In an illustrated paper there appeared a malignant caricature in which Varvara Petrovna, Stepan Trofimovitch, and General Drozdov were depicted as three reactionary friends.

There were verses attached to this caricature written by a popular poet especially for the occasion.

I may observe, for my own part, that many persons of general's rank certainly have an absurd habit of saying, "I have served my Tsar"...just as though they had not the same Tsar as all the rest of us, their simple fellow-subjects, but had a special Tsar of their own.
It was impossible, of course, to remain any longer in Petersburg, all the more so as Stepan Trofimovitch was overtaken by a complete fiasco.
He could not resist talking of the claims of art, and they laughed at him more loudly as time went on.

At his last lecture he thought to impress them with patriotic eloquence, hoping to touch their hearts, and reckoning on the respect inspired by his "persecution." He did not attempt to dispute the uselessness and absurdity of the word "fatherland," acknowledged the pernicious influence of religion, but firmly and loudly declared that boots were of less consequence than Pushkin; of much less, indeed.

He was hissed so mercilessly that he burst into tears, there and then, on the platform.