Turgenev's name was first mentioned in the Arab East in 1887, in the IX volume of the Arabic encyclopedic dictionary "Dairat al-ma'arif" ("Circle of Knowledge") published in Beirut, where an article on Russian literature was published, written on the basis of English materials, which mentioned, in addition to Turgenev, Pushkin, Gogol, Goncharov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, etc. Since then, interest in Turgenev in Arab countries has continuously increased.

Famous Arab writers of the 1910s and 1920s named Turgenev among the outstanding classics of Russian literature, which had a huge impact on their creative development. Thus, the Lebanese Mikhail Nuayme (1889-1986) wrote that he was "brought up on the fine art of Pushkin, Lermontov and Turgenev"; the Palestinian Khalil Baydas (1875-1949) called Turgenev a "great creator"; the Iraqi Mahmoud Ahmed al-Sayyid (1901-1937) believed that "Russian psychological novels", in particular Nov Russian writers should serve as models for creating "truly folk works"; the Egyptian Mahmoud Teymour (1894-1973) admired the" simplicity, truthfulness, humanistic beginning "of Turgenev's works; his compatriot Yahya Hakki (1905-1993) spoke of the author of" Notes of the Hunter "as an unsurpassed master of"poetic landscape". All of them considered it necessary to learn from Turgenev the objective reconstruction of the surrounding reality, the art of storytelling.

Turgenev's popularity among the Arabs was evidenced by the increasing number of translations of his works into Arabic. From the 1920s to the 1980s, prose poems, numerous short stories, including the series "Notes of a Hunter", a number of plays and novellas, and all the novels of the writer were translated in Arab countries. Individual works of Turgenev are presented in several translations.

Arabic translations of Turgenev's works, especially since the 1940s, were often accompanied by advertisements on the covers of publications or were preceded by prefaces, which were usually written by the translators themselves. For all their informational orientation and cognitive nature, the forewords contained value judgments about Turgenev and his works. The translator often sought not only to indicate the merits of the work he translated, but also to bring together the social and moral issues raised in it, the characters of the Russian writer with the modern Arabic reality. So, Turgenev's novel Nov (with the Arabic title al-Ard al-azra'), translated by Abbas Hafiz, was published in Cairo. "Virgin land")¹ is provided with both advertising and the translator's" Introductory Word "("Kalima tamhidiyya"), which, in particular, states that this is "one of the most significant novels" of the writer; "the author of the work offered to readers has the dignity of an ardent patriot"; many phenomena reflected in the novel, its ideas, images, "the edification " present in it "almost corresponds to the character of our era with the prevailing mores", and therefore the novel will be "useful" to the Arabs: it "will help to see our shortcomings and contradictions, open our eyes to our liberation movement, guide us on the path of improvement and reform" [Hafiz, [b. d.], pp. 4, 5, 6-7].

The famous Iraqi writers Dhu'nun Ayyub and Akram Fadil, who translated the novel "Fathers and Sons" (al-Aba wa'l-banun, Baghdad, 1950), provided its own introduction - " The Word of Translators "("Kalimat al-mutarjimein"), which begins as follows: "Ivan

¹ The year of publication is not specified; according to A. A. Dolinina, the translation was published in 1945, according to other sources in 1951.

Turgenev is at the forefront of the world's first-class writers, and among the Russians he is one of the greatest, immortal writers." The translators noted the "modernity" of the confrontation between two camps shown in the novel - " old men, strict conservatives (fathers) and revolutionary, rebellious youth (children)", which can be observed "in any era, especially in our century, and especially in our country" [Ayyub and Fadil, 1950, p. "alif"].

"Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883) is one of the great Russian writers, whose works are considered the pride of Russian national culture," reads the beginning of an advertisement on the cover of a book of translations of Turgenev's novels "Asya" and "Spring Waters" published in Cairo in the 1950s. - "Jadawil al-rabi'"), performed by Muhammad Mufid al-Shubashi. Both novels are described as "touching lyrical love stories"; they are " among the autobiographical works of the writer about the lives of characters so dear to the author... All these images are created by the hand of a master who has no equal, "and Turgenev himself "considered" Asya " and "Spring Waters" the best of the stories he wrote."

In 1958, the novel "First Love" ("Al-Hubb al-Awwal")was published in Cairo in translation by Ramis Yunan² with the following advertisement: "In his works, Turgenev spoke about the ideological trends that prevailed in his era, and expressed the feelings and experiences of his fellow citizens in a poetic style. His most famous works are "Rudin", "Fathers and Sons", "Smoke", "Nov" and "First Love", which was published in 1860 and is considered one of the best humanistic narratives of Turgenev."

In 1984, Turgenev's book The Song of Triumphant Love and Other Stories (Unshuda al-hubb al-Zafir wa kysas ukhra)was published in Damascus translated by Adnan al-Sabi'i and Khalil Shat. In addition to the story of the same name, the book includes two more - "Klara Milich" and "Dream" ("al-Hulm"). About the latter, the advertisement says that in it "the author has reached the top in his skill of psychoanalysis." In the preface to the book, written by translators and entitled " Ivan Turgenev. Man, time, space " ("Ifan Turcinif. Ar-Rajul, al-zaman, al-Makan"), the main events of the writer's life and creative path are indicated. The authors of the translation define the story "Klara Milich" as an autobiographical one. They relate to the question of two trends in Russian social and literary life of that era: representatives of one (Slavophiles) "considered purely Russian traditions sacred, drawing from them material for their art and philosophy"; representatives of the other " gravitated to the West, where they saw creative examples that Russians should follow and imitate." Turgenev, a graduate of a German university, was inspired by Schiller and George Sand, and by nature is close to Westerners, the authors of the preface note [as-Sabi'i, Shata, 1984, p. 14, 15].

Arab writers were also attracted by Turgenev's drama. Thus, the Egyptian Russian scholar Samya Afifi (b. 1947), in the introduction to his 1983 translation of the play "The Provincial Woman" ("ar-Rifiyya"), published in Kuwait City, recalls that the parallels between Dostoevsky's" Eternal Husband "and Turgenev's" The Provincial Woman " were noted by the famous Syrian propagandist of Russian literature Sami ad- Darubi (1921-1976 )( in the introductory article to volume 7 of his translation of Dostoevsky's Complete Works in 18 volumes) (Cairo, 1967-1971). According to ad-Darubi, an analogy can be drawn between the actors of these plays, and reminiscences of Turgenev's comedy can be found in Dostoevsky's The Eternal Husband.

Hayat Sharara (1935-1997), who is widely known in Iraqi literary circles, has been popularizing Russian classics for many years due to her knowledge of the Russian language. 8 1984 in Baghdad, translated by H. Sharara published "Notes of a hunter" ("Muzakkarat Sayyad") with its introduction and afterword. In the introduction, she noted the "high level of Russian literature among world literatures", appreciated the significance of the" Notes of the Hunter", which caused a great resonance in Russian and Western criticism, focused on the skill of Turgenev as a landscape painter, considering this facet of the writer's work" especially valuable " [Sharara, 1984, p.9].

In the afterword entitled "His Life and works" ("Hayatuhu wa nitajuhu"), H. Sharara briefly described the vicissitudes of Turgenev's life, drawn from the works of Russian and English researchers, highlighting those factors that, in her opinion, were decisive in the creative development of the writer. This is first of all the acquaintance with Pauline Viardot, which became a "turning point" in his life; Gogol's death in January 1852, "deeply shocked him";

² For the first time a novel in translation (from English) Mahmoud abd al-Mun'im Murad was published in 1946 in Cairo by Dar al-katib al-Mysri ("The Egyptian Writer"), without a preface.

the enmity that arose between him and L. Tolstoy, which X. Sharara (not quite rightly) explains that Tolstoy's importance in the Russian novel genre increased, while Turgenev allegedly did not create "significant works" after 1863.

As X points out. Sharara, numerous human types embodied in Turgenev's works, are close to modern Arabs, express their "own life problems", for example ,the "extra person" in the novels "Rudin", "The Noble Nest", etc. [Sharara, 1984, p. 486, 487, 490].

In the 1960s, the collection of the greatest Egyptian writer Yahya Hakki "Steps in Criticism" ("Hatawat fi-n-naqd") was published in Cairo, consisting of his literary and critical articles of various years (all of them were published in various periodicals of Egypt in 1927-1961). and Turgenev. How they fought" ("Tulstui wa Turjinif wa keifa tahasama"), published in November 1932 in the Egyptian newspaper " al-Ahram "("Pyramids"), is devoted to the history of the relationship between two Russian writers. I. Hakki reduces the causes of conflicts between them to the difference in their worldview, dissimilarity of characters and temperaments. It is not clear from the article what sources it is based on, so it is not possible to understand where some of the inaccuracies in it come from.

I. Hakki tries to answer the question of why there was a feud between Tolstoy and Turgenev. Each of them found enthusiastic admirers in all corners of the earth, both of them passed the years of youth when hot blood could justify all their actions and actions. In addition, they were bound by a sincere desire to serve their country. And yet they couldn't stand each other. At a distance, their affection was mutual, but when they found themselves in the same company, Tolstoy experienced, according to I. Hakka, "embarrassment, annoyance, fatigue. Both were equally capricious. It all ended with the fact that they avoided rapprochement and disputes." J. Hakki considers it extremely important "the role that Turgenev played with his writings in freeing the peasants from slavery in his country." "He did not incite sedition, did not call for revolution... However, his calm works were more dangerous than conspiracies and revolutions. He was the first to raise the Russian peasant to the level of a human being, describing with his usual simplicity in his immortal book "Notes of a Hunter" the feelings of this peasant, his sufferings " [Hakki, 196 -, p. 78, 79].

Turgenev was mentioned in many works of Arabic literary critics when describing certain phenomena of Russian or Arabic literature. I will note some of them.

In 1943, the greatest Egyptian philologist Ahmed Amin (1887-1954), founder of the weekly literary magazine "al-Saqafa" ("Culture", Cairo, 1939), together with Mahmoud Zeki Naguib wrote a "History of world literature" ("Kissa al-adab fi-l-alam", Cairo). The authors name Turgenev among the Russian classics.

In 1948, on the 100th anniversary of the death of V. G. Belinsky, the Beirut magazine "at-Tariq" ("The Way") he responded with an editorial " Vissarion Belinsky. A world-famous Russian critic " ("Fisariun Bilinsky. An-Naqid ar-rusi al-alami"), where Turgenev's words about Belinsky were quoted:"He stood with all his being close to the core of his people." Belinsky highly appreciated the talent of Turgenev and other famous Russian writers (Lermontov, Leskov, Dostoevsky, Goncharov, Herzen), approaching literary works not only from the point of view of aesthetic criteria, - at-Tarik noted [at-Tarik, 1948, p.22, 24-25].

The role of Turgenev in the creative formation of Makhmud Teymur during the period of his passion for Russian literature was pointed out by the Egyptian literary critic Shauki Daif [Daif, 1974, p. 301] and the Syrian writer Georges Salim [Salim, 1965, p.30]. The Egyptian literary critic Mahmoud Hamid Shawkat in one of his many works, speaking about Mahmoud Teymur, noted that "in the accuracy of observations" with which this writer showed the vices of people from the people's environment from the position of his aristocratic class, "the impact of the strong impression that the art of the school of critical realism in Western Europe made on him" is captured literature, especially Russian and French, represented by their representatives - Turgenev and Maupassant " [Shaukat, 1974, p. 217].

"From the" rich overcoat "of Nikolai Gogol, from the" broad aba " ³ ideas of Vissarion Belinsky, Alexander Herzen and Nikolai Chernyshevsky came a whole galaxy of great artists and thinkers. The nobleman Ivan Turgenev, open to European culture, gave thirty years of his life to France and Germany, befriended Flaubert, Zola and Henry James. He combined

^Aba 3-Arabic woolen clothing in the form of a cloak.

Romanticism with naturalism and in his" refined "works with" poetry sang Russian life", "wrote the famous Egyptian critic Sabri Hafiz, an excellent connoisseur of Russian literature, who presented the" picture of Dochekhov drama "in an article published in the Baghdad magazine" al-Aklyam "("Feathers"). S. Hafiz interprets Turgenev as a playwright who made a "new step" with his works (after Gogol) in an attempt to find a character for Russian drama that "would embody all the sensations and excitement of one moment of his being." The most" significant and mature "dramatic works of Turgenev S. Hafiz calls the comedies "A Month in the village", "The Bachelor", "Conversation on the High Road" [Hafiz, 1972, p. 89, 90-91].

Since the 1970s, the study of Turgenev's work in Arab countries has been expanding and deepening. Special articles in periodicals, chapters in works on the history of a particular literary genre in Russian literature, and even a monograph are devoted to him. Prominent Arab critics and literary critics, turning to the analysis of Turgenev's works, reveal the significance of the writer's artistic heritage for Russian and world literature from different perspectives, touching on various aspects of his literary activity, and focus on the ideas and problems embodied in them that concern the Arab society itself. The authors rely on the works of Russian researchers of Turgenev's creative work, on the works of the writer himself, his correspondence and other materials.

Arab literary critics are also interested in some of Turgenev's works. In 1970, the Beirut magazine "al-Adab" ("Literature", No. 8) published an article by Hayat Sharary "With Turgenev's novel" Fathers and Sons "("Ma'a Rivaya Turjinif al-Aba wa-llbanun"), where Turgenev's novel work is evaluated as a continuation and development of "a wonderful literary tradition". As a distinctive quality of Turgenev, his "acute sensitivity" to Russian life is emphasized, to which he turned out to be "close not only as a writer, artist, but also as a scientist who studied all the complexities of its problems". X. Sharara calls Turgenev "a barometer of Russian life"; a deep understanding of Russian life is emphasized. The existing reality was determined by his vision of new social processes and ideological theories, social changes in the "embryo". X. Sharara considers Turgenev's creative style in the novel "Fathers and Sons" to be close to Gogol's in "Dead Souls", and the novel itself differs in a number of parameters from the writer's previous works [Sharara, 1970, pp. 50, 51-52].

Hayat Sharara in the book "Tolstoy - the artist" ("Tulstui fannanan") (Baghdad, 1971), telling about the environment surrounding the writer, assigns a certain place to Turgenev, focusing on the specifics of his writing style. In her opinion, Turgenev was always attracted to the sphere of human feelings, but the way he portrayed them was different from Tolstoy's. Turgenev "does not allow verbosity in the transmission of the hero's thoughts and feelings" and considers Tolstoy's method of their detailed analysis to be "excessive", "excessive". "He prefers moderation in this respect, tends to be brief in revealing the secrets of the human heart." However, Turgenev's dissatisfaction with Tolstoy's method of reflecting the sensory world transcends the boundaries of criticism and takes the form of abuse. Sharara. Despite the negative attitude to a lengthy description of the feelings of the characters, Turgenev, X. Sharara is convinced, did not completely dismiss this path, ⁴ while he himself remained convinced that the writer should be a psychologist, but not expose the entire inner life of the character, since it is not in his power to fully comprehend the hidden secrets of the human soul. As a typical example of Turgenev's restraint in the depiction of love X. Sharara refers to the relevant fragments of the novel " The Noble Nest "("Al-Ussh al-Amiri"). Turgenev does not depict the entire psychological process of the birth and evolution of the feeling of love (Liza for Lavretsky), as Tolstoy does, but shows its final result, - the researcher sums up [Sharara, 1971, p.19, 20].

X. Sharara emphasizes the writer's innovation (this has become commonplace in Arabic works about Turgenev) - his "perfection" in recreating pictures of nature, "in the life of which a person is included, fascinated by its pristine beauty." An example of this is the first stories of the writer included in the"Notes of a Hunter". The faces of the Russian landscape are diverse in Turgenev's depiction: sometimes nature is clothed in the form of a sentimental sketch, imbued with a poetic spirit, and sometimes it takes on a philosophical sound and carries a psychological burden. Natural phenomena most often accompany the state of the hero and the events that occur with him.

⁴ Turgenev did, in time, soften his criticism of Tolstoy's device.

For example, in the novel "Rudin "(in the scene of the last meeting of Rudin and Natalia at Avdyukhin's pond) and the story" On the Eve " (in the episode of Elena Astakhova's departure with Insarov, accompanied by rain) [Sharara, 1971, pp. 21-24].

The chapter on Turgenev is included in the monograph of the Egyptian Makarem al-Ghamari (b.1947), published in Kuwait City in 1981, entitled "The Russian Novel of the XIX century" ("Ar-Rivaya ar-rusiyya fi-l-qarn at-tasi' ashar"). The author of the book defended her dissertation on "Gorky and the Arab writers" at Moscow State University in 1973; her pen includes research on Russian literature, comparative works on the problems of Russian and Arabic literature, as well as translations of works by Russian writers.

The book is divided into three sections: "The Pre-Realist Novel "("Ma kabla ar-rivaya alwakiyya"), " The first samples of the social Novel "("an-Namazij al-ula li-r-rivaya alijtimaiyya"), "The Flourishing of the Russian Novel in the XIX century" ("Izdihar ar-rivaya ar-rusiyya fi-l-karn at-tasi 'ashar"). The latter, in addition to the chapter on Turgenev, includes chapters on Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy. The analysis of their literary activity is preceded by a general description of the literary movement in Russia from the end of the 1840s to the end of the XIX century, when " the Russian novel experienced the second and very important period of its history, reaching the peak of evolution and flourishing; maturity, originality, novelty are distinctive features of the work of a number of outstanding novelists who"[al-Ghamari, 1981, p. 111].

In this context, Turgenev's novel works are considered - all six of his works: "Rudin", "The Noble Nest", "On the Eve", "Fathers and Sons", "Smoke" and"Nov" ⁵. Evaluating them, al-Ghamari notes that they reflect " the main stages of the social movement of the 1850s and 1880s - a time when ideological and philosophical trends were mixed. Turgenev created the image of a representative of the advanced Russian intelligentsia ("Rudin", "The Noble Nest"), showed a new public figure, a revolutionary of the 1860s ("On the Eve"), a representative of the Russian democratic youth ("Fathers and Sons"), the" narodnichestvo"movement that emerged in Russia in the 1870s ("On the Eve").Nov'). The main thing that attracted Turgenev in these characters, the characters, - says the Egyptian researcher. Her other observations are also true: the love feelings of the characters fail; their life path usually ends tragically ("they die before their wishes are fulfilled"); dramatic love conflict is used in Turgenev's novels as a means of testing the social and moral value of the individual; in a love story, a woman usually rises above a man with her special personality. the ability to love, but the love of Turgenev's heroines is unhappy, hopeless, the fate of lovers is separation.

Al-Ghamari supposedly connects the insolubility of love conflicts in Turgenev's works with the story of the writer's love for Pauline Viardot, "this happy and at the same time sad story that brought the writer a lot of suffering." At the same time, the woman in Turgenev's novel "is transformed after experiencing an unhappy love, the strength of her spirit and the beauty of her character are revealed."

The researcher devotes a lot of space in her work to the poetics of Turgenev's novels, noting first of all their "deep psychologism", their focus on "the smallest details of the ideological trends of Russian society at that time". It emphasizes the dialogic nature of Turgenev's novels, the "passion" for landscape sketches, the musicality of the style, and the poetic language. All these components of Turgenev's artistic world help reveal the characters ' personalities. As for their ordinary, everyday life, it has no independent meaning [al-Ghamari, 1981, p. 119-1120].

Al-Ghamari considers the novels Rudin and Fathers and Sons to be particularly significant: they " reflect two important trends in the history of Russian social thought - the noble-liberal and democratic ones." According to these two novels, "which have accumulated many distinctive features and facets of the writer's art in this genre, one can get an idea of Turgenev's novel work as a whole." Referring to the artistic structure of these works, al-Ghamari qualifies Rudin as an example of a "compressed (madgut) novel composition", i.e., a concentric principle of plot construction. Simplicity of expression, conciseness in the transmission of "the most difficult".,

⁵ I note that if Turgenev's title " Nov "means" land not yet plowed, virgin land", then the Arabic title of this novel "al-Khars "(translated by al-Ghamari) has exactly the opposite meaning - "plowing, cultivated land, arable land". I think that its Arabic name in the above-mentioned translation by Abbas Hafiz most corresponds to the original - "al-Ard al-azra' " ("Virgin land", i.e. "Virgin land").

For the researcher, these are the unique qualities of Turgenev's narrative art (al-Ghamari, 1981: 136, 139-140).

Natural paintings, al-Ghamari notes, are given an important place in the works of Turgenev, who "managed to convey the truly national character of the Russian landscape." The writer uses natural descriptions to fully convey"the emotional movements, feelings, and thoughts of the characters." To prove it, she tries to use quotations from "Rudin", but such attempts are not always successful, sometimes the passages she gives with references to Turgenev's text simply do not correspond to the original.

Focusing on various technical levels of the novel "Fathers and Sons", al-Ghamari also emphasizes such a feature of the narrative as the limitation of time and space, such an artistic detail as the object world, like the natural world, "which helps to reveal the essence of the characters 'natures," etc. [al-Ghamari, 1981, p. 159, 161].

Muhammad Yunis (1937-2010), an Iraqi who spent many years studying Russian literature, played a significant role in promoting Russian classics and introducing Turgenev's creative heritage to Arab readers. He not only translated the works of Russian researchers of Turgenev's work and the works of the writer himself, but also wrote his own work "Turgenev-an artist, a man "("Turginif Musavvir Insan"), published in 1975 in Beirut in the series" Luminaries of World Literature "("A'lam al-adab al-Alami"). And in 1986, his article "The place of women in Turgenev's life and literary work" ("Makana al-mar'a fi hayat Turginif wa natajatihi-l-adabiyya") appeared in the Baghdad magazine"al-Aklyam".

The very title of the article reflects the critic's original goal - to capture the connection between Turgenev's personal life and his works, to indicate autobiographical elements in the writer's characters (mainly female). Using the facts and events of Turgenev's biography, sometimes retelling the content of his works, M. Yunis points out the prototypes and reminiscences in the writer's works, the points of coincidence of the circumstances of his life and the lives of his heroes, rather heroines.

First of all, he was interested in the story of the writer's secret love for the serf laundress Avdotya Ermolaevna, who had a daughter by him, and the sad outcome of this love, "which left a deep wound in Turgenev's heart." "The tragedy of their relationship did not pass without a trace for Turgenev and was reflected in the novel" The Noble Nest "(or "Lisa") in the image of the poor girl Malanya, " writes M. Yunis.

Among the women who played a role in Turgenev's life, the critic mentions Tatiana Bakunina, the younger sister of Mikhail Bakunin. She "saw in Turgenev a model of high humanity and perfection." For some time, "Turgenev reciprocated her feelings, but was not consistent in his feelings for her" [Yunis, 1986, p. 117]. M. Yunis cites a letter from Turgenev to Tatiana dated March 20, 1842, where he admits that "for her alone he would like to become a poet", he loved her as much as possible. No one else, and at the same time I must say that I "did not love her with a full and lasting love." Relations with Bakunina, as M. Yunis emphasizes, also did not pass without a trace for Turgenev, they were reflected in his work, especially in the poems of the 1840s: "Give me your hand...", "Neva", " When I left you "(in Arabic translation "When I left you") and others, as well as in the poem "White Clouds", in the poem" Andrey", in the short stories" Andrey Kolosov "and" Correspondence"; excerpts from them are given by M. Yunis in his own translation. Speaking about another hobby of Turgenev-Maria Nikolaevna Tolstoy, the sister of Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy, "from sympathy for which the writer's heart began to pound" and "trembled with love for her, but very soon this feeling passed" - M. Yunis notes that Turgenev's breakup with her was "the first, hidden cause of the crisis in relations between the two writers", which almost led later to a duel and, if only without the intervention of friends, "literature would have lost one of its giants" [Yunis, 1986, p. 119]. M. Yunis sees the similarity of some portrait details of Maria Nikolaevna with the appearance of Vera Yeltsova, the heroine of the story "Faust". To emphasize the close connection of "Faust" with Turgenev's personal experience, he refers to the writer's own confession, made a year after the creation of the story, inspired by communication with Maria Nikolaevna Tolstoy. M. Yunis conveys Turgenev's statement in a typically Arabic style: "I wrote the story "Faust" at the turn of life, at its turning point, when my life shone with the last ray of memories, hopes, youth... " [Yunis, 1986, p.120].

In the field of view of M. Yunis is also the autobiographical character of the story "First Love" (the critic gives all the quotes from the Cairo edition of 1946). He focuses on the history of the relationship between Turgenev and the singer Pauline Viardot, in love with whom the writer, while remaining a member of the Russian Academy of Arts, is still in love.

until the end of his life, true to his feeling, " I experienced a lot of pain, drank the cup of deprivation. This love deprived him of a calm, measured life." If you try to find a reflection of Viardot's image in Turgenev's work, you will find, the critic believes, that her features are scattered throughout many of the writer's works, unlike other female characters, whose real prototypes can be traced in Turgenev's life. Individual features of Viardot, her spiritual qualities, the writer captured in a number of female characters, " finishing their portraits and characters, modeling their images." Therefore, it is difficult for a researcher to say that the prototype of this or that Turgenev heroine was Pauline Viardot. M. Yunis sees the reason for this in the fact that "the depth of Turgenev's feelings for this woman, the greatness of his love for her prevented him from embodying her in one particular character of a particular work of art" [Yunis, 1986, p.123].

Like other Arab writers, M. Yunis notes that the female image is the core of almost all of Turgenev's artistic works. The strength of mind, spiritual elevation, obsession with a high goal, enthusiasm, readiness for self-sacrifice of Turgenev's women put them above men. Turgenev was by nature "a poet of deep feelings, a man of fine observation, a convinced realist," M. Yunis emphasizes. Therefore, it is not surprising that " a woman attracted him by the integrity of her nature, the purity of her feelings, and the purity of her heart."

Among such female natures, M. Yunis refers to Natalia Alexandrovna Lasunskaya, the heroine of the novel "Rudin". Liza Kalitina, the heroine of the "Noble Nest", he considers "the most beautiful female character of all created by Turgenev." According to M. Yunis, criticizing the noble upbringing, Turgenev expressed confidence that the best human qualities are inherent in the workers of the land, the peasants. The theme of love is one of the main themes in the novel "The Noble Nest", but M. Yunis sees a paradox in its interpretation by Turgenev, who,"on the one hand, confirms the strength and greatness of this feeling, and on the other - its tragic impact on the fate of the characters." In the main character of the novel "The Day Before" ("Fi-l-ashiya") Elena Stakhova M. Yunis is attracted to her "strong desire for freedom", which, according to him, distinguishes this character from other female images of Turgenev.

In Turgenev's last novel, Nov (Al-Khars) The new stage of social life in Russia in the 1870s is reflected, the critic emphasizes. The central characters-Marianna and Nezhdanov - "understood that they had to work for the happiness and prosperity of their people, but their tragedy was that they did not know the right way to achieve this goal" [Yunis, 1986, p.124, 125, 126].

As M. Yunis notes, Turgenev was a supporter of equal rights between men and women, and called for women to be given the right to work, unlike some other Russian writers, including Leo Tolstoy, who believed that a woman's place is home, and her main duty is to raise children and be the guardian of the family hearth. "Contact with European society, a long stay outside of Russia opened Turgenev's eyes to this truth," says M. Yunis. Therefore, in his works, one feels pain for the unwillingness of half of Russian society to " grant women the right to social work." As for the heroines of Turgenev, they are representatives of the active principle, the moral ideal of their era.

According to the critic, in the works of the writer "we see an acute clash between the strong personality of a woman and the weak one of a man, kind to the point of cowardice, suffering from a lack of will and therefore suffering defeat." M. Yunis agrees with the opinion of other researchers that in his works Turgenev "tried to prove that man is constantly at the mercy of a hidden powerful threat, which is nature and love. These two forces, in Turgenev's understanding, are the source of human tragedy. His nature is very harsh and at the same time it is beautiful", love, like nature, "subdues a person and oppresses him"; most often it leads the hero to "capitulation and conviction of the impossibility of personal happiness. At the same time, love is a mystery, without which there is no person or life." It is no accident that M. Yunis refers to the significant words of Turgenev, voiced at the end of his life: "Love... stronger than death and the fear of death. Only by it, only by love, does life hold and move. " ⁶

For M. Yunis," the most remarkable thing "in Turgenev's work is the image of the bright sides of the human soul, and" the most pleasant thing " is that the reader sympathizes not only with him.-

⁶ The final phrase of the prose poem "Sparrow" (April 1878).

positive characters, but even negative characters ⁷. And this is "one of the reasons for Turgenev's immortality and his highest place in Russian and world literature," the critic concludes [Yunis, 1986, pp. 127-128].

Recently, Russian classical literature has attracted the attention of Arab writers mainly through the works of Leo Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov. However, their publications in a variety of contexts recognize the merits of Turgenev as the greatest Russian writer, which are associated with the global significance of his rich literary heritage. This is stated, in particular, in the article by the famous Egyptian critic Muhammad Ibrahim Abu Sanna "Tolstoy. Man and the Creator " ("Toolstuy. Al-Insan wa'l-mubdi'), published on the pages of the magazine "al-Hilal" ("Crescent") in 2006 (No. 6) [Abu Sanna, 2006, p. 160, 163].

The special February issue of Al-Hilal magazine (2007, No. 2) is dedicated to the major Egyptian critic Raga al-Naqqash. Author of the article "Svetilo" ("al-Mudy").') Muhammad al-Muhaznaji quotes Ragha al-Naqqash's account of his literary tastes: He names Turgenev, whom he loved from his youth, among the luminaries of Russian literature: Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Lermontov, Gogol, and Gorky [al-Muhaznaji, 2007, p.129]. Author of another article " My Teacher in Literature "(Ustazi fi-l-adab) artist and writer Georges al-Bahjuri, recognizing Ragh al-Naqqash as his literary mentor, emphasizes that it was he who "introduced him to the world of Turgenev" and other famous classics of Russian prose [al-Bahjuri, 2007, p. 177].

Thus, over the past hundred and twenty-five years, attention to I. S. Turgenev in the Arab East has not dried up. Thanks to writers, translators, literary critics and literary critics, the works of the great Russian writer have become the property of wide readership in different parts of the Arab world.

list of literature

Abu Sanna Muhammad Ibrahim. Use a tool. Al-Insan wa'l-mubdi'(Tolstoy. Man and the Creator) / / Al-Hilal. Cairo, 2006, No. 6.

Ayyub Dhu-n-nun, Akram Fadil. Preface / Ifan Turginif. Al-Aba wa-l-banun (Ivan Turgenev. Fathers and children). Baghdad, 1950.

Afifi Samya. Foreword / Ifan Turjiniv. Ar-Rifiyya (Ivan Turgenev. Provincial girl). Kuwait City, 1983.

Al-Bahjuri Georges. Ustazi fi'l-adab (My teacher in literature) / / Al-Hilal. Cairo, 2007, No. 2.

Bilinsky Fisariun. An-Naqid ar-rusi al-alami (Belinsky Vissarion. World-famous Russian critic) / / At-Tariq. Beirut, 1948, No. 7.

Al-Ghamari Makarsm. Ar-Rivaya ar-rusiyya fi-l-karn am-macu ' ashar (Russian novel of the XIX century). Kuwait City, 1981.

Dayf Shawki. Al-Adab al-Arabi al-muasir fi Mysr (Modern Arabic literature in Egypt). 5th ed. Cairo, 1974.

Yunis Mohammed. Makana al-mar'a fi hayat Turginif wa natajatihi-l-adabiyya (The place of women in Turgenev's life and literary work). Baghdad, 1986, No. 3.

Al-Muhaznaji Muhammad. Al-Mudi' (Luminary) / / Al-Hilal. Cairo, 2007, No. 2.

Al-Sabi'i Adnan, Khalil Shata. Foreword / Ifan Turcinif. Unshuda al-hubb al-zafir wa kysas ukhra (Ivan Turgenev. "The Song of Triumphant Love" and other stories). Damascus, 1984.

Salim Georges. Ala hamish al-adab al-arabi (In the margins of Arabic literature). Aleppo, 1965.

Hakki Yahya. Tulstui wa Turjinif wa keifa takhasama (Tolstoy and Turgenev. How they fought) // Hatawat fi-n-naqd (Steps in criticism). Cairo, 196-.

Hafiz Abbas. Preface / Turginif. Al-Ard al-azra' (Turgenev. Virgin land). Cairo, [b. g.].

Hafiz Sabri. Khalfiyya asasiyya li-dirasa klassikiyyat al-adab ar-rusi (The main background for studying classics of Russian literature) / / Al-Aklyam. Baghdad, 1972, No. 2.

Sharara Hayat. Introduction and afterword / Turginif I. S. Muzakkarat sayyad (Turgenev I. S. Notes of a hunter). Baghdad, 1984.

Sharara Hayat. Tulstui fannanan (Tolstoy-artist). Baghdad, 1971.

Sharara Hayat. Ma'a rivaya Turjinif al-Aba wa'l-banun (With Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Children") / / Al-Adab. Beirut, 1970, No. 8.

Shaukat Mahmoud Hamid. Muqawwamat al-qiyesa al-arabiyya fi Mysr. Bahs ta ' rihi wa tahlili muqaran (Values of the Modern Arabic Narrative in Egypt. Historical research and comparative analysis). Cairo, 1974.

⁷ The critic seems to be referring to" Turgenev's men " - weak-willed, indecisive, fearful of responsibility and great feelings.

7 Vostok, No. 4

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