Son of an artilleryman. Poems and epics.

Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov (1915 – 1979) was a Soviet writer, war correspondent, and public figure. As a war correspondent, he visited all fronts of the Great Patriotic War and traveled through the lands of Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Poland, and Germany. The poem "The Son of an Artilleryman" (1941) tells the story of the friendship between two comrades in arms, Deev and Petrov. When one of them dies, the son of the deceased, Lyenka Petrov, comes under the command of the other, to whom Deev becomes attached as if he were his own son. The poem was written by Simonov on a special assignment from the command to boost the morale of soldiers. The plot is based on a real story heard by the poet from an acquaintance officer. "I wrote 'The Son of an Artilleryman' in one sitting, literally in one day, in Arkhangelsk in November of forty-one..." The collection also includes poems such as "The Ice Battle," "Suvorov," and the poet's military lyrics.