The aim of the research was to study the influence of A. S. Pushkin’s work on the writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries A. I. Kuprin, namely of A. S. Pushkin’s elegy “Crazy Years’ Faded Fun” on Kuprin’s story “Sentimental novel”. The main research method was the comparative method of researching artistic phenomena, which are considered in the unity of content and form. In literary criticism, there have already been attempts to outline the connections of A. I. Kuprin with A. S. Pushkin. But usually attention was paid only to the optimistic motives of their work, in their most general form. According to the author, this was due to the inertia of pre-October judgments unfair to A. I. Kuprin, according to which the writer turned out to be an exponent of only the spontaneous joy of life. The decisive idea is the idea that Pushkin’s elegy influenced the creation of the story “Sentimental Novel”, but at the same time Kuprin invested content relevant to his time in his story: hostility to the vulgarity of life, a bright dream of the Beautiful. The subjects, the figurative system of the story, the connection with A. S. Pushkin’s work are indicated. Sufficient attention is paid to the psychological aspect, the ability of A. I. Kuprin to show human ability to open the sublime connection between human hearts and to preserve it forever. In conclusion, it is concluded that the story of A. I. Kuprin “Sentimental Novel” is an elegy in prose and this form has been very productive for the entire work of A. I. Kuprin. In addition, the motives of A. S. Pushkin’s elegy were reflected in the stories of A. I. Kuprin of the 1910s: “Garnet Bracelet”, “Helen” and others. Here again, many motives are heard in the A. S. Pushkin “turn”: awareness of life next to death, love as a force that gives faith in the future.