This volume consists of the war diaries of K.M. Simonov, then a correspondent for Krasnaya Zvezda, covering the events of 1941. Since the journal publication of K.M. Simonov received many letters from people whom he met on the roads of the war and who are present on the pages of his diaries. He was very attentive to his correspondents. With their help, the author's commentary on the diaries was replenished, forgotten things were recalled, events were restored, and inaccuracies were corrected. However, many comments remained unrealized, although the author considered them important and intended to take them into account when publishing the diaries in the Collected Works. After the writer’s death, the literary heritage commission examined many letters with the author’s note “To the Collected Works.” In cases where the comments turned out to be indisputable and did not entail a deep invasion of the author’s text, the will of K.M. Simonov was executed and the edits were made.