrary, he wrote his best works: “Mitya’s Love”, “Sunstroke”, as well as the best novel “The Life of Arsenyev”, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933.

Before his death, Bunin was working on a literary portrait of Chekhov, but was often ill and was unable to complete it. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin died on November 8, 1953 and was buried in Paris.

Ivan Bunin was born into a poor noble family on October 10 (22), 1870. Then, in Bunin’s biography, he moved to an estate in the Oryol province near the city of Yelets. Bunin spent his childhood in this very place, among the natural beauty of the fields.

Bunin's primary education was received at home. Then, in 1881, the young poet entered the Yelets gymnasium. However, without finishing it, he returned home in 1886. Ivan Alekseevich Bunin received further education thanks to his older brother Yuli, who graduated from the university with honors.

Literary activity

Bunin's poems were first published in 1888. The following year, Bunin moved to Orel, starting to work as a proofreader in a local newspaper. Bunin's poetry, collected in a collection called "Poems", became the first book published. Soon Bunin's work gained fame. Bunin's following poems were published in the collections “Under the Open Air” (1898), “Leaf Fall” (1901).

Meeting the greatest writers (Gorky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, etc.) leaves a significant imprint on Bunin’s life and work. Bunin's stories "Antonov Apples" and "Pines" are published.

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.

Life in exile and death

The biography of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin almost entirely consists of moves and travels (Europe, Asia, Africa). In exile, Bunin actively continued to engage in literary activities, writing his best works: “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

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin died on November 8, 1953. He was buried in the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois cemetery in Paris.

Chronological table

Other biography options

• Having only 4 classes at the gymnasium, Bunin regretted all his life that he did not receive a systematic education. However, this did not prevent him from receiving the Pushkin Prize twice. 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.
• Bunin was the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• The writer had no luck with women. His first love, Varvara, never became Bunin’s wife. Bunin's first marriage also did not bring him happiness. His chosen one, Anna Tsakni, did not respond to his love with deep feelings and was not at all interested in his life. The second wife, Vera, left because of infidelity, but later forgave Bunin and returned.
• Bunin spent many years in exile, but always dreamed of returning to Russia. Unfortunately, the writer did not manage to accomplish this before his death.
• see all

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin Russian writer, poet, honorary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1909), the first Russian winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1933), was born on October 22 (Old Style - October 10), 1870 in Voronezh, in the family of an impoverished nobleman who belonged to the old nobility family Bunin's father is a minor official, his mother is Lyudmila Aleksandrovna, nee Chubarova. Of their nine children, five died at an early age. Ivan spent his childhood on the Butyrki farm in the Oryol province, communicating with peasant peers.

In 1881, Ivan went to first grade at the gymnasium. In Yelets, the boy studied for about four and a half years - until mid-winter 1886, when he was expelled from the gymnasium for non-payment of tuition. Having moved to Ozerki, under the guidance of his brother Yuli, a university candidate, Ivan successfully prepared to pass the matriculation exams.

In the fall of 1886, the young man began writing the novel “Passion,” which he finished on March 26, 1887. The novel was not published.

Since the autumn of 1889, Bunin worked at the Orlovsky Vestnik, where his stories, poems and literary critical articles were published. The young writer met the newspaper's proofreader, Varvara Pashchenko, who married him in 1891. True, due to the fact that Paschenko’s parents were against the marriage, the couple never got married.

At the end of August 1892, the newlyweds moved to Poltava. Here the elder brother Julius took Ivan to his council. He even came up with a position as a librarian for him, which left enough time for reading and traveling around the province.

After the wife got together with Bunin’s friend A.I. Bibikov, the writer left Poltava. For several years he led a hectic life, never staying anywhere for long. In January 1894, Bunin visited Leo Tolstoy in Moscow. Echoes of Tolstoy's ethics and his criticism of urban civilization can be heard in Bunin's stories. The post-reform impoverishment of the nobility evoked nostalgic notes in his soul (“Antonov Apples”, “Epitaph”, “New Road”). Bunin was proud of his origins, but was indifferent to “blue blood,” and the feeling of social restlessness grew into the desire to “serve the people of the earth and the God of the universe, - God, whom I call Beauty, Reason, Love, Life and who permeates everything that exists.”

In 1896, Bunin’s translation of G. Longfellow’s poem “The Song of Hiawatha” was published. He also translated Alcaeus, Saadi, Petrarch, Byron, Mickiewicz, Shevchenko, Bialik and other poets. In 1897, Bunin’s book “To the End of the World” and other stories were published in St. Petersburg.

Having moved to the shores of the Black Sea, Bunin began to collaborate in the Odessa newspaper “Southern Review”, publishing his poems, stories, literary criticism. Newspaper publisher N.P. Tsakni invited Bunin to take part in the publication of the newspaper. Meanwhile, Ivan Alekseevich took a liking to Tsakni’s daughter Anna Nikolaevna. On September 23, 1898, their wedding took place. But life did not work out for the young people. In 1900 they divorced, and in 1905 their son Kolya died.

In 1898, a collection of Bunin’s poems “Under the Open Air” was published in Moscow, which strengthened his fame. The collection “Falling Leaves” (1901), which together with the translation of “The Song of Hiawatha” was awarded the Pushkin Prize of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1903, received enthusiastic reviews and earned Bunin the fame of “the poet of the Russian landscape.” A continuation of poetry was the lyrical prose of the beginning of the century and travel essays (“Shadow of a Bird,” 1908).

“Bunin’s poetry was already distinguished by its devotion to the classical tradition; this trait would later permeate all of his work,” writes E.V. Stepanyan. - The poetry that brought him fame was formed under the influence of Pushkin, Fet, Tyutchev. But she possessed only her inherent qualities. Thus, Bunin gravitates towards a sensually concrete image; The picture of nature in Bunin’s poetry is made up of smells, sharply perceived colors, and sounds. A special role is played in Bunin’s poetry and prose by the epithet, used by the writer as if emphatically subjective, arbitrary, but at the same time endowed with the persuasiveness of sensory experience.”

Not accepting symbolism, Bunin joined neorealist associations - the Knowledge partnership and the Moscow literary circle Sreda, where he read almost all of his works written before 1917. At that time, Gorky considered Bunin “the first writer in Rus'.”

Bunin responded to the revolution of 1905–1907 with several declarative poems. He wrote about himself as “a witness to the great and the vile, a powerless witness to atrocities, executions, torture, executions.”

At the same time, Bunin met his true love - Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, the daughter of Nikolai Andreevich Muromtsev, a member of the Moscow City Council, and the niece of Sergei Andreevich Muromtsev, the Chairman of the State Duma. G.V. Adamovich, who knew the Bunins well in France for many years, wrote that Ivan Alekseevich found in Vera Nikolaevna “a friend who is not only loving, but also devoted with his whole being, ready to sacrifice himself, to give in in everything, while remaining a living person, without turning into a voiceless shadow".

Since the end of 1906, Bunin and Vera Nikolaevna met almost daily. Since the marriage with his first wife was not dissolved, they were able to get married only in 1922 in Paris.

Together with Vera Nikolaevna, Bunin traveled to Egypt, Syria and Palestine in 1907, and visited Gorky in Capri in 1909 and 1911. In 1910–1911 he visited Egypt and Ceylon. In 1909, Bunin was awarded the Pushkin Prize for the second time and he was elected an honorary academician, and in 1912 - an honorary member of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature (until 1920 - a fellow chairman).

In 1910, the writer wrote the story “The Village”. According to Bunin himself, this was the beginning of “a whole series of works that sharply depict the Russian soul, its peculiar interweavings, its light and dark, but almost always tragic foundations.” The story “Sukhodol” (1911) is the confession of a peasant woman, convinced that “the masters had the same character as the slaves: either to rule or to be afraid.” The heroes of the stories “Strength”, “The Good Life” (1911), “Prince among Princes” (1912) are yesterday’s slaves who are losing their human form in acquisitiveness; the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco” (1915) is about the miserable death of a millionaire. At the same time, Bunin painted people who had nowhere to apply their natural talent and strength (“Cricket”, “Zakhar Vorobyov”, “Ioann Rydalets”, etc.). Declaring that he “is most interested in the soul of the Russian man in a deep sense, the image of the features of the Slav’s psyche,” the writer looked for the core of the nation in the element of folklore, in excursions into history (“Six-Winged,” “Saint Procopius,” “The Dream of Bishop Ignatius of Rostov,” "Prince Vseslav") This search was intensified by the First World War, towards which Bunin’s attitude was sharply negative.

The October Revolution and the Civil War summed up this socio-artistic research. “There are two types among the people,” wrote Bunin. - In one, Rus' predominates, in the other - Chud, Merya. But in both there is a terrible changeability of moods, appearances, “unsteadiness,” as they said in the old days. The people themselves said to themselves: “From us, like from wood, there is both a club and an icon,” depending on the circumstances, on who will process the wood.”

From revolutionary Petrograd, avoiding the “terrible proximity of the enemy,” Bunin left for Moscow, and from there on May 21, 1918, to Odessa, where the diary “Cursed Days” was written - one of the most furious denunciations of the revolution and the power of the Bolsheviks. In his poems, Bunin called Russia a “harlot” and wrote, addressing the people: “My people! Your guides led you to death.” “Having drunk the cup of unspeakable mental suffering,” on the twenty-sixth of January 1920, the Bunins left for Constantinople, from there to Bulgaria and Serbia, and arrived in Paris at the end of March.

In 1921, a collection of Bunin’s stories, “The Gentleman from San Francisco,” was published in Paris. This publication evoked numerous responses in the French press. Here is just one of them: “Bunin... a real Russian talent, bleeding, uneven and at the same time courageous and big. His book contains several stories that are worthy of Dostoevsky in power" (Nervie, December 1921).

“In France,” Bunin wrote, “I lived for the first time in Paris, and in the summer of 1923 I moved to the Alpes-Maritimes, returning to Paris only for some winter months.”

Bunin settled in the Belvedere villa, and below was an amphitheater of the ancient Provençal town of Grasse. The nature of Provence reminded Bunin of the Crimea, which he loved very much. Rachmaninov visited him in Grasse. Aspiring writers lived under Bunin's roof - he taught them literary skills, criticized what they wrote, and expressed his views on literature, history and philosophy. He talked about his meetings with Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gorky. Bunin’s closest literary circle included N. Teffi, B. Zaitsev, M. Aldanov, F. Stepun, L. Shestov, as well as his “students” G. Kuznetsova (Bunin’s last love) and L. Zurov.

All these years, Bunin wrote a lot, his new books appeared almost every year. Following “Mr. from San Francisco,” the collection “Initial Love” was published in Prague in 1921, “Rose of Jericho” in Berlin in 1924, “Mitya’s Love” in Paris in 1925, and “Mitya’s Love” in the same place in 1929. Selected Poems" - Bunin's only poetry collection in emigration evoked positive responses from V. Khodasevich, N. Teffi, V. Nabokov. In “blissful dreams of the past,” Bunin returned to his homeland, recalled his childhood, adolescence, youth, “unquenched love.”

As noted by E.V. Stepanyan: “The binary nature of Bunin’s thinking - the idea of ​​the drama of life, associated with the idea of ​​the beauty of the world - imparts intensity of development and tension to Bunin’s plots. The same intensity of being is palpable in Bunin’s artistic detail, which has acquired even greater sensory authenticity in comparison with the works of early creativity.”

Until 1927, Bunin spoke in the newspaper Vozrozhdenie, then (for financial reasons) in Latest News, without joining any of the emigrant political groups.

In 1930, Ivan Alekseevich wrote “The Shadow of a Bird” and completed, perhaps, the most significant work of the emigration period - the novel “The Life of Arsenyev.”

Vera Nikolaevna wrote in the late twenties to the wife of the writer B.K. Zaitseva about Bunin’s work on this book:

“Ian is in a period (not to jinx it) of binge work: he sees nothing, hears nothing, writes all day without stopping... As always during these periods, he is very meek, gentle with me in particular, sometimes he reads what he has written to me alone - this is his "a huge honor". And very often he repeats that he has never been able to compare me with anyone in my life, that I am the only one, etc.”

The description of Alexei Arsenyev’s experiences is filled with sadness about the past, about Russia, “which perished before our eyes in such a magically short period of time.” Bunin was able to translate even purely prosaic material into poetic sound (a series of short stories from 1927–1930: “The Calf’s Head”, “The Hunchback’s Romance”, “The Rafters”, “The Killer”, etc.).

In 1922, Bunin was nominated for the Nobel Prize for the first time. His candidacy was nominated by R. Rolland, as reported to Bunin by M.A. Aldanov: “...Your candidacy was announced and declared by a person extremely respected throughout the world.”

However, the Nobel Prize in 1923 was awarded to the Irish poet W.B. Yeats. In 1926, negotiations were again underway to nominate Bunin for the Nobel Prize. Since 1930, Russian emigrant writers resumed their efforts to nominate Bunin for the prize.

The Nobel Prize was awarded to Bunin in 1933. The official decision to award Bunin the prize states:

“By a decision of the Swedish Academy on November 9, 1933, the Nobel Prize in Literature for this year was awarded to Ivan Bunin for the rigorous artistic talent with which he recreated the typical Russian character in literary prose.”

Bunin distributed a significant amount of the prize he received to those in need. A commission was created to distribute funds. Bunin told Segodnya newspaper correspondent P. Nilsky: “... As soon as I received the prize, I had to give away about 120,000 francs. Yes, I don’t know how to handle money at all. Now this is especially difficult. Do you know how many letters I received asking for help? In the shortest possible time, up to 2,000 such letters arrived.”

In 1937, the writer completed the philosophical and literary treatise “The Liberation of Tolstoy” - the result of lengthy reflections based on his own impressions and testimonies of people who knew Tolstoy closely.

In 1938, Bunin visited the Baltic states. After this trip, he moved to another villa - “Zhannette”, where he spent the entire Second World War in difficult conditions. Ivan Alekseevich was very worried about the fate of his Motherland and enthusiastically accepted all the reports about the victories of the Red Army. Bunin dreamed of returning to Russia until the last minute, but this dream was not destined to come true.

Bunin failed to complete the book “About Chekhov” (published in New York in 1955). His last masterpiece, the poem “Night,” dates from 1952.

On November 8, 1953, Bunin died and was buried in the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris.

Based on materials from “100 Great Nobel Laureates” Mussky S.

• Biography

Since 1910, the center of Bunin’s work has become “the soul of the Russian man in a deep sense, images of the features of the Slavic psyche.” Trying to guess the future of Russia after the revolutionary upheavals of 1905 - 1907. Bunin did not share the hopes of M. Gorky and other representatives of proletarian literature.

I.A. Bunin experienced many historical events (three Russian revolutions, wars, emigration), which influenced his personal life and work. In his assessment of these events, Bunin was sometimes contradictory. During the revolution of 1905 - 1907, the writer, on the one hand, paid tribute to the motives of the protest, continued to collaborate with the “Znanievoites” who represented democratic forces, on the other hand, Bunin went to travel at a turning point in history and admitted that he was happy because he was “3000 miles from my homeland.” In Bunin’s wartime works, the feeling of the catastrophic nature of human life and the vanity of the search for “eternal” happiness intensifies. The contradictions of social life are reflected in the sharp contrast of characters, aggravated oppositions of the “basic” principles of being - life.

In 1907 - 1911 I.A. Bunin wrote a series of works, “The Shadow of the Bird,” in which diary entries, impressions of cities, architectural monuments, and paintings are intertwined with the legends of ancient peoples. In this cycle, Bunin for the first time looked at various events from the point of view of a “citizen of the world,” noting that during his travels he decided to “experience the melancholy of all times.”

Since the mid-1910s, I.A. Bunin moved away from Russian themes and the depiction of Russian character, his hero became man in general (the influence of Buddhist philosophy, which he became acquainted with in India and Ceylon), and the main theme was the suffering that arises from any contact with life, the insatiability of human desires. These are the stories “Brothers”, “Dreams of Chang”, some of these ideas are heard in the stories “The Mister from San Francisco”, “The Cup of Time”.

For Bunin, the expression of unfulfilled hopes and the general tragedy of life becomes the feeling of love, in which he sees, however, the only justification of existence. The idea of ​​love as the highest value of life will become the main pathos of the works of Bunin and the emigrant period. Love for Bunin’s heroes is “the ultimate, all-encompassing, it is the thirst to contain the entire visible and invisible world in your heart and again give it to someone” (“Brothers”). There cannot be eternal, “maximum” happiness; for Bunin it is always associated with a feeling of catastrophe, death (“Grammar of Love”, “Chang’s Dreams”, “Brothers”, stories of the 30-40s). In the love of Bunin's heroes? there is something incomprehensible, fatal and unrealizable, just as the happiness of life itself is unrealizable (“In Autumn”, etc.).

Traveling through Europe and the East, acquaintance with colonial countries, and the outbreak of the First World War sharpened the writer's rejection of the inhumanity of the bourgeois world and the feeling of the general catastrophic nature of reality. This attitude appeared in the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco” (1915).

The story “The Gentleman from San Francisco” arose in the creative mind of the writer when he read the news of the death of a millionaire who came to Capri and stayed in one of the hotels. The work was originally called "Death on Capri". Having changed the name, I.A. Bunin emphasized that the focus is on the figure of a nameless millionaire, fifty-eight years old, who went from San Francisco on vacation to Italy. Having become “decrepit,” “dry,” and unhealthy, he decided to spend time among his own kind. The American city of San Francisco was named after the Christian saint Francis of Assisi, who preached extreme poverty, asceticism, and renunciation of any property. The writer skillfully selects details (the episode with the cufflink) and uses the technique of contrast to contrast the outer respectability of the gentleman from San Francisco with his inner emptiness and squalor. With the death of a millionaire, a new starting point for time and events arises. Death seems to cut the story into two parts. This determines the originality of the composition.

Bunin's story evokes feelings of hopelessness. The writer emphasizes: “We must live today, without postponing happiness until tomorrow.”