From Newspaper Reporter to Russia’s First Nobel Laureate

From September to November 2020, the Russian State Library hosted an exhibition on its Marble Staircase, titled “From Newspaper Reporter to Russia’s First Nobel Laureate”, marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ivan Bunin (1870–1953), the celebrated Russian writer, poet and translator, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933. To extend the life of the exhibition, we created a virtual version

Photo: Maria Govtvan, RSL

The exhibition includes not only printed works by Ivan Bunin but also graphic art inspired by the poetry of the Russian émigré, offering a comprehensive introduction to the work of this outstanding Russian writer, poet and translator.

Curator of the exhibition: Anastasia Khodenkova, specialist in library and exhibition work, Department of Art and Historical Exhibitions.

Youth and Early Work

Ivan Bunin was born on 10 (22) October 1870 in Voronezh. He spent his childhood and adolescence on the family estate at Butyrki in Oryol province, and later at the nearby estate of Ozerki. It was during this period that Bunin’s first literary experiments took place – he wrote poems and stories from his grammar-school years.

For example, in the winter of 1886, when Bunin learned that one of his literary idols, the poet Semyon Nadson, had died, the young man sent several poems to the journal Rodina. One of them, entitled “On the Grave of S. Ya. Nadson” (“The poet died in his prime…”), was published in the February issue.

In early 1889, Bunin was offered the post of assistant editor at the Orlovsky Vestnik newspaper. Before giving his answer, the young man went to Kharkov to visit his brother. After seeing him, Bunin returned to Oryol via the Crimea, stopping in Yalta and Sevastopol. Years later, drawing on the memories of these travels, Bunin wrote poems about those places.

Ivan Bunin’s Crimean poems formed the basis for a series of engravings by Marina Lazareva – “Crimean Album. Return”.

The young man did not return to Oryol until the autumn, when he took up his duties as a proofreader. It was while working at Orlovsky Vestnik that Bunin published his first poetry collection, which was sent out free to subscribers of the newspaper.

In 1895, Bunin visited St Petersburg for the first time, where he met the critic Nikolai Mikhailovsky, the publicist Sergei Krivenko, the poet Konstantin Balmont and other prominent figures of the literary world. Shortly afterwards, he made new acquaintances in Moscow: the young writer developed friendships with Lev Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Valery Bryusov, Alexander Kuprin and others.

During these years, Bunin became a member of the “Sreda” literary circle, organised by the writer and poet Nikolai Teleshov. At their meetings, the young men read and discussed one another’s works.

In 1898, Bunin met the editor of the Yuzhnoye Obozreniye publication, Nikolai Tsakni. His daughter Anna became Bunin’s first official wife. The couple married soon after meeting, but family life did not work out, and they parted ways a few years later.

First Recognition and Pushkin Prizes of 1903 and 1909

Bunin continued to write poetry and stories, and also worked on translations of foreign-language works. In 1896, his translation of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Song of Hiawatha” came out, winning approving comments from the literary community. A certain degree of recognition came to Bunin after the publication of his poetry collection “Falling Leaves” (Listopad), published in 1901.

In the spring of that same year, Ivan Bunin asked Chekhov to submit these two works for the Pushkin Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences. At the commission’s vote in October 1903, Bunin received the majority of votes and was awarded half the prize – 500 roubles (the other half going to the translator Pyotr Weinberg).

At a literary evening in 1906, Ivan Bunin met Vera Muromtseva, who would later become his second and final wife. Their life together began with a journey through the countries of the East in the spring of 1907.

After the publication of “Falling Leaves”, the St Petersburg publishing house Znanie took charge of bringing out Bunin’s works. Considerable resonance was caused by the third volume of Bunin’s collected works, which contained new poems. It was this volume that Bunin sent to the Academy of Sciences to be considered for another Pushkin Prize. At the end of 1909, it was announced that the prize would be split between Ivan Bunin and Alexander Kuprin – each received 500 roubles. A few weeks after this news, another announcement came from the Academy of Sciences: Bunin had been elected an Honorary Academician in the Division of Belles-Lettres.

Travels and “Cursed Days”

In the 1910s, Bunin and Muromtseva travelled extensively, visiting Egypt, Italy, Turkey, Romania, Palestine and Ceylon. Several of Ivan Bunin’s stories were written under the influence of impressions from these journeys.

During these years, “The Gentleman from San Francisco” (1915), “The Grammar of Love” (1915), “Light Breathing” (1916) and “Chang’s Dreams” (1916) were published, receiving many responses.

The writer saw the October Revolution and the Civil War as a catastrophe for the country and for his compatriots. He moved from Petrograd first to Moscow, then to Odessa, where he lived for almost a year and a half. In Odessa, Bunin headed the literary department of the newspaper Yuzhnoye Slovo and wrote for local publications. The diary he kept during 1918–1920 later formed the basis of his book “Cursed Days”.

In early 1920, Bunin and Muromtseva left Russia, sailing from Odessa to Constantinople, and from there – via Sofia and Belgrade – they arrived in Paris.

Life Abroad and the Nobel Prize

Abroad, Bunin became actively engaged in socio-political activities. In 1920, he joined the Paris Union of Russian Writers and Journalists, wrote for the political-literary newspaper Vozrozhdenie (Renaissance), and called for a fight against Bolshevism. In his homeland, his anti-Soviet stance led the literary establishment to label him a White Guard.

During his émigré years, Bunin worked intensively, publishing his pre-revolutionary works and releasing new ones, including: “The Rose of Jericho” (1924), “Mitya’s Love” (1925), “Sunstroke” (1926), “The Case of Lieutenant Yelagin” (1926) and “God’s Tree” (1927).

In 1929, Ivan Bunin completed his most significant work written in exile – the novel “The Life of Arseniev”. It was for this novel that he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933.

The money from the Swedish Academy did not make Bunin rich: he donated part of the prize to those in need.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Bunins moved to Grasse. There, they lived almost without leaving for nearly six years. In addition to the couple, friends and acquaintances of the family were constantly at the villa. By that time, the Nobel Prize funds had run out, and the family often went hungry.

Ivan Bunin continued to work, finishing the collection of short stories “Dark Avenues” in 1944.

After the war, the Bunins returned to Paris. In June 1946, a decree was issued in the Soviet Union “On the Restoration of Citizenship of the USSR for Subjects of the Former Russian Empire…” Ivan Bunin wanted to return to his homeland, but in the end, the return did not take place, and Bunin, holding an émigré passport, remained stateless until his final days.

In the last years of his life, Bunin worked on his memoirs, publishing them in 1950. Another book of reminiscences, “On Chekhov”, remained unfinished: Ivan Bunin died in Paris on 8 November 1953. The writer was buried at the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois cemetery. The monument on his grave was made from a drawing by the artist Alexander Benois. A few years after her husband’s death, Vera, with the help of Leonid Zurov – a memoirist and long-time family friend – finished the book based on Ivan Bunin’s notes. The memoirs were published in 1955.