The article highlights one of the key moments in the formation of the North Caucasian peoples’ national literature in the process of their integration into the USSR’s shared cultural space. The author notes that, despite the unity of the socio-social and economic systems of the region, the proximity of their cultures, the systems of verbal creativity of the mountain peoples had their own specific features, manifested not only at the general philosophical and conceptual levels but also in the models of apperception themselves. On the examples of poetic texts by K. Khetagurova, B. Pacheva, K. Mechieva, the essence of the reflex transformation process is considered in sufficient detail and, convincingly, its specific techniques and mechanisms are determined. The departure from the plastic “textured” sensation leads to an organic understanding of ideological and responsible symbolism, anticipating the flourishing of national poetry within the boundaries of ethnically authentic apperceptive models. The latter, in turn, received a complete and perfect expression, as in the work of K.Kuliyev, as well as in the poems of his followers, who developed sensitive, materialized ideas on a new, symbolic level of their interpretations.