Memoirs of Count A.A. Ignatiev tells about the fate of an officer of the Russian Imperial Army. The author describes in detail his training in the cadet and page corps, talks about the days spent in the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff, shares his thoughts on the tragic Russo-Japanese war. The fate of the count at the beginning of the 20th century was not much different from most of his colleagues in the Russian imperial army, but the revolutionary upheavals dramatically changed his life and views.