Konstantin Simonov | |
|---|---|
 Simonov in Berlin in 1967 | |
| Born | 28 November [O.S. 15 November] 1915[1] |
| Died | 28 August 1979(1979-08-28) (aged 63)[2] |
| Occupation | War poet, novelist, playwright, war correspondent |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Notable works | "Wait for Me" The Living and the Dead |
| Spouse | Valentina Serova (1943–1957) |
| Signature | |
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Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov, bornKirill Mikhailovich Simonov (Russian:Константи́н Миха́йлович Си́монов, 28 November [O.S. 15 November] 1915 – 28 August 1979), was aSoviet author,war poet, playwright andwartime correspondent,[3] arguably most famous for his 1941 poem"Wait for Me".
Simonov was born inPetrograd in 1915.[3] His mother, Princess Aleksandra Leonidovna Obolenskaya, came of theRurikidObolensky family. His father, Mikhail Agafangelovich Simonov, an officer in theTsar's army, left Russia after theRevolution of 1917 and died in Poland sometime after 1921.[4] Konstantin's mother, Alexandra, remained in Russia with Konstantin. In 1919 his mother married Alexander Ivanishev, aRed Army officer and veteran ofWorld War I.
Konstantin spent several years as a child inRyazan where his stepfather worked as an instructor at a local military school. They later moved toSaratov, where Konstantin spent the remainder of his childhood. After completing a basic seven-year education in 1930 in Saratov, he went into the factory workshop school (Fabrichno-Zavodskoe Uchilishche-FZU) to become a lathe-turner. In 1931 his family moved to Moscow. After completing his precision-engineering course, Simonov went to work in a factory, where he remained until 1935. During these years he changed his given name from Kirill to Konstantin because he spoke withrhotacism andlambdacism.[5]
The first of Simonov's poems were published in 1936 in the journalsYoung Guard andOctober. After completing schooling at theMaxim Gorky Literature Institute in 1938, Simonov entered the Moscow Institute of History, Philosophy, and Literature. His time there was interrupted when he was sent as a war correspondent to cover theBattle of Khalkhin Gol of May–September 1939 inMongolia. Simonov returned to the Institute in 1939.
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Simonov's first play,The History of One Love, was written in 1940, and performed on stage at theMemorial Lenin Komsomol Theater inLeningrad. He wrote his second play,A Lad from Our Town, in 1941. That same year he was impressed by Soviet resistance in this place, during which 39 German tanks had been destroyed in one day, and described this episode inThe Living and the Dead trilogy.
Studying war correspondence at theLenin Military-Political Academy, Simonov attained the service rank of quartermaster of the second rank. At the beginning ofWorld War II Simonov received a job with the official army newspaperKrasnaya Zvezda. Simonov rose through the army ranks becoming a senior battalion commissar in 1942, lieutenant colonel in 1943, and a colonel after the war.
During the war years, he wrote the playsRussian People,Wait for Me,So It Will Be, the short novelDays and Nights, and two books of poems,With You and Without You andWar. His poem "Wait for Me", about a soldier in the war asking his beloved to wait for his return, remains one of the best-known poems in Russian literature. The poem was addressed to his future wife, the actressValentina Serova. Many of his poems for Valentina were included in the bookWith You and Without You.
As a war correspondent, Simonov served in Romania,Bulgaria,Yugoslavia, Poland, and Germany, where he was present at theBattle of Berlin. After the war his collected reports appeared inLetters from Czechoslovakia,Slav Friendship,Yugoslavian Notebook andFrom the Black to the Barents Sea: Notes of a War Correspondent.
For three years after the war ended, Simonov served in foreign missions in Japan, the United States and China. From 1958 to 1960 he worked inTashkent as theCentral Asian correspondent forPravda. His novelComrades in Arms was published in 1952, and his longer novel,The Living and the Dead, in 1959. In 1961 his play,The Fourth, was performed at theSovremennik Theatre. In 1963–64 he wrote the novelSoldatami ne rozhdaiutsia, which can be translated as "Soldiers Are Made, Not Born" or "One Isn't Born a Soldier." In 1970–71 he wrote a sequelThe Last Summer.
For two spells, 1946–50 and 1954–58, Simonov was editor in chief of the journalNovy Mir. From 1950 through 1953, he was editor in chief of theLiterary Gazette; from 1946 through 1959 and from 1967 through 1979, secretary of theUnion of Writers of the USSR. In the year before his death, Simonov tried to create a special archive of memories of soldiers in the archives of the Defense Ministry inPodolsk, Moscow Region, but leaders of the army, in the high echelons, blocked the idea.[6] Simonov died on 28 August 1979 in Moscow. According to his last will, he was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in Buynichi fields nearMogilev.
He is the central character inOrlando Figes' bookThe Whisperers (2007).
Numerous films were released in theSoviet Union on Simonov's scenarios and based on his works:
