Alexey Surkov

Alexey Alexandrovich Surkov (Алексе́й Алекса́ндрович Сурко́в, October 13, 1899, Yaroslavl Province, Russian Empire – June 14, 1983, Moscow, USSR) was a Soviet poet, editor, literary critic and adminitsrator, and the leader 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 Belorissian Front), received numerous high profile state awards, including the 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).