Information about the author:
Alexandra A. Golubeva
Alexandra A. Golubeva, collections curator, Vladimir Dahl Russian State Literary Museum, Zubovsky Blvd., 15, bld. 1, 119021 Moscow, Russia.
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Abstract:
The famous Russian poet Konstantin Simonov became a war correspondent in the early days of the Great Patronic War, in June 1941. He attended fighting positions of Soviet Army in Crimea, Caucasus, Murmansk and Stalingrad. He took part in the deployment of the “L-4” submarine in Romania and saw the Fall of Berlin in 1945. His impressions became the fundament not only for reports and articles but for the war lyric poetry. The State Literary Museum has small but very interesting collection of his manuscripts, and some of them are differrent from previously published. Also the funds of the museum contain Simonov’s war journals given to the museum by the author himself. They formed the basis of two-volume book “Different Days of the War”. The article ends by a summary of correspondence between Simonov and his wife Valentina Serova. Their common daughter Maria Simonova kept these letters for years but then she decided to donate them to the Manuscript Fund of the State Literary Museum. This correspondense was never published.
Keywords: Konstantin Simonov, the Great Patronic War, lyric poetry, correspondence, Valentina Serova, Evgeny Zholzovsky.
