Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In the 1840s he joined the circle led by Aleksei
Stepanovich Khomiakov and was influential in
developing the important Slavophile concept of
sobornost'
(togetherness) as a distinctive trait dif-
ferentiating Russia from the individualistic West.
Konstantin's younger brother, Ivan Sergee-
vich Aksakov (1823-86), was a brilliant orator
and publicist, publisher, and editor of several
newspapers, many of which were suppressed by
the government. During the 1840s Ivan Aksakov
worked as a civil servant in Moscow, Kaluga,
ASTRAKHAN
, Bessarabia, and Yaroslavl provinces.
Commissioned by the Russian Geographic Soci-
ety to study trade in the Ukraine, he published
Issledovanie o torgovle na ukrainskikh iarmarkakh
(Researches on trade in Ukrainian fairs)
(1858). In
1855 he served in the volunteer militia that
fought in the
CRIMEAN WAR
. After his brother's
death he assumed a more prominent role in the
Slavophile movement, especially as president of
the Moscow Slavic Committee (1861-86). Dur-
ing the
RUSSO
-
TURKISH WAR OF
1877-78, he
reached the height of his influence as leading
spokesman for the widespread public call for the
liberation of the Balkan Slavs. In the 1870s and
1880s, Ivan Aksakov became involved in bank-
ing and was the chairman of the council of the
Moscow Mutual Credit Society. But it was as an
editor of publications with strong Slavophile
views such as
Moskovskii sbornik
(1840s-50s), the
journal
Russkaia beseda,
the newspapers
Parus
and
Den'
(1861-65), and
Moskva
(1867-68) that he
made his mark. By 1880, as editor of the news-
paper
Rus'
(1880-86), he had assumed openly
anti-Semitic positions, writing against “the
worldwide Jewish conspiracy.”
Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov
(Library of Congress)
he worked as a censor in
MOSCOW
. Retired from
the civil service in 1843 he settled on the family
estate in
ABRAMTSEVO
, where he wrote the auto-
biographical trilogy,
Family Chronicle
(1856),
The
Years of Childhood of Bagrov the Grandson
(1858),
and
Reminiscences
(1856). In
Family Chronicle
he
realistically portrayed an 18th-century Russian
squire's family (based on his own family's his-
tory) and conditions in Bashkiria, then being
colonized by Russia. Other works dwelled on
rural themes and the issue of Russian identity.
Two of his sons became prominent intellectu-
als and representatives of the Slavophile move-
ment. Konstantin Sergeevich Aksakov (1817-60)
was a historian, literary critic, and writer. He fin-
ished Moscow University in 1835 and joined the
seminal Stankevich Circle, influenced by Hegel.
Aksenov, Vasili Petrovich
(1932-
)
writer
The son of Evgeniia
GINZBURG
, Aksenov became a
leading novelist in the Soviet Union and abroad
after he emigrated in 1980. He was born in
KAZAN
, Tatarstan, where his father was chair of
the local soviet. His parents were put in the
GULAG
, and he was raised by his grandmother. At
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