The foreign Slavic literatures of the last decade attach importance to documentary genres. Serbian documentary prose gives the description of the crucial events of the XXth century, tries to explain their causes, meaning and to predict consequences. There personal and national destinies are presented not only as reflection in the one soul, but as common for all. True story of concrete person acquires the features of a bright story about the dramatic events that time. Memories of M. Babovic (1921–1997) – «Time and Destiny» (2004) – is a striking example of the documentary genre. Posthumously published book reveals the outstanding literary talent of well-known researcher and translator of Russian classics XIX–XX centuries (Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Sholokhov, Leonov, Boris Pasternak and others).
The old diaries are the basis of memories which the author was writing during the last seven years of his life. The memories relate to 1943, when M. Babovic fought in the ranks of the guerrilla army of Yugoslavia. The most interesting events and meetings he continued to record a lifetime. We have the story of human life, whose fate was part of the destiny of the country which made a choice in 1945–1991 in favour of socialist path of development.
M. Babovic lived a long and interesting life. He was born and raised in Montenegro, became interested in the ideas of social justice, participated in the struggle against fascism, he was a prisoner of the camp, after the war received a university education and entered the circle of the intellectual elite of the country. His studies on Dostoevsky brought him authority and recognition abroad. The power of the individuality of Babovic, his sincere interest to Russian national literature and an intimate knowledge of the literary process add the particular value of the published memoirs. In addition to the article there is the translation of a few passages in which the author told about his first meeting with the soldiers of the Russian army that liberated Yugoslavia in the autumn of 1944.