| Summary: | Aleksei Goldenweiser (1890–1979), a successful lawyer and an active participant of the Russian émigré community, left a rich legacy containing, in particular, memories of the revolutionary upheavals in his hometown Kiev. His memoirs are interesting not only as a testimony from a participant in these historical events, but also for what they reveal about the author’s complex identity. Being a Russian Jew and at the same time a native inhabitant of Kiev, Goldenweiser did not identify himself with either the Reds, the Whites, or the Ukrainian movement. His relationship with the Jewish environment was also ambiguous. Goldenweiser’s texts, despite their relative impartiality, reflect the position of a person trying to defend his professional and moral values in the hard conditions of the Russian Civil War. The memoirs reflect the specifics of the author’s worldview and at the same time give an interesting, Kiev-centred, perspective of the events of 1917–1921.
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