Ivan Aksakov

Life

Born into a family of prominent Russian writer Sergey Timofeevich Aksakov (1791—1859) and his wife Olga Semyonovna Zaplatina (1793—1878). 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 researches 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.

Aksakov was a younger brother of the writers Konstatin and Vera Aksakova. He was born in what is now Bashkortostan. Aksakov graduated from the Imperial School of Jurisprudence in 1842. He was one of fourteen children

Ivan took part in the Crimean War, and promoted the ideas of Pan-Slavism in the Russian press during the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878. D.S. Mirsky considered him the finest Russian journalist, after Alexander Herzen. Aksakov saw the peasant commune as a ‘moral choir’ and the basis for a spiritually regenerated Russian state, believing that ‘the wing of the Russian eagle’ would be the guiding force in uniting ‘the whole Slavonic world’ and defeating the threat of the Austrian Empire. The historian Andrzej Walicki has identified Aksakov as the intellectual bridge between Slavophilism and Panslavism. Aksakov also wrote the first biography of the Slavophile poet Fyodor Tyutchev, father of his spouse Anna Tiuttjev.

Honour

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