The article is based on the publication of autobiographical materials of the Siberian poet Konstantin Alekseevich Besedin (1902–1938). Three versions of the autobiography were sent by him in 1922–1923 to the bibliographer Pavel Yakovlevich Zavolokin (1878–1941), who collected information for a reference publication dedicated to poets of peasant and proletarian origin. Materials from the Siberian and Metropolitan state and private archives allow to clarify and comment on the information contained in these essays-self-portraits.