In the center of the narrative are the author's memoirs of participation in the competition of history textbooks for schools of working youth and subsequent postgraduate studies at the Moscow Regional Pedagogical Institute. All events are given in the context of the target orientation and creative activity of the author, his scientific development and personal introspection. In the section “Strokes to portraits”, V.F.Antonov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, supervisor of the applicant, as well as A.V.Shestakov, co-author of an art-historical reader dedicated to the ancient world, are characterized.

The focus of these essays-memoirs are three extraordinary personalities with whom fate brought the author together during his work as a teacher at the Crimean Pedagogical Institute. The second essay deals with the joint creative work of the author of the essay with V.M.Cherny over the theme of the revolutionary, writer and orientalist Oscar Tarkhanov and over historical short stories (the book “With the Stamp of Yalta”). The second essay is dedicated to the poet M.L.Grunin, head of the youth literary association at the Crimean organization of the Writers' Union. The character of the third essay is a talented teacher S.F.Sklyarenko. His letters from Sevastopol testify to the rejection by the disabled and war veteran of the nationalist policies of the Ukrainian ruling elite

The essay tells about the fate of the Yalta archpriest of St. Dimitri (Kiranov), his wife Anna Lvovna and son Lev Dmitrievich. The couple are godparents of the author of the essay, who spent his childhood near the church of St. John Chrysostom and put his memories and impressions into the essay. The participation of Father Dimitri, together with other Crimean clergy, in resisting the onslaught of the Bolshevik government and the Renovationist Church, in defending the constitutional rights of the Russian Orthodox Church is presented. A faithful and worthy companion in his life was Mother Anna. Together they experienced persecution of the church, persecution, slanderous accusations, the exile of Father Dimitri to Kazakhstan, the expulsion of his son to Arkhangelsk. In 1937, Father Dimitri was arrested and shot on January 4, 1938. In 1997, he was canonized as a locally venerated saint, and in 2000, at the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, he was glorified for church-wide veneration as a new martyr.

The subject of the study is the determination of priority criteria for systematization and classification of multi-party systems in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. The genesis and evolution of political parties is examined, the role of the initiative minority in their creation and functioning is emphasized. The conclusion is substantiated that various groups of initiative minorities, comprehending the specific socio-historical situation in the country, develop their own models, ways and means of reorganizing society. On this basis, a system of political parties is formed, which compete with each other in the public political field, seeking support among the masses. The article gives the author's definition of the concept of “political party” and proposes criteria for classifying a party as one or another type.

Another fragment of memoirs is devoted to the difficult post-war period, when the author studied at the Yalta Agricultural College. The text contains a number of everyday details, conveys the spirit and mood of those years in the perception of a young man, describes an industrial practice in one of the collective farms in the Sudak region. Much attention is paid to the people who influenced the formation of the author's personality. Some storylines are devoted to his friends and the difficult fate of his father. The author holds the idea that common intellectual interests contribute to both personal friendship and creative development in adolescence.

This part of the memoirs is devoted to the time of studying the author at the historical faculty of the Crimean Pedagogical Institute. The essay considers the age composition and life orientation of provincial students, the preparation of historians for professional activities, life in the conditions of post-war residence in the hostel. Individual characteristics of teachers and students especially highlighted in the text are given. In the section “Strokes to portraits”, in particular, we are talking about two talented scientists – seismologist B. V. Kostrov and chemist E. A. Günner who, simultaneously with the author, were students of the Pedagogical Institute. Student everyday life is associated with reflection on sociopolitical life with the country.

This part of the memories is a five–year accumulation of teaching experience in general educational institutions of various types: a seven-year school at a sanatorium orphanage, a city seven-year school, an evening school for working youth. The professional formation of a history teacher is described in connection with the life of a young man in the Khrushchev era: everyday life, episodes of moral choice, political events in the country (the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU, etc.). The essay characterizes the comrades and friends of the author, hjlcndtyybrb (E.Korolevsky et al.), Crimean writers and poets (A.Nikanorkin, S.Slavich, S.Suponitsky). Students of the school of working youth from an anti-tuberculosis boarding house for war veterans and from among "people with bizarre fates" are also mentioned.

A fragment of the memoirs of O.V.Volobuev, Doctor of Historical Sciences (born in 1931), is dedicated to the events experienced by him and his family during the Great Patriotic War. The author verifies his own childhood impressions, referring to the memoirs and diaries of contemporaries who, like him, were in occupied Yalta at the end of 1941 – beginning of 1942. The following (until the summer of 1945) dramatic circumstances of life in the Ukrainian village of Novo-Ivanovka are also described. The war period is characterized by O.V.Volobuev as an important stage in personal development.

The presented fragment of memoirs describes the adolescent years spent by the author after the end of the war in the Zaporozhye region. This narrative includes living with relatives in Pologi, staying in an orphanage in Kamenka Dneprovskaya and studying at the Zaporozhye Technical School of Agricultural Engineering. The text contains a number of everyday sketches, as well as episodes from the life of the young man, reflecting the stages of his growing up.