The paper singles out the kernel elements of the code of «Eugene Onegin» and reveals their modifications in the fiction of the 1850s, in particular, in short novels of this period. The plots situations, the rejected recognition and the meeting after the rejected recognition as well as plot clamps connecting them (the hero's journey; the marriage for money of the heroine) comprise the
core of the code of «Eugene Onegin». The basic principle of the transposition of these elements in stories is connected with the transfer and standardization of their structure. The principles of modification of the code in the fiction are various: the substitution of elements of the code of «Eugene Onegin» by elements of close plot series (the plot situation «rejected recognition» is
replaced by the plot situation «a love story on the watering-place», constituting the Pechorin plot); the doubling and dissection of the code elements; the filling of the voids in the Onegin fabula; the development of the possible plots of «Eugene Onegin».