Alexey Surkov

Alexey Alexandrovich Surkov
Born	Алексей Александрович Сурков (1899-10-13)October 13, 1899 Yaroslavl Province, Russian Empire
Died	June 14, 1983(1983-06-14) (aged 83) Moscow, USSR
Occupation(s)	poet, editor, literary critic
Years active	1925 – 1970s
Spouse	Sofia Antonovna Krevs
Awards	Stalin Prize (1946, 1951) Order of Lenin (1959, 1967, 1969, 1979) Order of the Red Star (1940, 1942) Order of the Red Banner (1945)

Alexey Alexandrovich Surkov (Russian: Алексе́й Алекса́ндрович Сурко́в, October 13, 1899 in Yaroslavl Province, Russian Empire – June 14, 1983 in Moscow, USSR) was a Russian Soviet poet, editor, literary critic and high-profile nomenklatura figure, the head of the Soviet Union of Writers in 1953–1959.

Surkov, a war correspondent during the Great Patriotic War (who took an active part in fighting at the Battle of Moscow and on the Belorussian Front), received numerous state awards, including the Orders of Red Banner and the Red Star (twice), four Orders of Lenin and two Stalin Prizes.

The author of numerous poetry books, he is best remembered for his poems that were adapted into songs: "The Song of Moscow Defenders" (composer Boris Mokrousov, 1942), "Not a Step Back", T. A. Kuliyev, 1942), "The Song of the Brave Ones" (V. A. Bely, 1941) and, most famously, "Zemlyanka" (Konstantin Listov, 1941).