The article presents a consistent comparison of M. Bulgakov’s cult novel “Master and Margarita” and V. Pelevin’s modern postmodern novel “Chapaev and Emptiness”. Based on the comparison of the plot-composite structure, imagery and characters system, comparison of the chronotope determines the general and typological features of the texts. When considering the poetic-axiological level, the “archetypal” features of the two novels are revealed, the line of continuity of texts is established. The article specifies the classification of the grounds for postmodernism as a current in contemporary Russian prose.