“First of all, I consider it necessary to say that I did not “compose” my “Memoirs,” but wrote only about what was preserved in my memory and, therefore, omitted everything that was not preserved in it. Hence the excessive detail on the one hand, the conciseness and brevity of the presentation on the other. But I maintained “sincerity” to the end, not allowing myself to evade the truth or allow tendentious coverage of the facts...”Prince N.D. Zhevakhov