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This paper concerns ideological contexts of the competitions of memoirs while regarded as a source of sociological data in Poland. I deal with this problem with reference to the two episodes from history of this type of research. The first of them led to 'New Generation of Peasants' by Józef Chałasiński in 1938. The second yielded series of competitions on autobiographies from the early period of People's Poland (1948-1956). I argue that ideologization of the topics and instructions included in the competitions' announcements bears on substantial methodological consequences. Without objecting validity of the Polish memoirs' collections, I point out its limitations and analytical possibilities.