Biography Simonov Konstantin Mikhailovich
(1915-1979)
Simonov Konstantin (Kirill) Mikhailovich (1915 – 1979), poet, prose writer, playwright. Born November 15 (28 N. s.) In Petrograd, was brought up as a stepfather, a teacher of the military school. Childhood years have passed in Ryazan and Saratov.
After graduating from the seven-year school in Saratov in 1930, he went to the factory to study as a turner. In 1931 the family moved to Moscow, and Simonov, having graduated here as a factory supervisor of fine mechanics, is going to work at the plant. In the same years he began to write poetry. He worked until 1935.
In 1936 in the journals “Young Guard” and “October” the first poems of K. Simonov were published.
After graduating from the Literary Institute. M. Gorky in 1938, Simonov entered the graduate school of IFLI (Institute of History, Philosophy, Literature), but in 1939 he was sent as military correspondent to Halkin Gol in Mongolia and did not return to the institute.
Within a year he studies at the courses of military correspondents at the Military-Political Academy, receives the military rank of the second-ranking quarter-master.
With the beginning of the war he was drafted into the army, worked in the newspaper “Battle Flag”. In 1942 he was awarded the title of senior battalion commissar, in 1943 – the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and after the war – colonel. Most of his military correspondence was published in the “Red Star”. During the war he also wrote plays “Russian people”, “Wait for me”, “It will be so”, the story “Days and nights”, two books of poems “With you and without you” and “War”.
As a military correspondent visited all the fronts, he passed through the lands of Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Poland and Germany, witnessed the last battles for
After the war, he spent three years on numerous foreign trips (Japan, USA, China).
From 1958 to 1960 he lived in Tashkent as a correspondent of Pravda on the republics of Central Asia.
The first novel “Comrades in Arms” was published in 1952, followed by a large book – “The Living and the Dead” (1959). In 1961 the Sovremennik Theater staged Simonov’s play The Fourth. In 1963 – 64 he wrote the novel “
According to Simonov’s scripts, films were staged: “A Guy from Our City” (1942), “Wait for Me” (1943), “Days and Nights” (1943-44), “Immortal Garrison” (1956), “Normandy-Niemen” ( 1960, together with S. Spacomi, E. Triolet), “Alive and the Dead” (1964).
In the post-war years, Simonov’s social activities evolved in this way: from 1946 to 1950 and from 1954 to 1958 he was the editor-in-chief of the journal Novyi mir; from 1950 to 1953 – editor-in-chief of the Literary Gazette; from 1946 to 1959 and from 1967 to 1979 – Secretary of the Writers’ Union of the USSR.
In 1974 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. K. Simonov died in 1979 in Moscow.
A short biography from the book: Russian writers and poets. A short biographical dictionary. Moscow, 2000.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)