Ivan Turgenev

Turgenev, Ivan (1818–83), Russian writer whose realistic portrayals of the peasants and nobility of his country helped bring about social reforms and influenced later Russian writers. A Sportsman's Sketches (1852), one of his earliest works, is believed to have led to Czar Alexander II's emancipation of the serfs. Other major works include Rudin (1856), A Nest of Gentlefolk (1859), On the Eve (1860), Fathers and Sons (1861), Smoke (1867), and Virgin Soil (1877). Also a playwright, his best-known drama is A Month in the Country (1850), which influenced Anton Chekhov. A member of the landowning class who spent much of his time in Western Europe, Turgenev was one of a group of reformers who believed that Russia should adopt some of the best attributes of Western culture.