The stories and tales of V. Pokrovsky, a graduate of Maleev’s seminars and one of the most prominent representatives of the so-called “Fourth Wave,” quickly brought the author to the first echelon of Russian social fiction. Events in SF literature of the 80s and early 90s were the stories “The Time of the Dark Hunt” (1983), which gives an unexpected interpretation of the theme of “progressivity”, “Men’s Dancing” (1989), “Hairdressing Guys” (1989–1990 ). V. Pokrovsky also wrote one of the most striking stories of that time - the poignant anti-militarist parable “The Very Last War” (1984). V. Pokrovsky's fiction stands out not only for its refined style, but also for its considerable courage in posing “damned questions.” Colleagues dubbed the writer “the champion of oxymoron, the priest of syntactic illusion.”