Mark Grossman: Literary Destiny and Creative Individuality

The article is devoted to the writer Mark Grossman, one of the representatives of Ural literature of the 1940s–1980s, whose creative heritage hasn’t yet been the subject of systematic scientific study. The creative evolution of the writer (from a poet — war veteran to the author of historical novels) is analyzed. Problematic and thematic, figurative and motivic features of his lyrics, created throughout his creative path, are demonstrated. Particular attention is paid to the writer’s prose of the 1950s–1980s, within the framework of which develop the genres of a socio­psychological story, a police detective story, and an educational book for adolescent reading. The work of M. Grossman is correlated with the All-Union literary process, in determining those individual features that the writer contributed to the literature of a significant period: from the war years to the end of the Soviet period. As a result of the study, it is concluded that, without fitting into the stable recognized circle of writers-representatives of the literature of the Urals, the work of M. Grossman is necessary and sufficient for knowing the fullness of the literary process, including the regional character. A writer, as they say, of the “second row” or “background writer”, which is M. Grossman, thanks to the individual development of generally accepted themes and genres, clearly reflected the main trends of the literature of his time.