The author refers to the problem of implementation of new sources on Russian émigré heritage into nowadays cultural research. Dr. Litavrina focuses upon the first-published memoir text of former Moscow Art Theatre actress Marie Guermanova (1883—1940). Having been released a decade ago, this outstanding document, in author’s view, still lacks researchers’ attention and thorough analysis. The very personality of Guermanova is regarded by some theatre historians as equivocal. In the article published below, the actress is represented as a keen witness and chronicler of Moscow life in the years of War and Revolution (1914—1919). The portraits of contemporaries, famous persons and ordinary people, given by her as observer, alongside with profound assumption of historical events, display her as an intellectual actress and outstanding representative of Russian Silver age. Later, Guermanova organized the so-called Prague group of Moscow Art theatre, which performed in 1923—1928 in Prague and then in Paris.