After the Decembrist revolt he was sent into exile to the Caucasus where the Russian Empire was waging war against the Circassians.

There writing under the pseudonym Marlinsky (Russian: Марли́нский, IPA: [mɐrˈlʲinskʲɪj] ⓘ) he became known as a romantic poet, short story writer and novelist.

Bestuzhev wanted to return to society and in order to obtain forgiveness he asked the authorities for transference to the army in Caucasus as a private.

Before the Decembrist revolt, Bestuzhev was quite a prolific author, writing both prose (short stories and articles in literary magazines) and poetry.

The most notable part of his heritage are fictional or loosely autobiographical stories that describe the Caucasus war, from which Alexandre Dumas's Sultanetta was taken, and could have influenced Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time.

The works of Bestuzhev may be classified as the florid Romanticism in the vein of Lord Byron, Hugo or Walter Scott.