By Vestnik Kavkaza
Today Russia marks 100 years since the birth of Sergey Mikhalkov. In the Soviet Union every child knew him. He was not only an author of books for children, but also a serious writer, poet, play-writer, war correspondent, author of anthems of the USSR and the RF, and chairman of the Union of Writers of the RSFSR.
Yegor Konchalovsky, director, producer, grandson of Sergei Mikhalkov
All his life and growing up were in the Soviet times. He was afraid because of his noble origin, and other things, like, perhaps, all the nobility, who left in Russia. But he thought that he could have a success as a poet, as a creative person only in the Fatherland…
I often came back with him from our dacha by his "Mercedes". In this "Mercedes" there was a tape recorder, and in the recorder there was a cassette. We used this car for several years, and once I said: "Why don't we listen to music?" He said: "Can we listen to music here?" I said: "Of course, here it is". And we listened to some music, "Tum-Balalaika", I remember now. He said: what great music there is. It takes a few months, we're going again, and he says - let's listen to music. And we listened to the same "Tum-Balalaika." He remembered that "Tum-Balalaika" is the music in this car, but he could not take a new cassette. He thought this car was sold together with this music. If you want this machine, here's the music for it. And a few years later I explained to him that the cassette can be removed and inserted, for example Rammstein.
Alexander Stefanovich, director
In Sergey Vladimirovich there was amazing combination of naivete and wisdom, that's, almost childlike naiveté. I made him three films at Mosfilm. We made the film "My dear boy," at Mosfilm, and because he was such an important person, they specially opened for him the director's room, in which Stalin saw the pictures. He came up with some very respectable man in a black suit and tie, a very solid and respectable man. I told him: "Sergey, who is this?" He said, 'This is your main viewer". I think, well, who can be there? His circle of friends included people from the CPSU Central Committee, heads of departments, ministers. During all the views I did not look at Mikhalkov but at the man, because he was a danger to me - I did not know where he was from. For the first few minutes he was looking seriously. Then he began to smile. Then he laughed out loud. When the film ended, he said: "This is a great movie, it can be shown to children, a family picture, we have no such films", he said good words. And we went down from the hall, and on the stairs, I said, “Sergey Vladimirovich, who is this? Is he from the Central Committee?” He said, "No, he is not! This is my driver, Gena." I say, "'Sergey Vladimirovich, have you deceived me?" He said, "Sasha, I do not cheat. Do you make films for the Minister Ermash? You make them for the audience! But if he looked and laughed - then success is with this picture. And it does not matter what Ermash says.”
Larisa Vasilyeva, poet
Sergey is laughter, joy, fun in communication. But for some reasons he also called me an "old woman." From the very first day. The first review of my first little book, "The Linen Moon" was in the "Literary Gazette". Mikhalkov did not know me back then. When I met him, he told me: "Old woman, it turns out you are good-looking, had I known, I would have written more." This was the beginning of our friendship, always full of laughter. He talked a lot about his children and grandchildren. He was an incredibly kind person. I did not need anything from Mikhalkov - no apartment, no car, no house, nothing. But the people who were around me needed this. And I always ran after him, caught him, and he signed the papers. He signed them without looking. I told him: “Look at what you're signing!” Many people for whom he signed papers would then repeatedly say some nasty things about him. When I once mentioned it, he said: “Yes, don't bother, so be it. Look how ugly she is. It's so pathetic. Let her speak.”
Andrei Dementyev, poet
He was a wonderful man. I will not mention the name of a poet whom he criticized. He sat next to me at another plenum, in Moscow, and criticized that poet. He jumped up and said: "Comrade Mikhalkov, in previous times for such things people were summoned to the barriers." Mikhalkov, without a moment's hesitation, replied: "In previous times, I would have been a nobleman, and I will not duel with random people." He was a man who would always help, even when you did not ask. Because he felt that at this point it was necessary to help someone. He was always young. Young, because of his sense of humour, a man who did so much for literature. He wrote the scripts for 40 movies! One of his plays ran for 5000 shows! Shostakovich, Ostrovsky, Petrov, Shainsky, Tukhmanov, you know, all the best composers wrote songs based on his poetry! These songs were wonderful. I must say that he was always a man who didn't do things by halves. You could disagree, argue, quarrel, but if he thought so, he thought so. And the other person had to deal with this, because his authority was great. I think that there was no writer like him in the country. He was one to whose memory I bow, and I know that even after many, many years, his books will still be read. No joke - the circulation of his books is 300 million copies!
