The paper overviews the crisis that currently takes place in the literature and its study. Web sites of literary magazines were analyzed in search of articles, interviews, surveys, discussions on the topic. The author selectively surveys professional points of view on Russian literary crises. Opinions of critics, writers, historians of literature, publishers and sociologists are taken into consideration. The necessity of bearing in mind different aspects of the subject and various attitudes to the matter is emphasized. The author focuses on the most discussed problems which the literature faces recently. Generally speaking, these are the poor quality of recent literature, its deprivation of social prestige, the futility of literature, as well as of writers, literary critics and theorists.