In 1912 he returned to Saint Petersburg and divorced his wife. At that time, Grin published mostly short-stories; most of his larger works were written after the 1917 October revolution and enjoyed significant popularity in the first half of the 1920s. In 1921 he married . In 1924 they moved to Feodosiya to live near the sea. In his late days, Grin's romantic visions contrasted starkly with mainstream Soviet literature; publishers in Moscow and Leningrad refused to consider his romantic writings, and Grin and his wife lived in extreme poverty. Grin suffered from alcoholism and tuberculosis which eventually ruined his health. He died of stomach cancer in 1932 in Stary Krym.