What is happening to modern Russian literature? Why is there so much controversy surrounding it? And why do “the best Russian writers” sometimes turn out to be illiterate? To whom are literary prizes awarded and for what? Why does modern literature increasingly resemble show business and why is state support for writers impossible, as was the case in the USSR? The book answers many pressing questions and lifts the curtain on the modern literary process. The second chapter presents the author's notes about the great Russian writers. The materials of the book were published at different times in the newspapers “Soviet Russia”, “Literary Newspaper”, “Moscow Literator”, in the magazines “Our Contemporary”, “Nature and Man. XXI century”, etc.