Sergey Mikhalkov
Soviet and Russian writer (1913–2009)
Sergey Vladimirovich Mikhalkov (Russian: Сергей Владимирович Михалков; 13 March [O.S. 28 February] 1913 – 27 August 2009) was a Russian author of children's books and satirical fables. He wrote the lyrics for the Soviet and Russian national anthems.
Life and career
Sergey was born in Moscow, into the noble Mikhalkov family, as the son of Vladimir Aleksandrovich Mikhalkov and Olga Mikhailovna (née Glebova). Since the 1930s, he has rivaled Korney Chukovsky, Samuil Marshak and Agniya Barto as the most popular poet writing for Russophone children. His poems about enormously tall "Uncle Styopa" ("Дядя Стёпа") enjoyed particular popularity. Uncle Styopa is a friendly policeman always ready to rescue cats stuck up trees, and to perform other helpful deeds. In English, his name translates as Uncle Steeple.
As a 29-year-old in 1942, Mikhalkov's work drew the attention of the Soviet Union's leader Joseph Stalin, who commissioned him to write lyrics for a new national anthem. At the time, the country was deeply embroiled in World War II and Stalin wanted a more patriotic theme for the national anthem, to replace The Internationale.
Mikhalkov penned words with writer El-Registan (1899–1945) to accompany a musical score by the composer Alexander Alexandrov (1883–1946) that became known as State Anthem of the Soviet Union.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Sergey Mikhalkov” is soviet and Russian writer (1913–2009). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Sergey, Mikhalkov and Soviet, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “soviet and Russian writer (1913–2009)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q208116. VIAF identifies the subject as 111400684. The Library of Congress control number is n50041787. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 2009, 1942 and 1899.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sergey Mikhalkov” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.