The writer Vladimir Korolenko (1853–1921) and literary critic Igor Dedkov (1934–1994) became witnesses and active participants of Russia’s two ‘fateful’ historical upheavals: one at the beginning of the 20th c., and the other at its end. The article examines the values system of the civic stance assumed by these preeminent literary figures at the time of such opposite political U-turns. Quoted in the article are V. Korolenko’s journals and his letters to A. Lunacharsky. The article analyses I. Dedkov’s perception of Korolenko’s works as expressed in his diaries from the 1950s–1980s and journalistic pieces. The author comes to a paradoxical conclusion that while Korolenko and Dedkov represented nominally antagonistic political systems, their ultimate goals do not contradict each other. United by the ideals of narodnichestvo, Korolenko and Dedkov abhorred the changes brought about by the contemporary revolutions, which explains the heavy political charge of this paper.