The political developments between 1857 and 1863 are complex. Russia has just been defeated in the Crimean War and there is public dialogue about the abolition of serfdom that is realized in 1861. Stepanov is involved during this period becoming one of the most influential of Russian artists as a new style of satire. When the periodical Hotchpotch he contributes to is shut down in 1869 he continues as editor of Spark that he co-founded with poet Kurochkin. The successor of Spark is Alarm Clock that is shut down in 1873. Stepanov's work Do you Feel any Freer Now? is censored for visual representation of a peasant who looks like Alexander II being led along on a rope by a landowner. Another of his caricature works showed editors waiting outside the censor's office on line forced to defend their works.
