Abstract <p> We modify the nonequilibrium Keldysh diagram technique to systematically account for non-Gaussian initial correlations. We represent information about the initial state of the system as an additional term in the Keldysh action, which is expressed in terms of the cumulants of the initial Wigner functional. This additional term leads to the appearance of additional vertices in the diagram technique. We study the role of non-Gaussian initial correlations in the further evolution of correlation functions. In particular, we show that the presence of non-Gaussian correlations of odd order leads to the generation of a mean field. We obtain Dyson equations with partially resummed self-energies and prove that diagrams with a finite number of loops contain a finite number of non-Gaussian cumulants of the initial Wigner functional. We apply the modified diagram technique to the description of the evolution of a scalar field after a quench and show that in the limit of short interaction times this technique leads to exact results. </p>