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# Turgenev on Cosmopolitanism and Nationality in “Rudin” of 1856
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/neschaste-rudina-sostoit-v-tom-chto-on-rossii-ne-znaet-i-eto-tochno-bolshoe-neschaste/
- Published: 2022-03-11T12:10:22.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:01:03.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Books, Observations, People

Rudin's misfortune is that he does not know Russia, and it is certainly a great misfortune. Russia can do without any one of us, but none of us can do without her. Woe to him who thinks so, and double woe to him who actually does without her! Cosmopolitanism is nonsense, the cosmopolitan is a nullity, worse than a nullity; outside nationality there is no art, no truth, no life, nothing

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev. “Rudin”. 1856\. Incidentally, Turgenev wrote these words while living far from his homeland, already possessed of a reputation across the whole of Europe. Turgenev, who in his lifetime was acknowledged as one of the greatest men of letters, and who never wrote a single literary word in any language but Russian