Konstantin Aksakov

Konstantin Aksakov

Konstantin Sergeyevich Aksakov (Russian: Константи́н Серге́евич Акса́ков) (10 April 1817, Novo-Aksakov, Orenburg Governorate – 19 December 1860, Zakynthos, US of the Ionian Islands) was a Russian critic and writer, one of the earliest and most notable Slavophiles. He wrote plays, social criticism, and histories of the ancient Russian social order.^[1] His father Sergey Aksakov was a writer, and his younger brother, Ivan Aksakov, was a journalist.

Konstantin was the first to publish an analysis of Gogol's Dead Souls, comparing the Russian author with Homer (1842). After Tsar Alexander II's accession to the throne, he sent him a letter advising to restore the zemsky sobor (1855). Aksakov also penned a number of articles on Slavonic linguistics.

Personal life

Aksakov was raised on a country estate before he moved to Moscow with his family. He remained with his parents his entire life, without ever marrying or moving out of the house.^[1] He studied at Moscow State University, and he became a member of the Stankevitch Circle, a group of Russian Hegelians and early believers of Russian democracy.

Aksakov eventually made the acquaintance of Ivan Kireyevsky and Aleksey Khomyakov, adopted their philosophy of Slavophilism and broke off all contact with the Stankevitch Circle.

Philosophy

Aksakov's thesis on Mikhail Lomonosov (1846) attempted to synthesize his view of the Russian peasant's religious and historical mission with Hegel's philosophy. Later in his career, Aksakov abandoned Hegelian philosophy and became radically anti-European.^[2]

See also

• List of 19th-century Russian Slavophiles

References