For His Whole Life: Notes on Konstantin Simonov's Novel So-called Private Life

Abstract

When these comments were written, it could not have occurred to me that the recently published novel So-called Private Life would be Konstantin Simonov's last major work. What plans he still had'. How many things were in progress — reminiscences about his contemporaries, which he had wanted to write drawing on his extremely wide correspondence; the screenplay for a feature film for Aleksei German, who had previously filmed his Twenty Days without War [Dvadtstat' dnei bez voiny]; a documentary film about Marshal G. K. Zhukov, which he wanted to make with Marina Babak, as had been the case with No Sorrow Is Foreign [Chuzhogo goria ne byvaet], A Soldier Marched … [Shel soldat…], and Soldierly Reminiscences [Soldatskie memuary]; and a documentary book on the soldier of World War II. How much he wanted to and was capable of yet creating. And here, as I was sending these observations to the printer's, it was necessary to replace the word "new" (so normal with respect to Simonov, whose new works over a period of...