Short answers, pulled from the story.
Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov was born on the 4th of February 1831 in the village of Gorokhovo, Oryol Gubernia. He spent his first eight years living with his grandmother in that same village before moving to Oryol.
In June 1847 Leskov joined the Oryol criminal court office where his father had once worked before transferring to Kiev in December 1849. By May 1857 he quit his government job to work for the private trading company Scott & Wilkins owned by Alexander Scott who was his aunt Polly's Scottish husband.
In January 1862 he joined the Northern Bee newspaper editing domestic affairs under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky which he used until 1869. The radical press construed this as inciting common people against students while authorities became unhappy because it implied they did little preventing atrocities.
Rus magazine started publishing The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea in October 1881. This story brought out Leskov's finest storytelling abilities using rich wordplay full of original neologisms each carrying humorous yet satirical messages.
In February 1883 an essay Leap-frog in Church and Local Parish Whimsies based on documented episodes concerning drunken pastors caused scandal costing Leskov his job at Ministry of Education. Minister Delyanov suggested signing retirement papers but Leskov refused asking what need such firing served for a decent obituary response.