Alexander Nikitenko was born a serf, property of Count Nikolai Sheremetev, stationed in Alekseevka Sloboda of the Biruchenskii uezd [ru:Бирюченский уезд].

Nikitenko was born in 1804 or 1805; his father, who served as senior clerk in the estate office of Count Sheremetev, was educated at the level above that of his peers and suffered from harassment by superiors for serfs' interests.

At Ryleev's recommendation, Nikitenko settled in the household of E. P. Obolensky, a future Decembrist, who put him in charge of educating his younger brother.

[1] In 1826, he published his first article "On Overcoming the Misfortunes" in the "Syn Otechectva"("Son of the Fatherland"), for which he was given much consideration by Grech and Bulgarin, and won the trust of the District Superintendent of Education K. M. Borozdin, who hired him as his secretary.

In 1833, Nikitenko was appointed Censor and was soon arrested for eight days in the military jail for releasing Victor Hugo's poem «Enfant, si j'étais roi» (translated by M. Delarue).

In 1839-41 he was editor of the literary journal "Syn Otechectva"("Son of the Fatherland"), in 1847-48 "Sovremennik" (The Contemporary) In 1837, he was conferred the degree of Doctor of Philosophy for his dissertation "On Creative Power of Poetry or Poetic Genius".

In his role as censor, Nikitenko regularly wrote the code projects, instructions or commentaries to them in Martinist, as defined by Bulgarin, that is, in a relatively liberal spirit.

He had partially succeeded, but he received an unexpected blow when the Agency was transferred into the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (charged in particular with police and state security tasks).