He suffered injuries and shell-shock during the storming of Yekaterinodar in 1918, lost several teeth and acquired a tremor of the hands that plagued him for the rest of his life.

In 1921 he moved with the theater troupe to Petrograd, becoming involved with the "Serapion Brothers," a literary group including Ivanov, Zoshchenko and Kaverin.

In 1924, Schwartz returned to Leningrad to become an employee of Gosizdat, Children's Department of State Publishing House, under the administration of Samuil Marshak.

He also wrote children's books, including The Story of Old Balalaika (1924), The Adventures of Shura and Marousi (1937), Alien Girl (1937) and First Grader (1949).

In 1929 Evgeny Schwartz began collaborating with Nikolay Akimov at the Leningrad Comedy Theater, writing contemporary plays based on the folk and fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen.

These included Golyi korol (The Emperor's New Clothes) (1934), Krasnaya Shapochka (Little Red Riding Hood) (1936), Zolushka (Cinderella) (1938), Snezhnaya Koroleva (The Snow Queen, after Hans Christian Andersen) (1938), Tyen (The Shadow, after Hans Christian Andersen) (1940), Drakon (The Dragon, an original) (1944), and Obyknovennoye Chudo (An Ordinary Miracle) (1956).

The plot is based on the attempt of the hero, Lancelot, to liberate people in a land suffering under Dragon's brutal rule.

When Lancelot returns to the town a year later, he realizes that his task is much more complex: "This is going to be a very meticulous job... We have to kill the dragon in each one of them."