The fourth volume of the Collected Works of M.M. Bakhtin is entirely devoted to the book about F. Rabelais. The volume consists of two parts. This semi-volume publishes texts and materials from the 1930s-1950s: the first edition of “François Rabelais in the History of Realism” (1940), additions and changes to the second edition “The Work of Rabelais and the Problem of Folk Culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance” (1949-1950), preparatory materials, early editions, additions, notes. All texts by M.M. Bakhtin, with the exception of “Additions and changes to Rabelais” (1944), are published for the first time. The section “Comments and Appendices” contains an essay on the history of the book in the 1930-1950s and four appendices: correspondence about the fate of "Rabelais" in the 1940s, reviews of the book by M.M. Bakhtin (1944); materials for the defense of the dissertation (1946); documents for dissertation consideration at the Higher Attestation Commission (1947-1952).