Abstract: The subject of this study is the Russian memoirs on the defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855. This complex of sources is considered by the author as a single, historically developed body of work. The study serves to raise the question of the overall chronological parameters of the examined source complex. The article is focused on published memoirs, which the author discovered to be about 200 units. The given formulation of this problem requires special attention towards the socio-historiographic context on the background of which the memoir tradition developed, which the author carried out by analyzing how the historical memory concerning the defense of Sevastopol was formed. The methodological basis of this work is grounded on the principles of historicism and scientific objectivity, and the special methods: historical-typological, problem-chronological, and source-study analyses. The novelty of this study consists in it raising the question of conducting a source-study examination of memoirs on the defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855. Considering these memoirs from the point of view of their own history as a single complex has allowed the author to write the development process of the memoir genre on this topic into the context of the evolution of the memoir genre in Russia in general. The conducted source-study analysis is the principal foundation for a deeper and more effective uncovering of the factual information embedded in memoires. This study outlines the promising vectors for further searches of memoir works.