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Abstract: Mark Lipovetsky’s article discusses main characteristics of neoromanticism in Russian poetry of the 20th century. Lipovetsky interprets neoromanticism as a discursive formation that unites such dissimilar poets as Nikolai Gumilev, Sergei Esenin, Aleksandr Vertinsky, Aleksandr Rivin, Mikhail Svetlov, Boris Slutsly, Bulat Okudzhava, Aleksandr Galich, Vladimir Vysotsky, Bella Akhmadulina and many others. As formative features of neoromanticism, the article highlights stylization, multiplicity of lyrical selves and theatralization of subjectivity, the predominance of oxymoron and focus on extreme (borderline) situations (hence, high popularity of ballads among neoromatic poets). The exploration of the subject’s reactions to borderline situations leads to the bifurcation of the neoromantic discourse. On the one hand, it is the aesthetization of violence and force-based masculinity, on the other, a radical rejection of the position of force/power for the sake of “sentimentality”, tender and vulnerable humanity. All in all, the neoromantic discourse offers an incredibly flexible mechanism for symbolic negotiations and the quest for compromises between the individual freedom (frequently understood according to Nietzsche) and politic/cultural forces of the time requiring from a human sacrifices for the sake of the “common cause” (national class, state, etc.).