“There is a very widespread opinion among the general public that new Russian fine literature is in decline. The last name that is pronounced with conviction by people who are completely outside literature is the name of Leo Tolstoy. Everything later, alas, even Chekhov, is at least controversial; most of the writers about whom criticism has spoken a lot, who have decades of literary work behind them, are simply unknown by name outside the relatively narrow circle of people who make up the “intelligentsia.” Perhaps one cannot even say this; There are people who consider themselves intelligent and have the right to do so, but who do not at all know the names of many “famous” modern writers...”