Memoirs of V.P. Smirnov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of Moscow State University, are already curious about the formulation of the task: on the basis of their own biography, try to reconstruct what he calls the history of the mental life of an ordinary Soviet person. In other words, what was the life of this person and what shaped him. Where did he get his knowledge of the world and what he knows today. How his world changed, what were the reasons for the changes and how their perception changed. Not limited to the reserves of his memory, the author often resorts to both the works of his fellow historians and the materials of newspapers, primarily the newspaper Pravda, which for more than 70 years has been the main printed organ of communist propaganda and the main source of information for most Soviet people. The songs that were then sung also played a role in shaping the emotional image of the era. An interesting document of the era are photographs that accompany the text of memories.