In the second volume of selected works include studies and essays on Russian literature and its relationship with the literature of the world. A series of articles focused on individual authors - Pushkin, Gogol, Gumilev, Akhmatova, Pasternak, Khlebnikov, Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva. We give a general outline of the development of Russian literature of XX century, starting with symbolism, which is seen as its central event, the extended postsimvolizmom. In particular, on the material of Andrei Bely, Bulgakov, Platonov and Akhmatova raises the question of fantastic realism as the main expression of the era. The fate of the unofficial literature and the writer-companion investigated by the example of Vsevolod Ivanov - the author's father. Brought archives Voloshin (a large monographic study of his post-revolutionary period), Khlebnikov, Sun. Ivanov. A series of articles devoted to the characteristic features of modern prose. In connection with the analysis of the translation into French and Russian, made Tsvetaeva studied the problems of poetic translation. Most of the articles written in recent years. The structure of this volume consists mainly of previously unpublished eliminates or significantly revised articles on Russian literature. Indices are given for both volumes.