Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was not only a prominent Russian writer, but also a famous hunter. Ivan Turgenev’s love for this activity was instilled by his uncle Nikolay Turgenev. With a gun on his shoulders, the writer went to the Oryol, Tula, Tambov, Kursk and Kaluga governorates. He also explored hunting grounds in England, France and Germany. In 1837, Turgenev met a peasant hunter, Afanasy Alifanov, who became the writer’s hunting partner. Turgenev bought him his freedom from serfdom. The writer loved to visit Alifanov, drink tea with him and listen to hunting stories. The work “On Nightingales” was based on a story of Alifanov. It was Alifanov who inspired a character from “A Sportsman’s Sketches” — Yermolai.

Turgenev went on hunting expeditions hundreds of miles from his estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo. The writer had a kennel of 70 hounds and 60 gazehounds, but he preferred to hunt with a gun and a bird dog. He mainly hunted feathered game. When Turgenev met the singer Pauline Viardot in the summer of 1843, he was introduced as follows,

Many writers shared Ivan Turgenev’s hunting passion. He made hunting expeditions with Nikolai Tolstoy, the elder brother of Leo Tolstoy, as well as the poets Afanasy Fet and Nikolay Nekrasov, and the playwright Alexander Ostrovsky. In the spring of 1880, Turgenev went hunting with Leo Tolstoy: he came to Yasnaya Polyana and invited Tolstoy to take part in the Pushkin celebrations in Moscow. Tolstoy refused to participate in the festivities, but did go hunting.