Early Life
According to the Velvet Book of Russian genealogy, the Aksakovs trace their male line to Šimon, a Varangian nephew of Haakon the Old, who settled in Novgorod in 1027. Sergey was born in Ufa and brought up there and in the family estate at Novo-Aksakovka in Orenburg guberniya, where he acquired a lifelong love of nature. He was also introduced to literature by his mother at an early age, and became especially fond of Kheraskov's Rossiada and the tragedies of Sumarokov.
He was educated at the Kazan Gymnasium and then, in 1805 (in the first year after its founding), at Kazan University, though he himself said he was ill prepared for a university education (and some of the professors, brought from abroad, taught in foreign languages). He was also distracted by his obsessive interest in the theater.
Read more about this topic: Sergey Aksakov
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