Alexander Ivanovich Ertel became interested in the Narodnik movement in literature, represented by Pavel Vladimirovich Zasodimsky. Being the son of an estate agent, he had first-hand knowledge of the everyday life of peasants and the peculiarities of their speech. Pavel Zasodimsky took kindly to the aspiring writer. In 1878, he helped Ertel to publish his first story “The Resettlers” in the Russkoye Obozreniye (Russian Review) magazine. In February 1879, the Slovo (Word) magazine printed Ertel’s second story — “Letters from Usmansky Uyezd”.
In 1879, Ertel moved to Saint Petersburg and headed the library founded by Zasodimsky. At first, the new life in a new city made Ertel feel depressed. “I remember the impression of complete loneliness and those hateful and irritating white nights”, recalled Ertel in a letter to Chertkov dated July 13, 1888. “I could not sleep and wandered through the empty, strangely lit streets until dawn. But little by little, I made new acquaintances; writers started coming and joining the library when they learned that its owner was also a writer.”
Thus, Alexander Ertel got acquainted with Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky, Nikolay Nikolayevich Zlatovratsky, Nikolay Fedotovich Bazhin and Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin.
In 1879, Ertel wrote several stories about the acute problems of the Russian post-reform village, which he later combined in one work titled “Notes of a Steppe-Dweller”. These stories were published in the Vestnik Evropy (Messenger of Europe) magazine for three years — in 1880, 1881 and 1882 — and came out in a separate edition in 1883. They immediately caught the interest of readers, critics and renowned writers.
Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko wrote about Ertel’s early stories,
