The polemical review of the com-ment to T. Kibirov's long poem Through the Tears of Farewell [Skvoz proshchal- nye slyozy] (1987) deals with the problem of accelerated and evident loss of relevance by many fairly recent literary works, whose relative value is in the accumulation of an excessive number of socio-cultural realia that are rapidly becoming obsolete. At the same time, any universal aesthetic statement is often absent from such works. The first part of the review is devoted to advocating the genre of the commentary as such in the current historical-literary situation. The second part is concerned with the main traits of Kibirov's poetics and the poem's aesthetic characteristics. The third part examines the general problem of commenting on literary works that have close ties with the period of their creation, but are lacking the necessary artistic potential in order to be integrated into the contemporary cultural context.