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Abstract: This publication examines Platonov’s article about V. Kozin’s stories, published in “Literary Critic” at the beginning of 1940. The article highlights the main stages of Kozin’s pre-war work and the place and significance of his stories about Turkmenistan not only in the fate of the author himself, but also in the literary struggle in the late 1930s. Kozin gained support by A. Fadeev and many other critics. He became one of the most popular writers by acquiring a reputation of an “innovator” whose name figured in a critical campaign directed against the “Literary Critic” and its employees. Platonov’s critical article, revealing fundamental errors in the ethical and aesthetic foundations of Kozin’s stories, became a hard blow to the writer. After that, there was the devastating assessment of Kozin’s work in the “Pravda” newspaper and a long, difficult period of rethinking his own literary principles.