Turgenev, Aleksandr

Turgenev, Aleksandr Ivanovich 

Born Mar. 27 (Apr. 7), 1784, in Simbirsk, now Ul’ianovsk; died Dec. 3 (15), 1845, in Moscow. Russian public figure and historian. Brother of the Decembrist N.I. Turgenev.

A. I. Turgenev graduated from a boarding school attached to Moscow University in 1802 and studied at the University of Gôt-tingen from 1802 to 1804. He served as director of the Department of Spiritual Affairs in the Ministry of Spiritual Affairs and Public Education from 1810 to 1924.

Turgenev was a member of the literary circle Arzamas and a friend of P. A. Viazemskii, N. M. Karamzin, and A. S. Pushkin. He was an opponent of serfdom and political despotism. Turgenev lived abroad beginning in 1825 and conducted extensive research on Russian history in European archives. His diaries and letters are a valuable source for the history of Russia and Western Europe in the first half of the 19th century.

WORKS

Akty isloricheskie, omosiashchiesia k Rossii, izvlechennye iz inostrannykh arkhivov i bibliotek, vols. 1–2. St. Petersburg, 1841–42.
Arkhiv brat’ev Turgenevykh, fases. 2,4,6. St. Petersburg-Petrograd, 1911–21.
Khronika russkogo: Dnevniki (1825–1826). Moscow-Leningrad, 1964.

REFERENCE

Pugachev, V. V. “Iz istorii russkoi obshchestvennoi mysli nachala XIX v.” Uch. zap. Gor’kovskogo un-ta, 1962, fase. 57.