The literary market of the late 1970-1980 in the interpretation of Sergei Dovlatov

This paper examines Sergei Dovlatov's interpretation of external factors influencing the demand for Russian literature of the 1920s and 1930s among his contemporaries. The writer tried to understand how interesting the works of this period are to readers, publishers, distributors, whether they find a response from the professional literary community (Soviet, Russian abroad) in the 1970s and 1980s. The author's assertion that the condition of entering the work into the world literature is «observance of the balance between national and universal» is analyzed. The main feature of Dovlatov's style is postulated (but not substantiated) by the reduction of the boundary between the writing of a literary man, a philologist and a journalist, which allowed him to fulfil himself in several roles at once. This statement requires going beyond the methodological approach. Nevertheless, for us this thesis is important from the point of view of substantiating the possibility for modern writers to maintain continuity in world literature, to become a part of it. It is fundamentally important to establish the interest of professional communities in the prose of 1920-1930, which is found in the texts of Sergei Dovlatov during the emigration period and in his speeches at philological conferences.