Aleksey Suvorin

With limited prospects of pursuing a military career, he spent eight years in his native haunts, teaching history and geography, first in Bobrov and then in Voronezh.

A major step forward in his career was in 1861, when, electrified by the Emancipation Manifesto, he relocated to Moscow, where he found himself at the periphery of a burgeoning literary scene.

Suvorin's feuilletons, published under the pen name "Stranger", were an instant sensation and inspired him to turn his attention to more creative writing.

Nevertheless, he was very prolific and published a number of short stories and plays in the major outlets of the liberal media of which he was considered a leader.

For more demanding readers, he issued a suite of richly illustrated albums about the great art galleries of Europe.

In the late 19th century, he launched a series of city directories, published on an annual basis (each were between 500 and 1500 pages long) for St. Petersburg, Moscow and the rest of Russia that detailed the names and addresses of private residents, government offices, public services and medium and large businesses.

The directories are often used by modern genealogists to trace family members who lived in Imperial and early Soviet Russia when vital records are missing or prove difficult to find.

In 1876, Suvorin acquired ownership of the failing newspaper Novoye Vremya ("New Times"); he remained the editor in chief until his death.

The venture brought him an opportunity of influencing the younger generation with his conservative and increasingly reactionary pronouncements in the vein of Mikhail Katkov and Konstantin Pobedonostsev.

'"[1] During Suvorin's declining years, Vasily Rozanov and several other popular journalists of his newspaper were allowed considerable discretion in airing their idiosyncratic views.

[3] Despite the negative publicity, the company survived its founder and continued to operate profitably until the October Revolution, under the name Maly Imperial Theatre (Малый Императорский Театр).