The head of the Department of Culture of the Moscow government, Alexander Kibovsky, distorted the meaning of Konstantin Simonov's poem "Kill him" about the Nazis, written in 1942, and called for the killing of Ukrainians. Human rights activist Alexei Simonov, the poet's son, told The Insider that his father himself stopped reading the work because it "killed too many people." He remembered Simonov's trip to India, during which the poet spoke about this.
“Already after the death of his father, when remembering him became something of a valor for the people who communicated with him, the Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Leonid Pochivalov described how he and Simonov traveled to India. When they were visiting India, they were taken to beautiful ruins, they sat down among the ruins and began to read poetry to each other. And for some reason, Simonov was asked to read Kill Him. And Simonov said: “I don’t read this poem anymore, it killed too many people.”
To this, in my opinion, nothing can be added. If the author does not read the poem, because it killed many people… Because there is no more war. There, anyway. I don’t want to decipher anymore, in my opinion, both my attitude and the attitude of my father towards this poem are quite clear.
Kibovsky, in his speech, recalled the theses of Russian propaganda, ending the poet's work with the slogan "Work, brothers." Also, once again, a statement was made that Russia in Ukraine allegedly “fights against the Nazis,” who “should not have any mercy.”