The paper deals with stylistic transition of a bureaucratic imperative cliché nenuzhnoe zacherknut΄ [‘strike out whichever is not applicable’] (nuzhnoe podcherknut΄ [‘underline whichever is applicable’]) from the official style to fiction and journalism. The author asserts that this kantsel-yarizm (bureaucratic cliché) was initially borrowed from German paperwork practice and examines the features of its functioning in the system of official phraseology of the Russian language. The history of introduction of this formula into the Russian literary texts is followed from the first third of the 20^th to the 21^st century, its textual functions, both poetic and prag-matic, are analyzed in various genres of fiction and journalistic texts. Based on the example of the history of this cliché-kantselyarizm, an attempt is made to view interpenetration of styles as a natural process during the examined era. The imperative semantics, laconicism and clarity of the official clichés nenuzhnoe zacherknut΄ (nuzhnoe podcherknut΄) have turned out to be relevant for fiction texts as socially significant speech facts, which at the same time create a dialogue-based type of literary narration. The poetic potential of Russian bureaucratic phraseology has not yet been systemati-cally investigated, although the pattern of its penetration into the language of fiction is obvious and both stylistically and pragmatically motivated. The terms “cliché”, “bureaucratic formula”, “kantselyarizm” are used in the article as synonyms since the status of stable combinations of the official style has not been conclusively determined within the framework of theoretical phraseology.