The author of the article analyzes poetics of the novel by Alexey Varlamov - a contemporary author, a successor of the traditions of Russian Classic literature of the XIX century. The plot covers the last years of the Russian Empire and the Red Terror that followed the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917. The novel depicts life and fate of many historical and fictional characters. Analyzing the plot, the composition, the motifs of the novel, the author of the article reveals typological parallels between its poetics and the poetics of Russian Symbolism of the early twentieth century, novels written by Fedor Sologub, Valery Bryusov, and Andrey Bely and his novel «Petersburg». The author concludes the novel written by Alexey Varlamov is an example of symbolism prose.