SURKOV, Alexey Alexandrovich [b. 1(13). X. 1899, der. Serednevo, now the Rybinsk district of the Yaroslavl region] - Russian Soviet poet, public figure.

Member of the Communist Party since 1925. He was elected a member of the Central Audit Commission of the CPSU (1952-56), a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1956-66). Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 4th-8th convocations and of the RSFSR of the 2nd-3rd convocations. Member of the World Peace Council and the Soviet Peace Committee. Secretary of the Board of the Writers' Union of the USSR (since 1949; in 1953-59 - first secretary). Hero of Socialist Labor (1969). From the age of 12, Surkov served "in the people" in St. Petersburg. Soon after October revolution went to the front of the Civil War. After demobilization, he returned to the village: “He worked in the volost executive committee, was a hut, a volost political enlightenment organizer, a rural correspondent in the county newspaper ... and even, forced by a hopeless chronic non-repertoire, wrote plays for a drama circle.” Subsequently, he was at the party and Komsomol work in Rybinsk and Yaroslavl, edited the Komsomol newspaper. Moving to Moscow had a beneficial effect on Surkov's work, where he was elected to the leadership of the RAPP (1928). Here he graduated from the Faculty of Literature of the Institute of Red Professors (1934). In 1934-39 he worked in the journal Literary Education.

Surkov's first poems were published in 1918 in the Petrograd Krasnaya Gazeta, but he considers 1930 to be the true beginning of his poetic activity, when the first collection of poems, Zapev, was published. The greatest successes of this and subsequent collections are "Poems" and "On the approaches to the song" (1931), "Offensive" (1932), "The Last War" (1933), "Peers" (1934), "The Motherland of the Courageous" (1935) , “The way of song” (1937), “So we grew up” (1940) - refer to the image of the heroes of the Civil War. In the 30s. Surkov participates in the work of Lokaf. Great popularity acquired his songs of these years -, "Terskaya marching" and others. In 1939-45 Surkov was a war correspondent, a participant in the liberation campaign in Western Belarus, the war with the White Finns, then the Great Patriotic War. His "December Diary" (1940), realistically depicting the difficulties of a harsh winter campaign and "the faces of camping friends", served as an approach to poems written during the Great Patriotic War: the collections "December near Moscow" (1942), "I sing victory "(1946), "Roads lead to the West" (1942), "Offensive" (1943), "Soldier's Heart" (1943), "Punishing Russia" (1944). Freed from some distrust of the lyrics, Surkov was able to soulfully express the nationwide feelings of anger, hatred, grief, the impulse for victory and the soldier's homesickness. His songs, "Song of the Bold" (1941) and a number of poems, which were awarded the USSR State Prize in 1946, gained particular popularity. The severity of tone, the stinginess of colors are fused in them with high lyricism. Surkov also took part in the creation of poetic feuilletons about the brave, successful fighters Vasya Granatkin (the army newspaper Heroic Campaign, 1939-40) and Grisha Tankin (newspaper Western Front"Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda", 1941-42), wrote a book of essays "Lights of the Greater Urals. Letters about the Soviet rear "(1944), etc.

Impressions from numerous travels and meetings are inspired by the poems included in Surkov's post-war collections "Peace to the world!" (1950; USSR State Prize, 1951), East and West (1957), Songs about Humanity (1961), What is happiness? (1969). In 1965, a collection of literary critical articles and speeches by Surkov, Voices of the Time. Notes on the margins of the history of literature. 1934-1965". Surkov was the managing editor of " literary newspaper"(1944-46), the magazine "Spark" (1945-53). From 1962 - Chief Editor"Brief Literary Encyclopedia". Translates poems by Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Polish, Czech, Slovenian, Serbian, Hungarian, Urdu and other poets. Many of Surkov's poems have been translated into foreign languages.

Op.: Sobr. op. [Intro. Art. A. Turkova], vol. 1-4, M., 1965-66; Relay of friendship. Poems zarub. poets in the lane. A. Surkov, M., 1968; After the war. Poems of 1945-1970, M., 1972.

Lit .: Kulinich A. S., Alexei Surkov, K., 1953; Vladimirov S. V. and Moldavsky D. M., Poems of Alexei Surkov, L., 1956; Grinberg I., Poetry of Alexei Surkov, M., 1958; Reznik O., Alexey Surkov. The path of the poet, 2nd ed., M., 1969.

A. M. Turkov

Brief literary encyclopedia: In 9 volumes - T. 7. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1972

SURKOV Alexey Alexandrovich - poet. Comes from peasants. Member of the CPSU (b). Studied at ICP. Order bearer. He began publishing in 1924 in Pravda. Surkov's poetry, devoted mainly to the civil war, glorifying the international solidarity of the working people, is saturated with revolutionary heroic pathos. The theme of the defense of the socialist homeland is the main theme of the poet. Surkov's early works were influenced by the poets of revolutionary romanticism - avaricious severity Tikhonov, soft lyricism Svetlova. Surkov's poems often describe the death of a hero, a death that brings triumph and victory to the cause of the revolution ( "Death of Miner Tit", "About tenderness", "The Story of a Soldier" and etc.). The romantic coloring of his poems is combined with the desire for the truth of life. In he emphasizes the realistic orientation of his work, repulsion from false romantic clichés (“My hero did not go beyond Chukotka to the cat and did not aim at the eye striped tiger"). Fearing embellishing falsehood and pretentiousness (“you were more afraid of flat falsehood and loud phrase than fire,” he writes about the nature of his poetry), Surkov tries simply, emphatically “casually” to talk about the battle days of “the nameless guardsmen of the insurgent class”, about heroic deeds " rank-and-file revolution" - a Putilov locksmith, a Kronstadt sailor, a Bolshevik agitator, "proud falcons of our country" - pilots. Often he manages to achieve genuine sincerity and warmth in his lyrical poems. Surkov's work is permeated with Bolshevik passion, but the poet lacks the brightness and richness of the image. A positive striving for artlessness and simplicity sometimes turns into simplification (especially when describing enemies), and excited elation, contrary to the authors' attitudes, turns into rhetoric.

Valuable is Surkov's contribution to the creation of mass revolutionary songs, especially those of the Red Army. He owns more than a dozen song texts, some of them, such as Chapaevskaya, are popular.

Surkov also acts as a critic and editor. He is the author of a number of articles on poetry and articles on song (mainly defensive). Surkov was a direct assistant to A. M. Gorky in editing the journal Literary Education.

Bibliography: I. Zapev, The first book of poems (1925-1929), M., GIHL, 1930 (additional) ed., GIHL, M. - L., 1931); Poems, ed. B-ka "Spark", M., 1931; On the approaches to the song, ed. "Young Guard", M., 1931; Offensive, ed. Zhurn.-gaz. associations, M., 1932; The Last War, GIHL, M., 1933; Peers, 2nd book. poems (1930-1933), ed., "Soviet literature", M., 1934; Word of friendship. Agitpoem, Voronezh, 1934; Homeland of the courageous, the third book of poems 1934-1935, Goslitizdat, M., 1935; The way of song, fourth book of poetry 1935-1936, ed. "Soviet Writer", Moscow, 1937; Selected poems 1925-1935, Goslitizdat, Moscow, 1936.

V.N.

Literary Encyclopedia: In 11 volumes - [M.], 1929-1939

Surkov Alexey Alexandrovich

10/1/1899, the village of Sereznevo, Rybinsk district, Yaroslavl province - 14/6/1983

Poet, public figure, lieutenant colonel (1943), Hero of Socialist Labor (1969), twice winner of the Stalin Prize (1946, 1951).

Educated at the Faculty of Literature of the Institute of Red Professors (1934).

Member of the Civil and Soviet-Finnish wars.

In 1925 he joined the CPSU(b).

He wrote jingoistic verses, glorifying the heroism of the Civil War. In 1934 he published the collection Peers, and then others.

The author of the texts of popular songs, among which the most famous are "Konarmeiskaya", "Fire beats in a cramped stove", "Song of the Brave", etc. A characteristic example of his work was the poems published in Pravda on 26.1.1937 during the trial of the "Parallel Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center":

Here are all of them: - the lackeys of the generals,

Spies by blood and friends of spies -

Serebryakov, Sokolnikov, Muralov,

Two-faced Radek, vile Pyatakov.

Death to scoundrels who have trampled trust into the mud

A country covered in victories!

During the Great Patriotic War, a war correspondent for the newspapers Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda and Krasnaya Zvezda; published 10 collections of poems, incl. "Roads lead to the West" (1942), "Soldier's heart" and "Poems about hatred" (1943), "Songs of an angry heart" and "punishing Russia" (1944). In 1944 he was editor-in-chief of the Literaturnaya Gazeta, in 1945-53 - the magazine Ogonyok.

After the Great Patriotic War, Surkov, who always felt the situation well, fulfilled the social order, wrote poetry, calling for the struggle for peace (collection Peace to the World, 1950). From 1949 secretary, in 1950-53 deputy., 1st deputy. Secretary General Union of Writers of the USSR. Actively participated in the persecution of writers "not corresponding" to the party line, a singer of the Stalin era. In 1952-56 he was a member of the Central Audit Commission of the CPSU, in 1956-66 he was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In 1953-59 1st Secretary of the Union of Writers of the USSR. Since 1954 he has been a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

For the sake of historical truth, one could without any exaggeration call Aleksey Alexandrovich Surkov a living embodiment of Andrey Platonov's prose, one of the characters of the same "Chevengur". In the novel, on almost every page, there are words that could become an epigraph to his life. Take, for example, the statement of Ignatius Moshonkov: "I give socialism! The rye will not ripen yet, but socialism will be ready! .. And I look: what am I yearning for? It was I who missed socialism."

Alexei Surkov liked to call himself "the same age as the century." And he really passed with the 20th century most of historical path, in some ways reflecting it, in some ways becoming its reflection. That is why poetry and the fate of Surkov are of interest not only as a literary fact, but also as a socio-psychological phenomenon of their time.

Who could have imagined that a simple boy who was born a hundred years ago in the Yaroslavl village of Serednevo in the family of a poor peasant would become, over the years, not only a famous poet, but also a major writer's official, statesman. No special signs and signs of grace, indicating his future chosen destiny, shone over him. True, some wonderful oddity ("of Chevengur" color!) flashed through the promise of something unexpected in the name of Surkov's great-grandfather, who, God only knows for what reason, was called Pompey.

Surkov was, in the language of his peer Nikolai Tikhonov, from the generation of "festive, cheerful, possessed." He did not just participate in the Civil War, he smashed his own brothers, who were distraught from hunger and violence by the rebellious peasants of the Tambov province, whom he called "Antonov's kulak gangs." In his notorious speech at the First Congress of Writers, Surkov, with all Bolshevik frankness, will say about his past: "The question of parting with the past ... has never been raised." In other words, he admits without hesitation or a shadow of embarrassment that people without a past, without memory, without culture, without a language, without a clan or tribe have burst into literature and life - the same as himself.

The arrival in literature of all these Surkovs, Zharovs, Utkins, Bezymenskys, Altauzens, Tikhonovs, Dolmatovskys was called "a great rise in the creative amateur activity of the masses." The first poems by Alexei Surkov appeared in 1918 in Krasnaya Gazeta, when Alexander Blok, Sergei Yesenin, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Valery Bryusov, Fyodor Sologub were still alive in the full bloom of their creative aspirations.

At the First Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934, the hardened Alexei Surkov rushes into battle with Bukharin himself (in fact, with the Party!), arguing with his report on poetry, where he opposed Mayakovsky's civil line, as obsolete, intimacy and apolitical nature of Pasternak's poetry .

For my long life Alexey Alexandrovich released several dozen collections of poems, for which he received orders and state prizes. He was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the RSFSR, secretary of the Union of Writers of the USSR, was elected a member of the Central Audit Commission of the CPSU, a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Finally, he became a Hero of Socialist Labor.

Reading the poems of the young Alexei Surkov, you are convinced that he had the makings of a great poet. He has a strong, energetic line, filled with the air of revolutionary romance. He perfectly felt the new linguistic element. But his main quality is a non-false lyrical voice and free poetic intonation.

The poem "Fire is beating in a cramped stove" has actually become a folk song. Perhaps this song was remembered because in it, Alexei Surkov, referring to his beloved woman, expressed the most secret thing that he had carried in himself all his life, but which he could not confess to anyone: “I want you to hear How my voice yearns alive..."

But this lively, yearning voice made itself felt less and less often in colorless verses that become completely dead over the years... , all the villages around Serednev disappeared without a trace from the face of the earth, went to the bottom of the Rybinsk reservoir, although Serednevo still miraculously survived. The poet will sadly write about this in verse: "The world of my childhood has disappeared at the bottom of the sea ..." and will call the lost "village Atlantis."

Did he himself renounce the past? And the past took revenge on him. Atlantis, alas, turned out to be the era that he served so long and faithfully. Slogans, ideas, victories and tragedies have gone under the water of time, and now he himself, along with his poetry, orders and titles, is being pulled to the bottom. And only Serednevo, clinging to the edge of the creeping shore, reminds that a man was once born there with a lively and longing voice...

Bibliography

For the preparation of this work, materials from the site http://russia.rin.ru/

Alexei Surkov is a Russian poet and public figure. Member of the CPSU since 1925. He was elected a member of the Central Audit Commission of the CPSU (1952 - 56), a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU (1956 - 66). Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 4th - 8th convocations and the RSFSR of the 2nd - 3rd convocations. Member of the World Peace Council and the Soviet Peace Committee. Secretary of the Board of the Union of Writers of the USSR (since 1949; in 1953-59 - first secretary). Hero of Socialist Labor (1969).

From the age of 12, Surkov served "in the people" in St. Petersburg. Soon after the October Revolution, he went to the front of the Civil War.

After demobilization, he returned to the village: “He worked in the volost executive committee, was a hut, a volost political enlightenment organizer, a rural correspondent in the county newspaper ... and even, forced by a hopeless chronic non-repertoire, wrote plays for a drama circle.”

Subsequently, he was at the party and Komsomol work in Rybinsk and Yaroslavl, edited the Komsomol newspaper.

Moving to Moscow had a beneficial effect on Surkov's work, where he was elected to the leadership of the RAPP (1928). Here he graduated from the Faculty of Literature of the Institute of Red Professors (1934). In 1934-39 he worked in the journal Literary Study.

Surkov's first poems were published in 1918 in the Petrograd Krasnaya Gazeta, but he considers 1930 to be the true beginning of his poetic activity, when the first collection of poems, Zapev, was published. The greatest successes of this and subsequent collections are "Poems" and "On the approaches to the song" (1931), "Offensive" (1932), "The Last War" (1933), "Peers" (1934), "The Motherland of the Courageous" (1935) , “The way of song” (1937), “So we grew up” (1940) - refer to the image of the heroes of the Civil War.

In the 1930s, Surkov participated in the work of Lokaf. His songs of these years - "Konarmeiskaya Song", "Terskaya Marching" and others - gained great popularity.

In 1939-45, Surkov was a war correspondent, a participant in the campaign in Western Belarus, the war with the White Finns, then the Great Patriotic War.

His "December Diary" (1940), realistically depicting the difficulties of a harsh winter campaign and "the faces of camping friends", served as an approach to poems written during the Great Patriotic War: the collections "December near Moscow" (1942), "I sing victory "(1946), "Roads lead to the West" (1942), "Offensive" (1943), "Soldier's Heart" (1943), "Punishing Russia" (1944). Freed from some distrust of the lyrics, Surkov was able to soulfully express the nationwide feelings of anger, hatred, grief, the impulse for victory and the soldier's homesickness. His songs “Fire beats in a cramped stove”, “Song of the Brave” (1941) and a number of poems, which were awarded the State Prize in 1946, gained particular popularity. The severity of tone, the stinginess of colors are fused in them with high lyricism.

Surkov also took part in the creation of poetic feuilletons about the brave, successful fighters Vasya Granatkin and Grisha Tankin, wrote a book of essays “Fires of the Great Urals. Letters about the Soviet rear "(1944), etc.

Impressions from numerous travels and meetings are inspired by the poems included in Surkov's post-war collections "Peace to the world!" (1950, State Prize, 1951), "East and West" (1957), "Songs about Humanity" (1961), "What is happiness?" (1969). In 1965, a collection of literary critical articles and speeches by Surkov, Voices of the Time. Notes on the margins of the history of literature. 1934 -1965".

Surkov was the editor-in-chief of the Literaturnaya Gazeta (1944-46), the Ogonyok magazine (1945-53), and from 1962 he was the editor-in-chief of the Brief Literary Encyclopedia.

In 1976 he was awarded the gold medal to them. A. A. Fadeeva.

Translations of poems by Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Serbian, Hungarian, Urdu and other poets.

Biography

Surkov Alexey Alexandrovich

A. A. Surkov was born on October 1 (13), 1899 in the village of Serednevo, Georgievskaya volost, Rybinsk district, Yaroslavl province (now the Rybinsk district of the Yaroslavl region) into a peasant family, his ancestors were serfs of the Mikhalkov nobles. He studied at the Middle School. From the age of 12 he served "in people" in St. Petersburg: he worked as a student in furniture store, in carpentry workshops, in a printing house, in an office and as a weigher in the Petrograd commercial port. He published his first poems in 1918 in the Petrograd Krasnaya Gazeta under the pseudonym A. Gutuevsky.

In 1918, he volunteered for the Red Army, a participant in the Civil War and the Polish campaign. He served until 1922 as a machine gunner and mounted scout.

At the end civil war returned to his native village. In 1924, his poems were published by the Pravda newspaper. October 11, 1925 was a delegate to the I Provincial Congress of Proletarian Writers. Since 1925, he was a selkor of the newly created provincial newspaper Severny Komsomolets, and in 1926-1928 - its editor-in-chief. Under him, the newspaper doubled its circulation, began to publish twice a week instead of one, junkors were actively involved in the work, on his initiative the heading “Literary Corner” appeared, which contained poems and stories of readers, a literary group was created at the editorial office.

In May 1928, Surkov was delegated to the First All-Union Congress of Proletarian Writers, after which he remained to work in Moscow. In 1928 he was elected to the leadership Russian Association proletarian writers (RAPP).

In 1934-1939 he taught at the Editorial and Publishing Institute and the Literary Institute of the Union of Writers of the USSR; was deputy editor of the journal Literary Studies. In the magazine he acted as a critic and editor. Author of a number of articles on poetry and articles on song (mainly defensive). In the 1930s, collections of his poems "Zopev", "The Last War", "The Motherland of the Courageous", "The Way of Song" and "So We Grew Up" were published. He married Sofya Antonovna Krevs, whom he met in literary circles; a daughter and a son appeared.

Before the war, in 1940-1941, he worked as the editor-in-chief of the magazine " New world».

In 1941-1945, Surkov was a military correspondent for the front-line newspaper Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda and a special correspondent for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, and also worked for the Combat Onslaught newspaper. During the war years, he published collections of poems “December near Moscow”, “Roads lead to the West”, “Soldier's heart”, “Offensive”, “Poems about hatred”, “Songs of an angry heart” and “Punishing Russia”. Based on the results of the business trip, in 1944 he published a book of essays “The Lights of the Greater Urals. Letters about the Soviet rear. In 1944-1946 he was the editor-in-chief of the Literaturnaya Gazeta. In June 1945 he visited Berlin, Leipzig and Radebeuse, and then Weimar; Based on the materials of the trip, he wrote a collection of poems “I sing Victory”. He graduated from the war with the rank of lieutenant colonel (1943).

In 1945-1953 he was the editor-in-chief of the Ogonyok magazine. Since 1962, the editor-in-chief of the Brief Literary Encyclopedia.

A. A. Surkov died on June 14, 1983. Buried in Moscow Novodevichy cemetery(plot No. 10).

Published since 1918. The first poems by A. A. Surkov were published in the Petrograd Krasnaya Gazeta. The first book of poems "Zapev" was published in Moscow in 1930. The author of poems that have become folk songs, such as "Chapaevskaya", "It's not clouds, thunderclouds", "Early-early", "In the vastness of the wonderful Motherland", "Fire beats in a cramped stove ..." ("In the dugout") , "Konarmeiskaya", "Song of the Brave", "March of the Defenders of Moscow".

He published the collections "Peers" (1934), "Poems" (1931), "On the approaches to the song" (1931), "Offensive" (1932), "The Last War" (1933), "The Motherland of the Courageous" (1935), " The way of the song "(1936)," Soldiers of October", "So we grew up" (1938), "It was in the north" (1940), "December near Moscow" (1942), " big war"(1942), "Offensive" (1943), "Soldier's Heart" (1943), "Front Notebook", "Punishing Russia" (1944), "Heart of the World", "Road to Victory", "Selected Poems", " To the world - the world! (1950), "East and West" (1957), "Songs about Humanity" (1961), "What is happiness?" (1969), “After the war. Poems 1945-1970" (1972). His Selected Poems were published in 2 volumes (Moscow, 1974) and Collected Works in 4 volumes (Moscow, 1965-1966).

The poet's poems are marked by political sharpness, imbued with a sense of Soviet patriotism; they have been translated into dozens of languages. In addition to poetry, A. A. Surkov wrote critical articles, essays and journalism. He published a collection of articles and speeches on questions of literature "Voices of the Time" (1962).

Alexey Aleksandrovich Surkov was born into a peasant family on October 1, 1899, in the village of Serednevo, Yaroslavl province. He studied at the village school. And from the age of 12 he already worked - first as an apprentice in a furniture store, then in carpentry workshops, a printing house, an office, he was a weigher in the commercial port of Petrograd. The first poems were published under the pseudonym A. Gutuevsky in Krasnaya Gazeta in 1918. Then the young man volunteered for the Red Army, participated in the Civil War, the Polish campaign. And after the end of the war he returned to his homeland.

In 1924, his poems were published by the Pravda newspaper. And in 1925 the poet was sent as a delegate to the I Provincial Congress of Proletarian Writers. He began working as a correspondent in the provincial newspaper Severny Komsomolets, and from 1926 to 1928 he was its editor-in-chief.

In 1928, Surkov was delegated to the First All-Union Congress of Proletarian Writers in Moscow, after which he remained to work in the capital. Soon he was elected one of the leaders in the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers. During 1934-1939. taught in different educational institutions, worked as deputy editor at the journal Literary Studies. In the 1930s, several collections of his poems saw the world, including "Song", "The Motherland of the Courageous", "So We Grew Up", etc.

He married S. A. Krevs, whom he met in literary circles. They had two children.

In 1940-1941. He was the editor-in-chief at Novy Mir. And during the war he served as a correspondent for the newspapers Krasnaya Zvezda, Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda and Combat Onslaught. At the same time, seven collections of his poems were published, where military themes prevail. From 1944 to 1946 he was the executive editor of Literaturnaya Gazeta. After the end of the war in June 1945, he visited Berlin and several other German cities, which was reflected in the collection “I Sing Victory”.

From 1945 to 1953, Surkov was the editor-in-chief of the Ogonyok magazine, and since 1962 he was appointed editor-in-chief of the Brief Literary Encyclopedia. Alexey Alexandrovich died on 09/14/1983. Buried in Moscow.

Alexey Alexandrovich Surkov(October 1 (13), 1899, Serednevo village, Rybinsk district, Yaroslavl province - June 14, 1983, Moscow) - Russian Soviet poet, journalist, public figure. Hero of Socialist Labor (1969). Winner of two Stalin Prizes (1946, 1951). Battalion Commissar (1941).

Biography

Alexey Alexandrovich Surkov was born on October 1 (13), 1899 in the village of Serednevo, Georgievskaya volost, Rybinsk district, Yaroslavl province (now the Rybinsk district of the Yaroslavl region) into a peasant family, his ancestors were serfs of the Mikhalkov nobles. He studied at the Middle School. From the age of 12 he served "in the people" in St. Petersburg: he worked as an apprentice in a furniture store, in carpentry workshops, in a printing house, in an office and as a weigher in the Petrograd commercial port. He published his first poems in 1918 in the Petrograd Krasnaya Gazeta under the pseudonym A. Gutuevsky.

In 1918, he volunteered for the Red Army, a participant in the Civil War and the Polish campaign. He served until 1922 as a machine gunner, mounted reconnaissance; participated in the battles on the North-Western Front and against the rebels of A. S. Antonov.

After the end of the civil war, he returned to his native village. In 1922-1924, he worked as a hut - an employee of a reading hut in the neighboring village of Volkovo, secretary of the volost executive committee, political education organizer, rural correspondent in the county newspaper. In 1924, his poems were published by the Pravda newspaper. Member of the CPSU (b) since 1925. October 11, 1925 was a delegate to the I Provincial Congress of Proletarian Writers. In 1924-1926 he was the first secretary of the Rybinsk organization of the Komsomol. Since 1925, he was a selkor of the newly created provincial newspaper Severny Komsomolets, and in 1926-1928 - its editor-in-chief. Under him, the newspaper doubled its circulation, began to publish twice a week instead of one, junkors were actively involved in the work, on his initiative the heading “Literary Corner” appeared, which contained poems and stories of readers, a literary group was created at the editorial office.

In May 1928, Surkov was delegated to the First All-Union Congress of Proletarian Writers, after which he remained to work in Moscow. In 1928 he was elected to the leadership of the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP). In 1931-1934 he studied at the Faculty of Literature at the Institute of Red Professors, after which he defended his dissertation.

In 1934-1939 he taught at the Editorial and Publishing Institute and the Literary Institute of the Union of Writers of the USSR; was deputy editor of the journal Literary Studies, where he worked under the direct supervision of M. Gorky. In the magazine he acted as a critic and editor. Author of a number of articles on poetry and articles on song (mainly defensive). Participated in the creation and further activities of the Literary Association of the Red Army and Navy (LOKAF). In the 1930s, collections of his poems "Zopev", "The Last War", "The Motherland of the Courageous", "The Way of Song" and "So We Grew Up" were published. He married Sofya Antonovna Krevs, whom he met in literary circles; daughter Natalya and son appeared.

He took part in a campaign in Western Belarus and in the Finnish campaign. In the latter he was an employee of the army newspaper "Heroic Campaign"; when he returned, he published the December Diary dedicated to this war. In 1940-1941 he worked as the editor-in-chief of the Novy Mir magazine. Songs based on Surkov's poems are featured in Alexander Row's film The Little Humpbacked Horse (1941).

In 1941-1945, Surkov was a military correspondent for the front-line newspaper Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda and a special correspondent for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, and also worked for the Combat Onslaught newspaper. Participated in the defense of Moscow, fought in Belarus. On November 27, 1941, near Istra, Surkov was surrounded on command post. When he was still able to get out of the dugout and get to his own, then his entire overcoat turned out to be cut by fragments. Then he said: “He did not take a step further than the headquarters of the regiment. Not a single one ... And there are four steps to death ”; after that, it only remained to add: “It’s not easy for me to reach you ...” Returning to Moscow, he wrote his famous poem “In the dugout” (soon becoming a song) and sent his text to his wife (who was then evacuated with her daughter in the city of Chistopol) in a soldier's letter-triangle.