There are analyzed the Don literary traditions in the creative work by I.D. Sazanov. Special attention is paid to the principles of artistic realization of the issue “the Cossacks and the authority” that took the central place in the prerevolutionary Don literature.

There is revealed the specific character of the Cossack issue coverage in the journal Russian Richness at the beginning of the XX century: mobilization, punitive squads in the image of Kryukov, Dubovsky and other authors. In the context of journal traditions there is given the analysis of the Don stories by I. Sazanov.

There is given the reconstruction of the course of life and creative work of the Don writer of the first third of the XX century - I.D.Sazanov (1876 - 1933). There are analyzed the main archival and journal sources, according to which the writers biography is recollected. There is determined the range of subjects and issues of the writers creative work; planned further directions of its research.