Impressionism emerged in France in the late 19th century. The term impressionism originates from the painting Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant) of Claude Monet. Later on the tendency improved in the fields of the literature, the music, the sculpture and the theatre. Impressionism spreading from France to the all of the European countries was accepted in Russian literature as well. The impact of the impressionism is mostly observed in the works of Innokenti Fyodorovich Annenski, Afanasiy Afanasiyevich Fet, Andrey Belıy, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Blok, Konstantin Dmitriyevich Balmont, Anton Pavlovich Chehov and Osip Emilyevich Mandelshtam. The Russian poets and writers interpret impressionism with regard to symbolism which is prevailing movement of that period. In addition to this, the elements of impressionism such as subjectivity, uncertainty, dim environment, color-shade nuances, color-light fluctuations, use of accent colors are prominently reflected in their works. In the study, the occurrence process of impressionism as a movement will be conveyed and the works signifying impressionistic characteristics will be tried to be analyzed.
Key words: Impressionism, the last quarter of the 19th century of Russian literature,
symbolism