An essay on the creative biography of Fyodor Sologub (1863–1927) - one of the largest Russian symbolists, an orthodox decadent, the “Russian Marquis de Sade” and the creator of one of the best satirical novels of the 20th century - covers the first twenty years of his writing activity, from the moment he entered into literature until the completion of work on the novel “The Little Demon”. Using extensive archival material, the book recreates the features of the psychological appearance of F. Sologub and his alter ego - teacher-inspector F. K. Teternikov. The appendix contains materials highlighting the autobiographical subtext of the writer’s work from the 1880s to the beginning. 1900s: a draft of the unfinished novel “Night Dews”, the poem “Loneliness”, the cycle of poems “From the Diary”, the article “On Corporal Punishment”, as well as the aesthetic manifesto “Isn’t it shameful to be decadent.”