Sergei V. Mikhalkov, Lyricist of Soviet and Russian Anthems, Dies at 96
Sergei V. Mikhalkov, a Russian poet and writer who rose at the height of the Stalinist era to the apex of the Soviet literary hierarchy, eventually writing the lyrics to the Soviet and Russian national anthems, died in Moscow on Thursday at the age of 96.
Denis Baglai, a spokesman for one of Mr. Mikhalkov’s sons, the Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov, confirmed the death, saying that Mr. Mikhalkov had long been ill with heart problems.
A favorite of Stalin’s, Mr. Mikhalkov spent most of his life using his words to undergird the authority of Soviet rule. He was also an expert in the vagaries of the fickle Soviet system.
“He compelled the Soviet regime to work for him,” said Viktor V. Erofeyev, a writer, whom Mr. Mikhalkov once helped to expel from the Soviet Writers Union. “When all were slaves of the times, he was a master of the times.”
Mr. Mikhalkov was born on March 13, 1913, in the waning days of Russia’s czarist empire. A writer from a young age, he rose to fame quickly in the Soviet Union’s early days, winning the prestigious Order of Lenin, among many awards. He became renowned throughout the Soviet Union and beyond for his children’s literature, which remains popular among young Russians.
In 1943, he was commissioned to write the lyrics of a new Soviet national anthem that would inspire his countrymen amid the horrors and privations of the war with Hitler’s Germany...
... To his supporters, Mr. Mikhalkov was a living legend.
“Our country’s history, its culture, the history of our literature — that is Mikhalkov,” said Andrei D. Dementyev, a prominent Soviet-era poet and friend of Mr. Mikhalkov’s. “He was the voice of our country above all.”
But he suffered harsh criticism later in life, especially after the fall of the Soviet Union, for his role in enforcing the pervasive censorship that stifled artistic expression under the Communist Party. He was part of a campaign to denounce the Nobel laureates Boris Pasternak and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who was forced from the Soviet Union in 1974.
For this, however, he was never apologetic.
“A person who lived through the Soviet epoch from beginning to end needs to be judged by the laws of that era,” he said in the 2008 interview. “I am not ashamed of my work.”
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Denis Baglai, a spokesman for one of Mr. Mikhalkov’s sons, the Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov, confirmed the death, saying that Mr. Mikhalkov had long been ill with heart problems.
A favorite of Stalin’s, Mr. Mikhalkov spent most of his life using his words to undergird the authority of Soviet rule. He was also an expert in the vagaries of the fickle Soviet system.
“He compelled the Soviet regime to work for him,” said Viktor V. Erofeyev, a writer, whom Mr. Mikhalkov once helped to expel from the Soviet Writers Union. “When all were slaves of the times, he was a master of the times.”
Mr. Mikhalkov was born on March 13, 1913, in the waning days of Russia’s czarist empire. A writer from a young age, he rose to fame quickly in the Soviet Union’s early days, winning the prestigious Order of Lenin, among many awards. He became renowned throughout the Soviet Union and beyond for his children’s literature, which remains popular among young Russians.
In 1943, he was commissioned to write the lyrics of a new Soviet national anthem that would inspire his countrymen amid the horrors and privations of the war with Hitler’s Germany...
... To his supporters, Mr. Mikhalkov was a living legend.
“Our country’s history, its culture, the history of our literature — that is Mikhalkov,” said Andrei D. Dementyev, a prominent Soviet-era poet and friend of Mr. Mikhalkov’s. “He was the voice of our country above all.”
But he suffered harsh criticism later in life, especially after the fall of the Soviet Union, for his role in enforcing the pervasive censorship that stifled artistic expression under the Communist Party. He was part of a campaign to denounce the Nobel laureates Boris Pasternak and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who was forced from the Soviet Union in 1974.
For this, however, he was never apologetic.
“A person who lived through the Soviet epoch from beginning to end needs to be judged by the laws of that era,” he said in the 2008 interview. “I am not ashamed of my work.”