This article is about literary communities and groups of the late XIX – early XX centuries. The authors analyze the conditions of their existence in pre-revolutionary Russia and the USSR, relations with the authorities, peculiarities of the organization of Soviet literary life. It is concluded that the literary struggle of the 1920s – early 1930s was due to the desire of writers to find and offer their own "Unique Trade Offer", to achieve hegemony in literature, to get the right to decide how to express the Bolshevik’s ideology.

The article deals with the letter written to I.V.Stalin by A.N.Garry, the journalist who in 1938 was sentenced to 8 years of hard labor camp imprisonment. A.N.Garry described reasons of the sentence he had got, his own merits before the USSR and entreated Stalin to give him a chance to return to the literary activities. In autobiography attached to the letter A.Garry described the main events of his life.

The article is devoted to description of the public sentiments in 1937, in the time of “Great Terror” in the USSR. Testimonies given by A. N. Garry, journalist from the “Izvestia” newspaper, in the course of investigation carried out in 1937 are published, commented and analyzed. Biography of Garry, his contacts and causes due to which he went up for three times are described.

The authors describe the popular feelings of the 1930s in connection with the history of «Krokodil» magazine reformation. The criminal case filed against three Soviet satirists (N.R.Erdman, V.Z.Mass and Emil Krotki who were accused of writing and disseminating «anti-Soviet» fables and subsequently sentenced) is analyzed. The authors also examine criminal cases brought against M.D.Volpin, M.A.Gloushkov, A.S.Bukhov and Ya.M.Bel'ski.

The author considers the Soviet satirical press of the 1930s on the example of «The Crocodile» magazine. The historical and political context of the magazine’s existence is discussed in connection with tasks that were set for the Soviet satire of that period. The author analyzes «The Crocodile» editorial board’s policy, the circle of the magazine’s writers, main themes of publications. A particular attention is paid to the issue of denunciations on the magazine’s staff members made to the State Political Directorate. Reasons of «The Crocodile» reform of 1934 are considered in detail. The article is predominantly based on archive materials including documents from the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation Central Archive.

The authors relate details of so called Dymovka affair, a large-scale press campaign connected with slaughter of G.I.Malinovsky, the agrarian correspondent of the «Red Nikolaev» newspaper. The authors analyze press materials, art works and archive materials pertaining to the event as well as to the trial of «murders of the agrarian correspondents». The authors come to the conclusion that the real reason of the press campaign was the struggle for power between I.V.Stalin who was supported by F.E.Dzierzynsky and L.D.Trotsky. The article demonstrates how sinuosity of this struggle was reflected in press publications, first of all, in the «Red Nikolaev» newspaper.

The authors deal with the history of V.S.Grossman's novel «Life and destiny» publication considered in relation with the history of novel «For the right cause» edition. Relations of Grossman with I.V.Stalin, K.M.Simonov, A.A.Fedeev, A.T.Tvardovski, V.M.Kozhevnikov, A.Yu.Krivitski, S.I.Lipkin and with other coevals. The authors demonstrate that judgments of memoirists on the causes of «Life and destiny» sequestration are not confirmed with documents.