Mihai Pelin was born towards the end of August 1940 in Cernăuți, which had been occupied by the Soviet Union two months earlier.

During World War II, Pelin spent his time with his grandmother in Bessarabia along with German troops, before leaving for Bucharest in 1944.

He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Bucharest and in his early years he was a journalist for various magazines and newspapers, including Flacăra and Scânteia Tineretului.

During the 1980s, he began researching the role of Italy in the Eastern Front of World War II, frequently travelling to cities such as Milan and Venice.

[1] He also documented the history of Romania from the late 1930s to the early 1950s, writing books which highlighted the life of the intelligentsia of the era and the wartime efforts of the Axis.