Kirill Simonov
| Konstantin Simonov | |
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| Born | 28 November [O.S. 15 November] 1915 Petrograd, Russian Empire |
| Died | 28 August 1979 (aged 63) Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Occupation | War poet, novelist, playwright, war correspondent |
| Nationality | Russian |
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Konstantin Mikhailovich Simonov, born Kirill Mikhailovich Simonov (Russian: Константи́н Миха́йлович Си́монов, 28 November [O.S. 15 November] 1915 – 28 August 1979) was a Soviet author and a war poet. He was a playwright and a wartime correspondent, most famous for his poem Wait for Me.
Simonov was born in Petrograd in 1915. His mother was born Princess Obolensky of a Rurikid family. His father, an officer in the Tsar's army, left Russia after the Revolution of 1917 and died in Poland in 1921. Konstantin's stepmother, Alexandra, remained in Russia with Konstantin. In the early 1920s, his mother married Alexander Ivanischev, a Red Army officer and veteran of World War I.
Konstantin spent several years as a child in Ryazan while his stepfather was employed as an instructor at a local military school. They later moved to Saratov, where Konstantin spent the remainder of his childhood. After completing a basic seven-year education in 1930 in Saratov, he went into the factory workshop school (Fabrichno-Zavodskoe Uchilishche-FZU) to become a lathe-turner. In 1931 his family moved to Moscow. After completing his precision engineering course, Simonov went to work in a factory, where he remained until 1935. During these years he changed his given name from 'Kirill' to 'Konstantin' because he could not pronounce the letter "r" without an aristocratic lisp.
The first of Simonov's poems were published in 1936 in the journals Young Guard and October. After completing schooling at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in 1938, Simonov entered the Moscow Institute of History, Philosophy, and Literature. His time there was interrupted when he was sent as a war correspondent to cover the Battle of Khalkhin Gol in Mongolia. Simonov returned to the institute in 1939.
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