This article shows national experience analysis of large-scale projects realization in the 1920s based on interviewing o dramatic events participants of the first quarter of the 20th century. The role of government in organizational structure formation of memories collecting — ISTPART and its central committees and local branches net — is considered The main aspects of their work are characterized. The article examines the artistic intelligentsia’s role in attracting activists to interviewing the events participants in the main cities and in the regions. The polling methods in Altai are shown on the example of the activity of A.V. Anohin, Kraeved artel, Pyatigodniki society. The participation of academic historians, in particular M. Pokrovsky, M.K. Rozhkova, A.M. Pankratova, in methodological support of oral history work is characterized. Forms and methods of work, recommendations for conducting polls and recording their results are analyzed; discussion materials dealing with oral testimony as a source of historic research are summarized. The author proves that the interest of the state in “oral history” (in search for the ideological basis of the new socialistic state) coincided with the interest of academic circles and regional study movement (mass enthusiasm of the new Soviet society).