Ivan Zakharovich Surikov (1841-1880) - a gifted poet of the post-reform era, the most prominent heir to the traditions of Koltsov and Nikitin, the author of widely known songs and poems: "What do you make, swinging, thin mountain ash...," "Children" ("Here is my village..."), "Winter," "Execution of Stenka Razin," etc. In this, almost exhaustively representing his poetic heritage, are also placed the best works of poets who grouped around Surikov, creatively close to him (S. Derunov, A. Razorenov, I. Rodionov, etc.), as well as the immediate successors of his literary business (S. Drozhzhin and M. Leonov). Their poems, first collected in this book together, resurrect one of the remarkable phenomena of poetry of the last third of the 19th century. - the work of the so-called self-taught poets, that is, writers who came out of the peasant environment and expressed in their works the mood of the people, their dreams and thoughts, their sorrow and care.