This book is the first most complete collection of articles (1910–1930s) by V. B. Shklovsky (1893–1984), when he was very actively involved in literary criticism. It includes works from never-reprinted books “The Horse's Move”, “The Successes and Defeats of Maxim Gorky”, “Five Acquaintances”, “The Hamburg Account”, “The Search for Optimism”, etc., and a number of unpublished articles. These works provide a broad panorama of the literary life of those years, covering the works of M. Gorky, A. Tolstoy, A. Bely. And Babel. B. Pilnyak, Sun. Ivanova, M. Zoshchenko, Y. Olesha, V. Kataeva, Y. Tynyanova, V. Khlebnikov, E. Zamyatina, V. Rozanov, O Mandelstam and others. Compiled by A. Yu. Galushkin and A. P. Chudakov Foreword by A. P . Chudakova Comments and preparation of the text by A. Yu. Galushkin