Dmitry Nikolaevich Sverbeev (1799-1874), nobleman, retired diplomat, cordial owner of the Moscow salon, is known primarily for his memoirs created in the last years of his life. In them, he vividly and in detail describes the events of the XIX century. and his many contemporaries who lived at that time, accompanying the memories with excursions into the history of the XVIII century. The memoirist attaches particular importance to the characterization of people of his era, and therefore the reader is presented with a gallery of beautifully executed verbal portraits of contemporaries: the Obreskov, Kikin, Yazykov, Norov, Golokhvastov, I. Kapodistrias, F.C. Lagarpa, A.I. Herzen, V.F. Odoevsky, N.I. Turgeneva, A.S. Shishkova and many others. other.