His family crest was based on the Polish Przyjaciel coat of arms (also known as Aksak) which is considered to be of Tatar origin in Poland (the word «oksak» means «lame» in Turkic languages).

Aksakov's maternal grandfather was a Russian General Semyon Grigorievich Zaplatin who fought under the command of Alexander Suvorov and who married a Turkish captive Igel-Syum.

After three years's assignment in Astrakhan as a member of the Audit Commission, led by Prince Pavel Gagarin and later Kaluga (as deputy chairman of the local Criminal Investigation Chamber) he returned to the Senate, as its First Department's official.

Mostly satirical, his early work was compiled in the summer of 1846 into what was supposed to become his first collection, it centerpiece being "The Life of a Government Official" (Жизнь чиновника.

[9] In March 1849, upon the return from Bessarabia, where he had been sent by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to collect the data on the local religious sects, Aksakov was unexpectedly arrested, the interrogated and released five days later without any explanation.

[9] In February 1851 Russian Interior minister Count Perovsky summoned Aksakov up to express his disgust with the latter's poem "Brodyaga" (Tramp), about a runaway peasant, which, as it later transpired, became the object of interest for the Third Department as early as 1849.

[7] In early 1857 Aksakov went abroad to visit Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and secretly met Hertzen in London, with whom he started from then on to correspond.

With his close associate, scientist and industrialist Fyodor Chizhov, Aksakov applied for the permission to edit another newspaper, Parokhod (Пароход, Steamboat), so as to fulfill the obligations before the subscribers.

On 12 January 1866 Aksakov married Anna Tyutcheva, a Russian courtier, and (from 1853 until 1866) the maid of honour and confidante of empress Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse).

In 1867 he started editing the newspaper Moskva (1867-1868), regularly providing editorials on a wide range of topics concerning Russia's economy and internal affairs, propagating his Slavophile views.

As it was later revealed, in the censorship committee's secret 1865 review of the Russian press Aksakov was mentioned among those whose activities demanded special attention and was characterized as "a democrat with Socialist inclinations.

His "Biography of Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev" (1874) infuriated censors to such an extent that the book's second edition's whole print run was captured and destroyed, due to its "generally reprehensible nature," according to the official explanation.

[13] As a chairman of the Slavic Charitable Society, Aksakov concentrated mostly on the efforts aimed at providing financial help for Serbia and Montenegro during the Montenegrin–Ottoman War (1876–78) and transporting the units of Russian volunteers' into the Balkans.

As the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War broke out, he continued to promote the ideas of Pan-Slavism in the Russian press, then switched the focus of his attention to organizing the financial and military aid for Bulgaria.

On 22 July 1878, speaking at the Moscow Slavic Society, Aksakov came out with a speech attacking both the decisions of the Congress of Berlin and the position of the Russian delegation which, as he saw it, failed to confront the "political conspiracy" aimed against Russia which had "won the war but was relegated to the status of a losing party.