The meaning of the word memoirs in Ushakov’s explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. Memoir literature

From the Chronicles modern events memoirs are distinguished by the fact that in them the author’s face comes to the fore, with his sympathies and dislikes, with his aspirations and views. Very often belonging to persons who played a prominent role in history, sometimes covering a significant period of time, for example, the entire life of the author, often connecting important events with little things Everyday life, memoirs can be historical material of primary importance.

The Oldest European Memoirs

Classical antiquity knew only two authors of memoirs - Xenophon and Caesar. France was considered the true birthplace of memoirs in the 19th century. The first experiments in this area date back to the 13th century. Villehardouin's naive notes on the Latin Empire still stand on the border between memoirs and chronicles, while Histoire de St. Louis“ (about ) is rightfully considered an example of historical memoirs.

France (XVI -XIX centuries)

The number of memoirs especially increased during the era of the revolution (memoirs of Necker, Besanval, Ferrier, Alexandre Lamet, Lafayette, Madame de Stael, Campan, Barbara, Billot-Varenna, Dumouriez, Madame Roland, Mirabeau, Mounier, Barera, Camille Demoulin). Even executioners, for example, Samson, wrote memoirs then.

Many of the memoirs of that era that appeared with the names of famous figures are fraudulent. This kind of forgery was widely practiced by Soulavie, whose collections have therefore been superseded “Collection des mémoires relatifs à la revolution française”(30 vols., Paris, 1820-1830) and some other publications.

Even more numerous are memoirs dating back to the Napoleonic era. Almost all of Napoleon's generals and many other people left notes. Especially great importance have memoirs of Bignon, O'Meara, Constant, Lavalette, Savary, Duchess d'Abrantes, Marmont, Eugene Beauharnais, Madame de Remusat, Talleyrand.

Later, memoirs were written by Carnot, Broglie, Chateaubriand, George Sand, Guizot, Marmier, Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt.

England

English literature is also rich in memoirs, in which they, however, acquire significance only from the era of Queen Elizabeth and even more from the time of the internal wars of the 17th century. For the reign of Charles I special meaning have memoirs by James Melville and the Scot David Craford. The most important works of this kind are collected in the edition of Guizot, “Collection des mémoires relatifs à la revolution d’Angleterre”(33 vols., Paris, 1823 et seq.).

Of the memoirs of later times, the most outstanding are the notes of Bolingbroke and Horace Walpole. In England, as in France, the literature of memoirs has reached end of the 19th century centuries of dimensions barely visible.

Germany

Poland

Russian memoirs

In Russian literature, a number of notes begin with “The History of the Book.” Great Moscow about the deeds that we have heard from reliable men and that we have seen in our eyes,” the famous Prince Kurbsky, which has the character of a pamphlet rather than history, but important as an expression of the opinion of a well-known party.

The time of troubles caused whole line narratives of contemporaries and eyewitnesses of the Troubles, but with a few exceptions, these works cannot be considered simple-minded records of what was seen and heard: in almost all legends there is either a biased point of view, or influences from which the simplicity and truthfulness of the author’s testimony suffers. Not to mention the works that appeared even before the end of the Troubles (the story of Archpriest Terenty), journalistic features are not alien to the two largest narratives about the Troubles - Vremennik by Ivan Timofeev and “The Tale of the Siege of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery” by Abraham Palitsyn. In both works, the desire to expose the vices of Muscovites prevails. society and with them explain the origin of the unrest; Depending on such a task, there is a lack of chronological connection, gaps in factual testimony, and an abundance of abstract reasoning and moralizing.

The later works of eyewitnesses of the Troubles, which appeared under Tsars Mikhail and Alexei, differ from the earlier ones in their greater objectivity and more factual depiction of the era (“Words” by Prince I. A. Khvorostinin, especially the story of Prince I. M. Katyrev of Rostov, included in Sergei’s chronograph Kubasov), but in them the presentation is often subordinated either to conventional rhetorical devices (notes of Prince Semyon Shakhovsky, dating back to 1601-1649), or to one general point of view (for example, the official one - in the manuscript attributed to Patriarch Philaret and depicting events from 1606 until the election of Michael as Tsar).

Therefore, as a historical source, those few works that deviate from the general literary template and do not go beyond a simple ingenuous presentation of events are of greater importance. This is, for example, the life of the teacher. Dionysius, Archimandrite of the Trinity-Sergius Convent, which in 1648 - 54. was written by Trinity cellarer Simon Azaryin, and the cellarer from Moscow added his memories. Dormition Cathedral Ivan Nasedka (cf. S. F. Platonov, “ Old Russian legends and stories about troubled times as a historical source", St. Petersburg, 1888; the texts of the legends are printed. by him in the published archaeographic book. Commission "Historical Library", vol. 13). The works of Kotoshikhin, Shusherin (life of Nikon), Avvakum (autobiography), and Semyon Denisov bear the character of notes or personal memories.

Peter I

Alexander II

Of the numerous memoirs about the era of Alexander II, the notes of N.V. Berg (on Polish conspiracies), Count Valuev, N.S. Golitsyn (on the abolition of corporal punishment, in “Russian Antiquity”, 1890), A.L. Zisserman are of particular importance (Caucasian memories, in the “Russian Archive”, 1885), Levshin, Count M.N. Muravyov, P.N. Obninsky, N.K. Ponomarev (“Memoirs of the mediator of the first call”, in “Russian Antiquity”, 1891, no. 2), N. P. Semyonova, Y. A. Solovyova, gr. D. N. Tolstoy-Znamensky.

Literary Memoirs

Very numerous literary memoirs XIX century. These are the notes of S. T. Aksakov, P. V. Annenkov, Askochensky, Bodyansky (in the “Collection of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature”, 1891), N. P. Brusilov (in “Historical Vestn.” 1893, No. 4 ), Buslaeva, book. P. A. Vyazemsky, A. D. Galakhov (in “Historical Vestn.” 1891 No. 6 and 1892 No. 1 and 2), Herzen, Panaev, Golovacheva-Panaeva, Grech, I. I. Dmitrieva, V. R. Zotov (“Historical Vestn.”, 1890), M. F. Kamenskaya, Kolyupanova, Makarova,

from French mEmoires - memories), literary narrative of a participant in social, political, literary artistic life about the events of which he was a witness or actor, about the people with whom he came into contact. Memoirs are a type non-fiction and at the same time, one of the types of confessional prose (autobiography, confession) is adjacent to historical prose, essay, biography. Memoirs can contain the memories of an ordinary person about his “ordinary” life, conveying the flavor of a certain era, thoughts, feelings, attitudes and expectations of “average” people of a particular time, of a particular social, age, psychophysiological or age status. In this regard, memoirs belong to genres bordering between literature proper and everyday letters and diaries not intended for publication.

The origin of memoirs is associated with the memoirs of Xenophon (c. 445 - c. 355 BC) about Socrates and the “Notes on the Gallic War” of Julius Caesar (100 or 102–44 BC). In further literature, “The History of My Disasters” (1132–36) by P. Abelard, “New Life” (1292) by Dante, “Poetry and Truth from My Life” (1811–33) by I. V. Goethe, “Confession” ( 1766–69) J. J. Rousseau, “Ten Years in Exile” (unfinished, published in 1821) J. de Stael; in Russian literature - “The Past and Thoughts” (1855–68) by A. I. Herzen, “Captured Work” (1921–22) by V. N. Figner, “People, Years, Life” (1961–65) by I. G. Erenburg, V. P. Kataev’s trilogy “Holy Well” (1966), “The Grass of Oblivion” (1967), “My Diamond Crown” (1978); “On the Banks of the Neva” (1967) and “On the Banks of the Seine” (1983) by I. V. Odoevtseva, “Through the Eyes of a Man of My Generation” (published 1988) by K. M. Simonov, “A Calf Butted an Oak Tree” (1990) A I. Solzhenitsyn. A special place among memoirs is occupied by notes and memories of prominent statesmen, including the Russian Empress Catherine II, the head of the English government during the 2nd World War, W. Churchill. Stable features of the genre: factuality, eventfulness, retrospectiveness, immediacy of the author's judgments, picturesqueness, documentary. An indispensable property of memoirs is their subjectivity in the selection of facts, in their coverage and evaluation; A common method of artistic characterization is a portrait. Memoirs are an irreplaceable source of information about the events of the past, tastes, morals, customs, a system of aesthetic and spiritual values, and an important tool for literary, socio-historical and cultural studies. Memoirs in their “pure” form can be identified with works of fiction of a memoir nature (“Pedagogical Poem”, 1933–1936, A. S. Makarenko), often with “encrypted” characters (“My Diamond Crown” by V. P. Kataev). There are known hoax memoirs (the fake “diary” of the lady-in-waiting of the last Russian Empress A. A. Vyrubova). In the 20th–21st centuries. memoirs in the form of memoirs, sketches, fictional dialogues, polemics “retroactively”, diary entries, etc. are one of the most relevant genres. In Russia, this is the so-called “camp” literature, which carries not only the truth about the tragic pages of the latest national history, but also a powerful charge of social and political exposure: “Steep Route” (1967–80) by E. S. Ginzburg, “The Gulag Archipelago” (1973) by A. I. Solzhenitsyn, “Plunge into Darkness” (1987) by O. N. Volkova, “Kolyma Stories” (1954–73) by V. T. Shalamova and others. Memoirs include collective collections of memories, united either by a community of authors (profession, age, nationality, biography, ideological, artistic and aesthetic affinity), or by the object of the memoirs (memories of contemporaries about A.S. Pushkin, memories of participants in the literary movement of imagism).

Excellent definition

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MEMOIRS

historical (French m?moires, from Latin memoria - memory) - the author’s memories of the historical. events in which he was a participant or eyewitness, one of the types of historical sources. There are no clear lines separating M. from other types of sources of personal origin (sometimes the circle of M. also includes diaries, autobiographies, etc., along with memoirs). Dept. works like M. were created already in antiquity. These are, in particular, “Anabasis” by Xenophon (Russian translation, M.-L., 1951) - about the campaign of 10 thousand Greeks in Mesopotamia in 401 BC. e. and "Notes about Gallic War"Julius Caesar (Russian translation, M.-L., 1948). In the Middle Ages, M. was written by the main representatives of the feudal class, courtiers. Such, for example, "The Conquest of Constantinople" by J. de Villehardouin (G Villehardouin, L´histoire de la conqu?te de Constantinople, P., 1584) - an epically calm story about the 4th crusade one of its leaders; “The History of Saint Louis” by J. Joinville (J. Joinville, L´histoire et chronique du tr?s-chr?stien roy Saint Louis, P., 1547) - a colorful picture of the life and customs of the era of Louis IX; "Chronicles" by J. Froissart (J. Froissart, Chroniques, P., 1869-99), reflecting the events of the 14th century. - 100 Years' War, Jacquerie, W. Tyler's rebellion; “Chronicle and History” by F. de Commines (Ph. de Commines, Chronique et istoire... durant le r?gne du roi Louis XI, P., 1524), imbued with ideas of exalting the power of Louis XI (2nd half of 15 V.). Standing somewhat apart are M. Pierre Abelard ("The History of My Disasters", Russian translation, 1959), which shows the persecution of Catholic freethinking. 12th century church But already from the Renaissance, new themes invaded M., interest in the surrounding world, in people, grew. personalities, among the memoirists there are more and more townspeople, merchants, including travelers (see the article “Travel”). In M., a prominent figure of the Huguenots T. A. d'Aubigne, "Tragic Poems. Memoirs" (R., 1616; in Russian translation, M., 1949) the era of religious wars comes to life; B. Cellini in his autobiography “The Life of Benvenuto, son of maestro Giovanni Cellini...” (Naples, 1728; Russian translation, M., 1931) vividly depicts the morals of Italy in the 16th century. By the 16th century There are also such examples of Russian M. as “The History of the Grand Duke of Moscow” (St. Petersburg, 1913) by Prince A. M. Kurbsky, where the events of the time of Ivan the Terrible are recreated, “The Life of Archpriest Avvakum, written by himself” (St. Petersburg, 1861), colorful ideologist of the Old Believers. Examples of M. countries of the East 15-16 centuries. The memoirs of Z. M. Vasifi, the courtier of the Timurids (Khorasan) Badai al-vaqai (vol. 1-2, M., 1961), expressing the ideas of the mountains, can serve as an example. feudal opposition power, M. ruler of the Great Mughals Babur (Russian translation "Babur-name", Tashkent, 1948). 17-18 centuries - the heyday of memoirs, especially in France. The following French masterpieces date back to this time. literature, such as M. Duke J. F. de Retz (J. Fr. Retz, M?moires, P., 1717) and M. Duke L. Saint-Simon (v. 1-21, P., 1829-30 ; Russian translation of selected parts, vol. 1-2, M.-L., 1934-36). Major social upheavals cause a flow of M., in which representatives of the main. fighting factions assess events from their class positions: M. of O. Cromwell’s associate T. Fairfax (Th. Fairfax, Memoirs of the reign of Charles the First, v. 1-2, L., 1848), T. Jefferson (Th. Jefferson, Memoirs, correspondence and private papers, v. 1-4, L., 1829), prominent Girondist Madame M. J. Roland (M. J. Roland, M?moires, v. 1-2, P., 1820), French military organizer bourgeois revolutions of the 18th century L. Carnot (L. Carnot, M?moires, v. 1-2, P., 1861-64), “Memoirs” of the diplomat Prince Talleyrand (v. 1-5, R., 1891-92; Russian translation. , M.-L., 1934) and many others. etc. Almost all of Napoleon I’s associates left apologetics about him. memories. Among the works of the 18th century, written in Russia, “Notes of Catherine II” (St. Petersburg, 1906), as well as “The Life and Adventures of Andrei Bolotov...” (vol. 1-4, St. Petersburg, 1871-73), stand out. There is bright pictures the life of the nobility, the events of the Seven Years' War and the uprising of E. Pugachev. In the 19th - early 20th centuries. due to rapid socio-economic changes, the growth of education, the composition of memoirists is democratizing, personal moments in memoirs are increasingly fading into the background or are closely intertwined with public moments. M. are increasingly becoming political in nature. Many M. revolutionaries appear, for example. “My Memoirs” by G. Garibaldi (R., 1860; Russian translation, M., 1931), the leader of German Social Democracy A. Bebel “From My Life” (Bd 1-3, V., 1910-14; Russian translation, M., 1963). Among Russian M. 19th century. stands out large group M. Decembrists. Among them are “Russia and the Russians” by N. I. Turgenev (vol. 1-2, St. Petersburg, 1907-08), “Notes” of Prince S. P. Trubetskoy (St. Petersburg, 1906). Exceptions occupy a special place. Valuable for its broad themes and richness of content, “The Past and Thoughts” by A. I. Herzen (vol. 1-4, London, 1861-67). Since the middle of the century, M. torg appeared. bourgeoisie, commoners, and later workers and peasants. Valuable information about the organization and activities of the populists is contained in the M. Narodovoltsev V. N. Figner (“Sealed Labor,” vol. 1-2, M., 1921-22) and O. V. Aptekman (“From the history of revolutionary populism “Earth” and will" of the 70s", Rostov n/D., 1907). The first memoirs of workers include “Memoirs” of the leader of the Morozov strike P. A. Moiseenko (M., 1924) and the memoirs of V. Gerasimov (first published in the magazine “Byloe”, 1906, No. 6). The composition of memoirists and the topics of memoirs in Russia changed fundamentally after October. The authors of memoirs are primarily figures revolutionary movement, recreating the course of the heroic struggle against tsarism and the bourgeois system. There are especially many M. about Vel. Oct. socialist revolution (memoirs of V. Antonov-Ovseenko “In the Seventeenth Year”, M., 1933; book by the American communist J. Reed “Ten Days that Shook the World” (N.Y., 1919; Russian translation, M., 1923); in the M. of its participants the civil war is clearly depicted (“ Civil War 1918-1921", vol. 1-3, M., 1928-30, and many others). Since 1924, many memoirs about V.I. Lenin began to be published. In the context of Stalin’s personality cult, their publication almost ceased. After 1956 a new rise in Soviet memoirs has begun, in which memories of Lenin occupy a prominent place (collection "Memoirs of V.I. Lenin", parts 1-3, M., 1956-60, etc.), about Vel . Patriotic War(by the end of 1965, more than 100 books on this topic were published in the USSR alone in the “War Memoirs” series). The composition of memoirists and the themes of their books changed sharply in other countries with the victory of socialism there. revolutions. In foreign socialist countries of M. are devoted to a significant extent to revolution. fight in modern times, anti-fascist. movement, socialist transformations, etc. These are M. Bolg. partisans ("Botevtsi", Sofia, 1959), M. state. Hungarian figure I. Dobi “Memories and History” (Dobi I., Vallom?s es t?rt?nelem, k?t. 1-2, Bdpst, 1962), collective M. about the formation of the GDR “We are strength” ( "Wir sind die Kraft", V., 1959), etc. With the growth of the national liberation movement in the countries of Asia, Africa and Latvia. America, M. leaders of this movement appear, many of whom later became political. figures liberated from imperialism. oppression of countries: M.K. Gandhi, My Life (v. 1-2, Ahmadabad, 1927-29; Russian translation, M., 1959), J. Nehru, Autobiography (L., 1930; Russian translation. , M., 1955); K. Nkrumah, Autobiography (L., 1957; Russian translation, M., 1961) and others. M. many bourgeois. state, political and other figures of the 20th century. distinguished, among many other class features, by an anti-Soviet orientation, for example, W. Churchill’s memoirs “The World Crisis” (v. 1-6, R., 1923-31; Russian translation, M.-L., 1932), R. Poincare "In the Service of France... Memoirs 1914-1918" (v. 1-10, R., 1926-33; Russian translation, vol. 1-2, M., 1936), G. Hoover (N Hoover, Memoirs, v. 1-3, N.Y., 1952). At the same time, more and more M. worker veterans are appearing and will be released. capitalist movements countries (T. Mann, Memoirs, translated from English, M.-L., 1924; M. Thorez, Son of the People, translated from French, M., 1950; S. Katayama, Memoirs, translated from Japanese ., M., 1964; M. Chilean communist E. Laferte, Life of a Communist, translated from Spanish, M., 1961, and many others). M. are a document of the era of their creation. They are often used as a political tool. and ideological struggle, and are often written for purely practical and even selfish purposes of the author. Sometimes one of the main purposes of writing M. is to settle scores with one’s politicians. opponents. These are, for example, to a certain extent the M. of the Tsar's Minister S. Yu. Witte ("Memoirs", vol. 1-3, M.-P., 1923-24). Other M. authors exaggerate their role in events or present their actions in a light favorable to themselves. Yes, tour. state the figure Dzhemal Pasha in his “Notes” (Russian translation, Tiflis, 1923) seeks to absolve himself of responsibility for the policies of the Young Turks in 1914-18. Many M. political. figures have a pronounced character of self-praise or apologetics (for example, M. Napoleon). In a number of cases, memoirists deliberately keep silent important facts. For example, Talleyrand, who wrote his M. during the Bourbon restoration, kept silent about his participation in the activities of the Establishment. revolutionary meetings France at the end of the 18th century. Despite the variety of specific tasks and goals of memoirists, their works are united by the fact that, unlike other sources of personal origin, they are written, as a rule, after the memoirists find themselves outside the environment associated with the events depicted in M. Observations and impressions of eyewitnesses in M. are often adjusted under the influence of the author’s new interests and other circumstances. The characteristic features of M. are: subjectivity, determined by the social or political positions of the authors, as well as the limitations of their individual experience, and the retrospective nature of the presentation of facts. Memoir’s specific primary source is memory (however, along with it, memoirists often use a variety of documentation, diaries, letters, the press, etc.). M., like any other sources, are used by historians only after careful source criticism. The purpose of the latter is to determine the degree of reliability and completeness of the content of the materials, taking into account all variants of their text and data from a comparison of the studies under study with those of other authors on similar or related topics. In this case, the analysis of authorship plays a primary role, in particular social status and biographical data from the memoirists, their worldview, the degree of participation in the events covered, and specific goals when writing memoirs. For all their peculiarities and certain uncertainty of the boundaries of the genre, memoirs are extremely valuable historical. source. Reflecting the past in its specificity, memoirs contain a wealth of material for studying the psychology and life of society as a whole, as well as individual societies. groups. Thanks to M. the historical can be recreated. the background against which events unfolded, the atmosphere and flavor of a particular era, the logic of people’s behavior is clarified. Sometimes in M. you can find unpublished or unknown documents, letters, etc. in whole or in fragments. In a number of cases M. is the only or main source our knowledge about individual segments of history, about past events or their individual aspects. Of considerable value are the literary portraits given in M. of persons who played outstanding role in history. B means. Thanks to M., students and associates of Marx, Engels, and Lenin, living images of the founders of Marxism-Leninism were preserved for history. Bibliographies and collections M.: Memories of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Annotated index of books and journal articles 1954-1961, M., 1963 (compiled by F. N. Kudryavtsev); Mintslov S.R., Review of notes, diaries, memoirs, letters and travels related to the history of Russia and printed in Russian. language, c. 1-5, Novgorod, 1911-12; Story Soviet society in the memoirs of contemporaries, 1917-1957. Annotated index of memoir literature, part 1, M., 1958; the same, part 2, c. 1, Journal publications 1917-1927, M., 1961; Index of memoirs, diaries and travel notes of the 18th-19th centuries, M., 1951; Collection des m?moires relatifs a la R?volution d´Angleterre, publ... par F. P. G. Guizot, t. 1-25, P., 1823-25; Collection des m?moires r?latifs a la R?volution fran?aise... publ. par S. A. Berville et J. F. Barri?re, v. 1-68, P., 1820-28; Biblioth?que des m?moires relatifs a l´histoire de France pendant le XVIII si?cle, ?d. Barri?re F. et A. de Lescure, v. 1-28, P., 1846-66; the same, Nouvelle série avec introductions, notices et notes par M. de Lescure, v. 29-37, P., 1875-81; Collection des mémoires relatifs a l´histoire de France... jusqu´au XIII si?cle, publ... par F. Guizot, v. 1-30, P., 1823-35; Nouvelle collection des m?moires sur l´histoire de France... jusqu´a la fin du XVIII si?cle..., ?d. J.-F. Michaud et J. J. F. Poujoulat, pt. 1-34, P., 1836-39; Westphal M., Die besten deutschen Memoiren aus 7 Jahrhunderten, Lpz., 1923. Lit.: Cardin V., Today about yesterday. Memoirs and modernity, M., 1961 (popular science book); Chernomorsky M.N., Memoirs as a historical source, M., 1959 (Soviet period of the history of the USSR); Derevnina L.I., On the term “memoirs” and the classification of memoir sources (historiography of the issue). - "Issues of archival science", 1963, No. 4; Caboche Ch., Les m?moires et l'histoire en France, t. 1-2, P., 1863; Wolf G., Einf?hrung in das Studium der neueren Geschichte, V., 1910, S. 324 404. I. Ya. Bisk. Tambov.

Do you want to know, how to write a memoir about your life? How to write memoirs without looking like a fool? How to remember the events of your life? How to correctly present all this in the correct sequence?

“To restore oneself through memories means to be resurrected by uniting oneself in the present with oneself in the past.”
Lev Karsavin.

If you have already decided to write your own memoirs, but do not know where to start, then this article is just for you. Well, if you still don’t know why write memoirs, then read.

Where to start writing memoirs

Firstly, it should be understood that memoirs- this is not an autobiography, in which the narrative begins from birth and sequentially passes through the entire “life calendar”. In memoirs, this sequence is not an axiom, although some orderliness is needed. You can simply take some significant piece of your life and build your memoirs on it.

Many people turn to their childhood as the most mysterious and interesting topic for memoirs. The difficulty is that few people remember their own childhood in such detail that they could write at least a couple of pages of text about it. But that's just how it seems.

In fact, you just haven’t remembered your childhood for a long time. Once you start, you can be captured by such a powerful wave of memories that it’s enough for more than one notebook. They will help you here family albums with photographs, old letters, diaries, music and video recordings and, of course, stories from your relatives.

And also the Internet! Yes Yes. You can find a lot of useful reminders of the past here. Now on many forums and social networks there are sections and groups where visitors post a lot of pictures and nostalgic memories from the Soviet past. Here are children's toys of that time, industrial goods, food products, and much more.

Looking through these materials, you may suddenly remember that this is exactly the toy you had in your childhood, and the sight of kefir bottles with a foil cap or chewing gum “Well, wait a minute” for 15 kopecks may lead you to long-forgotten memories that you just and would never remember.

Secondly, it is very useful to read already published memoirs as an example. Find Memory Speak by Vladimir Nabokov, or In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, or My early years» Winston Churchill. You shouldn’t be embarrassed by the fact that they were great writers, but your writing at school only got C grades or worse. You don't have to become one of the greats. But there is a lot to learn from them. At least just to be inspired.

Thirdly, you should find some key, very significant moment in your past, from which you can go on a journey down the waves of memory. Start remembering it in all possible detail and writing it down in a draft.

Perhaps at the same time you will begin to remember earlier events that are also very significant for you. Write them down too. You can draw a mind map using this key event as a basis. This is a very good help, which can serve as a kind of plan for you to write a subsequent detailed text.

It's a start, what's next?

Let's assume you find the right one key moment your life and began to write down memories of him, even if it’s still quite chaotic. How to make it so that later it all looks more or less like a book, and not like a collection of incoherent passages that no one but you will be interested in reading.

Any fiction must have a plot. It is the plot that draws in the reader and arouses his interest in further reading. No plot - no interest.

In the case of memoirs, everything is exactly the same. You need to link all your memories into some coherent plot. The difficulty is that at the very beginning of taking notes, this plot is not always visible even to you. You simply write down your memories, not knowing in advance what else will pop up in your memory.

Therefore, build storyline in memoirs, it makes sense from about the middle of the story or even at the very end, when you yourself come to certain conclusions and results. You may even want to rewrite everything again, shuffling the memories and arranging them in a completely different order.

Of course, in your narrative there should be some bright, anchor events, conflicts that you either managed to resolve, or they left a noticeable imprint on your life. This piques the reader's interest. If everything is written down smoothly, without any outbursts of emotional waves, then reading it will be unbearably boring even for you.

Therefore, do not spare emotions and do not hesitate to write them out in all colors. After all, you are writing the book of your life. So let it be bright!

“Memories are magical clothes that do not wear out from use.”
Robert Stevenson.

As with any successful endeavor, there must be a certain method to writing a memoir. If, on a wave of enthusiasm, you “remembered” a cart and a small cart in one evening, quickly wrote it all down, and then abandoned it for a month or two, then later you are guaranteed to have to start all over again. It will be very difficult to start from the same place where you left off last time.

Therefore, it is better to write at least a little, but every day, or every other day or two, but do not give up this activity for a long time.

Many people may be put off from the idea of ​​creating memoirs by the fact that they need to allocate time for remembering and subsequent writing, but there is not enough of it anyway. Take an example from the famous writer Julia Cameron. She often writes in fits and starts, when she has a free minute or two in her daily life.

You can go about your daily activities and at the same time remember something from your past, making short notes in a notebook, on a smartphone or laptop, or even just on paper napkins or on any piece of paper. To do this, you don’t need to set aside any special time, lock yourself in a strict office with an oak table and a table lamp a la “Serious Writer”.

What can you write in your memoirs?

The truth! Memoirs are not fiction. First of all, it is a truthful description of events that took place in the past, and the author’s thoughts about these very events, his attitude towards them, the emotions, thoughts and conclusions associated with them.

Moreover, the word “truth” means that you will not describe yourself only with positive side, but you will also tell us without concealment about some negative aspects. Life consists not only of successes, but also of failures. When you talk about them, you inspire trust in the reader.

Do not use passive constructions and clericalisms in the text. It's just mega-boring! Passive designs are an official style that smacks of bureaucracy.

Examples of passive constructions: “tasks were completed,” “problems were solved,” “the work was done,” etc. Instead, use active constructions: “I completed the task,” “we solved the problem,” “I did this work.”

Stationery- words and figures of speech that also came from the official style of business papers. These are all kinds: is, is taking place, was in the state that, this, called, should, according to, in case of, in connection with, due to the fact that, despite the fact that, due to the fact that, namely, as well as, etc.

Use as little as possible difficult words, definition words, very long words or very rare words (obsolete). You may consider this to be a decoration of the text, but the reader will not understand this, or will think that you are just showing off.

Describe events in a specific environment, not uncertainties hanging in the air. If this event took place in a cafe, give a brief but comprehensive description of the decoration of this coffee shop and its customers. This will immerse the reader in a specific environment and make them feel the atmosphere of the space.

Use sensory descriptions rather than simply: oak table, red lamp, fat waiter. Instead write: the rough surface of an oak tabletop, the soft and mysterious light of an old red lamp, a fat and clumsy waiter, “smelling” of sour soup, in a dirty, crumpled apron.

The reader must experience it all for himself. Therefore, use more words that describe specific sensations - visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory and gustatory.

In addition, in memoirs it is quite acceptable and even encouraged to use metaphors, quotes, dialogues and other literary embellishments, as long as they are appropriate and fit into the overall outline of the narrative. They will not only diversify your text, but also add zest, which is always popular with readers.

How to finish a memoir

Any good (read interesting) story has a beginning and an end. Your memoirs too. They cannot be left halfway unsaid. You may not be able to draw any vital conclusions yourself, but the story must be brought to its logical conclusion. If the story is still ongoing, then your memoirs are not finished yet and will be supplemented with new materials over time.

When you finish writing, reread everything from beginning to end and “drain water” along the way. This means that it is necessary to eliminate from the text everything that is unnecessary, not essential, or is written in too florid and detailed. If these ornateness and details do not reveal the essence of the matter, then they are clearly useless.

It is very easy to check the text for “water”: you read the sentence, see a dubious word in it, delete it and check whether the meaning and essence of the sentence has been lost. If not, then the word was indeed superfluous.

You check a paragraph of text in the same way. If any sentence in it is superfluous, then away with it! And you do the same with the paragraphs themselves, mercilessly removing them from the text.

After all these heroic efforts, you have to take an equally heroic step - give the memoirs to your closest friends and family, whom you trust, to read. Thus, you pursue two goals:

1. Check how interesting and informative your story is (based on reviews);
2. Check how completely the information is presented.

The second point may lead you to want to supplement your memoirs with information that your first readers will provide you with. Perhaps you yourself could not remember something, but it turned out to be significant. You may have made a mistake in your memories, and your friends can help you correct this.

Anyway, Feedback needed. So don't be shy about asking people to read your writing and give that feedback.

Go for it!

If you liked the article, please rate it and share on social networks:

Igor Levchenko. Writer, blogger, photographer. Psychologist by training, storyteller by vocation. Life credo - everything happens at the right time!

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Comments:

Tatiana
19.10.2016

I've been thinking about writing my own memoirs for a long time. Thank you for useful tips!)

Maria Dmitrieva
18.12.2016

Curious! I always thought that memoirs were something purely for writers, not for ordinary people. I don't know if I would like to write my memoirs. Maybe in the future.

Igor Levchenko
19.12.2016

Maria, everyone comes to this in their own time :)

Svetik
26.01.2017

I haven’t thought about memoirs yet, but I’ve been keeping a diary since I was 10 years old. I have already accumulated a whole box)) Maybe in the future they will be useful to me for my memoirs. Thank you for this article!))

Igor Levchenko
26.01.2017

The diary is just a great helper in this matter! I even envy you a little :) I started keeping my notes only in adulthood.

Vyacheslav
27.01.2017

Igor, have you already written your memoirs? :)

Igor Levchenko
07.03.2017

Vyacheslav, I’m writing little by little :)) This process is long and very interesting. The more you remember, the more new memories come that you had completely forgotten about. We have to correct something, add something. So everything is in progress.

Yuri
07.03.2017

More than 20 years ago, I began to think... how to present my life correctly and accurately, without moralizing... from the baby home to graduation... I started writing several times..., I gave up, I started again, the desire remained, but the “enthusiasticism” was no longer there. In the article, Everything is explained so clearly..Thank you!

Igor Levchenko
07.03.2017

Please, Yuri! With age, enthusiasm is replaced by pragmatism. To start doing something again, you just have to start, without any enthusiasm and any expectations. Interest will appear in the process. I do this myself all the time. Sometimes I have absolutely no desire to write, but the habit has already developed, so I just sit down and write. And gradually, if not enthusiasm, then just interest in working further appears. That's how we live:)

Yuri
08.03.2017

Thank you. Good luck!

Igor Levchenko
11.03.2017

Thank you, Yuri! And you too! :) If you have any questions, I will be happy to help

Natasha
10.05.2017

In the synopsis of an autobiographical story (for the publisher), is the description given in the third person? Thank you.

Igor Levchenko
10.05.2017

Natasha, that’s right, usually in a synopsis they write in the third person.

Alexander
13.10.2017

I’ve thought about writing my memoirs many times, but I don’t feel like writing, I’ve been writing all my life, at work, letters, analytical notes, theses, etc. I would like to dictate. M.b. anyone will help. but I want to call it this: Fortune Telling.

Igor Levchenko
13.10.2017

Alexander, everything is in your hands! :) If you write a lot yourself, then you are unlikely to like how another person will describe your life. You will constantly see shortcomings either in the style or in the presentation of the material. In addition, memories are a tricky thing; something new always pops up as you write.

Valentina
10.12.2017

I wrote a book. I re-read it. It became sad and offensive. Deleted. Now family and friends are increasingly reminding us that it’s time to get back to this business. I don't want to write under my own name. How to stay incognito? I don’t want to show my memoirs to my family. Why do they need to know the painful details of my life? How do people even find a publisher?

MEMOIR LITERATURE- literature in the genre of memoirs (French mémoires, from Latin memoria memory), a type of documentary literature and at the same time one of the types of “confessional prose.” It implies notes-memoirs of a historical person about real events of the past, which he happened to be an eyewitness. The main prerequisites for the work of a memoirist are strict compliance with historical truth, factuality, chronicity of the narrative (leading the story along the milestones of the real past), refusal to “play” with the plot, conscious anachronisms, and deliberately artistic techniques. These formal features bring memoirs closer to the diary genre, with the significant difference that, unlike a diary, memoirs imply retrospection, an appeal to a fairly distant past, and an inevitable mechanism for re-evaluating events from the height of the experience accumulated by the memoirist. in memories The story of my contemporary(1954) expressed the ideal aspirations of a memoirist: “In my work I strived for the most complete historical truth, often sacrificing to it beautiful or bright features artistic truth. There will be nothing here that I haven’t encountered in reality, that I haven’t experienced, felt, or seen.”

In terms of their material, reliability and lack of fiction, the memoirs are close to historical prose, scientific-biographical, autobiographical and documentary-historical essays. However, what distinguishes memoirs from autobiography is their focus on displaying not only and not so much the personality of the author, but the environment around him. historical reality, external events - socio-political, cultural, etc., to which, to a greater or lesser extent, to a lesser extent he was involved. At the same time, unlike strictly scientific genres, memoirs imply the active presence of the author’s voice, his individual assessments and inevitable bias. Those. One of the constructive factors of memoir literature is the author’s subjectivity.

Memoir literature– an important source of historiography, material from historical source studies. At the same time, in terms of the actual accuracy of the reproduced material, memoirs are almost always inferior to documents. Therefore, historians are forced to subject event facts from the memoirs of public and cultural figures to critical verification with available objective information. In the case when a certain memoir fact finds neither confirmation nor refutation in available documents, the evidence about it is considered by historiography as scientifically valid only hypothetically.

The persistent features of memoirs as a form of literature are factuality, the predominance of events, retrospectiveness, immediacy of evidence, which in no way ensure the “purity of the genre.” Memoirs remain one of the most fluid genres with extremely fuzzy boundaries. Memoir signs do not always indicate that the reader is dealing with memoirs. So, on the first page of a book endowed with all the above characteristics S. Maugham Summing up(1957), the author warns that this work is not a biography or memoir. Although his gaze invariably goes back to the past, the main goal here is not to recreate the past, but to confess artistic faith, summing up the results of half a century of literary development. The genre of Maugham's book is not a memoir, but an extended essay.

In the 19th century, as the principle of historicism developed, memoir prose, which had already reached maturity, was conceptualized as an important source of scientific and historical reconstructions. Attempts to abuse this reputation of the genre immediately make themselves felt. Pseudo-memoirs and various memoir hoaxes emerge. These tendencies are especially clearly noticeable in works devoted to purely mythologized figures of history and already completed cycles of the past. As a result, annoying historical misconceptions are possible in works based on unsubstantiated memoir sources. So, D.S.Merezhkovsky in his sketch about A.S. Pushkin from the cycle Eternal companions (1897) built the entire concept of the poet’s work on the notes of Pushkin’s friend A.O. Smirnova. However, after several years it became clear that these memories were entirely falsified by her daughter, O.N. Smirnova. Another example is memoirs. St. Petersburg winters G.Ivanova, dedicated to recreating the atmosphere of the pre-revolutionary years of the “Silver Age”. There is reason to believe it literary text, based on conventional literary technique. The literature of the Russian post-revolutionary emigration, in which memoirs generally played a particularly significant role, provided, along with masterpieces of prose in the genre of memoirs, many examples of mystified and falsified memoirs (the fake “diary” of the maid of honor of Empress Alexandra, patroness G. Rasputin A.A. Vyrubova and others).

In the literature of the 19th–20th centuries. Purely works of fiction with a fictitious plot are often styled as memoirs. The purpose of such a technique can be different: from recreating the atmosphere of time through the genre ( Captain's daughter (1836) by Pushkin, where the use of the memoir genre in Pyotr Grinev’s “Notes” - one of the main forms of literature of the 18th century. - acts as a stylization technique “for the Catherine era”) to give the text special sincerity, authenticity, compositional freedom and the illusion of independence from the “will of the author” ( Netochka Nezvanova(1849) and Little hero (from unknown memoirs) (1857) by F.M. Dostoevsky).

Often, autobiographical works are indistinguishable from memoirs in their literary qualities. But these genres can also pursue different goals. Autobiography is more easily subject to fictionalization, transition to artistic literature. So, in autobiographical trilogy L.N. Tolstoy Childhood (1852), Boyhood (1854), Youth(1857) memoirs are subordinated not to the actual memoir, but to the artistic task - the psychological study of character and creative understanding of philosophical categories that are important for the author (consciousness, reason, understanding, etc.). For this reason, in terms of genre, Tolstoy’s trilogy is closer to novel than memoirs.

Directly opposite cases are also possible. So, in Family chronicle(1856) and The childhood years of Bagrov the grandson (1858) S.T. Aksakova main character appears under an assumed name, which is natural for fiction. However, the author’s task here is purely memoiristic: the resurrection of the past and its “atmosphere”, a true memory of the past. In terms of genre, both books belong specifically to memoir literature. It is no coincidence that openly memoir-documentary Memories(1856) by Aksakov are perceived as a direct continuation of the dilogy about Bagrov.

The mobility of the memoir genre is also facilitated by its stylistic variability. The narration here can also be noted for its colorfulness literary prose (Childhood(1914) and In people(1916) M. Gorky), and journalistic bias ( People, years, life (1960–1965) I. Ehrenburg), and a strictly scientific justification of what is happening (parts 5–7 Of the past and thoughts(1852–1867) A.I. Herzen). The precariousness of the border between memoirs and artistic, journalistic, scientific genres was determined in Russian and Western European literature by the mid-19th century. This was greatly facilitated by the crisis of romanticism and the strengthening of a new aesthetics aimed at imitation of reality in its social concreteness - the aesthetics of realism. V.G. Belinsky in the article A look at Russian literature of 1847(1848) already records this genre amorphousness of memoir prose: “Finally, memoirs themselves, completely alien to any fiction, valuable only to the extent that they faithfully and accurately convey actual events, memoirs themselves, if they are masterfully written, constitute, as it were, the last facet in the field of the novel, closing it with himself.”

An unsurpassed example of mature and at the same time extremely complex in terms of genre, multi-component memoir prose - Past and thoughts Herzen. As the author's plan was realized, this work turned from notes about a purely personal, family past into something like a “biography of humanity.” Here, a deliberate fusion of genre features of memoirs and journalism, “biography and speculation,” diary and literary portraits, fictional short stories, scientific factography, confession, essay and pamphlet is achieved. The result is a literary form that, in the author’s words, “doesn’t lace up anywhere and doesn’t pinch anywhere.” The hero of the book is not the author himself (as in ordinary, one-dimensional memoirs from the point of view of the genre) and not contemporary history (as in historical chronicles), but the most complex process of eventful and spiritual interaction between the individual and society in a certain era. Herzen’s book went beyond the natural boundaries of memoir prose itself and became the most important programmatic text of the era “ critical realism" V European literature. It is characteristic that Western criticism could discern an even broader historical and literary significance behind this text. So, a review about the author White and doom in one of the issues of the London newspaper “The Leader” for 1862 concluded with the conclusion: “Goethe could see in it a clear confirmation of the theory of a future universal literature.”

In the first half. 20th century in the era of the so-called “the end of the novel,” when literature experienced a crisis of traditional conventional forms and switched to the border between fiction and document, a series of synthetic texts appeared ( On western front no change(1929) E.M. Remarque, Life in Bloom(1912) A. France, The noise of time (1925) O. Mandelstam, later in line with the same tradition - My diamond crown (1978) V. Kataeva and etc.). In them, the memoir principle is included in the organic nature of fiction. Historical material, real life the author is transformed into a fact of art, and stylistics is subordinated to the task of producing an aesthetic impact on the reader. On the maturity and completeness of the process of “adoption” of memoir prose by fiction of the 20th century. evidence of the parodic use of its laws in the genre of the novel ( Confessions of adventurer Felix Krul (1954) T.Manna).

The measure of historical content of memoirs and the very type of their practical use by various humanities disciplines as sources largely depend on the personality of the author. If a memoirist is a bright and extremely significant person for history and culture, then the focus of interest in the reader’s and research’s perception of his text is inevitably focused on the author himself. In this case, historical material fades into the background. A striking example of an essay of this kind is Ten years in exile(1821) madam de Stael , outstanding woman era, one of the brilliant writers and cultural figures of romanticism. A sample of memories of a different type was left by the Duke of Saint-Simon. His Memoirs(published in 1829–1830) are valuable primarily for small facts, details that meticulously convey the atmosphere of court life in Paris during the last twenty-five years of the reign of Louis XIV and the regency period. As a result, the memoirs of Madame de Staël are the object of attention primarily of literary scholars, while the memoirs of Saint-Simon are the object of attention of historians. Since the 1940s, thanks to the researchers of the “Annals School” (L. Febvre, F. Braudel, J. Le Goff, etc.) historical science is experiencing a surge of interest in the memoirs of unremarkable and non-public people. Their works (by type: “notes of a German miller of the mid-17th century,” “notes of a London merchant mediocre beginning of the 18th century." etc.) help to restore the objective history of everyday life, to identify certain social stereotypes that capture the characteristic, the standard, and not the exceptional. Memoirs of this kind are an important source of the history of civilization and historical sociology.

Memoir literature has its origins in memories Xenophon about Socrates (4th century BC) and his Anabasis(401 BC) - notes on the military campaign of the Greeks. Antique samples genre, which also includes Notes on the Gallic War of Julius Caesar (1st century BC), are impersonal and tend to be historical chronicles. Christian Middle Ages ( Confession(approx. 400) Bl. Augustine , The story of my disasters (1132– 1136) P. Abelard, partly New life (1292) Dante and other monuments) brings to the genre developed sense the narrator's inner self, moral introspection and repentant tone. The emancipation of personality and the development of individualistic consciousness during the Renaissance, clearly reflected in Life Benvenuto Cellini(1558–1565), prepared the flowering of memoirs in the 17th–18th centuries. (Saint-Simon, Cardinal G. Mazarin, J.-J. Rousseau, etc.)

In the 19th–20th centuries. Memoirs of writers and about writers are becoming one of the leading genres of literature. Thus, literary memoirs proper are formed, people leave their memories J.-W. Goethe , Stendhal , G. Heine , G.-H. Andersen , A.France , R. Tagore , G. Mann , R. Rolland , J.-P. Sartre , F. Mauriac and etc.

In Russia, memoir literature dates back to Stories about the Grand Duke of Moscow(mid 16th century) Andrey Kurbsky. An important milestone in the formation of personal self-awareness in Russian literature is autobiographical Life(1672–1675) archpriest Habakkuk. Vivid monuments of Russian memoirs of the 18th century. – The life and adventures of Andrei Bolotov(c. 1780), Handwritten notes of Empress Catherine II(published in 1907), Notes(published in 1804–1806) E.R. Dashkova, Sincere confession in my deeds and thoughts (1789) D.I. Fonvizina. The rapid development of memoir literature in Russia in the 19th century. associated with the memories of N.I. Turgenev, Decembrists I. Pushchin, I. Yakushkin, M. Bestuzhev, writer N. Grech, censors A. Nikitenko, E. Feoktistov, writers I. S. Turgenev, I. A. Goncharov and others .Factual details in descriptions literary life 2nd floor 19th century The memoirs of A.Ya. Panaeva, N.A. Ogareva-Tuchkova, T.A. Kuzminskaya are valuable. The social situation of these years is reflected in Notes of a revolutionary(1899) P.A. Kropotkina, On life path (published in 1912) A.F. Koni.

The revival of memoir literature, associated with a series of memoirs about the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary era published in the USSR and in emigration, occurred in the 1920s–1930s. (memoirs of K. Stanislavsky, V. Veresaev, A. Bely, G. Chulkova, etc.).

A new surge in memoir literature in the USSR, caused by the “Khrushchev Thaw,” began in the mid-1950s. Numerous memoirs are published about writers who did not quite fit into the structure Soviet ideology: V. Mayakovsky, S. Yesenin, Yu. Tynyanov and others. Numerous memoir essays by K. Chukovsky, The Story of Life (1955) by K. Paustovsky, collections of memoirs about E. Schwartz, I. Ilf and E. Petrov are published. In the series “Khudozhestvennaya Literatura,” founded by the publishing house “Khudozhestvennaya Literatura” in the 1960s, Literary memoirs» the memoirs of A. and P. Panayev, P. Annenkov, T.P. are published. Passek, collections of memoirs about N.V. Gogol, M.Yu. Lermontov, V.G. Belinsky, L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky.

Since the late 1980s, materials have been published about the artistic life of the “Silver Age” and the memories of representatives of the Russian emigration ( On Parnassus Silver Age (1962) K. Makovsky, On the banks of the Neva(1967) and On the Banks of the Seine (1983) by I. Odoevtseva, A calf butted heads with an oak tree (1990) A. Solzhenitsyn ,Italics are mineN. Berberova etc.), previously unpublished.

Since the early 1990s in Russia, an avalanche of memoirs has been published from the pens of contemporary political and cultural figures, many of which are more a fact of social life than literature itself.

Vadim Polonsky

Literature:

Gennadi G. Notes (memoirs) of Russian people. Bibliographical instructions // Readings at the Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities at Moscow University. 1861, book. 4
Pylyaev M.I. Notes of Russian people// Historical Bulletin, 1890. T. 39
Index of memoirs, diaries and travel notes of the 18th–19th centuries. M., 1951
Annotated index of memoir literature. Part 1, M., 1985. Part 2, 1961
Cardin V . Today is about yesterday. Memoirs and modernity. M., 1961
Katanyan V. O writing memoirs // New world, 1964, № 5
Elizavetina G. Formation of the genres of autobiography and memoirs // Russian and Western European classicism . Prose. M., 1982
Literary Memoirs of the 20th Century: An Annotated Index. 1985–1989. M., 1995. Parts 1–2