In Russian literature of the Silver Age there was hardly another name around which there would have been so much controversy - even to the point of litigation - as there was about this outstanding prose writer and playwright. In 1923, Artsybashev, in an aura of glory and veneration, with the ten-volume Collected Works he had just completed, found himself in exile, and in his homeland he became banned and unpublished. During these years, the exile gained fame as the first publicist of the Russian diaspora. His passionate voice in defense of freedom, his grief for Russia was heard in all corners of the emigrant dispersion.

Since I began my Notes, I have been receiving many letters from readers. I rejoice in this, because although the letters are of the most varied nature - laudatory, scolding, mocking, good and evil - they still show that my “Notes” excite someone, make someone happy, someone... sometimes they touch someone, they anger someone and, no matter what, they don’t disappear without a trace... But that’s why we write, so that it doesn’t disappear without a trace.M. P. Artsybashev