Correspondence between Ivan Aksakov and his Wife as a Source for the Study of Conservative Ideas in the Second Half of the 19th Century

The article provides a characteristic of the archive of letters between Ivan Aksakov and wife. It also analyses main aspects of valuable content of the correspondence. Anna Aksakova, the eldest daughter of Fyodor Tyutchev, was talented and well-educated. The woman not only loved and married Ivan Aksakov, she was his soulmate and committed interlocutor. In their letters Ivan Aksakov and wife mention a number of Russian intellectuals of the second half of the 19th century: writers, poets, servicemen, philosophers, historians and religious figures, representatives of the imperial house and ministers, diplomats, family members of relatives and close acquaintances. Religious, historical, political, aesthetic and other matters discussed in the correspondence are not only an important source for the study of social, literary and domestic environment of reformation period and, specifically, the works of Ivan Aksakov. They also allow to clarify conservative standpoint of certain Russian intellectuals in the second half of the 19th century.