The defi ning feature of memoirs as a genre is the understanding of the events and the author’s own role in them. The world of the language personality of the author-narrator becomes the dominant component, which forms the meaning of the text. One of the possibilities of its linguistic study is to rely on key concepts, which are implemented by some lexical units, refl ecting the worldview of the narrator and showing the conceptual and idiostylistic nature of the text. Studying military memoirs of Marshal Rokossovsky allowed to reveal a special role of the word preparation, which has a high frequency of use and is of a high importance as an evaluation tool. It may be considered one of the key words of the text because it refl ects one of the major areas of focus of Rokossovsky during the war. Thus, the meaning of the text in the genre of memoirs and personality of its creator can be interpreted by considering the important components in the activities of the author-narrator. One concept predominates the meaning of their work and becomes one of the key-concepts. From the perspective of this key concept the author evaluates events and their participants as positive or negative.