According to biographer Lakshin, Ostrovsky's approach was now different: "Is it worthwhile to wage ardent wars against certain bribe-takers when they are only part of the way of life with corruption serving as its hidden mechanism?
For a statement of truth to be effective and for it to make people wiser, it has to be filtered through the soul of a highest quality, that of an artist," he used to say, according to Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov.
Ivan Panaev deplored the fact that "such a thing had been published not by Sovremennik" and Leo Tolstoy reproached his friend for having given "such a brilliant comedy to the raskolniks' journal".
[1] A Profitable Position's premiere was scheduled on December 20, 1857, but the show was cancelled at the eleventh hour, censors labeling it "an opus poking fun at state officials."
The real reason, according to Vasily Botkin, was that "it examined the thin line between honesty and corruption," showing bribery to be not an isolated vice but part of a serious social malaise.