Image of the photography and the theme of memory in V. Astafyev's story “Photo without me”

The article discusses the artistic presentation of the theme of memory in V. Astafiev's story "Photo without Me" from the autobiographical book "The Last Tribute". We have analyzed the specificity of the central image of photography in the work. The memory in this story is “not heroized” (what is characteristic of M. M. Bakhtin’s autobiographies), but only in relation to the image of the central character and his relatives (a school friend, a grandmother). Closer to the finale, the narrator includes personal experience into the history of the family and the fatherland. The story overcomes the boundaries of the autobiographical genre, becomes a form of expression of the author's philosophical thought about the relationship between personal and historical memory, about the value of the memory of plain villagers, who rarely got photographed, but who had a life no less dramatic, worthy of memory, respect, and attention, than the lives of the recognized, illustrious heroes.