[1] In the early 1850s he joined the 'young faction' of Moskvityanin and, along with Boris Almazov, Evgeny Edelson, Lev Mei, Terty Filippov, and Apollon Grigoriev, became a member of what came to be known as the Ostrovsky circle.

In 1853 he went to Sevastopol as a correspondent, and stayed there until the end of the siege, working as a translator at the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief.

[1] After the Crimean War ended, Berg went to the Caucasus where he witnessed the capture and arrest of Imam Shamil.

He then travelled to Italy as a correspondent of The Russian Messenger to report on the progress of Giuseppe Garibaldi's army.

[2] His major work, Notes on Polish Conspiracies and Uprisings came out in an unabridged version in 4 volumes in Poznań in 1884.