chapters of it appeared in February and March issues of Sovremennik, others were published later by Zhensky Vestnik and Luch. That year saw the publication in Saint Petersburg of Gleb Uspensky's first book, Sketches and Stories. In May 1867, having passed the special qualification exams in the Saint Petersburg University, he departed to the town of Epifan in the Tula Governorate and started working there as a teacher. Later that year his second book Holidays and Daily Life in Moscow came out in Saint Petersburg. In 1868 Uspensky joined Alexander Uvarov's Moscow office as a courier. In April his first story "The Booth" appeared in Otechestvennye Zapiski. He continued to contribute to this magazine up until its closure in 1884, working with Nikolai Nekrasov and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. In May 1870 he married Alexandra Barayeva, a teacher from Elets. A year before that, Desolation (Razorenje)'s first part ("Mikhail Ivanovich Observations") were published in Otechestvennye Zapiski. In 1871 parts 2 and 3 followed, and the book came out as a separate edition. In May 1871 Uspensky embarked upon a trip along Oka and Volga rivers which resulted in two books of traveller' sketches. In 1872 Gleb Uspensky visited Germany, Belgium and France. Since October 1873 he remained under the 3rd Department's surveillance which continued for almost thirty years and was lifted in 1901. In 1874 the "Very Small Man" (Очень маленький человек) novella's two parts appeared in Otechestvennye Zapiski, but the publication stopped: the May issue of the magazine was withdrawn by censors. In the 1870s, as his financial position improved, Uspensky traveled widely, becoming acquainted with a number of revolutionary populists, such as Pyotr Lavrov (the Vperyod magazine's editor in London, who several months later published his essay "One Won't Hide a Needle in a Sack") and Sergey Stepnyak. In 1875 Uspensky went to Paris again where he met Ivan Turgenev. The latter recited one of his stories, "Petitioners" (Ходоки), at Pauline Viardot's literary morning, and had great success. That year also saw the release of his book The Backwater. Sketches from the Province and from the Capital, in Saint Peterburg. In April 1876 Uspensky re-joined his family in Paris, then in September went to Serbia, as part of the Russian volunteers' corps, to fight Turkey's occupation. Several political essays entitled Letters from Serbia came out as a result. Throughout the 1870s and '80s he continued to write about the living