Abstract: This article examines the characteristic type of hero in the literature of the epoch of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries and addresses a little-studied plot from the history of Russian-European literary ties of this period. The author focuses on two works: the novel by the Polish classic G. Senkevich "Without Dogma" (1890) and the story "The Confession of Mytishchev" (1901) by the half-forgotten Russian writer M.V. Krestovskaya, whom acquaintance with the book of an older contemporary made a strong impression. Both works contain a number of parallels at the level of composition, the way of speech organization of the narrative and the plot itself, but at the root of their connection lies attention to a new type of European man, generated by the epoch of the end of the century and suffering from its "diseases".The author of the article compares the main characters of the works of Senkevich and Krestovskaya — Leon Ploshovsky and Andrey Mytishchev — as representatives of the type of hero-skeptic, hero without dogma, whose appearance in literature was an organic stage of the evolution of the hero-individualist. Time has put its own questions before him, in particular, about the need to be guided by moral principles and follow any dogmas.
The named works of Russian and Polish literature of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries are placed in a single historical and literary context for the first time, and their main characters are considered as vivid exponents of the type of European man of that time. The appeal of the modern reader to these artistic images makes it possible to better understand the cultural, historical, philosophical and social prerequisites for the appearance of carriers of such a worldview in the late XIX — early XX century. This determines the novelty and relevance of this study.