Mikhail Zochtchenko (1895-1958) and Vera Kerbits met for the first time on May 16, 1916. He was 20 years old and had interrupted his studies in law to enlist in the Tsarist army. He would emerge from the war as a captain with five medals and injuries from a gas attack. He would later join the Red Army. Vera Kerbits had just finished high school and dreamed of becoming an actress or writer. When he proposed to her, she agreed on one condition: an open relationship. But the writer was against the idea... Kerbits kept a diary throughout her life, dozens of volumes in which she described what it was like to be the companion of a great writer. After the revolution, Zochtchenko became a member of the group of young Russian writers known as the Serapion Brothers, formed in Petrograd in 1920-1921. He began to develop his talents as humorist and satirist, and met with considerable success. In 1943, after writing his "autoanalysis," he incurred the wrath of the regime and was expelled from the Writers' Union. He was forced to subsist on income from his translations.
