In the early 1920s, as a member of the Samarkand Special Purpose Forces battalion, he took part in fighting the White Army, for the establishment of the Soviet power in the Central Asia.

[3] In 1941–1946 Stein worked first as a senior politruk on board the battleship Oktyabrskaya Revolyutsya, then as a battalion commissar and the editor the Soviet Navy newspaper Oktyabrsky Luch (October Beam).

[1] After the War Stein continued writing, his plays Admiral's Flag (1950, Stalin Prize in 1951), The Ocean (1961), Applause (1967) and autobiographical Once There Was Me (1977) rated among his best.

Prologue originally featured a scene involving Stalin in his youth, which was withdrawn by the author in 1955, after the Soviet leader's death.

In his later years he published several acclaimed books of memoirs, including How Plots Come into Life (1964), The Second Entracte (1975), Skies in Diamonds (1976) and Alone With the Audience (1982).