In 1878 he founded and gave his name to the Bestuzhev Courses, "the largest and most prominent women's higher education institution in Russia".

[1] Bestuzhev was born into one of Russia's oldest families; Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin was his uncle.

He started out as a journalist, helping Andrey Krayevsky to edit the literary journal Otechestvennye Zapiski where he published numerous reviews of historical and ethnographic works.

He was drawn to a moderate wing of the Slavophile movement and welcomed Nikolai Danilevsky's theories.

His pupils include Alexander III of Russia, several Grand Dukes from the Romanov family, and historian Sergey Platonov.