The transformation of the genre of the epigram in the twentieth century

The article analyzes the features of the genre of epigram, that came to the Russian literature from the European literature, including the Greek one. It was in the 18th century that the Russian epigram set its standard. But then the genre of epigram began to transform, the epigram in the Russian literature followed the way of ironic deriding the object, but it did not lose the optional feature of the genre – the descriptiveness, which sometimes becomes the main mark of the genre. Moreover, in the 20th century, the changes affect both the required characteristics of the genre and the genre core itself.