Little is known with definiteness regarding this period, but it is certain that while pursuing his literary labors, he moved in widely differing circles of society--fashionable, official, literary, theatrical, that of the students, and others--which contributed to the truth of his pictures from these different spheres in his poems.

In 1847 he was able (in company with Panaeff) to buy "The Contemporary," of which, eventually, he became the sole proprietor and editor, and with which his name is indelibly connected.

When this journal was dropped, in 1866, he became the head, in 1868, of "The Annals of the Fatherland," where he remained until his death.

It was during these last ten years of his life that he wrote his famous poems, "Russian Women" and "Who in Russia Finds Life Good," with others of his best poems.

He never lost his adoration of the critic Byelinsky, to whom he attributed his own success, as the result of judicious development of his powers.
One of the many conflicting opinions concerning him is, that he is merely a satirist, "The Russian Juvenal," which opinion is founded on his contributions to "The Whistle," a publication added, as a supplement, to "The Contemporary," about 1857.