The article analyses biographical texts of the XXth century culture, that allows the author to explicate typical characteristics of "the aristocratism of spirit" in the reference to the features of generation formation as a unity, that determines the preservation and translation of the meanings of culture. The definition proposed by the author - "the aristocratism of spirit" - expresses the possibilities of the influence of individual personality, of its life-actions on the formation of the generation image in culture's memory. What are the principles of generation formation? What are the conditions and principles of translation/preservation of the generation image in culture's memory? These questions lead to concrete biographies and define the search of methodological bases of the generation problem investigation, that was formed by the works of G.G. Shpet, W. Pinder, K. Mannheim. For the investigation of the generation problem in the culture significant methodological and heuristic potential also has a concept of "the archive of the epoch", that was proposed by T.G. Shchedrina. It focuses the attention on the co-presence of the evidence's culture and documents, that recreate the communication of the contemporaries, in the biographical text of culture. The analysis of the "Marie Vassiltchikov: Berlin Diaries 1940-1945" and of the V.T. Shalamov's biographical prose allows the author to reveal the peculiarities of inclusion of biography in the culture memory and the influence of personality on the obtaining by the generation a specific image in the culture.