Formation of author's consciousness of G.R. Derzhavin and Sumarokov's poetic tradition

The earliest period (1760-1770) of G.R.Derzhavin's creativity is observed in the article. G.A.Gukovsky's idea of A.P.Sumarokov's and his school's poets influence on the process of formation of the author's consciousness of Derzhavin who was guided by the predecessors' experience in mastering the principle of naturalness and identification of the boundaries of the expressive means typical of various lyric genres (the ode, elegy, song, fable, epigram and the others) is developed in the article. However, in practice his ideas of the boundaries often do not coincide with the norms of the contemporary genre canon that led him work out his own creative principles.