The article considers the Gor'ky's intertext in modern Russian literature, in particular in the prose of S. Dovlatov and his cycle “The Suitcase”. The article questions the researchers' position, that intertext is mainly present in the writer's early texts, while in later texts it weakens or disappears completely. As shown in the article, pretexts of Russian literature - including Gor'ky's intertext - continued to be present in Dovlatov's prose even during of the emigration period.