He grew up in the Kiev district of Kurenivka, in his own words "a stone's throw from a vast ravine, whose name, Babi Yar, was once known only to locals.

Before becoming a writer, Kuznetsov experimented with ballet, acting, art, and music, found employment as a carpenter and labourer, and worked on the Kakhovka, Irkutsk, and Bratsk hydroelectric power plants.

It tells the story of a young man, who came to work in Siberia with a solid youthful belief in something better, in some ultimate good, despite all the hardships and poverty.

Experienced writers told me that the novella could be saved, that at least a part of it must be brought to the readers' attention, that they would know what came from the heart and what I had to write for form's sake, and that I should add some optimistic episodes.

For a long time my novella gathered dust without any hope of being published, but eventually I forced myself to add some optimistic episodes, which contrasted so sharply with the overall style and were so outrageously cheerful that no reader would take them seriously.

The novel included the previously unknown materials about the execution of 33,771 Jews in the course of two days, 29–30 September 1941, in the Kiev ravine Babi Yar.

Kuznetsov recalled: "For a whole month in Kiev I had nightmares, which wore me out so much that I had to leave without finishing my work and temporarily switch to other tasks in order to regain my senses."

In a letter to the Israeli journalist, writer, and translator Shlomo Even-Shoshan dated 17 May 1965, Kuznetsov commented on the Babi Yar tragedy: Before September 29, 1941, Jews were slowly being murdered in camps behind a veneer of legitimacy.

He arrived in London on a two-week visa, accompanied by Georgy Andjaparidze, a suspected KGB mamka, a secret police agent.

[3] Home Secretary James Callaghan and Prime Minister Harold Wilson decided to grant Kuznetsov an unlimited residence visa in the UK.

Shortly after the public announcement of the British decision, Soviet Ambassador Mikhail Smirnovsky demanded the author's return, but Callaghan refused.

[3] The Sunday Telegraph published David Floyd's interview with Kuznetsov, who spoke about his ties with the KGB, how he was recruited, and how he had formally agreed to cooperate in order to be allowed to leave abroad.

[1] Babi Yar was reissued by Picador (division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux in US) with a new introduction by Masha Gessen in 2023 near the one year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.