Ivan Turgenev was born to Sergey Nikolaevich Turgenev and Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova on October 20, 1818, in the town of Orel, located 200 miles South of Moscow. His father, who was from the minor gentry, was a colonel in the calvary, and his mother was a wealthy landowner with a reputation for being arbitrarily cruel, particularly to her approximately 5,000 serfs. Turgenev's childhood was spent with his two brothers, one of whom died in adolescence, on the family's country estate at Spasskoe. His family left the country for Moscow when Turgenev was nine, and in 1833, at the age of fifteen, he entered Moscow University to study what was then called the philological faculty— literature.

In 1834 Turgenev transferred to the University of St. Petersburg in order to share lodging accommodations with his father and eldest brother. During his collegiate years, Turgenev developed a strong affinity for western culture, and in 1838 he...