This book is designed as a continuation of the author's Soviet Russian Literature since Stalin. It aims to trace the development of Soviet Russian prose from approximately 1975 to the end of the Soviet regime in 1991.

In a work of this scope, it is necessary to confine discussion to major trends and to limit the number of authors considered.

The quantity of writing published during this period is so large that a rigorous selection had to be made.

Personal interviews with twenty active Russian literary critics were helpful to me in making this selection, and I am extremely grateful to them. I am also grateful to a number of American and British colleagues whose kind advice has been invaluable. They are listed, together with those gracious Russians, in the Acknowledgments.