The author revises the traditional concept of the Russian literary process, criticizing sociological schemes. How 19th century literature begins; how many types of romanticism are in it; what are the mechanisms for the formation of realism as an artistic method and literary direction, its origins, the main stages of development, internal typological differentiation; what is the originality of the Renaissance in Russian literature of the 80-90s of the XIX century; what is the significance of modernist phenomena in it - the book contains answers to these and many other questions.