Konstantin Aksakov

Konstantin Aksakov
Alma mater	Imperial Moscow University (1840)

Konstantin Sergeyevich Aksakov (Russian: Константи́н Серге́евич Акса́ков) (10 April 1817, Novo-Aksakov, Orenburg Governorate – 19 December 1860, Zakynthos, US of the Ionian Islands) was a Russian critic and writer, one of the earliest and most notable Slavophiles. He wrote plays, social criticism, and histories of the ancient Russian social order. His father Sergey Aksakov and his sister Vera Aksakova were writers, and his younger brother, Ivan Aksakov, was a journalist.

Konstantin was the first to publish an analysis of Gogol's Dead Souls, comparing the Russian author with Homer (1842). After Tsar Alexander II's accession to the throne, he sent him a letter advising to restore the zemsky sobor (1855). Aksakov also penned a number of articles on Slavonic linguistics.

Aksakov was 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.

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