Some prose texts by Y. Tynyanov are known to have several redactions. These are the stories «Sub-Lieutenant Kizhe», «Under-Age Witushishnikov» and «A Wax Person». However, no attempts have so far been made to analyze the changes introduced in these texts and to find out the reasons for the undertaken redactions. This paper presents an analysis of the alterations introduced into the second edition of Y. Tynyanov’s story «Sub-Lieutenant Kizhe» (1930). The author of the paper believes that the editing of the text reflects the continuation of Tynyanov’s work at the conception of the story. The fact that one chapter of the original text was excluded a significant fragment was added leads to the conclusion that the relations between different text levels has become more complicated. The correlation of the poetics of Tynyanov’s story with his scientific thought makes it possible to state the evolution in the writer-and-literary-scholar’s concepts reflected in his literary prose.