Shneerov's typescript memoirs concern his life up to 1921. The longest manuscript is entitled, "V pogone za sineĭ ptit︠s︡eĭ" (472 p.), and covers the period from his childhood to his arrival in the United States in 1921; it goes into particular detail on his years as an active revolutionary (1902-1908), and on 1917-1920. Two shorter manuscripts appear to be largely translated excerpts from the longer work: "When I was young" (80 p.), and "My last arrest and state prison of Kursk" (49 p.). Shneerov joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party in the first years of the 20th century. He was first arrested and exiled in 1903, but escaped and went to Western Europe (Switzerland, Austria, France, England). He came back to Russia in 1905, and continued revolutionary activities until arrested and exiled again to Siberia in 1908. In 1912-1916, he lived in the Far East, in Harbin, Japan, and Shanghai; he lived in San Francisco in 1916-1917, returning to Russia after the February 1917 Revolution. In 1917 he was a minor government official in Tambov, and in 1918 was sent by the government to the Far East on a mission to obtain supplies. He spent 1918 in Vladivostok, Manchuria, and China, and 1918-1920 in Japan. In his memoirs, besides his own experiences, he also discusses minor and major revolutionaries whom he knew, such as Osip Minor, Grigoriĭ Gershuni, and Evno Azef. The Hoover Institution also has copies of these memoirs.
