Polonsky started his career as a journalist as the head of the Foreign Policy section first in Russky Invalid (1861), then in Sovremennoye Slovo; with it he moved to Saint Peterburg's Vedomosti (1864—1865) and later revived it in Golos, Glasny Sud and Syn Otechestva.

While working for Vedomosti, he launched the series of weekly 'about-the-town' satirical sketches (using the pseudonym Ivan Lyubich), which after his departure was taken up by first Viktor Burenin and later Alexey Suvorin.

It was in this magazine that his two short novels came out, Nado zhit (Надо жить, One Has to Live, 1878) and Sumashedshy muzykant (Сумасшедший музыкант, Mad Musician, 1879), signed L.

In 1884-1892 Polonsky worked as the editor of the Internal Affairs section at Russkaya Mysl, where he also published his short novel Anna (1892).

He also contributed the "Lettres de Russie" for the Paris-based Revue universelle, where he published his translations of Saltykov-Shchedrin's satires.