Sergey Aksakov
Sergey Aksakov | |
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Alexandr Aksakov |
Sergey Timofeyevich Aksakov (Russian: Серге́й Тимофе́евич Акса́ков, Russian pronunciation: [sʲɪrˈɡʲej tʲɪmɐˈfʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ɐˈksakəf]) (October 1 [O.S. September 20] 1791—May 12 [O.S. April 30] 1859) was a 19th-century Russian literary figure remembered for his semi-autobiographical tales of family life, as well as his books on hunting and fishing.
A crater on the planet Mercury has been named in his honor.[1]
Early life
According to the
Sergey was born in
He was educated at the
Career
He left the university in 1807, and the following year went to St. Petersburg to take up government service, for which he was also poorly prepared. Again, he spent considerable time at the theater, and his acquaintance with the conservative Admiral Shishkov strengthened his preference for classical Russian literature and introduced him to the Lovers of the Russian Word. He resigned from the civil service in 1811 and moved to Moscow, where he was active as an amateur in literary and theatrical life and published his first verse anonymously in 1812.[4]
Aksakov enlisted in the militia and took part in the
He began publishing translations, reviews, and articles in the early 1820s, though his important work came much later. In 1827 he was appointed to the Moscow Censorship Committee, from which he was dismissed in 1832 for allowing the publication of a "scurrilous" pamphlet on drunken policemen; in 1833 he became an inspector at the Grand Duke Constantine School of Surveying, and in 1835 the first director of the Constantine Geodetic Institute (Konstantinovsky mezhevoi institut).[6] He retired from the civil service in 1838.
In 1832 he met Nikolai Gogol "and recognized in him what he had failed to see in Púshkin or any other man—a purely Russian genius. Aksakov's house, a stronghold of pure Russianism in Moscow society, became the temple of the cult of Gogol, and Aksakov its high priest."[7] It was Gogol who revealed to Aksakov the possibility of creating literature based directly on life, without forcing it into the mold of classical forms. In 1834 Aksakov published his first realistic story, "A Blizzard." Around 1840, encouraged by Gogol, he began writing the book that would make him famous, A Family Chronicle. While he was working on that, he published books about two of his favorite activities since his youth, Notes on Fishing (1847) and Notes of a Hunter in Orenburg Province (1852). Their "limpid style and concrete content," which were "almost unique in Russian literature," were appreciated by contemporaries;[8] Ivan Turgenev reviewed them enthusiastically, and Gogol wrote Aksakov, "Your birds and fishes are more alive than my men and women."[9]
Later life
In 1843 Aksakov settled in the village of
Among Aksakov's other works are The History of My Acquaintance with Gogol (Istoriya moego znakomstva s Gogolem, published 1890 [written in 1830s and 1840s]); Memoirs (Vospominaniya, 1856, translated as A Russian Schoolboy), and Collecting Butterflies (Sobiranie babochek, 1858). His fairy tale The Scarlet Flower was adapted into an animated feature film in the Soviet Union in 1952.
Family
Aksakov married Olga Semyonovna Zaplatina who was the daughter of Major General Semyon Grigorievich Zaplatin and a captured Turkish woman.[11] They had four sons (Konstantin, Gregory, Ivan and Mikhail) and seven daughters (Vera, Olga, Nadezhda, Anna, Lyubov, Maria, and Sophia).[11]
English translations
- Years of Childhood. Translated by James Duff Duff. London: Edward Arnold. 1916 – via Internet Archive.
- A Russian Schoolboy, E. Arnold, London, 1917, tr. by J. D. Duff. from Archive.org
- A Russian Gentleman, E. Arnold, London, 1917, tr. by J. D. Duff. from Archive.org
- The Family Chronicle, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1961, tr. by M. C. Beverley.
- Notes on Fishing, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, 1997, tr. by Thomas P. Hodge.
- Notes of a Provincial Wildfowler, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, 1998, tr. by Kevin Windle.
References
- ^ "Aksakov". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. NASA. Retrieved 28 Apr 2020.
- ISBN 978-5-98393-018-6at the official Aksakov family website (in Russian)
- ^ V. Savodnik, Ocherki po istorii russkoi literatury XIX-go veka, Part II (Kolomea, [1906]), p. 1.
- ISBN 1-884964-10-9), p. 97.
- ISBN 978-0-313-26265-4.
- ^ John McNair, "Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov," p. 97.
- ^ D.S. Mirsky, A History of Russian Literature (Northwestern University Press, 1999), p. 185.
- ISBN 0-300-04868-8), p. 17.
- ^ Mirsky, History of Russian Literature, p. 186.
- ^ John McNair, "Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov," p. 98.
- ^ a b Рубрика «Аксаковы. История разбитых судеб»: «Глава I», Aksakoff, retrieved 11 April 2021,
От брака с Ольгой Семеновной Заплатиной (1 марта 1793 г. – 2 мая 1878 г.), дочерью генерал-майора Семена Григорьевича Заплатина и пленной турчанки Игель-Сюм, Сергей Тимофеевич Аксаков имел четырех сыновей – Константина, Григория, Ивана, Михаила и семь дочерей – Веру (1819–1864 гг.), Ольгу (1821–1861 гг.), Надежду (1829–1869 гг.), Анну (1829–1829 гг.), Любовь (1830–1867 гг.), Марию (1831–1906 гг.), Софью (1835–1885 гг.).
Further reading
- Smith-Peter, Susan. (2016), "Enlightenment from the East: Early Nineteenth Century Russian Views of the East from Kazan University", Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, 13 (1): 318–338, .
- Churkin A. The memoir and autobiographical prose of S. T. Aksakov, problems of poetics. Thesis. in Russian
External links
- Media related to Sergey Aksakov at Wikimedia Commons
- Works by Sergey Aksakov at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Sergey Aksakov at Internet Archive