The article is devoted to the so-called confessional prose - a trend that emerged in Russian literature in the mid-1950s, quickly gained incredible popularity, but then, for a number of reasons, fell out of sight of readers and critics. The main attention in the article is paid to the early work of Anatoly Gladilin (from him the history of "confessional prose" began), which has now turned out to be undeservedly half-forgotten. According to the author of the article, the debut Gladilin story "The Chronicle of the Times of Viktor Podgursky" was a truly innovative work that played an important role in the literary process of the 1950s - 1960s.