This study considers memoir books created by the artists who entered the national culture during the years of the Khrushchev Thaw, including “Promelk Bella (Glimpse of Bella)” by B. Messerer and “Masterskaya (Workshop)” by V. Volovich. These literary works are examined in the context of memories shared by the famous artists of the 1960s in various artistic genres (literature, music, theatre, cinema, etc.). The analyzed works revealed similarity in the artists’ goal setting, i.e. a traditional story “about the time and oneself”, a chronologically consistent narration of one’s fate in relation to the fate of one’s generation. The individual traits of the analyzed memories were determined, resulting from the authors’ creativity, originality and professional priorities. B. Messerer - a man of theatre - offered a dramatically transformed reality of the 1960s, while V. Volovich - a man of books - was prone to self-reflection and analysis. The conducted comparative study of the two memoirs, which were largely the authors’ final books, revealed the significance of the factor of place (regardless of whether it was a metropolitan or provincial location) for the personal or generational creative search. Such places for B. Messerer and V. Volovich were artistic workshops typical of that generation, which allowed “the black work of freedom” (V. Leonovich).