The article gives information about the monographic series “Literature of the 20th century”, which is produced by the Department of Contemporary Literatures of Central and Southeastern Europe at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. On the material of the author’s monographs by Victor A. Khorev “Polish Literature of the 20th century” (2009) and Galina Ya. Ilyina “Croatian Literature of the 20th century” (2015), as well as the collective work “Slovenian Literature of the 20th century” (ed. by Nadezhda N. Starikova, 2014), is presented a genre of “small” literary history, describing the most important stages in the Slavic peoples’ literary development during the last century. Each of the book in this series has created a canon of names and texts, reflecting the experience of specific Slavic literature of the 20th century, which allows Russian (and more broadly Russian-speaking) readers to be guided in its achievement.