On the material of nihilistic and anti-nihilistic journalism and fiction, anti-nihilism is investigated as a literary and social movement in Russia in the 1860-1870s, the philosophical and religious context of the era is restored; shows the process of emergence and existence of images-concepts "nihilist" and "new person" in the public consciousness. Nihilistic and anti-nihilistic novels are studied as varieties of a polemical novel, the structure, figurative system and characterology of which took shape in the context of a philosophical and religious polemic about a person. The evolution of the polemical novel is considered, its intraspecific typology is described.