Aksakov, Alexander Petrovich

Alexander Petrovich Aksakov (January 17 ( 29 ), 1850 , the village of Yudinki , Aleksinsky district , Tula province - not earlier than 1917 , Petrograd ^[1] ) - publicist, writer.

The son of the chairman of the Aleksinsky district zemstvo council. Brother N.P. Aksakova , distant relative of S.T. , I.S. and K.S. Aksakov .

Aliases: A - B, A. ^[2]

Biography

After 1867 he lived in Moscow. In service since 1877. He served in the prison departments of Yaroslavl (1896-1901) and Vilensky (1902-04) provincial boards (in Yaroslavl he organized labor assistance cooperatives for deserted people, and in Vilna a bureau of arrested labor, a labor assistance colony for those released). Since May 1904 he served in the State Audit Office as a junior auditor (Petersburg). Based on his own professional experience, he proposed a number of reforms in the prison department, carried out in a small part. The undoubted “corrective effect” was exerted on many criminals by the very personality of Aksakov, his moral character. He died in 1917, was single.

Literary activity

He appeared in print in 1903 as a publicist with the article “Labor as an Instrument of Moral Revival” (“Prison Messenger”, No. 5, 6). Aksakov was especially interested in the ways of correcting the “transgressors”, considering the main among them “work for the benefit of people or in the name of God.” The very first published literary experiments of Aksakov - the story "Spark of Good" and the story "Veprensky Turks" ("Collection of Young Writers", St. Petersburg, 1905) are devoted to human selflessness and self-sacrifice.

As a kind of journalist and literary figure, Aksakov was formed by 1910. Around the editions of his collections “Brotherly Life” (v. 1–6, St. Petersburg, 1910–11), well-known publicists and thinkers of the beginning of the century were grouped: N. D. Kuznetsov (author of the book “ Russian Fiction in Relation to Religious Issues ”, Sergiev-Posad, 1910), M. A. Novosyolov (works on Christian ethics, editor of the collection“ Grigory Rasputin and Mystical Debauchery ”, M., 1912), N. M. Solovyov ( Researcher of the relationship between science and religion), A. A. Papkov (works on the ancient Russian community), I. V. Nikanorov (including articles on Slavophilism), public figure F. D. Samarin (nephew of Yu. F. Samarin ), scientist A. A. Tikhomirov . The collections published works by the brother and sister of Aksakov ( F.P. Aksakov and P.P. Kvashnin-Samarin ).

Many publications were devoted to the problem of the practical embodiment of religious and moral ideals, following the example of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Exaltation of Labor Brotherhood, organized in the city of Glukhov in the second half of the 19th century. ascetic N.N. Neplyuev. The second religious and public publication, headed by Aksakov, is the journal Zerna (P., 1916-17; appendix to Prison Prison.). It published verses by A. S. Roslavlev, G. V. Ivanov, and prose by S. I. Gusev-Orenburg.

In his own writings, especially in the story “Pure in Heart” (“Brotherly Life”, 1910, c. 1), the novel “Desired” (ibid., C. 5) and “Unloved” (“Popular Thought”, 1912, No. 4 ), in verses (published in “Brotherly Life” and “Grains”), in articles (“Call”, “Power creating and life-giving”, “Pure joy”), Aksakov sought to capture the good spiritual and moral manifestations of everyday Russian life: a fusion with a "peace" nature, following the dictates of the heart, not the "cunning" reason, peace of mind, religious and patriarchal traditions, considering keeping it ideal to start a family.

Other works

• “How a mouse saved a rabbit” (fairy tale, M. — P., [b.])
• “The abolition of serfdom in Russia. 1861 - 1911 "(St. Petersburg. 1911)
• “The Highest Feat” (St. Petersburg, 1912; apologetic article about P. A. Stolypin)