Rubuta ci gaba don wannan sakin layi - An haife shi ga dangin Yahudawa a Ukraine, sannan wani ɓangare na Daular Rasha, Grossman ya horar da shi a matsayin injiniyan injiniya a Jami'ar Jihar Moscow, yana samun laƙabi "Vasya-khimik" ("Vasya the Chemist") saboda himmarsa a matsayin dalibi. 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.