The living and the dead

Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov (1915–1979) entered the history of Russian Soviet literature as a prose writer, poet, playwright, scriptwriter, memoirist, but the work of the military correspondent on the battlefields of the Second World War was defining for his biography and creativity. The immediate experience of the war or the memories of it is permeated by everything written by Simonov from the beginning of the forties - from the famous poem “Wait for me” (1941) to the later stories “Twenty days without war” (1973) and “We will not see you” (1978) The novel “Living and Dead”, published in 1959-1971, is one of the most significant works of Russian literature on a military theme. Not being chronic-documentary or historical composition, this novel, however, is largely based on the materials of the writer’s personal diaries for June-September 1941 (who saw light only in 1992 under the name “One hundred days of the war”) and its notes of different years, partially published in the form of front -line essays, many heroes bred in the narrative had real prototypes. According to the first two books of the novel, director A. Stolper made the feature films “Living and Dead” (1964) and “Retribution” (1967)