Ivan Sergeyevich Aksakov (; , village Nadezhdino, Belebeyevsky Uyezd, Orenburg Governorate – , Moscow) was a Russian littérateur and notable Slavophile.

Biography

Aksakov was born in the village of Nadezhdino (then Orenburg Governorate, now Bashkiria), into a family of prominent Russian writer Sergey Timofeevich Aksakov (1791—1859) and his wife Olga Semyonovna Zaplatina (1793—1878). His mother was the daughter of Major General Semyon Grigorievich Zaplatina and a captured Turkish woman. The third son of eleven children, he was a younger brother of the writers Konstatin and Vera Aksakova.

His paternal grandfather Timofey Stepanovich Aksakov belonged to an old noble Aksakov family whose members claimed to be the decedents of Šimon. Their first documented ancestor was Ivan Feodorivich Velyaminov nicknamed Oksak who lived during the 15th century. His family crest was based on the Polish Przyjaciel coat of arms (also known as Aksak) which is considered to be of Tatar origin in Poland (the word «oksak» means «lame» in Turkic languages). All this led some researchers to believe that the Aksakov family also originated from Tatars, despite they had no relation to the Polish noble house. Aksakov's maternal grandfather was a Russian General Semyon Grigorievich Zaplatin who fought under the command of Alexander Suvorov and who married a Turkish captive Igel-Syum.thumb|Portrait by [[Ilya Repin.]]Aksakov spent his early years in Nadezhdino. In the autumn of 1826 he moved with his family to Moscow where he received good home education.

Career

In 1838 Aksakov enrolled in the recently opened Imperial School of Jurisprudence. Upon the graduation in 1842, he returned to Moscow and took up a post in the Russian Senate's Criminal Investigation department. After three years's assignment in Astrakhan as a member of the Audit Commission, led by Prince Pavel Gagarin and later Kaluga (as deputy chairman of the local Criminal Investigation Chamber) he returned to the Senate, as its First Department's official.

thumb|left|190px|Aksakov in 1840s

During the early 1840s Aksakov wrote a lot of poetry. Mostly satirical, his early work was compiled in the summer of 1846 into what was supposed to become his first collection, it centerpiece being "The Life of a Government Official" (Жизнь чиновника. Мистерия в трех периодах, 1843; published in London in 1861, in Russia in 1886). The book was cut by the censor in such a way that Aksakov decided against publishing what's been left; his whole poetic legacy came out posthumously. Several of his poems appeared in the Moscow Literature and Science Almanac (1845) and Sovremennik (1846). it appeared in print in Russia only in 1892. He spent the first year of their marriage at home, devoting himself totally to family affairs. In 1867 he started editing the newspaper Moskva (1867-1868), regularly providing editorials on a wide range of topics concerning Russia's economy and internal affairs, propagating his Slavophile views. Many of those appeared in the form of black-framed notifications, informing the readership that "this editorial is unavailable owing to circumstances beyond the control of the editorial staff." As it was later revealed, in the censorship committee's secret 1865 review of the Russian press Aksakov was mentioned among those whose activities demanded special attention and was characterized as "a democrat with Socialist inclinations."

thumb|left|200px|Aksakov's gravestone in the [[Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra.]]

Warnings and suspensions (some up to six months) forced Aksakov to stop the publication of Den. Moskva was closed by the authorities. His "Biography of Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev" (1874) infuriated censors to such an extent that the book's second edition's whole print run was captured and destroyed, due to its "generally reprehensible nature," according to the official explanation.

As a chairman of the Slavic Charitable Society, Aksakov concentrated mostly on the efforts aimed at providing financial help for Serbia and Montenegro during the Montenegrin–Ottoman War (1876–78) and transporting the units of Russian volunteers' into the Balkans. As the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War broke out, he continued to promote the ideas of Pan-Slavism in the Russian press, then switched the focus of his attention to organizing the financial and military aid for Bulgaria. On 22 July 1878, speaking at the Moscow Slavic Society, Aksakov came out with a speech attacking both the decisions of the Congress of Berlin and the position of the Russian delegation which, as he saw it, failed to confront the "political conspiracy" aimed against Russia which had "won the war but was relegated to the status of a losing party."

This demarche had serious political resonance and dire consequences for Aksakov. He was ordered to leave Moscow and had to spend the rest of the year in exile, residing in the village of Varvaryino, Vladimir Governorate. The Slavic Charitable Society was shut down. In December 1878 Aksakov received the permission to return to Moscow.

The tsar, Alexander III of Russia, attempted to call a constitutional assembly in 1881, saying "At last, I have the mountain off my shoulders. I have asked my ministers to draft the scheme of an Assembly of Representatives." This Aksakov highly opposed, and he suggested to the tsar that instead he should offer tax breaks for the peasantry, and with the assurance of other Russian courtiers, such as the conservative Konstantin Pobedonostsev and Mikhail Katkov, the tsar withdrew his proposal for a constitution and went with light tax breaks.

After two quiet years, in 1880, with the support from Count Mikhail Loris-Melikov, he managed to found another Slavophile newspaper, a weekly called Rus which lasted six years, until his death on 8 February 1886, of heart failure. D.S. Mirsky considered him the finest Russian journalist, after Alexander Herzen. The historian Andrzej Walicki has identified Aksakov as the intellectual bridge between Slavophilism and Panslavism.

Honour

Aksakovo town in Northeastern Bulgaria and Aksakov Street in Sofia, Bulgaria are named after Ivan Aksakov.

See also

  • List of 19th-century Russian Slavophiles

References

  • From the Jewish Encyclopedia