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Abstract: The article analyzes one of Leonov's first plays «Suppression of Badadoshkin». This play was written after «Untilovsk» and it is a kind of a «test of the pen» by Leonov in drama. Its role in the writer's artistic legacy is clear: when mastering the laws of the theatrical scene, Leonov is looking for his own style, trying to create the character he needs. And therefore, in his first steps in drama, the writer could not help but look back at the experience of his predecessors, in particular, the «Cherry Orchard» by A. Chekhov and «Meshchan» by M. Gorky. It is shown that these plays bring together similar images (wardrobe-safe, escape) and motives (purchase and sale, money, money-grubbing). The main similarities between Leonov’s play «Suppression of Badadoshkin» and «Sharmanka» by A. Platonov are outlined in the article. Both writers, creating their works at approximately the same time, «guess» (S. G. Bocharov) the meaning of their time. If Leonov turned to the plot of the contract between a man and the devil, depicting the imaginary purchase of the country from an unnamed swindler, Platonov showed the purchase and sale of a human soul by a foreigner. Both writers, thus, showed the demonic essence of the contemporary historical situation.