Ka cika wannan jumlar: An haifi Grossman a iyalin Yahudawa a ƙasar Ukraine, wadda a lokacin tana ƙarƙashin Daular Rasha, ya zama injiniyan sunadarai a Jami'ar Jihar Moscow, kuma an kira shi "Vasya-khimik" ("Vasya the Chemist") saboda ƙwazo da ya nuna a lokacin da yake makaranta. Bayan kammala karatunsa ya sami aiki a Stalino (yanzu Donetsk) a cikin Donets Basin. A cikin 1930s ya canza sana'a. Ya fara rubuta cikakken lokaci kuma ya wallafa wasu gajerun labaru da litattafai da yawa. Da barkewar Yaƙin Duniya na Biyu, an ɗauke shi a matsayin wakilin yaƙi na jaridar Red Army "Krasnaya Zvezda"; ya rubuta asusun farko na yaƙe-yaƙe na Moscow, Stalingrad,
Kursk, da kuma Berlin. Rahotannin shaidar ido na Grossman na sansanin kisan Nazi, bayan gano Treblinka, na daga cikin asusun farko na sansanin kisan Nazi da mai ba da rahoto ya yi.