Pyotr Shifman was born in 1915. His father, Yosif Shifman, was a garment worker. Pyotr had two siblings: a sister named Polina and a brother named Alexander. The family lived in the town of Mozyr (Belarus). After finishing a seven-year school and a technical college, Pyotr worked as a mechanic and repairman at a factory. He was eventually hired by the newspaper of that factory, to write brief sketches about the life and work of the employees. Soon, he met Alexander Ginzburg, who would become famous in the late 1960s as a Soviet dissident and singer-songwriter (under the pseudonym "Alexander Galich"). They two would remain friends for the rest of their lives.
In 1936, Shifman entered the evening Literature Institute of the Union of Soviet Writers, and studied at its Poetry Department. After graduating from the Institute, he was drafted into the Red Army as a private, and served in Siberia. In July 1941, following the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, he was mobilized again and sent to the region of Smolensk, which was then the site of a major battle. Pyotr was severely wounded in his very first engagement, being shot in both arms and in the side. Fortunately, he was rescued from the battlefield by retreating soldiers and evacuated to a hospital, where he stayed for six months. After being discharged, Shifman returned to frontline duty, and was attached to the 87th Rifle Division. He was responsible for the maintenance of an artillery piece.
Shifman fought in the Battle of Stalingrad, and later took part in the liberation of Rostov, the Donbass, Sevastopol, and several Baltic cities. Alongside his service in the artillery, Shifman also worked as a military correspondent, and wrote poems and songs that were published in frontline newspapers. He finished the war in the rank of major.
In 1950, Shifman was sent to the Chukotka region as a correspondent of a military newspaper, and served there for three years. After his discharge from the army in 1953, he lived and worked in Chelyabinsk.
In February 1976, Pyotr Shifman spoke out against antisemitism at a Communist Party meeting, and his speech was harshly denounced. After the meeting, he suffered a fatal heart attack.
