Abstract: | The article touches upon the genre changes in the Russian criminal novel of the 20th and 21st
centuries. The text presents a short history of the genre starting from 1917. The first works worth
mentioning are Mess-Mend by M. Szaginian and Notatki Sędziego Ś ledczego [Notes by Investigating
Magistrate] by L. Szejnin. An extremely intensive development of this genre can be observed
from mid 1950s. What played an important role was the appearance of Okrucieństwo [Cruelty] and
ladami wielkich detektywów [Following great detectives], novels by Pawe Nilin. A big group of detective writers was created at that time, among whom were A. Adamow, J. Siemionow, A. and
G. Wajnerow, P. Szestakow, O. and A. £awrow. Popular genre variations were a police and detective
novel.
In the last decade of the 20th century th enew type of the criminal literature developed the
so called women s criminal (Aleksandra Marinina, Daria Doncowa). Especially popular are also
retro-criminals by Borys Akunin. His works are called the real genre revolution within the scope
of this type of popular literature. |