Abstract
<jats:p>The introductory article and the publication of readers’ letters with reviews of A.N. Tolstoy’s novel Peter the Great are devoted to the study of the actual problem of the Soviet Russian literature perception by public consciousness. The start of the publication of Peter the Great second book caused discussions not only in the critics and historians’ professional community, but among readers as well. For example, the reviews of the Leningrad Krasny Putilovets plant workers were published in the Krasny Putilovets newspaper. Readers’ responses were also published in other periodicals (Krasnaya Gazeta, Literaturnaya Gazeta etc.). In the collections of New World journal and State Publishing House of Fiction questionnaires with readers’ responses have been preserved, as well as readers’ letters with reviews of the novel Peter the Great addressed directly to the writer.</jats:p>