The polyphony of the «living voices» of the war: features of the source and the possibilities of historians

The review of the publication of the documents "Confession of the Undefeated" states the significance of publishing the transcripts of conversations (interviews) with participants in the Defense of Sevastopol 1941-1942, the need of continuation of a comprehensive study of this part of the history of the Great Patriotic War. The authors of the review point to the peculiarities of this type of sources of personal origin, associated both with the primary procedures for obtaining them and with the specifics of their heuristic use at the present stage. In general, the importance of further publication of materials of the Commission on the History of the Great Patriotic War of the USSR Academy of Sciences, consistently carried out by employees of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is stated.