The paper is devoted to the comparison between narrative art of A. P. Chekhov and D. N. Mamin-Sibiryak - writers of one epoch and of the same literary formation. The novelty of artistry of Chekhov has been mentioned in literary criticism for many times whereas Mamin-Sibiryak is often attributed to writers-naturalists, who used the traditional technique of writing. In the view of the author of the paper, the works of Mamin-Sibiryak should be attributed to the genre of fiction, his stories of 1890-1900’s are quite gripping, they rely on the perception of middling writer, but in the manner of narrative we can find the proximity to the art of Chekhov as story-teller. As an example, an integral analysis of Mamin-Sibiryak’s story «The benighted people» is presented.