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The famous Russian Slavophile writer Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov (born in Ufa on September 20, 1791, died on April 30, 1859) came from an old noble family. Under the influence of his mother, a very educated woman at that time, Sergei Aksakov and early age he re-read everything available to him that could be obtained in Ufa, then was sent to the Kazan gymnasium, where, by the way, his studies were interrupted for a year due to the boy’s homesickness. In 1805, Sergei was transferred to the newly founded Kazan University (until 1808). The success of his teaching was hampered, by the way, by Aksakov’s hobbies for hunting of all kinds (baiting wolves and foxes, gun hunting, fishing and catching butterflies) and his passion for the theater. The first connected him with nature, the second occupied his mind theater affairs and given the state of the theater at that time, it led me onto the wrong path of “sublime” literature. Getting to know Shishkov directed Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov on the path of Slavism, which prepared the subsequent Slavophilism.

In 1812, Aksakov settled in Moscow, leaving his service, and became friends with a circle of Moscow theatergoers, under whose influence he translated Boileau, Molière and La Harpe and ardently stood for the old, pompous trend of literature (fierce polemics with N. Polevoy). In 1820 Aksakov married Ol. Sem. Zaplatina and left for his father’s Trans-Volga patrimony, the village of Znamenskoye or Novo-Aksakovo, and in 1826 he finally moved to Moscow, where he joined the censorship committee. In 1834 - 1839 Aksakov served in the land surveying school (later the Konstantinovsky Land Surveying Institute) first as an inspector, then as a director. In 1837, Sergei Timofeevich received a large inheritance from his father, which allowed him to live widely and hospitably in Moscow as a private person. Aksakov had a strong, healthy and robust physique, but from the mid-1840s. began to get sick (with his eyes); behind last years the disease became painful.

Portrait of Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov. Artist I. Kramskoy, 1878

Aksakov's literary activity began early. In 1806, he started with A. Panaev and Perevoshchikov the “Journal of Our Studies,” where he carried out Shishkov’s ideas. Such were Aksakov's artistic inclinations until the early 1830s, when, under the influence of his son, Konstantin Sergeevich Aksakov, Pavlov, Pogodin and Nadezhdina Sergei Timofeevich's tastes take a different direction. Acquaintance and closeness with Gogol (from 1832) had a decisive influence on the turning point in Aksakov’s views. His first fruit was the essay “Buran” (Almanac “Dennitsa” by Maksimovich, 1834). The essay had big success, and Aksakov no longer strayed from the path on which Gogol had pushed him. “Notes on Fishing” (1847), “Stories and Memoirs of a Hunter” (1855) created Aksakov’s fame for his amazingly integral and clear attitude to nature, artistry of style and descriptions, and the success of “Family Chronicle”, begun back in 1840 and completed in 1856 (excerpts in the Moscow Collection of 1846, without the author’s name) exceeded all the author’s hopes. Criticism, both Westernizing and Slavophile, placed Sergei Aksakov next to Homer, Shakespeare, and W. Scott; but the first one (Dobrolyubov) derived from the “Family Chronicle” gloomy picture despotism of Russian landowner life, the second - (Khomyakov) argued that Aksakov was the first to look at our life from a positive point of view. In fact, Sergei Timofeevich painted portraits of people close to him in spirit and blood directly. “The Childhood Years of Bagrov the Grandson” (1858) is weaker, because the author does not treat the subject of his depiction with such love and only tries to be spontaneous. Their success was less, like “Literary and Theatrical Memoirs”. The last story“Natasha” (the marriage of Aksakov’s sister to the famous professor Kartashevsky) remained unfinished.

Perhaps it would be difficult to find another example of the importance of theoretical views for artistic creativity than that which is wonderful and instructive story literary activity Aksakova. The ideas of false classicism, mixed with the even more stilted ideas of literary Slavism of the Shishkov school, positively deadened the artistic talent of Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov, but the influence of Gogol, which freed him from all rhetorical stilts and destroyed his former literary understanding, awakened long-dormant forces already at an age when one could most likely expect their weakening.

Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov, Russian writer, literary and theater critic, author of the books “Notes on Fishing” (1847), “Notes of a Gun Hunter of the Orenburg Province” (1852), “Stories and Memoirs of a Hunter about Various Hunts” (1855), “Family Chronicle” (1856); memoirs “Literary and Theatrical Memoirs” (1858), “The Story of My Acquaintance with Gogol” (1880) and many others, he is best known to the general reader as the author of the story “The Childhood Years of Bagrov-Vkuk” (1858) and fairy tales “ The Scarlet Flower”, which was originally an appendix to the story. A.'s books occupy a special place in Russian literature of the 19th century century. Their main subject is unpretentious (the natural world, the patriarchal life of several generations noble family, family legends), their language, according to many, is perfect. “We should all learn from him,” wrote I. S. Turgenev, admiring the language of Aksakov’s prose.

A. was born in 1791 in Ufa. His father, Timofey Stepanovich, was a prosecutor, his mother, Maria Nikolaevna, came from the official aristocracy and was distinguished by rare intelligence and education. M.N. Aksakova had an exceptional influence on the formation of the future writer; a relationship of rare trust and friendliness developed between mother and son.

Their early years A. spent in Ufa and on the family estate Novo-Aksakovo in the Orenburg province. He graduated from the Kazan gymnasium and entered Kazan University. While still in high school, he began to write poems, “verses without rhymes,” in the spirit of sentimental poetry. At the university I became interested in theater and actively participated in student theater, had the gift of recitation. The fame of A. the reader was so wide that G.R. Derzhavin was looking forward to the young man’s arrival in St. Petersburg to listen to his poems performed by him.

In 1808, A. came to St. Petersburg and entered the service as a government official. Meets G.R. Derzhavin, A.S. Shishkov, takes part in a meeting of the literary circle headed by Shishkov, “Conversation of lovers of the Russian word.” The fable 'Three Canaries' debuts in print in 1812. In 1811 he moves to Moscow, getting closer to Moscow theatrical circles, translates plays by Schiller, Moliere, Boileau, appears in print as a theater critic.

From the 1820s to the 1830s. house A., which in 1816 married the daughter of Suvorov's general O.S. Zaplatina, became one of the centers of literary theatrical life Moscow. For many years, Aksakov's "subbotniks" have been regularly attended by major Moscow cultural and artistic figures - actor M.S. Shchepkin, historian M.P. Pogodin, writer M.N. Zagoskin, Moscow University professors S.P. Shevyrev and N. I. Nadezhdin. In the spring of 1832, Gogol began to visit the Aksakovs, who maintained his friendship with A. throughout his life. When his sons Konstantin and Ivan grew up (and in total there were 14 children in A.’s family), a circle of Slavophiles settled in the Aksakovs’ house, which included K. and I. Aksakov, A.S. Khomyakov, and the Kireevsky brothers. Active participation in their conversations and disputes.

In 1837, A. bought the Abramtsevo estate, where he began working on the materials of the “Family Chronicle.” A noticeable weakening of his vision pushed A. to intensive literary work A passionate hunter, fisherman and A. decides to describe his experience of ‘life in nature’ and the experiences and impressions associated with it.

In 1847, “Notes on Fishing” was published, which was preceded by an epigraph that largely determined the further direction of A.’s work: “I am going into the world of nature, into the world of calm, freedom...” The book was a great success. Then “Notes of a rifle hunter of the Orenburg province” (1852), “stories and memories of a hunter about various hunts” (1855) appear. The hunting trilogy is a genre of free memoirs with incidents, anecdotes, hunting tales, etc. included in the narrative text.

The main place in artistic heritage A. is occupied by autobiographical prose. The “Family Chronicle” (1856) traces the lives of three generations of the Bagrov estate nobles. The book “Childhood Years of Bagrov-Vkuk” (1858) is a continuation of the “Chronicle”. At the same time, “Childhood Years” is a work written for children. In one of the letters to his granddaughter Olenka, his favorite, A. promises to compose a book for her “... about the young spring, // about the flowers of the fields, // about little birds (...) // about the forest Bear, // about white mushroom (...)". In the process of work, the author’s concept expanded and changed significantly. A book appeared describing the life of a child from infancy to the age of nine against the backdrop of a carefully recreated life of a Russian estate late XVIII century, against the backdrop of grandiose, spiritually inspired paintings of nature.

The main subject of the book was determined by the author himself - the life of a person in childhood, Child's world, created under the influence of daily new impressions... A person’s life is in a child.” Little Seryozha is growing up, exploring a world that seems bright, mysterious, and endless to him. The reader sees objects and phenomena described in the book through his eyes little hero, feels fresh and spontaneity children's perception. Household paintings, life nature, experiences and impressions of Seryozha, simple and important events his life - conversations with his mother, the death of his grandfather, the birth of his brother - are combined into a single canvas of a narrative book.

Seryozha Bagrov is certainly an autobiographical hero, and, of course, inherits distinctive feature A. - passionate love to nature, its deep understanding. Thus, the arrival of spring is an event of great importance in Seryozha’s life: “...everything was noticed by me accurately and carefully, and every moment of spring was celebrated by me as a victory.” Nature is one of the main characters stories. A.’s descriptions of her are not paintings, not landscapes in the generally accepted sense, but life itself, breathing freely and manifesting itself in various ways. You have to have a special kind of soul, a special look, to feel this. The hero of the book possesses this gift to the fullest. “Finally, we entered the urema (the floodplain of the river - I.A.), a green, blooming, fragrant urema. The cheerful singing of birds rushed from all sides (...) Whole swarms of bees, wasps and bumblebees hovered and buzzed around the trees in bloom. Oh my God my, how fun it was!” — this is how Seryozha sees the Siberian spring.

The narrative is based on a leisurely, thorough and at the same time capacious oral history. The language of A. has long been recognized as a model of Russian literary speech. Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Belinsky, Tyutchev and others spoke with praise about A.'s style. The book “The Childhood Years of Bagrov the Grandson” was very warmly received by critics and readers. In the history of Russian literature, A.’s story stood next to Tolstoy’s trilogy “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth”. Until now, “the childhood years of Bagrov the grandson” are one of best works autobiographical-memoir prose, in the center of which the hero is a child.

“The Scarlet Flower” is a fairy tale that has warmed the hearts of more than one generation Russian citizens. But few people know that one of the sons of the author of this tale played in history Samara region important role.

"WITH. T. Aksakov and our region.” " Interesting information about Aksakov places Samara region».
This is what today’s message from “Chronicles of Samara” will be about.

The Aksakov family is one of the oldest in Russia, because the first mention of it dates back to 1027. Many of this noble family held honorary positions and were awarded for faithful service to the Fatherland personally by the Russian tsars.

Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov (1791-1859) - an original Russian writer, whose personality is so significant in the history of Russian and world culture that 1991, the year of the writer’s 100th anniversary, was declared by UNESCO as the year of Aksakov throughout the world.

“I may be a minor writer, but my brick already lies in the foundation of what will create a great writer.” S.T. Aksakov

Aksakov Sergei Timofeevich - prose writer, memoirist, critic, journalist, born September 20, 1791 in Ufa.

He came from a noble noble family. Father, Timofey Stepanovich, served as prosecutor of the Upper Zemstvo Court in Ufa. Mother, Maria Nikolaevna (née Zubova), belonged to the Ufa official aristocracy.

S. T. Aksakov spent his early years in Ufa and on his grandfather’s steppe estate Novy Aksakov, Buguruslan district, Samara province (now Orenburg region).

IN autobiographical works Aksakov, this estate appears under the name New Bagrovo. Since childhood, he fell in love with nature: fishing, hunting, picking berries, long walks in the forest or in the steppe laid in him deep and powerful layers of impressions, which later, decades later, became an inexhaustible source of artistic creativity.

In 1801, Aksakov entered the Kazan gymnasium, and in 1805 he was admitted to the newly opened Kazan University. The writer remembered his high school and student times with warmth even years later, while working on his memoirs.

It was in the gymnasium and at the university that a deep interest in literature manifested itself, born under the influence of the teacher of Russian literature N. M. Ibragimov.

Aksakov thoroughly studied writers XVIII century, from M.V. Lomonosov to G.R. Derzhavin; He also tried to compose himself, participating in handwritten student magazines.

Aksakov's first poetic works - "To the Nightingale", "To the Unfaithful" and others - are painted in sentimental tones, characteristic of both the mass lyricism of that time and the work of the novice poets around him. He was also interested in theater, successfully performing in student performances.

In 1807 Aksakov arrived in Moscow, and in the spring next year settled in St. Petersburg and joined the commission for drafting laws, and then the expedition on state revenues. His main interests, however, were not focused on official activities, but on the artistic, literary and theatrical life of the capital. Aksakov made extensive acquaintances - with Admiral A. S. Shishkov, whose conservative direction in the field of literary usage and stylistics he warmly sympathized with; with G. R. Derzhavin, with actor Ya. E. Shusherin (subsequently the writer dedicated a separate memoir to each of them: “Memories of Alexander Semenovich Shishkov,” 1856; “Meeting Derzhavin,” 1856; “Yakov Emelyanovich Shusherin and contemporary theatrical celebrities", 1854). These works are presented at the exhibition in the book “ Selected Works" The circle of St. Petersburg acquaintances was replenished with writers and theatrical figures Moscow, S.N. Glinka, M. Shatrov. At this time, Aksakov's literary debut took place - the magazine "Russian Messenger" (1812, No. 7) published the fable "The Three Canaries". He is also engaged in translations: “The School of Husbands” by J.-B. Moliere, Philoctetes by Sophocles, etc. From early works Aksakov highlights the message “A.I. Kaznacheev” (1814) - an excited response to the devastation of Moscow caused by the French invasion of 1812.

In 1816, Aksakov married Olga Semyonovna Zaplatina, the daughter of a Suvorov general who lived in Moscow, and left with his young wife for New Aksakovo. In 1817, a son, Konstantin, was born into the family - in the future famous critic, poet and scientist, one of the founders of Slavophilism. In 1819, a daughter, Vera, was born, in 1820 - a second son, Gregory (Samara governor in 1867 - 1872, provincial leader of the Samara nobility in 1884-1891); later, in 1823 - Ivan, later also famous poet, critic, publicist, prominent figure in Slavophilism.

In total there were ten children in the family. The Aksakovs paid exceptional attention to their upbringing. The family was distinguished by a commonality of interests and a high intellectual and spiritual spirit.

Aksakov spent the winter of 1820/21 in Moscow, where he became close to A.I. Pisarev, M.N. Zagoskin (with whom he had become friends even earlier, in St. Petersburg) and others, and continued his literary studies(in particular, in 1821 he published his translation of N. Boileau’s satire). In the spring of 1821, Aksakov was elected a full member of the Society of Amateurs Russian literature at Moscow University.

In the fall of 1826, the Aksakovs finally settled in Moscow. Thanks to his acquaintance with A. S. Shishkov, Aksakov takes the place of censor of the Moscow Censorship Committee. But Aksakov still devoted his main interests to literary and theatrical activities. A regular day for meetings was established in the house - the so-called Aksakov Saturdays. In addition to old friends, new faces began to visit the house: actors M. S. Shchepkin and P. S. Mochalov; mathematician P. S. Shchepkin; physicist, philosopher and agronomist M. G. Pavlov; historian, writer and journalist M. P. Pogodin; critic, esthetician and journalist N.I. Nadezhdin and others.

In the summer of 1832, N.V. Gogol first appeared in A.’s house on Sivtsev Vrazhek, whom the whole family treated with deep reverence.

The work of E.L. is devoted to the relationship between Aksakov and, later, members of his family with figures of Russian culture. Voitolovskaya, a book of memoirs by Sergei Timofeevich himself, “The History of My Acquaintance with Gogol.” The correspondence of the Aksakovs with N.V. Gogol, I.S. Turgenev, K.K and Y.K. was published. Grotami, M.A. Maksimovich.

The Aksakov house is always open to friends. Here Konstantin Sergeevich’s comrades at Moscow University appear: N.V. Stankevich, V.G. Belinsky, Yu.F. Samarin and others. The House of Aksakov, thanks to the efforts of the sons Konstantin and Ivan, becomes one of the centers of the emerging Slavophilism: its most prominent representatives visit here: I.V. and P.V. Kireevsky, A.S. Khomyakov, Yu.F. Samarin, A.I. Koshelev and others. Along with the Moscow house of the Aksakovs, the Abramtsevo estate near Moscow, which the family acquired in 1843, became a place of meetings and disputes.

In the second half of the 50s, the writer’s health deteriorated sharply, and he rapidly went blind. And... he continues to work: in 1856, the “Family Chronicle” was published, and in 1858, “The Childhood Years of Bagrov the Grandson.”

Aksakov’s autobiographical dilogy, which reproduced the life of three generations of a landowner’s family, was built according to the laws of artistic and documentary prose with its utmost fidelity to reality, with minimal participation of fiction, as well as with the increased role of the hero-storyteller. “I am not able to replace reality with fiction. I tried several times to write a fictitious incident and fictitious people. It turned out to be complete rubbish, and I myself felt funny,” wrote Sergei Timofeevich, characterizing his creative method. I.S. Turgenev supported Aksakov’s plan to write a book for children and spoke about the novel “Family Chronicle”: “This book of yours is so charming that it’s impossible to say. Here is the real tone and style, here is Russian life, here are the beginnings of the future Russian novel ".

S. T. Aksakov dictates his memories to his daughter.
Watercolor by K. A. Trutovsky

Aksakov’s documentary prose clearly showed the traditions of the novel of education, one of the best examples of which in Russian literature was his duology. The “Family Chronicle” and “Childhood Years...” are accompanied by other memoir works of the writer: “Memoirs” (published in 1856 together with the “Family Chronicle”), “Literary and Theatrical Memoirs” (published in 1856-858). ). All of them, besides artistic merit, have great educational value as historical documents.
Another book by Sergei Timofeevich, published in 1859, “Collecting Butterflies,” is very unusual. This is both a documentary-fiction narrative and a manual for the novice entomologist.

The supplement to the "Childhood Years of Bagrov the Grandson" was famous fairy tale Aksakov "The Scarlet Flower". On November 23, 1856, Sergei Aksakov wrote a letter to his son Ivan, in which he reported on his work on the fairy tale “The Scarlet Flower,” which the author heard in childhood from his housekeeper Pelageya. Aksakov wrote down the tale in the form in which it was presented - with all the dialect and folklore features the narrator's speeches.

The tale kept coming out separate publications, this book is in all libraries, a filmstrip, a cartoon, Feature Film. In the minds of many "The Scarlet Flower" - folk tale. Such is the power of Aksakov’s talent and the magic of his artistic speech.

Aksakov’s works are dear to us as a pure spring of poetry, an inexhaustible source of knowledge of life, the beauty of the natural world around us. The books of Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov have that amazing power moral impact on the reader, which allowed them to become a wonderful means of educating a person in a person.

In 1909, in the Samara Provincial Gazette, in an article dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Aksakov’s death, it was said that the writer was revered by all of Russia, but he was especially “dear and memorable to the Samara province, with which his family is connected, starting with his grandfather " And in the same year, a museum named after S.T. was created at the House of the Samara Nobility. Aksakov - Aksakov room.

The Aksakov family is directly related to Samara, leaving a bright mark on the history of our city. On Samara soil rest the ashes of his grandfather Stepan Mikhailovich, son Grigory Sergeevich and granddaughter Olga Grigorievna Aksakov.

Grigory Sergeevich Aksakov (son of the writer) was born on October 4, 1820, Znamenskoye, Buguruslan district, Orenburg province.

He served in Samara as vice-governor, governor, and was elected provincial leader of the nobility three times. On January 20, 1867, G. S. Aksakov was transferred to the post of Samara governor. Thanks to his merits, a Railway, telegraph, zemstvo hospital (now named after N.I. Pirogov), cathedral church in the name of Christ the Savior, the illiterate peasantry was enlightened, and the city’s economy developed.
G.S. Aksakov actively participated in organizing assistance to the starving peasants of the Samara province, cared about the state of public health and sobriety, morality and strengthening the family. In 1873, for services to the city G.S. Aksakov was awarded the title Honorary Citizen Samara! Until his death G.S. Aksakov served our city.

February 24 (old style) 1891 G.S. Aksakov died. The coffin with the body of the deceased was carried 18 miles by ordinary people in their arms!

In Samara G.S. Aksakov lived with his daughter Olga, whose grandfather S.T. Aksakov dedicated the world-famous fairy tale “The Scarlet Flower” in a modest house at the intersection of Saratovskaya and Alekseevskaya (now Frunze and Krasnoarmeyskaya) streets opposite famous house Kurlinykh.

At the supposed burial site of Grigory Aksakov in the village of Strakhov, on the initiative of a member of the Orenburg Committee for Perpetuating the Memory of Outstanding Compatriots, local historian Sergei Kolychev, at the expense of Strakhov landowner Vladislav Afanasyev, a memorial cross was erected with the inscription “To Grigory Sergeevich Aksakov - one of the best Russian governors, worthy son Great Father." They also put things in order in the ancient lordly park in the village of Neklyudovo, where they also installed a memorial cross to Sergei Aksakov’s grandfather, Stepan, and built a chapel at the expense of Boris Ardalin. And in the village of Aksakovo they developed a tourist route Samara-Aksakov Museum-Reserve.

Other representatives of the Aksakov family also had curious turns of fate. The writer’s granddaughter and governor’s daughter Olga, for whom the fairy tale “The Scarlet Flower” was once written, subsequently founded a koumiss treatment institution. And the grandson of Grigory Aksakov Sergei Aksakov during civil war served in Kolchak's army, then emigrated, lived in Shanghai and returned to his homeland only at the end of his life, in the late 50s. Unfortunately, there are no direct descendants of the Aksakovs left today. The family line was interrupted - only the memory of the people who served the Fatherland with faith and truth remained.

The Aksakov family is a remarkable and, in its own way, unique phenomenon of Russian life. It was the one rare case in Russian history, when not one person, but an entire family was surrounded by universal respect. Contemporaries were attracted by the warmth and cordiality that reigned in this family, the purity of its moral atmosphere, the breadth of cultural interests, and the surprisingly strong connection between the older and younger generations.

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As always, retell most interesting material articles and notes from Samara local historians, historians and literary critics helped. Magazine and documentaries, Encyclopedia "Samara Fates".

Aksakov Sergei Timofeevich (1791-1859), writer.

Born on October 1, 1791 in Ufa. He spent his childhood in a patriarchal landowner environment, which had a profound influence on the formation of Aksakov’s calm, benevolent worldview.

After studying at Kazan University, he entered the service in St. Petersburg, where he became close to the “Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word” circle. It included A. S. Shishkov, I. A. Krylov, G. R. Derzhavin and other conservative writers who defended the purity of Russian literary language against new wave N. M. Karamzina.

V. G. Belinsky argued that along with the “conversation” in public life, “it seemed that the stubborn Russian antiquity had risen again, which with such convulsive and even more fruitless tension defended itself against the reform of Peter the Great.” The society published the magazine “Reading in the Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word,” where Aksakov began publishing his translations and short stories. On June 2, 1816, the writer married O. S. Zaplatina and left for his Trans-Volga estate - the village of Novo-Aksakovo, Orenburg province. The first-born, Konstantin Aksakov, was born there. The father became so attached to the child that he replaced his nanny.

The main content of family life was the desire to live up to the high Christian ideal and the preaching of this ideal in society. Aksakov’s second son, Ivan, wrote about his mother: “The inexorability of duty, chastity... disgust from everything dirty... severe disdain for any comfort... truthfulness... at the same time, ardor and liveliness of the soul, love of poetry, desire for everything sublime - these are the distinctive properties of this wonderful woman."

In August 1826, the Aksakovs moved to Moscow, where Sergei Timofeevich soon received the position of censor, and then became an inspector (from 1935 director) of the Konstantinovsky Land Survey Institute. In the summer, the family went to suburban estates, and in 1843 they settled in Abramtsevo, near Moscow. Life on the family estate gave Aksakov a taste for hunting and instilled in the writer a subtle sense of native nature, reflected in “Notes on fishing” (1847) and “Notes of a gun hunter of the Orenburg province” (1852). These “hunting books” brought Sergei Timofeevich the fame of a recognized master.

The subsequent stories “Family Chronicle” (1856) and “Childhood of Bagrov the Grandson” (1858; as an appendix to this work the fairy tale “The Scarlet Flower” is included) are dedicated to three lives generations of provincial nobles at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Far from the salon-political struggle of the 40-50s. XIX century, Aksakov spoke about the relationship between men and masters with calm equanimity, conveying the age-old confidence of landowners in the immutability and fairness of the serf system.

The literary community did not find any denunciation of serfdom in Aksakov’s works. Truthfully showing even the most dark sides estate lordship, the author, however, did not lead the reader to the conclusion about the need to break the ancient life order. This is exactly what the democratic critic N.A. Dobrolyubov blamed Aksakov for, noting in the article “ Country life landowner in the old years,” that the writer is always distinguished by “more subjective observation than searching attention in relation to the outside world.”

Despite such criticism, Sergei Timofeevich’s house became a center of attraction for many cultural and artistic figures. Outstanding scientists and writers gathered in Abramtsevo on Saturdays: N. F. Pavlov, N. I. Nadezhdin, M. P. Pogodin, S. P. Shevyrev, M. A. Dmitriev. The Aksakovs’ friends were N.V. Gogol and actor M.S. Shchepkin. Children were usually in the company of their parents and elders, living their lives. Complete mutual understanding, trust and a special atmosphere of spiritual closeness allowed the Aksakovs to raise sons who fully shared the views of their parents.