True Narrative, or the Life of Gavriil Dobrynin, Written by Himself. 1752-1823

The memoirs of the Vitebsk provincial prosecutor and college adviser Gabriel Ivanovich Dobrynin (1752–1824) are one of the most interesting memoirs in Russian history. At its core, these are the memories of a “little man”, all his life and the truth advancing in the ranks and in its family activities, who experienced the consequences of key events in the domestic and foreign policy of the late XVIII - early XIX centuries: Provincial and secular reforms of Catherine II and the accession of a number of lands , the bureaucratic Czech of the reign of Paul I, the Patriotic War of 1812 and much more.
Picturesque and partly even satirical, “narratives” of Dobrynin, which he had prepared for about 30 years, give amazingly rich material for characterizing the life of the highest and lower clergy and the service class as a whole and are the most important source for all those who are interested in Russian life in this historical period