The article discusses the Novosibirsk literary magazine «The Present» (1928–1930). The magazine is considered in the context of the Russian avant-garde culture and is analyzed as a single text held together by recurrent subjects, motifs and presentational devices. The editorial board presided over by A. L. Kurs was following in the footsteps of the LEF, both in theory
and in practice, in its emphasis on the publication of «fact literature». Notably, the «fact» component was specially designed through selection, editing, the use of literary parallelism and a particular emphasis on certain subjects and motifs such as novelty, birth and death, and the developing
United States which paralleled a Siberia under construction. Other prominent features of the magazine included an avant-garde logocentrism, oversaturation with the fact theory and a focus on self-presentation.