Editing Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin (section)

===Later years===
[[File:Saltykov 1880.jpg|thumb|left|180px|Saltykov in 1880]]
''The Well-Meant Speeches'' (Благонамеренные речи, 1876) featured characters belonging to new Russian [[bourgeoisie]]. On January 2, 1881, Saltykov wrote to the lawyer and author [[Yevgeny Utin]]: "I took a look at the family, the state, the property and found out that none of such things exist. And that those very principles for the sake of which freedoms have been granted, were not respected as principles any more, even by those who seemed to hold them." ''The Well-Meant Speeches'' initially contained several stories about the Golovlyov family. In 1880 Saltykov-Shchedrin extracted all of them to begin a separate book which evolved into his most famous novel, showing the stagnation of the land-based dvoryanstvo.<ref name="gorychkina"/> ''[[The Golovlyov Family]]'' (Господа Головлёвы, 1880; also translated as ''A Family of Noblemen''), a crushingly gloomy study of the institution of the family as cornerstone of society, traced the moral and physical decline of three generations of a Russian gentry family.<ref name="gale"/> Central to it was the figure of Porfiry 'Little Judas' Golovlyov, a character whose nickname (Iudushka, in Russian transcription) became synonymous with mindless hypocrisy and self-destructive egotism, leading to moral degradation and disintegration of personality.<ref name="dic_1990"/>

In the 1870s Saltykov sold his Moscow estate and bought the one near [[Oranienbaum, Russia|Oranienbaum]], Saint Petersburg, which he came to refer to as 'my [[Mon Repos (Vyborg)|Mon Repos]]'. He proved to be an unsuccessful landowner, though, and finally sold it, having lost a lot of money.<ref name="kriv"/> Stories vaguely describing this experience later made it into the novel ''Mon Repos Haven'' (Убежище Монрепо, 1879) and the collection of sketches ''All the Year Round'' (Круглый год), both books attacking the very roots of Russian capitalism. "Fatherland is a pie - that's the idea those narrow, obnoxious minds follow," he wrote. The latter collection remained unfinished due to fierceness of censorship in the wake of the assassination of [[Alexander II of Russia|Alexander II]].<ref name="gorychkina"/>

In 1875-1885 Saltykov was often visiting Germany, Switzerland and France for medical treatment. The result of these recreational trips was the series of sketches called ''Abroad'' (За рубежом, 1880–1881), expressing skepticism about the Western veneer of respectability which hid underneath horrors similar to the ones that were open in Russia (the latter portrayed as The Boy Without Pants, as opposed to The Boy in Pants, symbolizing Europe). In 1882 ''Letters to Auntie'' (Письма к тётеньке), written in the atmosphere of tough censorship came out, a satire on the society in general and its cultural elite in particular (the 'auntie' in question).<ref name="dic_1990"/>
[[File:Nikolaj Alexandrowitsch Jaroschenko - Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin.jpg|thumb|180px|Portrait by [[Nikolai Yaroshenko]], 1886]]
In 1883, now critically ill, Saltykov published ''[[Modern Idyll]]'' (Современная идиллия), the novel he started in 1877–1878, targeting those of intelligentsia who were eager to prove their loyalty to the authorities. ''The Poshekhonye Stories'' (Пошехонские рассказы, 1883), ''Motley Letters'' (Пёстрые письма, 1884) and ''Unfinished Talks'' (Недоконченные беседы, 1886) followed, but by this time ''Otechestvennye Zapiski'' were under increasing pressure from the censors, Shchedrin's prose being the latter's main target. The May 1874 issue with ''The Well-Meant Speeches'' has been destroyed, several other releases postponed for Saltykov's pieces to be excised. In 1874-1879 ''Otechestvennye Zapiski'' suffered 18 censorial sanctions, all having to do with Shchedrin's work, most of which (''Well-Meant Speeches'', ''Letters to Auntie'', many fairytales) were banned. "It is despicable times that we are living through... and it takes a lot of strength not to give up," Saltykov wrote.<ref name="gorychkina"/>

The demise of ''Otechestvennye Zapiski'' in 1884 dealt Saltykov a heavy blow. "The possibility to talk with my readers has been taken away from me and this pain is stronger than any other," he complained.<ref name="kriv"/> "The whole of the Russian press suffered from the ''Otechestvenny Zapiski''{{'}}s closure… Where there's been a lively tissue now there is a chasm of emptiness. And Shchedrin's life has been curtailed, probably, for many years, by this 'excision'," wrote Korolenko in 1889.<ref name="korolenko"/> Saltykov-Shchedrin's last works were published by ''[[Vestnik Evropy]]'' and ''Russkye Vedomosti'', among them a collection of satirical [[fable]]s and [[fairy tale|tales]] ''Fairy Tales for Children of a Fair Age'' (Сказки для детей изрядного возраста, better known as ''Fables'') and a cycle of sketches ''Small Things in Life'' (Мелочи жизни, 1881–1887), a set of realistic mini-dramas about common people destroyed by the terror of daily routine. Saltykov's last publication was semi-autobiographical novel ''Old Years in Poshekhonye'' (Пошехонская старина), published in 1887–1889 in ''Vestnik Evropy''.<ref name= "old_years">{{citation | url  = http://az.lib.ru/s/saltykow_m_e/text_0100.shtml|title = Poshekhonskaya starina | last = Saltykov-Shchedrin | first = М.Е. | series = Works in 20 Volumes | volume = 7 | place = Moscow | page = 75| access-date = 2012-03-01}}</ref> He planned another piece called ''Forgotten Words'' (writing to [[Nikolai Mikhailovsky]] not long before his death: "There were, you know, words in Russian: honour, fatherland, humanity… They are worth of being reminded about") but never even started it.<ref name="piplz">{{cite web | url = http://www.piplz.ru/page-id-50-pg-2.html|title = Saltykov-Shchedrin, M.E., A Biography | page = 2| publisher = Piplz | access-date = 2012-03-01}}</ref>

Mikhail Evgraphovich Saltykov-Schedrin died of [[stroke]] in Saint Petersburg and was interred in the [[Volkovo Cemetery]], next to Turgenev, according to his last wish.<ref name= "tyunkin"/>