At one time, all of Petersburg was discussing her novel, which was written but never published. The idea for it was suggested by Griboedov himself. The well-known critic Alexander Nikitenko described the work as follows: "It has all the bosses, scoundrels, governors, crooks, and the assistants are all bandits; there is even an archbishop, a decent villain, and everything is portrayed so poorly..." However, the novel "Selo Mikhailovskoye" was published only after 30 years, as it greatly frightened the censors.

During the Peasant War led by Pugachev, the noblewoman Varvara Smagina was left an orphan after the peasants executed her parents. She wandered through Russia for a long time until she met prosecutor Anton Miklashevich. They got married and lived together for several years until her husband, while drunk, lost all his and her fortune in one evening.

Varvara moved to Petersburg, where she met a civil servant of the naval ministry, Andrey Zhandr. He was friends with writers, and the Decembrists trusted him with their secrets. Ryleev, Bestuzhev, Odoevsky, and Griboedov often visited them, and it was Griboedov who advised Varvara, who often spoke about life in the provinces, to write a book.

After the uprising of December 14, 1825, Smagina-Miklashevich sheltered Odoevsky and helped him escape from the capital, but later he was betrayed by his own uncle. Since then, the police monitored the noblewoman's life. It was then that she began to write the novel "Selo Mikhailovskoye."

In the novel, Odoevsky was represented under the name Zarinsky, Ryleev, who was hanged, was under the name Ilmenyov, and the young Ruzin resembled Griboedov. The work was completed in 1836. Booksellers, having heard about the novel from Pushkin, offered Varvara 30,000 rubles for the entire print run. However, due to censorship, the publication of the novel was postponed, and it was released only 30 years later.