Konstantin Simonov

Soviet poet, playwright, and wartime correspondent Konstantin Simonov was born in St. Petersburg into a military family. His father died shortly after World War I, and years later, when his stepfather was mistakenly arrested, Simonov and his mother relocated to Moscow, where he studied literature, history, and philosophy. His first poems were published in 1936, and by 1942, he was a recognized playwright and poet in Moscow as well as a war correspondent and senior battalion commissar serving in World War II. His poem “Wait for Me,” written during the war, is considered one of the best-known poems in Russian literature.

Following the end of the conflict, Simonov served in foreign missions in Japan, the United States, and China and began publishing novels. He worked as an editor for several newspapers and literary journals before his death in 1979.