Background
Alexandr Nikolayevich Aksakov was born in Penza Governorate, to the landlord Nikolai T. Aksakov, nephew of the writer Sergey Aksakov.
Alexandr Nikolayevich Aksakov was born in Penza Governorate, to the landlord Nikolai T. Aksakov, nephew of the writer Sergey Aksakov.
In 1851, having graduated from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, Aksakov joined the Russian Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs.
His wife"s name was Sophie. In 1858 Nizhny Novgorod"s governor A. North. Muravyov (one of the original Decembrists) invited Aksakov to join the local government" General’ s Office for the State Properties an adviser for its Economic division. As a student Aksakov was greatly impressed by the works of Emanuel Swedenborg.
This led to an all-consuming interest in mediumship, specifically in its physical manifestations.
In 1863 he translated Swedenborg"s Heaven and Hell (De Caelo et Ejus Mirabilibus et de inferno Ex Auditis et Visis) from Latin into Russian, under the title "About Heaven, Universe and Hell as it"s been seen and heard by East. Swedenborg". He continued to translate major spiritualist works, including those of Andrew Jackson Davis (both into Russian and German).
In 1874 he started editing the spiritualist monthly Psychische Studien based in Leipzig. In Europe, Aksakov became known for his study the case of the British medium Madame d"Esperance, whom he later praised as an honest, sincere and mysteriously gifted person.
Aksakov also investigated psychic medium Eusapia Palladino and has been credited with being the first to use the term telekinesis.
Alexandr Aksakov wrote on the great variety of subjects, the most controversial of which was the nature and history of Russian drinking habits. His articles and essays appearing regularly in Day (День) magazine edited by Ivan Aksakov.
In Leipzig he published his own books "Gospel According to Swedenborg" (1864), "Swedenborg"s Rationalism: The Critical Analysis of his Study of the Holy Bible" (1870) and "The Book of Genesis according to Swedenborg" (1870), which were praised by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Nikolai Leskov.
In 1868-1878 Aksakov served as a member of His Imperial Majesty"s Own Chancellery and retired as a state councillor which gave him the right to be addressed as "your Excellency".