Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin was a major Russian satirist of the 19th century. He spent most of his life working as a civil servant in various capacities. After the death of poet Nikolay Nekrasov, he acted as editor of the well-known Russian magazine, Otechestvenniye Zapiski (variously translated as "Annals of the Fatherland", "Patriotic Notes", "Notes of the Fatherland", etc.), until the government banned it in 1884. His best-known work, the novel The Golovlyov Family, appeared in 1876.
