diff --git a/spring-webflow/src/main/java/org/springframework/webflow/config/spring-webflow-config-2.0.xsd b/spring-webflow/src/main/java/org/springframework/webflow/config/spring-webflow-config-2.0.xsd
index 8aa63320..1fac1a1c 100644
--- a/spring-webflow/src/main/java/org/springframework/webflow/config/spring-webflow-config-2.0.xsd
+++ b/spring-webflow/src/main/java/org/springframework/webflow/config/spring-webflow-config-2.0.xsd
@@ -311,7 +311,8 @@ The maximum number of persistent flow executions allowed per user session.  The
 			<xsd:annotation>
 				<xsd:documentation>
 				<![CDATA[
-The maximum number of history snapshots allowed per flow execution.  The default is 30.
+The maximum number of history snapshots allowed per flow execution.  The default is 30. 
+Setting this value to 0 disables the creation of snapshot copies altogether.  
 ]]>
 				</xsd:documentation>
 			</xsd:annotation>
diff --git a/spring-webflow/src/main/java/org/springframework/webflow/config/spring-webflow-config-2.3.xsd b/spring-webflow/src/main/java/org/springframework/webflow/config/spring-webflow-config-2.3.xsd
index 74b5ff4a..8011d1c5 100644
--- a/spring-webflow/src/main/java/org/springframework/webflow/config/spring-webflow-config-2.3.xsd
+++ b/spring-webflow/src/main/java/org/springframework/webflow/config/spring-webflow-config-2.3.xsd
@@ -322,7 +322,8 @@ The maximum number of persistent flow executions allowed per user session.  The
 			<xsd:annotation>
 				<xsd:documentation>
 				<![CDATA[
-The maximum number of history snapshots allowed per flow execution.  The default is 30.
+The maximum number of history snapshots allowed per flow execution.  The default is 30. 
+Setting this value to 0 disables the creation of snapshot copies altogether.  
 ]]>
 				</xsd:documentation>
 			</xsd:annotation>
diff --git a/spring-webflow/src/main/java/org/springframework/webflow/execution/repository/impl/DefaultFlowExecutionRepository.java b/spring-webflow/src/main/java/org/springframework/webflow/execution/repository/impl/DefaultFlowExecutionRepository.java
index 810c63cc..f007abeb 100644
--- a/spring-webflow/src/main/java/org/springframework/webflow/execution/repository/impl/DefaultFlowExecutionRepository.java
+++ b/spring-webflow/src/main/java/org/springframework/webflow/execution/repository/impl/DefaultFlowExecutionRepository.java
@@ -30,6 +30,9 @@ import org.springframework.webflow.execution.repository.snapshot.SnapshotNotFoun
 /**
  * The default flow execution repository implementation. Takes <i>one to {@link #getMaxSnapshots() max}</i> flow
  * execution snapshots, where each snapshot represents a copy of a {@link FlowExecution} taken at a point in time.
+ * Snapshots are created via a {@link FlowExecutionSnapshotFactory} and that may or may not involve creating a copy of a
+ * flow execution through Java serialization. In particular when the flow-execution-repository element is configured
+ * with max-execution-snapshots="0", creating snapshot copies is effectively turned off.
  * <p>
  * The set of active flow executions are managed by a {@link ConversationManager} implementation, which this repository
  * delegates to.