Sergey Timofeyevich Aksakov

Sergey Timofeyevich Aksakov (born Sept. 20 [Oct. 1, New Style], 1791, Ufa, Russia—died April 30 [May 12], 1859, Moscow) was a novelist noted for his realistic and comic narratives and for his introduction of a new genre, a cross between memoir and novel, into Russian literature.

Brought up in a strongly patriarchal family, Aksakov was educated in the pseudoclassical tradition at home, at school, and at the newly founded university in Kazan. He became a translator in the legislative commission of the civil service, served in the militia in the struggle against Napoleon in 1812, married in 1815, and in 1816 retired to the family estate. After a decade as a sporting country squire, he returned to the civil service in Moscow and became literary censor, inspector, and, later, director of the college of land surveying. Inheriting money, he retired in 1839 and lived in and near Moscow, entertaining his friends—mainly writers and Slavophiles.

Before 1834, when his successful Buran (“Blizzard”) was published, Aksakov’s writings reflected outmoded literary tastes: translations of Nicolas Boileau and Molière, undistinguished verse, and articles on the theatre. But then he was inspired—by his love of rural Russia in the days of serfdom, by his Slavophile sons Ivan and Konstantin, and by his admiration of the novelist Nikolay Gogol—to set down the story of his grandfather, his parents, and his own childhood, transposed into realistic fiction. This effort resulted in three books that have become classics: Semeynaya khronika (1856; The Family Chronicle), Vospominaniya (1856; “Reminiscences”; Eng. trans. A Russian Schoolboy), and Detskie gody Bagrova-vnuka (1858; Childhood Years of Grandson Bagrov). Aksakov unfolds his chronicles objectively in an unaffected style with simple language. Their interest lies in the illusion of reality and intimacy created by his vivid remembrance of his own and his forebears’ past. These works, blending personal reminiscence with the techniques of the novelist, brought Aksakov fame. The finest book of the trilogy, The Family Chronicle, also shows a remarkable understanding of family psychology.

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Also of interest are Aksakov’s books on shooting, fishing, and butterfly collecting and his recollections of Gogol, which are firsthand material on his friend’s complex personality.