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Abstract: 

The article analyzes the responses of critics to the early prose collections of Ivan Bunin. Analysis of articles about Bunin allows us to understand how he was perceived in the literary process at the turn of the 19^th –20^th centuries, how critics tried to understand the features of the young author’s creative individuality and how it sought to influence the author. In comparison with the reception of early Gorky, critics perceive Bunin incomparably calmer and more restrained. Published at different times and in different forms, the stories included in the collections are now perceived by critics as an integral whole. Contemporaries see in these stories a special subtlety in the perception of nature, an increase in lyricism, weakening of the narrative element, a dominant mood of indefinite sadness. Comparing Bunin’s first and second collections, critics increasingly began to conclude in favor of the first, marked by the expression of Bunin’s general democratic beliefs and proximity to narodniks. The author’s departure from realism was perceived by critics as a feature that brought Bunin closer to symbolism.