Dmitri Furmanov was born in Russia in 1891. During the Civil War he joined the Red Army and served as a Bolshevik commissar. His first novel, Chapayev (1923) was based on his experiences fighting under General Chapayev. The book was highly praised by the critics and is considered a major classic of Soviet literature.

Issac Babel commented: "Chapayev, which sold hundreds of thousands of copies, didn't fully satisfy Furmanov. He was growing rapidly. Each month his talent as a writer expanded. Remember what his life was - he never chose the line of least resistance. Before the Revolution he fought against the Tsarist regime; after the Revolution he went to the front; after the front he picked for himself the most dangerous sector - the sector where the battle over poetry and art was being fought."

Furmanov died in 1926.