This article examines the early literary journalism of Andrei Platonov and the “manifesto” of Valentin Rasputin, which represent the foundational and concluding phases of the evolution of Soviet literature. The relevance of this topic is underscored by a renewed scholarly interest in the Soviet era and the necessity to transcend evaluative stereotypes. The novelty of this study lies in the formulation of the problem and the research approach adopted. It is demonstrated that the meaning and logic of the informal writerly dialogue lead to the issue of the specificity of the national literary process, whose cyclical evolution is predetermined by the search for answers to timeless questions in Russian literature: Who am I? To whom do I address myself? For what purpose? As evidenced by Platonov’s publications, Soviet literature commenced with a pronounced emphasis on the creation of “proletarian” literature. The axiological foundations of this new literature were initially represented within the semantic structure of the lexical-semantic field of“Labor,” presented in a romantic and pathetical manner. Rasputin indicates that in the literary discourse of the late Soviet era, mass and postmodern creative orientations begin to dominate. He associates hope for the continuity and renewal of the literary landscape with a future in which the key term of literary discourse will be the noun ‘people’, interpreted within the context of national cultural tradition and history.