The book under review is a polemical and somewhat provocative study of the literary process in Russia and among Russian-speaking emigre writers. Despite its genre (a textbook), the book bears a greater resemblance to a monograph which sets out to construct a theoretical history of 20th-c. Russian literature across the major parameters of literary history. This overarching agenda defines the book's unusual structure: it foregoes the traditional division into periods or listings of ‘big names.' At the same time, the classics and stages of the literary process constitute sections in their own right. The author also considers the history of literary criticism and studies in theory and history of literature, as well as the relationship between verse and prose and writing genres vs. main categories of literature. S. Kormilov's approach can be described as non-ideological, i. e., the author tries to steer clear of any social-political engagement.