Two years later he was appointed vice-governor of Ryazan, then transferred to Tver, where he acted as governor on several occasions.

In 1862 he retired from the service and devoted himself to literature, but he returned to it a couple of years later, and only retired definitively in 1868.

These items are of interest as showing the status of political exiles in a different light from that usually accepted as the unvarying rule.
As we have said, Saltykoff's exile was of incalculable service to him, in that it made him acquainted with the inward life of Russia and of the people.

This knowledge he put to unsparing use in his famous satires.

In order fully to understand his works, one must be thoroughly familiar with the general spirit and the special ideas of the different periods to which they refer, as well as with Russia and its life and literature in general.