The Year 1878 in the Life of Ivan S. Aksakov

The article is a study, based on archival sources, of the events of one year in the life of the outstanding journalist Ivan S. Aksakov, whose 200^th birth anniversary is celebrated in 2023. The author’s attention has been focused on the events which occurred in 1878. A special attention is given to Aksakov’s speech delivered on June 22 in Moscow’s Slavic Society, the Chairman of which he was, about the solutions of the Berlin Congress (June 1 – July 1, 1878), which turned out to be shameful for Russia that had won victory in the war against Turkey. The historical context of the decision of Austria-Hungary and England, the countries which did not participate in the war but feared the strengthening of Russia’s influence on the Balkans, to impudently enrich themselves at the expense of Russia; an occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary and of Cyprus by England; and a partition of Bulgaria, with its southern area remaining under the power of Turkey, are analyzed. It is emphasized that Aksakov had a clear insight into the current events and could not keep silence as a Russian, since the victories in the Balkans and Turkey were gained at the cost of the Russian soldiers’ and volunteers’ blood; as a public figure who had inspired the mass-scale people’s financial aid to the Slavs (through the Slavic Society he supplied the Bulgarian Volunteers’ Corps and the Serbian Army); and also as a successor of the Slavophiles, who had always felt sympathy with the Slavs’ struggle for independence. It is stated that this Aksakov’s speech, in which he boldly called the prepared decision “an utter insult on Russia”, accused Austria-Hungary and England of an impudent attitude to the destinies of the liberated Balkan peoples and severely denounced the Russian diplomats for a lack of nationally-oriented policy, made Aksakov’s name known all over Europe, but led to his exile (till the end of 1878) and a ban imposed on the Slavic Society. Formerly unpublished excerpts from letters by both Aksakov himself and his contemporaries, in which Aksakov is featured as “not a casual man on the ways of history”, are provided.