In 1748, an inspector, Colonel Tolstoy, arrived in Penza. During the inspections, he uncovered numerous cases of bribery. In a personal meeting with Voivode Zhukov, the inspector expressed dissatisfaction with the situation in the region, which provoked a furious reaction. "Do you know who you are messing with, dung worm?" shouted Voivode Alexander Zhukov. "I will grind you to dust, nettle seed! You will crawl on your knees before me!" The voivode immediately carried out his threat: he had the colonel and his subordinates taken to the courtyard and whipped.

However, the inspector was not intimidated and filed a complaint against the voivode in St. Petersburg. Soon, a military team arrived in the city, which quickly removed Zhukov from office and initiated several criminal cases. Local residents submitted dozens of complaints, and it turned out that Zhukov had kept newly baptized individuals and commoners in chains for years, as well as taking bribes in money, foxes, honey, and sugar. The residents of the village of Stary Myval paid him with sleds and 200 rubles. He also received money for concealing the murder of the Mordvin Raday Bakshyev from the peasants Rodion Saveliev and Ivan Andreev.

Among Russian proverbs, there is one: "the law is like a lever, wherever you turn it, that's where it goes." After long proceedings, Zhukov was released from custody thanks to influential advocates, but he was still removed from his position. Along with him, his assistants, the city mayor, the judge, and several law enforcement officers also lost their posts.