13 Facts About Konstantin Aksakov

Konstantin Sergeyevich Aksakov was a Russian critic and writer.

Konstantin Aksakov became one of the earliest and most notable Slavophiles.

Konstantin Aksakov wrote plays, social criticism, and histories of the ancient Russian social order.

Konstantin Aksakov's father Sergey Aksakov and his sister Vera Aksakova were writers, and his younger brother, Ivan Aksakov, was a journalist.

Konstantin Aksakov was the first to publish an analysis of Nikolai Gogol's 1842 work Dead Souls; he compared the author with Homer and with Shakespeare.

In 1856, after Tsar Alexander II's accession to the throne in 1855, Aksakov sent the emperor a letter advising him to restore the zemsky sobor.

Konstantin Aksakov was born into a family of prominent Russian writer Sergey Timofeevich Konstantin Aksakov and his wife Olga Semyonovna Zaplatina.

All this led some researchers to believe that the Konstantin Aksakov family originated from Tatars, despite they had no relation to the Polish noble house.

Konstantin 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.

Konstantin Aksakov was raised on a country estate before he moved to Moscow with his family.

Konstantin Aksakov remained with his parents his entire life, without ever marrying or moving out of the house.

Konstantin Aksakov 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.

Konstantin 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.