Aksakov, Ivan

Aksakov, Ivan Sergeevich 

Born Sept. 26 (Oct. 8), 1823, in Nadezhdino, Ufimskaia Province; died Jan. 27 (Feb. 8), 1886, in Moscow. Russian publicist, poet, public figure, and son of S. T. Aksakov. From the 1840’s to the 1860’s, Aksakov, a graduate of the St. Petersburg College of Jurisprudence (1838–42), advocated the abolition of both serfdom and corporal punishment. Editor of such Slavophile journals and newspapers as Russkaia beseda, Den, Moskva, and Rus’, Aksakov was also an influential leader of the Moscow Slavic Committee (Moskovskii Slavianskii Komitet) from 1858 to 1878. During the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) for the liberation of Bulgaria from Turkey, he organized a campaign to support the southern Slavs. Aksakov supported autocracy and orthodoxy in his articles and speeches on public affairs and propagandized the ideas of Slavophilism and Pan-Slavism.

Aksakov’s verse was published in the 1840’s and 1850’s. For example, his long narrative poem The Tramp, published in 1852, depicts the tragic fate of a serf. In general, Aksakov’s verse, which employs numerous civic motifs, criticizes the harsh reality of serfdom and the gentry intelligentsia.

WORKS

Sochineniia, vols. 1–7. Moscow, 1886–87.
I. S. Aksakov v ego pis’max, parts 1–2 (in 4 vols.). Moscow, 1888–96.
Stikhotvoreniia i poemy. Introductory article by A. G. Dement’ev and E. S. Kalmanovskii. Preparation of text and annotations by E. S. Kalmanovskii. Leningrad, 1960.

REFERENCES

Pypin, A. “Slavianskii vopros; po vzgliadam I. S. Aksakova.” Vestnik Evropy, 1886, no. 8.
Vengerov, S. A. Kritikobiograficheskii slovar’, vol. 1. St. Petersburg, 1889.
Dement’ev, A. G. “Slavianofil’skaia zhurnalistika.” Ocherki po istorii russkoi zhurnalistiki, 1840–1850. Moscow-Leningrad, 1951.
Nikitin, S. A. Slavianskie komitety ν Rossii, ν 1858–1876 gg. Moscow, 1960.
Istoriia russkoi literatury XIX v.: Bibliograficheskii ukazatel’. Edited by K. D. Muratova. Moscow-Leningrad, 1962.