Abstract: The Soviet literature is a special literary, aesthetic, social and historical phenomenon. As the main literary genre in the Soviet era, the socialist realism aesthetics has its unique historical sources and changes, which determined its great influence on the development of the national literature. As a historical and cultural phenomenon, the Soviet literature constructed its own literary canons. Such authors as M. Gorky, V. Mayakovsky, A. Tolstoy, A. Fadeev, M. Sholokhov, A. Tvardovsky, K. Simonov, etc. have already become masters we cannot ignore when discussing the Soviet literature. The scientific innovation, anti-elitism, non-commercialism, and the fusion of realism and romanticism in the Soviet literary tradition have all become the historical legacy for the 20th century Russian literature.

Key words: Soviet literature, socialist realism, literary centrism, history of world literature