Bunin was a member of a literary circle. Yuliya Bunin's ink device. Literature about life and work

To describe love with such beauty and accuracy, as the great Ivan Bunin did, is not given to every writer. This strong, passionate and tragic feeling was known to him firsthand...

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin (1870-1953) was born at dawn on October 10 (22), 1870 in the small Russian town of Yelets.

The writer's father, Aleksey Nikolaevich Bunin, came from an old noble family, dating back to the Lithuanian chivalry of the 15th century.

Bunin's father and mother

Mother, Lyudmila Alexandrovna Bunina, nee Chubarova, also belonged to a noble family. Due to the abolition of serfdom in 1861 and the very careless conduct of business, the economy of Bunin and Chubarova was in an extremely neglected state, and by the beginning of the 20th century. the family was on the verge of ruin.

Until the age of 11, B. was brought up at home, and in 1881 he entered the Yelets district gymnasium, but four years later, due to financial difficulties of the family, he returned home, where he continued his education under the guidance of his older brother Yuliy, an unusually capable person

Cupid's arrows caught Bunin's heart at the age of 15. The boy was inflamed with passion for Emilia Fechner, a short blonde who served as a governess in the family of Otto Tubbe, the distiller of the landowner Bakhtiyarov.

Love, of course, did not work out. Subsequently, the image of Emilia came to life in the heroine of "The Life of Arseniev" - Ankhen ... They met by chance 52 years later at an evening in Revel. Bunin had a long and excited conversation with a plump and short lady, in whom nothing resembled that Emilia.

And Ivan's first wife was Varvara Pashchenko, the daughter of a Yelets doctor. 19-year-old Bunin worked as an assistant editor in the Orlovsky Vestnik newspaper, where he not only wrote articles, but also published his first stories and poems. And Barbara was a proofreader.

“A tall girl, with very beautiful features, wearing pince-nez, in a flowery embroidered Russian suit, came out to tea in the morning,” he described the first impression of her to his older brother Julius. The strict beauty was a year older than Ivan. She graduated with a gold medal from the full course of the Yelets gymnasium, from which Bunin was expelled.

In 1891 they got married. True, she had to live unmarried, since Pashchenko's parents were against her marriage to the impoverished Bunin, whose father, Alexei Nikolaevich, although he was a landowner, went bankrupt due to his addiction to wine and cards.

Young wandered from city to city, including staying in Poltava, where they served in the provincial government. They lived poorly, besides, Ivan was carried away by Tolstoyism, while Varia was annoyed by the ideas of forgiveness and unselfishness. In November 1894, she ran away from her husband to his friend Arsen Bibikov, leaving a note: “Vanya, goodbye. Do not remember dashingly.

Later it was revealed that, while continuing to cohabit with Ivan Alekseevich, the unfaithful woman secretly met with the wealthy landowner Arseny Bibikov, whom she later married. Bunin never found out that Varvara's father gave permission for their legal marriage - she kept it a secret. Love and deceit, disappointment and torment.

The vicissitudes of this Bunin passion later formed the basis of the plot of the fifth book of Arseniev's Life, which was often published separately under the title Lika.

Bunin was hard to move away from the blow. Thought life was over. Saved by writing, into which he plunged headlong. And ... a new love that overtook in the Pearl by the sea.

In June 1898 Bunin left for Odessa.

Anna was the daughter of the Odessa Greek, publisher and editor of the Southern Review, Nikolai Tsakni. Tall, lush-haired, with dark eyes, she became, as the writer later admitted, his “sunstroke”. The spontaneous girl wanted to write, draw, sing, teach children, go out into the world. Easily accepted the courtship of Bunin, who was ten years older. I walked with him along the seaside boulevards, drank white wine, eating mullet ...

Soon they got married and settled in the noisy house of Tsakni. Bunin married Anna Nikolaevna Tsakni (1879-1963) on September 23, 1898. Then there were Paris, Petersburg, Moscow. Meetings with Korolenko, Chekhov, Gorky. And constant quarrels.

She accused him of callousness, coldness. He is her - in frivolity, inability to share his ideals and interests, inability to improve life. The gap occurred when Anna was pregnant. Bunin left for Moscow, his wife remained in Odessa. Bunin and Anna Nikolaevna separated at the beginning of March 1900. In August 1900, she gave birth to a son, Nikolai. In 1905, at the age of five, the boy died of meningitis.

Ivan never parted with a photo of his son.

Son Nicholas

The fate of Bunin's wife in Odessa was determined later. Beauty, she shone in the secular society of Odessa and Moscow. Then she married a well-known nobleman in Odessa from the Deribas family - Alexander Mikhailovich. Anna Tsakni-Bunina-Deribas, an unearthly beauty who descended from an ancient Greek fresco, lost everything in this life - both relatives, friends, and loved ones. And even an apartment, and ended her earthly journey alone in a nursing home. Sad story.

Vera Muromtseva

With Vera Muromtseva, the niece of the chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Empire of the 1st convocation, he met at the age of 36. He was already known at that time, received his first Pushkin Prize for the collection of poems Falling Leaves and the translation of the Song of Hiawatha.

The blue-eyed Vera came from a noble family, knew four languages, studied at the natural faculty of the Higher Women's Courses, was good-looking, educated, read a lot, understood the art of the theater, and loved music. They met on November 4, 1906 at the house of the writer Boris Zaitsev, where there was a literary evening. They were drawn to each other, a romance began.

Bunin knew what passion was. He was interested in two sides of things, people, events - their sunshine and moonness. Love and death. Before meeting with Muromtseva, he had already experienced two serious novels and several times tried to commit suicide because of love. At first it was Varvara Panchenko. Then the first wife, Anya Tsakni; moreover, he did not love her, as he himself said, but when she left him, it was insane suffering. Life with Bunin, a man of difficult character, did not promise petty-bourgeois happiness.

She realized that being the wife of a writer is a special mission, that she will have to sacrifice a lot. And she prepared to sacrifice herself to genius. She was convinced from her youth that one must be able to understand, accept and forgive all hobbies, not only those that were, but in advance all those that could be. It is necessary to understand the thirst for new impressions, new sensations, characteristic of artists, sometimes necessary for them, like intoxication, without which they cannot create - this is not their goal, this is their means. And she was friendly with everyone, although the nerves did not always stand. It was not easy for her to be patient when Jan - as she called Bunin - was carried away once again. She had to share it with other women.

Six months later they left on their honeymoon (Palestine, Egypt, Syria). Anna did not agree to dissolve the marriage, so they lived with Vera, as with Varvara - without formalities.

Bunin took the October Revolution of 1917 with hostility, which he vividly expressed in Cursed Days, calling that time "bloody madness" and "general madness." He moved with Vera from Bolshevik Moscow to Odessa occupied by German troops. He welcomed the capture of the city by the Volunteer Army in August 1919. I personally thanked General Denikin, who arrived on October 7.

In February 1920, with the approach of the Bolsheviks, Bunin emigrated to Belgrade, and then to France. He gave lectures, collaborated with Russian political parties and organizations, regularly published journalistic articles.

In 1922, when Anna finally gave him a divorce, Ivan and Vera got married. We rented a villa in the town of Grasse in the south of France. He continued to work, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature on November 9, 1933 "for the truthful artistic talent with which he recreated in prose the typical Russian character." So to speak, according to the totality of merit. By that time, the famous Antonov Apples, the novels The Village and Sukhodol, the collections The Cup of Life and The Gentleman from San Francisco, and the autobiographical novel The Life of Arsenyev had already been written.

Vera for 46 years, until the death of Bunin, steadfastly endured the difficult nature of her husband. And even reconciled with his last love - Galina.

In the fall of 1926, the 56-year-old Bunin met the aspiring writer Galina Kuznetsova. Tanned, mischievous, who loved sandals and short skirts, she seemed a carefree girl, even though she had already managed to be married.

Bunin fled to Grasse with his wife Vera Nikolaevna after the October Revolution, fleeing the "bloody madness" of the Red Terror. Galina Kuznetsova also left Russia with her husband, a white officer Dmitry Petrov, and a crowd of desperate and frightened people who hoped to find happiness and peace away from their tormented Motherland. The meeting of Ivan Alekseevich and Galina was accidental, but it was this incident that turned their whole subsequent life upside down.

Galina without looking back surrendered to the surging feeling, she immediately left her husband and began to rent an apartment in Paris, where the lovers met in fits and starts for a whole year. When Bunin realized that he did not want and could not live without Kuznetsova, he invited her to Grasse, to the Belvedere villa, as a student and assistant. And so they began to live together: Ivan Alekseevich, Galina and Vera Nikolaevna, the wife of the writer.

Bunin, Kuznetsova, Bunina-Muromtseva

Soon, the "indecently stormy romance" became the main topic of gossip among the entire émigré population of Grasse and Paris, and the unfortunate Vera Nikolaevna, who made such an unheard-of scandal and meekly accepted all the ambiguity of her position, got the most of it.

I.A. Bunin and G.N. Kuznetsova. Caption on photo. Kuznetsova: “For the first time in Grasse. 1926"

And what could the dearest Vera Nikolaevna, who had passed hand in hand with her husband for more than 20 years, survived years of wandering, poverty and failure with him, do? Quit? She could not imagine her life without him and was sure that Ivan would not live even a moment without her! She could not and did not want to believe in the seriousness of Bunin's novel in her old age. For long sleepless nights, she talked about what attracted Jan (as Vera Nikolaevna called her husband) in this girl. "Talent? It can't be! He's small and fragile," thought Bunina. "What then?!" Vera Nikolaevna was on the verge of insanity, but a kind subconsciousness offered her a win-win option. The woman convinced herself that her Jan became attached to Galina, like a child, that in her he sees his son Kolya, who died at an early age, and loves her like a daughter! Vera Nikolaevna believed herself and became attached to her husband's mistress, pouring out all the tenderness and affection on her and simply not wanting to notice the true state of things. After 2 years, this strange love triangle turned into a square. At the invitation of Bunin, the young writer Leonid Zurov settled in the Belvedere, who passionately fell in love with Vera Nikolaevna. She, in turn, took care of him as her own son and did not see other men, except for her dearest Jan.

Bunin with his wife and friend - above, below - Kuznetsova.

Zurov passionately loved Vera Nikolaevna, and after the death of Ivan Alekseevich, he became the heir to the Bunin archives. A significant part of which he sold, and did not transfer to Russia, as the deceased bequeathed.

The award of the Nobel Prize to Bunin brought long-awaited recognition and money, but this year marked the beginning of the end of the love of the great writer and Galina Kuznetsova.

The three of us went to the award ceremony, leaving the reflective Zurov at the Belvedere. They returned happy and satisfied through Berlin to visit a family friend of the philosopher and critic Fyodor Stepun. There Kuznetsova met Marga, a woman who was able to force Bunin out of Galina's heart. There was something vicious, unhealthy in this woman. She was bright but ugly, and her masculine voice and harsh manner made her extremely rude. Judging by the recollections of Kuznetsova's close friend, the "tragedy" occurred immediately: "Stepun was a writer, he had a sister, his sister was a singer, a famous singer and ... a desperate lesbian. A tragedy happened. Galina fell in love terribly - poor Galina ... will drink a glass - a tear rolls: "Are we women in control of our fate? .." Marga was imperious, and Galina could not resist ..."

I.A. Bunin during the Nobel Prize. 1933.

A little later, Marga Stepun came to Grasse to visit the Bunins. Galina did not leave her a single step, and all the household members understood that this affection was more than friendship. Only Ivan Alekseevich did not notice what was happening: you never know what secrets women have, let them communicate.

When she visited the Bunins in June 1934, sensitive Vera wrote in her diary: “Marga is with us for the third week. She has an increased friendship with Galya. Galya is in rapture and jealously protects her from all of us. And a month later: “Galya, just look, fly away. Her adoration for Marga is kind of weird."

Two years later, not a penny was left of the spent Nobel Prize, and the house again plunged into poverty. For eight years, Kuznetsova and Stepun remained in Bunin's care, and his life turned into hell. Sick and aging, he closed himself in his little room and wrote, wrote until dawn, being at the same time on the verge of insanity, despair, unbearable bitterness of resentment and pain. Then thirty-eight short stories were written, which were later included in the collection "Dark Alleys".

Vera Muromtseva

Kuznetsova and Stepun left the Grasse villa only in 1942, and in 1949 they moved to the USA, worked in the UN publishing house, from where they were transferred to Geneva in 1959.

Kuznetsova stayed with her mistress until the very end and outlived her by five years. “I thought some dude would come with a glass parting in his hair. And the woman took her away from me ... ”- complained Ivan Alekseevich.

Bunin was very upset by this parting. He was never able to understand and forgive Kuznetsov.

Under the Germans, Bunin did not print anything, although he lived in great lack of money and hunger. He treated the conquerors with hatred, rejoiced at the victories of the Soviet and allied troops. In 1945, he said goodbye to Grasse forever and on the first of May returned to Paris.

The last years of Ivan Alekseevich's life were spent in terrible poverty and illness. He became irritable and bilious and seemed to be angry at the whole world. Faithful and devoted Vera Nikolaevna was there until his death.

At two o'clock in the morning from November 7 to 8, 1953, Bunin, who spent a century in terrible poverty, was shivering. He asked Vera to keep him warm. She hugged her husband and fell asleep. I woke up from the cold - Ivan Alekseevich died. Preparing the writer for his last journey, the widow tied a scarf around his neck, a gift from Galina...

Vera Ivanovna died in 1961. She is buried next to Bunin in the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve des Bois near Paris.

Bunin Julius Alekseevich (1857–1921) - Russian poet, writer, publicist, public figure, teacher, participant in the revolutionary populist movement, candidate of mathematical sciences, elder brother of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, whom he had a huge influence on, taking over his education.

Biography

Born in the Yelets district. He studied at the Voronezh gymnasium.

A nobleman of the Voronezh province, the son of a small landowner of the Yelets district (Oryol province).

In 1876 - 1877 - a member of the Voronezh circle of self-education.

He studied at the mathematical faculty of Moscow University and Kharkov University, from which he graduated in 1882.

In March 1879 searched in Moscow in connection with the murder of Reinstein.
In the late 1870s, he was a member of the Voronezh circle in Moscow, which in 1879 joined the Black Peredelites.

He was one of the leaders of the student black-peredel circle.
In the spring of 1881 he was expelled for participation in student unrest from Moscow to Kharkov, where he was then the leader and theorist of the populist circle (Balabukha, Merkhalev, and others).

In 1883 he published under the pseudonym Alekseev in the Kharkov populist printing house the pamphlet A Few Words on the Past of Russian Socialism and on the Tasks of the Intelligentsia.

In addition, he compiled: "The project of the organization of the people's party", selected during a search from V. Goncharov, and "The program of action of the circle of workers-populists", found on 01/11/1884 at I. Jordan, along with a secret populist printing house.

In late 1883 - early 1884 he was in St. Petersburg, where he negotiated with the St. Petersburg populists and the Narodnaya Volya "working group". Before the failure of the Kharkov populist printing house on January 11, 1884, he disappeared from Kharkov and was wanted in this case (the case of Iv. Manucharov, N. Jordan, and others).

Arrested on September 27, 1884 in the settlement of Ozerki (Elets district, Oryol province) and taken to Kharkov. Brought to the inquiry at Kharkov. well. u., allocated to a special production.

07/03/1885 was subject to public supervision for 3 years outside the areas declared for the position of enhanced protection. Served exile in sl. Ozerkakh, then was under covert supervision.

In 1889 he lived in Kharkov, keeping in touch with local circles (D. Kryzhanovsky, D. Bekaryukov, and others). In the 1890s, he was in charge of the statistical bureau of the Poltava Zemstvo. From the late 1890s he lived in Moscow.

From August 1897, he was editorial secretary and de facto editor of the Bulletin of Education magazine, a member of the board of the Society of Periodical Press and Literature, and a prominent member of a number of literary organizations.

In 1899, with a group of associates, he opened the journal Nachalo, which published the works of V. I. Lenin and G. V. Plekhanov. Julius Alekseevich - one of the founders (1897) and permanent chairman of the literary circle "Sreda", chairman of the board of the Book Publishing House of Writers in Moscow, chairman of the Society of Periodical Press and Literature, de facto chairman of the Society for Assistance to Writers and Journalists, member of the board of the Tolstoy Society.

Published in Russian Thought, Vestnik Evropy, Russkiye Vedomosti, Enlightenment, etc.

Yu. A. Bunin died in July 1921, was buried in Moscow at the Donskoy Cemetery, the grave is not far from the entrance, at the turn to Muromtsev Alley, at its very beginning.

The diary entries of I. A. Bunin for 1922 are filled with the bitterness of an irretrievable loss about his elder brother Yulia. On January 21, Ivan Alekseevich writes: “... And all the thoughts about Yulia, about how he once came, young, starting life, to Ozerki ... And somehow I still can’t believe that I will never see him again ... ". Three days later, a new entry: “I don’t suffer about Yulia as desperately and strongly as I should, perhaps because I don’t think out the meaning of this death, I can’t, I’m afraid. . A terrifying thought about him is often such a distant, amazing lightning ... Is it possible to think it through? After all, it’s already quite firm to say to yourself: it’s the end of everything. ”

In various literature - local history, literary studies, not only the year of birth of the older brother of the Nobel Prize winner I.A. Bunin, but also the place of his birth. And Julius Aleseevich was born on July 7 (19), 1857 in the county town of Usman, Tambov province (now the city of Usman, Lipetsk region). Parents, apparently, traveled from the Mosolovka estate, which is now in the Usmansky district of the Lipetsk region. The birth certificate of the elder brother Ivan Alekseevich has been preserved: “By decree of His Imperial Majesty, from the Tambov Ecclesiastical Consistory, that the birth and baptism of the son of Yelets landowner Collegiate Registrar Alexei Nikolayevich Bunin, Yulia, according to the metric books of the city of Usman, the Cathedral Church for one thousand eight hundred and fifty the seventh year is listed as follows: collegiate registrar Alexei Nikolaevich Bunin, passing through the city of Usman, and his legal wife Lyudmila Alexandrovna, their son Julius was born on July 7, the same month and date, he was baptized by priest Stefan Dobrov with an clergy ... ". Yuliy Alekseevich was baptized in the Usman Epiphany Cathedral Church.

Alexey Nikolaevich and Lyudmila Aleksandrovna apparently moved to Voronezh in 1867. The elder Julius, and later his brother Evgeny, began to attend the Voronezh Men's Classical Gymnasium on Bolshaya Dvoryanskaya Street (now Revolution Avenue). The educational institution was located not far from the house where the Bunin family lived. The building of the gymnasium has been preserved - it is one of the buildings of the Technological Academy. As Ivan Alekseevich recalled, and as evidenced by the documents, Julius was an extremely capable student. He freely wrote essays in difficult "dead" Latin. He also excelled in mathematics. In the gymnasium, Bunin got acquainted with the works of democratic writers: the gymnasium students read Chernyshevsky, Pisarev, Dobrolyubov. One of the teachers conducted propaganda among the gymnasium students, and a secret circle was created in the gymnasium. Passion for revolutionary ideas did not affect his studies: Julius graduated from the 1st Voronezh classical male gymnasium with a gold medal. At this time, his family had already moved to the Butyrki farm in the Yelets district of the Oryol province (now the Stanovlyansky district of the Lipetsk region), - this was facilitated by the "passion for the club, for wine and cards ..." of Alexei Nikolayevich himself.

In the autumn of 1874, Julius entered the mathematical faculty of Moscow University. Like most students, Julius Alekseevich tried to be closer to his fellow Voronezh residents. With five Voronezh residents, he settled in Kozitsky Lane. At this time, the youth was seething, student gatherings took place in the country, the intelligentsia went to the “people”, propagandizing “socialist” teachings, calling on the peasants to revolution. Julius did not escape the enthusiasm for populist ideas. He joined a populist circle, distributing forbidden literature. Having learned about the arrest in March 1878 of students of Kyiv University, Moscow students not only collected money and warm clothes for them, but also held a rally within the walls of their native “alma mater”. The police noted that Y. Bunin was among the speakers. As the sister of a prominent landowner, and later colleague G. V. Plekhanov in the Marxist group “Emancipation of Labor” V. N. Ignatov - E. N. Ignatov, recalled: “Through Bunin and his comrades, the three of us joined the new world, about which until acquaintances were only heard from afar. In March 1879, a number of university students were searched. Among them was Julius Alekseevich. In the autumn of 1879, at the apartment of the Ignatov sisters, he organized a meeting of the circle of the Black Redistribution party, at which Plekhanov's ally L. G. Deutsch spoke. According to the memoirs of the wife of I. A. Bunin, Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, Yuli Alekseevich was a participant in the congress of the Narodnik Party in June 1879 in the district resort city of Lipetsk. Having successfully graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics, Julius enters the Faculty of Law of the University. He is interested in statistics. The same V. N. Muromtseva writes that Yuli Alekseevich “both in the gymnasium and at the university was predicted to have a scientific career, but he refused it for the sake of the desire to benefit the people and fight the existing system.” At the beginning of 1880, the police made new arrests in many cities of the empire, but Bunin's group continued to fight.

At the end of 1880, Julius Alekseevich met A. I. Zhelyabov, a prominent figure in the revolutionary movement. Later I.A. Bunin will leave memories of this in the seventh issue of the Bulletin of Education for 1909.

In March 1881, Zhelyabov and his supporters managed to kill Tsar Alexander II, but there was no revolutionary explosion. Students of Moscow University categorically refused to send a wreath to the coffin of the murdered autocrat. The police made further arrests. The suspect Bunin was also detained. He was expelled from the university and sent to Ukraine, to the city of Kharkov.

Julius Alekseevich, having arrived in Kharkov, managed to enter the local university. He plunges headlong into the revolutionary movement. In Kharkov, the populists organized a printing house, in which they began to print leaflets and proclamations in Russian and Ukrainian. Among the underground workers, one named Alekseev stood out in particular. This was Yuli Bunin. In November 1883, he published the pamphlet A Few Words on the Past of Russian Socialism and on the Tasks of the Intelligentsia. This work will later be included in the program of classes with workers in Marxist circles, for which it was hectographed in Kyiv, St. Petersburg and Moscow. The Kharkiv populists sent Yu. Bunin to the capital for negotiations with the so-called "working group" of the Narodnaya Volya. But both sides did not find a common language, did not agree on anything.

The police closely followed Yuliy Alekseevich. She even recorded his stay with his parents in Ozerki in the summer of 1883. Ivan was especially looking forward to the arrival of his elder brother. Julius helped him prepare for entering the Yelets Men's Gymnasium. According to the memoirs of Bunina-Muromtseva, Yuly Alekseevich “after daytime reading and other activities, he walked in the evenings and took Vanya with him, talked about the stars, about the planets, knowing that from infancy his little brother loved the heavenly bodies ...”. For the first time, Julius accompanied Vanya to the gymnasium. According to the memoirs of Muromtseva, "... only Julius and his father laughed ...", and all the rest "restrained their sobs ... wept ...". Little Vanya was afraid of entrance exams, but "... Julius assured that there was nothing to worry about ...". Prepared by his elder brother, Ivan Alekseevich successfully passed the exams.

A provocateur and a police agent made his way into the ranks of the Kharkov Narodnaya Volya. And although he was eliminated, the police managed to learn a lot about the revolutionaries. And it dealt the first blow to the underground printing house. Julius Alekseevich, fearing arrest, leaves Kharkov and from January 1884 settles in Moscow. For five months without a passport, he hides with friends. But even in Moscow there was a provocateur and police agent, a certain Gurovich. He "helped" Yuliy Alekseevich "help out" a fake "residence permit".

Trying to hide his stay in Moscow, Yuli Bunin leaves the capital, lives in the North Caucasus in Kislovodsk and Pyatigorsk. Later, in his memoirs, he wrote: “Returning from there (from the North Caucasus) in the fall, I was arrested at my father’s estate in the Oryol province, where I went, having previously inquired that there was no sufficient evidence against me and nothing terrible threatened me.” But the police very carefully and painstakingly searched for the author of the brochure under the name Alekseev. The police department soon announced an all-Russian search for a candidate of rights throughout the empire (Yuli Alekseevich graduated from the law faculty of Kharkov University). His signs were also reported: “...26 years old, below average height, small mustache, shaves his beard, oblong face, long hooked nose, thin build.” And already in September 1884, Julius Alekseevich was arrested by the assistant chief of the Oryol provincial gendarme department on his father's estate, Ozerki. They imprisoned him for a short time, initially in the Yelets district prison, and then, at the request of the gendarmes from Kharkov, they sent him to Ukraine on the business of the printing house. Parents came to say goodbye to their son. The high school student Vanya was with them. Later, Ivan Alekseevich in the novel “The Life of Arseniev” describes the meeting in this way: “... the sight of my brother, his prisoner isolation and lack of rights, struck me in the heart, he himself understood it well, felt all his humiliation and smiled awkwardly. He was sitting alone in the farthest corner near the doors to the platform, youthfully cute and pitiful in his thinness, in his light gray suit, over which his father's raccoon coat was thrown. It was empty in front of him. The gendarmes now and then removed the women, peasants and townspeople who crowded around and looked with curiosity, with fear at the living socialist ... But they took my brother away, my father and mother left ... It took me a lot of time after that to survive my new mental illness. The Bunin family was shocked by the arrest of their eldest son. According to Bunina-Muromtseva: "It never occurred to them that their Yulenka, so quiet, would not hurt a fly, was taking part in the revolutionary movement ...".

In Kharkov, Bunin was kept in a local prison for more than a year, while the investigation was underway. One of the main pieces of evidence for the police was Bunin's address found in an underground printing house. But Julius Alekseevich "... very conspiratorial with mild character traits, he even gave the investigator the impression of being accidentally involved in a revolutionary case, and therefore got off lightly ...".

On July 3, 1885, Yuliy Bunin, accused of a crime against the state, was "subject to open police supervision for three years, with a ban on living in areas declared in a state of enhanced security for a specified time." At the end of July 1885, Julius Alekseevich arrived in Yelets and, with the permission of the chief of police, was "placed" in the estate of Ozerka's father, Yelets district, Oryol province. Bunin describes the arrival of his brother in “The Life of Arsenyev”: “I still remember that special cautious pallor that struck me with the familiar and at the same time completely new, alien face of my brother ... It was one of the happiest evenings in the life of our family.

The financial situation of the Bunin family was terrible. Julius "has no employment, does not receive benefits ...", the estate did not bring income. The younger Ivan, due to non-payment for his studies, was forced to leave the gymnasium. The elder Julius insisted that, having two university educations, he would study with his brother and prepare him for a matriculation certificate, at least for the seventh grade of a male gymnasium. Julius was an excellent teacher. He later recalled: “When I arrived from prison, I found Vanya still a completely undeveloped boy, but I immediately saw his talent. In less than a year, he had grown so mentally that I could already have conversations with him almost as an equal on many topics. He still had little knowledge, and we continued to replenish it by doing the humanities.” It is also interesting that Yuliy Alekseevich soon switched to teaching methods characteristic of higher education - a lecture and a seminar. Walks became frequent. On January 27, 1886, Ivan Alekseevich wrote in his diary: “July lives in Ozerki - under police supervision, he is obliged not to go anywhere for three years. In winter I write poetry. I remember frosty sunny days, moonlit nights, walks and conversations with Julius.

The brothers usually took walks twice a day: before afternoon tea and after supper. There were various conversations, a lot was said about literature. Convinced that his younger brother was not inclined to the exact sciences, and especially to mathematics, Julius began to encourage his literary pursuits. It was he who insisted that Ivan send his poem "The Village Beggar" to the Rodina magazine. And when it was printed, the delight of the younger brother and the whole family knew no bounds. I was happy for Ivan and Yuli Alekseevich, not realizing that he had become the "godfather" of the future classic of Russian and world literature.

The link has expired. On August 24, 1888, Julius Alekseevich, having received a certificate to leave, hurried to Kharkov. The police now closely watched him, recorded all addresses of residence, behavior. In the spring of 1889, Ivan Alekseevich also came to him. Here he lived no more than two months. In the spring of 1890, Julius moved to Poltava, where he received a lucrative position in the statistical department of the provincial zemstvo. Ivan asks him to find him “a place in Poltava, for forty, thirty-five rubles” in order to be able to live with “her (civil wife of Ivan Alekseevich-Varvara Vladimirovna Pashchenko - V.E.), and most importantly with you (that is, with Julius - V.E.) in the same city! In Poltava, Ivan Alekseevich works as a librarian, extra, correspondent. It was in Poltava that the younger Bunin "began to more or less seriously take up fiction for the first time." Here Bunin broke with Pashchenko. And Julius came to the aid of his brother at this difficult time. As a sign of great gratitude, it was the first collection of poems, published in Orel in 1891, that Ivan Alekseevich dedicated to “Dear brother and dear friend Yu. A. Bunin.”

In March 1895, Julius Alekseevich decided to move from Poltava to Moscow. He invited his brother with him: "You need to establish personal relations with the editors, you are already published in thick magazines, and no one knows you." He advised his brother to establish relations with the editors of Russkiye Vedomosti and Russkaya Mysl. But on his first visit, he could not find a job in the capital city. Although Yuliy Alekseevich was invited to the capital to the Ministry of Finance, he could not go there "according to his convictions." Soon, a place was found for the elder brother: the editor-publisher of the journal "Bulletin of Education" N.F. Mikhailov offered him the position of editorial manager. On June 15, 1897, Ivan Alekseevich, in a letter to the poet I. A. Belousov, reported that he was also going to follow his brother to move to Moscow: “... now I will be in Moscow in winter almost without a break ...”. With the advent of Yuli Alekseevich, the Bulletin of Education became one of the best Russian pedagogical publications. When the 25th anniversary of this journal was celebrated in January 1915, according to the younger Bunin, it was "honoring Julius." I. A. Bunin also published in the journal under the pseudonym I. Ozersky. In addition to managing the editorial office of the Bulletin of Education, Julius Alekseevich fruitfully collaborated with a number of reputable publications - Journalist, Novoye Slovo, School and Life. Not without reason, at the beginning of the 20th century, a number of magazines and newspapers in Russia considered Bunin Sr. "their correspondent and collaborator." In Moscow, Julius Alekseevich becomes an active participant in various literary circles. In the mid-90s, he was a member of the Tikhomirov circle, where he met Gilyarovsky, Mamin-Sibiryakov, Zlatovratsky, Stanyukovich, and in the future with the famous Leonid Sobinov. N. D. Teleshov in his “Notes of a Writer” notes: “The elder Bunin, Yuli Alekseevich, was the head of the editorial office of the journal “Bulletin of Education”. The acquaintance that began between me and Yuli Bunin led us to the closest friendship for twenty-five years - until his death ... The younger Bunin, Ivan Alekseevich, although he placed his poems and stories in magazines, was still very little known at that time ... " .

Soon they began to gather at Teleshov himself. Initially, the circle was called "Parnassus". Gathered first on Tuesdays, and then invariably on Wednesdays. Subsequently, this association became known as the "Moscow literary environment". In the autumn of 1899, a new circle arose, uniting not only writers, poets, but also artists. Yuliy Alekseevich was elected a member of the directorate of the circle. Bunin Sr. also entered the board of the Society of Periodical Press and Literature. According to the memoirs of Bunina-Muromtseva, Yuli Alekseevich “at five o'clock, when the reception ends in the editorial office ... there is a tea party. Younger brother / Ivan - V.E./, during his stay in Moscow, does not miss these gatherings ... ". The brothers sometimes met several times a day, took walks around Moscow together, and went on trips around Russia. Together they take care of their sister Maria, who was married to the machinist Laskarzhevsky and lived with her mother at the Gryazi junction station /now in the Lipetsk region/. In one of the letters to his younger brother on September 25, 1909, Julius asked: “Did you send money to ours, as you promised, otherwise they are probably sitting without a penny. As I told you, I left them only 25 rubles. Please go at once if you haven't sent it."

The brothers often came to Gryazi, visiting their sister, mother and nephews. The first wife of Ivan Alekseevich, Anna Tsakni, once noticed that her memory preserved “a wonderful person, Yuli Alekseevich Bunin, who was literally a father to Ivan Alekseevich, without him he would not have become what he became: a wonderful poet and writer. A soft, sincere person, he literally fascinated and could not help but like.

In 1912, when the 25th anniversary of Ivan Alekseevich's literary activity was celebrated, many publications placed a photograph showing the brothers, and Yuli Alekseevich certainly began his speech at all celebrations in the same way: “Dear brother, Ivan!. . . ".

The outbreak of the February and then the October Revolution scattered the brothers. In May 1918, Julius saw off his younger brother and his wife, Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, from Moscow. They did not know that they were parting forever. Ivan Alekseevich watched his brother from afar. In September 1918, he writes, worrying about the fate of his relatives: “eternal anxiety for loved ones ... meanwhile, Yuli Alekseevich fell seriously ill again.” Soon Julius Alekseevich becomes a member of the literary department of the Palace of Arts. This included Yesenin, Prishvin, Gilyarovsky, Belousov. He is often sick. He is placed in health resort No. 2 in Moscow. But the disease did not recede. In July 1921 he died. Yuli Alekseevich was buried in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery.

Ivan Alekseevich, having learned about the death of his elder brother, was shocked. In his diary, he writes: “... And all the thoughts about Yulia, about how he once came, young, starting life, to Ozerki ... And somehow I still can’t believe that I will never see him again. Four years ago, saying goodbye to me at the station, he cried ... I can’t remember this ... ”. In another entry: "... So I wrote 3 new stories, but now Julius will never recognize them - he, who always knew my new line, starting from the very first Ozersky ones." In an entry dated February 5, 1922: “I saw a train in a dream, something like a big car, in which Vera and I were going somewhere. And Julius. I wept, feeling great tenderness for him, telling him how I felt without him.

He is calm, simple and kind ... ". Ivan Alekseevich often sees his older brother in dreams: on February 13, he dreamed “... his empty apartment, with newspapers tied and stacked on the tables. Now, I can't remember it vividly. Sometimes again the thought: “But he is in Moscow, somewhere in the grave, has already rotted!” - and no longer cuts, but only stupidly presses, only mentally terrifies.

Anna Tsakni

Older brother

Yuli Alekseevich Bunin

Nikolai Dmitrievich Teleshov:

Bunin's older brother, Julius Alekseevich ‹…›, was much older than Ivan Alekseevich and treated him almost like a father. His influence on his brother was enormous, starting from childhood. As a well-educated person who loved, appreciated and understood world literature, Ivan Alekseevich owes a lot in his development to him. Love and friendship between the brothers were inseparable.

Julius was extremely capable, he studied brilliantly. For example, while the teacher dictated extemporaneous in Russian, Julius wrote in Latin. He was also capable of mathematical sciences.

From the diary:

How much Jan owes to him ‹…> These eternal conversations, discussion of everything that appeared in literature and in public life, from the earliest years brought Jan great benefits. Helped not to overstrain the talent. From his youth, he was told what was really good and what was from the evil one.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin.From the diary:

Almost from childhood, I was under the influence of Julius, fell into the midst of the "radicals" and almost all my life I lived in a terrible prejudice to all classes of society, except for these very "radicals". O curse!

Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva-Bunina:

There is (in Bunin's archive. - Comp.) An interesting entry about the winter of 1883:

“One winter we arrived in Yelets, stayed at the Livensky Rooms, and, as usual, my father and mother took me there, then Julius arrived from Kharkov, and almost immediately after this something mysterious and terrible happened: in the evening his friend appeared Jordan, led him into the corridor, said something to him, and they immediately left somewhere, fled.

One can easily imagine what an impression this made on everyone, especially on the mother. The son of their future neighbor in Ozerki Tsvelenev, a medical student, went among the people, was captured, dressed in peasant clothes, and exiled to Siberia for propaganda. They also knew about the fate of the revolutionaries, the Subbotin sisters, the daughters of the landowners in Izmalkovo, the station of the South-Eastern Railway, who were sued under the “trial of fifty”. And, of course, when news of this reached them, they were terrified to the extreme, but it never occurred to them that their Yulenka, so quiet, would not hurt a fly, was taking part in the revolutionary movement. ‹…›

Julius had to hide from the police. His parents received no news from him. Mother, of course, was heartbroken all summer. ‹…›

In September 1884, in great excitement, Vanya's parents "jumped" to Yelets and, having called for him, went to the station, where Julius was already sitting, waiting for the train, with two gendarmes. In complete disarray, they said that Julius had returned to Ozerki the day before and was quickly arrested, on the denunciation of their neighbor Logofet, as they were informed.

Julius Alekseevich was arrested because his address was found in an underground printing house. He sent a friend boots, and he forgot to tear the wrapper with the sender's address.

Julius Alekseevich took part in the Narodnaya Volya movement, was at the Lipetsk Congress; his activity was that he wrote revolutionary pamphlets under the pseudonym Alekseev. He was not active. Very conspiratorial, with mild traits of character, he probably gave the investigator the impression of being accidentally involved in a revolutionary case, and therefore got off lightly.

Both in the gymnasium and at the university they predicted a scientific career for him, but he refused it for the sake of the desire to benefit the people and fight the existing system. Of the whole family, he alone possessed abstract thinking, physically he also did not look like either his father or his brothers - he was awkward, completely uninterested in housework, and was afraid of his wife. ‹…› Seeing off Yuliy was very difficult: when Vanya and his parents entered the third-grade hall, they saw Yuli somewhere in the far corner, gendarmes were sitting nearby, who turned out to be kind people.

The mother looked at her son with dry, hot eyes.

According to the memoirs of Ivan Alekseevich, Yuli had an embarrassed face, very thin, he was wearing his father's raccoon coat, for which one of the gendarmes praised:

It will be cold on the train; it's good that they gave a fur coat.

Mother, hearing the human words, burst into tears. ‹…›

Vanya became unbearable, although he recalled the words of his father:

Well, they arrested them, well, they took them away and maybe they will exile them to Siberia - they will probably even exile them, but you never know how they are exiled now, and why and in what way, let me ask you, is any Tobolsk worse than Yelets? You can't live on a weeping willow! The bad will pass, the good will pass, as Tikhon Zadonsky said, - everything will pass.

But these words were even more painful for Vanya. It seemed to him that the whole world was empty for him. ‹…› I lived under this impression for several months and became more serious.

Christmas was especially sad. The mother was killed. Vanya was amazed that the next day, as Logothet reported on Julius, he was killed by a tree that was cut down in his garden.

Boris Konstantinovich Zaitsev:

Julius Alekseevich ‹…› was the editor of the Bulletin of Education magazine from Starokonyushenny Lane. Those in the know said it was the best pedagogical journal. ‹…› Julius Alekseevich always sat in his editorial apartment - on the wall of St. Cecilius - reading manuscripts, drinking tea and smoking. From the window you can see the greenery of the Mikhailovsky Garden, it is very quiet in the rooms, if you come in at twelve o'clock, then it is very likely that Ivan Bunin is there and that they are going to have breakfast in Prague.

Julius Alekseevich is short, stocky, with a goatee, small intelligent eyes, a large lower lip, when he reads, puts on glasses, walks with a rather small step, slightly throwing his legs to the sides. Hands are always behind the back. He speaks in a bass voice, thoroughly, as if he is hollowing out something, laughs very cheerfully and ingenuously. In his youth he was a member of the People's Will, served as a statistician, and then he gained weight and appeared as the finished image of a Russian liberal.

Julia, - a cheerful young lady shouted to him in the Literary Circle. - I know you, you wear a red jersey from liberalism!

Julius Alekseevich chuckled with his creaky bass and assured that this "was not true."

He was, of course, a positivist and "believed" in science. He lived a calm and cultured life, with a very social connotation: he was a member of countless societies, commissions and boards, he sat, "heard", reported, spoke at congresses, etc. But he did not speak vulgarities at anniversaries. He tenderly loved his brother Ivan - he was once his teacher and mentor, and now they lived at least separately, but they saw each other constantly, went together to the Circle, to Sereda, to Prague. On Sereda, Yuli Alekseevich was one of the most respected and beloved members, although he did not have a big name. His calm and noble, gentlemanly tone was appreciated by all. There was something solid, solid, like fine material in an expensive suit, in him, and this could not be ignored.

Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva-Bunina.From the diary:

When I entered the Bunin family, Yulia was 48 years old. He was at that time still a very young man, very cheerful, but quickly lost in every misfortune. ‹…›

In appearance, Julius Alekseevich was at that time rather stout and seemed even fuller, thanks to his small stature. In figure, he resembled Herzen on a monument in Nice. The face was also somewhat large in stature, but it was illuminated by intelligent, sometimes sad eyes. Her hair was chestnut at that time, without the slightest gray hair. The voice was sharp, reminiscent of a corncrake. The mind is somewhat skeptical, woeful in Bunin's way, but objective. A mathematician by education, he possessed something that public figures rarely possess - this is the breadth of mind and clarity of thought. He knew how to quickly navigate the most intricate questions, of course, of an abstract nature.

Public activity, magazine, newspaper work - all this was, as it were, a service to duty, but he had a spiritual craving for literature. I think that there are few Russians who know all Russian literature so well. ‹…› He possessed an unusually correct literary instinct. He himself never wrote anything from artistic things, he was excellently versed in all issues related to the sphere of this creativity. This property was appreciated and understood by all the writers who knew him, and therefore he was the permanent chairman of the "Old Wednesday", as well as the chairman of the "Young Wednesday". He was also the chairman of the secondary commission in the Literary and Artistic Circle, and in recent years he was one of the editors at the Writers' Publishing House in Moscow.

He had a rare combination of a pessimistic mind with an unusually cheerful nature. He was kind, knew how to arouse good feelings for people. They went to him for advice, for help, with a request to help out of trouble. ‹…› In practical life he was strangely helpless. ‹…› He began to edit together with Dr. Mikhailov a pedagogical journal, because he was offered an apartment with heating, lighting, and full board along with his salary. ‹…› Julius Alekseevich was a gentleman, yes, precisely a gentleman. <…> I do what I want, what I think is necessary.

Boris Konstantinovich Zaitsev:

The terrible winters of 1919-1920 were approaching. ‹…› Neither the Russkiye Vedomosti nor the Vestnik Vozdushcheniya no longer existed. Julius was sad, unwell. His coat was completely frayed, and so was his hat. They survived from the Mikhailovsky wing. <…> Like everyone else, he lived from hand to mouth.

‹…› We needed medical care, treatment, proper nutrition… in what was then a hungry Moscow!

After long walks, climbing the thresholds, he was given a relatively decent rest home for writers and scientists in Neopalimovsky. One could live there for no more than six weeks, it seems. ‹…› The term was extended twice, but then I had to give way to the next one, to move to some shelter for the elderly in Khamovniki.

I visited him there on a warm June day. Julius was sitting in a room in a dirty mansion, stuffing cigarettes. On iron beds with thin mattresses lay several almshouse characters. We went out into the garden. We walked along very overgrown alleys, I remember, we went into some kind of lush, deaf grass near the fence, sat on a bench and on a stump. Julius was very quiet and sad.

No, - he said to my words about his brother, - I can’t see Ivan anymore. ‹…›

A few days later Julius was dining with me in Krivoarbatsky. Dined! In the room where my wife cooked and washed, where I worked and my daughter studied, he ate a bowl of soup and, indeed, a piece of meat.

How good are you! he kept saying. - How delicious, what a room!

I never saw him alive again.

In July, a representative of our Union obtained from the authorities that Yuliy Alekseevich be placed in a hospital. They appointed a hospital named after Semashko - "the best we can offer." When the nephew brought Yuliy Alekseevich to this "best", the doctor thoughtfully told him: "Yes, as for medical care, we are quite good ... but you know ... there is nothing to feed the sick."

Julius Alekseevich, however, did not make it difficult for the owners of this establishment with himself, his life and food: he simply died the very next day after his arrival.

We buried him in the Donskoy Monastery ... on a shining, hot day, among greenery and flowers. ‹…› He was lying in a coffin, small, clean-shaven, so thin, so unlike that Julius who once spoke in a raspy bass voice at speech banquets, represented the “Russian progressive public”… or, having climbed up on an armchair with both feet head, so that the whole torso leaned on the table, read and corrected articles in Starokonyushenny for the Bulletin of Education.

Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva-Bunina.From the diary:

December 7/20, 1921. Jan learned from the newspaper about the death of Yuli Alekseevich. ‹…› After breakfast, he went to rest, unfolded the newspaper and read, as he later said, “Concert Yul. Bunin. I read it, thought for a second, and decided that the concert was in favor of Yul. Bunin. I thought: who is Yul. Bunin? Finally, he realized what he was so afraid of. He screamed loudly. He began to walk around the room and say: "Why did you leave, if I were there, I would have saved him."

‹…› He says he doesn't want to know the details. He immediately lost weight. Can't sit at home. <…> I don't leave him. Tries to talk about strangers. ‹…› Jan is very confused. ‹…› He said in the evening that his whole life was over: he would no longer be able to write or do anything at all. ‹…›

January 8 (December 26), 1922. Yang came home very excited. I started talking about Julia. - “If you believe in personal immortality, then it would be so much easier, otherwise unbearable. ‹…› I suffer terribly, I keep imagining how he lay down on the bed for the last time, did he know that this was the last time? That he was pathetic, that he was dying amidst deprivation. And then - it's hard that the whole old life has gone with him. He brought me to life, and now it seems to me that it is still a mistake that he is alive.

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin.From the diary:

January 11/24 ‹1922›. I don’t suffer about Yulia as desperately and strongly as I should, perhaps, because I don’t think out the meaning of this death, I can’t, I’m afraid ... A terrifying thought about him is often like a distant, amazing lightning ... Is it possible to think it out? After all, it’s already quite firm to say to yourself: it’s the end of everything.

And spring, and nightingales, and Glotovo - how all this is far and forever over! Even if I go there again, what a horror! The grave of all the past! And the first spring with Julius - Round, nightingales, evenings, walks along the high road! The first winter with him in Ozerki, frosts, moonlit nights ... The first Svyatki, Kamenka, Emilia Vasilievna and this “exactly ten of us in number” that Julius sang ... But by the way - why am I writing all this? What does it help? All lies, lies.

This text is an introductory piece. From the book Diaries 1939-1945 author Bunin Ivan Alekseevich

Bunin Ivan Alekseevich Diaries 1939-1945

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Elder brother July 1884. The youngest in the family, Mitya, was missing for several months until he was four years old. He had not even dreamed of a backpack and a school desk when his elder brother Vladimir successfully graduated from the Omsk classical gymnasium.

In the early 1880s, illegal brochures were in demand among the revolutionary-minded intelligentsia, the author of which signed the pseudonym Alekseev. These works criticized the existing order and expressed socialist ideas. The writer of the "seditious articles" was a public and literary figure Yuliy Bunin, the elder brother of the famous writer...

The future Nobel laureate Ivan Bunin was still a youngster at that time and, perhaps, his fate would have been different if not for his brother. According to the writer, in adolescence it was Julius who had a decisive influence on the formation of his personality.
Dangerous hobby of a young high school student
Our hero was born in 1857, in Usman, Tambov province, * where his parents were passing through. The Bunins lived in Yelets, but then moved to Voronezh. Here Julius entered the gymnasium, where he soon established himself as a very capable student. Humanities and exact disciplines were equally easy for him. Immediately he got acquainted with the works of revolutionary publicists, who were secretly read by his classmates. It was a dangerous hobby, but then it did not harm the young schoolboy. Bunin graduated from an educational institution with a gold medal and in 1874 was admitted to the mathematical faculty of Moscow University. By that time, the family had already moved from Voronezh to an estate in the Yelets district. This was facilitated by the pernicious passion for the cards of its head Alexei Nikolayevich. My father squandered his fortune, and Bunin became unaffordable for life in a large city. Of course, Julius was worried about the difficulties in the "family nest", and yet he was heading to the Mother See with great hopes. The young man dreamed of plunging into a stormy student life ...
Underground student
At the university, Julia was predicted to have a brilliant career, but the gifted young man was more inspired by the ideas of fighting the autocracy. He became one of the leaders of the illegal populist circle, which included his friends from Voronezh. Members of the group distributed forbidden literature, assisted the exiles, and organized student gatherings.
In 1878, it became known about a wave of arrests among Kyiv youth. Then the Bunins announced a fundraiser for the detainees and staged a protest rally.
In 1879, in Lipetsk, Voronezh and St. Petersburg, congresses of the organization "Land and Freedom" were held, during which it split into two independent "wings" - "Narodnaya Volya" and "Black Redistribution". Julius participated in the Lipetsk gathering of populists, ** and then initiated a secret meeting in Moscow, at which Lev Deutsch, an ally of the famous revolutionary figure Plekhanov, spoke ...
Underground work went in parallel with classes at the university. In 1879, Julius successfully graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics and entered the law. However, the study had to be interrupted. In March 1881, shocking news shocked Russia - as a result of an explosion arranged by the People's Will, Emperor Alexander II died. A wave of arrests swept the country. Julius was among the detainees.
"Prison Universities"
Bunin was expelled from the university and sent to Kharkov, but the young rebel continued his revolutionary activities there. In 1883, in a secret printing house, his works on the foundations of the populist movement were published under the same pseudonym "Alekseev". These essays were then included in the program of classes with workers in Marxist circles. Experienced members of the underground spoke of the author: "very educated, a good speaker and a brilliant debater."
However, the law enforcement officers did not doze off either. In 1884, Julius was arrested at his parents' estate, where he moved illegally after gendarmerie raids in Kharkov. First, he was imprisoned in the Yelets district prison, then they decided to send him to serve his sentence at the place of exile in Ukraine. The family was allowed to say goodbye to him. This difficult episode is described in the famous novel by Ivan Bunin “The Life of Arseniev”: “The sight of my brother, his prisoner isolation and lack of rights struck me in the heart (...) He sat alone in the farthest corner near the door to the platform, youthfully sweet and pathetic in his thinness (...) It was empty near him. The gendarmes now and then removed the women, peasants and philistines who crowded around and looked with curiosity, with fear at the living socialist (...) It took me a long time after that to survive my mental illness.
“We had endless conversations with him about literature”
Bunin spent about a year behind bars. After his release, he was allowed to settle in the "parent's nest" under the open supervision of the police. This break in the activities of our hero was a boon for his younger brother.
By that time, young Vanya was forced to leave his studies at the gymnasium due to the financial difficulties of the family. The well-educated Julius became his mentor. “He taught me languages, read me the beginnings of psychology, philosophy, social and natural sciences; in addition, we had endless conversations with him about literature, ”Ivan Alekseevich recalled years later. He also made his first steps in the poetic field not without the help of his brother. He supported his desire for creativity, instilled confidence in him and insisted that the young writer send his work to the capital's publication. It was a poem written on the death of the poet Nadson. In 1887, it was published by the St. Petersburg newspaper Rodina. So the printed debut of Bunin Jr. took place.
"Zhivoderka" and "Old Newspaper Lane"
In 1888, Julius received permission from the authorities to move to Kharkov, from where he moved to Poltava two months later. Here he worked in static management and helped Ivan find a job in the city.
In 1895, Bunin Sr. moved to Moscow (later he dragged his brother there as well). Julius got a place in the editorial office of one of the best pedagogical magazines, the Bulletin of Education. Formally, he was a secretary, but in fact he performed the duties of a leader. In addition, our hero was a member of various committees and societies, including the famous Wednesday. Meetings of this circle were held by the writer Nikolai Teleshov. *** They were visited by writers, musicians, and artists. They shared their creativity, discussed. Not without playful "shares". So, nicknames were assigned to each regular of the events. They reflect the names of Moscow streets and some special features of the members of this unique club. For example, the loud-voiced Chaliapin was named Razgulyay, the wit Ivan Bunin - the Flayer, and his brother, an experienced publicist - the Old Newspaper Lane. The latter, as usual, tried to stick together and supported each other in everything. They were separated only by the revolution that Julius once so dreamed of. Ivan did not accept the Bolshevik government and emigrated to a foreign land. Bunin Sr. remained at home, but under the new regime he did not live long. His health, already undermined by prison, was completely weakened by hardships during the period of devastation. In 1921 he died ...

*Now - Lipetsk region.
** So Vera Muromtseva, Ivan Bunin's wife, stated in her memoirs.
*** Met on Wednesdays, hence the name.

Yuli Bunin had a chance to meet with Andrey Zhelyabov, who later became known as one of the organizers of the fatal terrorist attack against Tsar Alexander II. Years later, Julius Alekseevich recalled: “He was gifted with remarkable oratory skills. His speech was clear, precise, without any embellishment and mannerisms, and at the same time something extremely strong was felt in it (...) During my life I have heard many brilliant speakers, but I cannot get rid of the impression made on me Zhelyabov.

From the memoirs of the writer Nikolai Teleshov about Yulia Bunin:“His influence on his brother was enormous, starting from childhood. As a well-educated person who loved, appreciated and understood world literature, Ivan Alekseevich owed a lot in his development to him. Love and friendship between the brothers were inseparable.

On the picture: Julius and Ivan Bubnin, 1893.