Background
Mikhail Isakovsky was born in village Glotovka, Yelnya Uyezd, Smolensk Governorate, in a poor peasant family of Russian ethnicity.
Mikhail Isakovsky was born in village Glotovka, Yelnya Uyezd, Smolensk Governorate, in a poor peasant family of Russian ethnicity.
A communist from an early age, he wrote many poems and songs in praise of the regime. But his most famous song is doubtless the rather apolitical Katyusha. A local priest taught him to read and write. Later he had been studying at a gymnasium for 2 years.
His first poem Просьба солдата was published in 1914 in an All-Russia newspaper November (Новь). In 1918 he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1921 until 1931 he had been working in Smolensk newspapers. In 1926, being the editor of a newspaper, he helped his young talented countryman Aleksandr Tvardovsky.
In 1927, his first book of poems Провода в соломе was published. Maxim Gorky liked lieutenant In 1931, he left for Moscow. Many poems of Isakovsky are set to music. His songs What you were is what you are (Каким ты был, таким ты и остался), and Oh, arrowwood is blooming (Ой, цветет калина) to music by Isaak Dunayevsky were used as soundtracks in the film, Cossacks of the Kuban (Кубанские казаки) (1949). The song The enemy burned my native hut (Враги сожгли родную хату) (1945) after publishing was officially criticized for "pessimism" and was not printed or sung until 1956
As a result of cooperation with Vladimir Zakharov the songs to words from Isakovsky appear in the repertoire of Pyatnitsky Choir. The most widely known of them are Along the Village (Вдоль деревни), Seeing off (Провожанье), You can never tell (И кто его знает).
According to the words of Alexandra Permyakova, today’s chief musician of Pyatnitsky Choir, these songs made the Choir famous. He twice got Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics State Prize for his so cheerful songs (1943, 1949). He published a lot of books of poems, and besides, the book About the Skills in Verse (О поэтическом мастерстве). He is also well known by his translations from Ukrainian, Belarusian, and some other languages.
In 1970 he was awarded the title of the Hero of Socialist Labor.