Mikhalkov-the-Elder has been a dedicated Party servant for over 60 years. Stalin loved his poetry - the man had talent - and Mikhalkov did his best to maintain his top position in the Soviet literary establishment. He served all other leaders after Stalin, and wrote the text of the ridiculously clumsy Soviet anthem, glorifying Stalin... then, after Stalin's fall from grace - Lenin, and then finding new master in Putin. Boris Yeltsyn decided to drop the old Soviet anthem, and to switch back to old traditional Russian instead. But that did not sit well with the new communist guard, and Putin brought back the Stalin anthem, but now with some words changed for the third time by the ever loyal Mikhalkov.
For his anthem achievements the Russian sharp tongues had coined rather insulting nicknames for the guy - gimnochist and gimniuk, hybrid words, both of them having to do with the fact the Russian word for anthem can be easily modified into the word meaning shit. Therefore lied people's opinion of the man.
Masters changed, but Mikhalkov always remained at the helm of the Union of the Soviet Writers, and there he destroyed his name by conducting one smear campaign after another, aimed at the writers and poets who for one reason or the other deviated from the party line. He was instrumental in virtually destroying the lives of people like Pasternak.
Almost as much can be said about his son. One of his latest achievements was the open letter to Putin, begging him to be a good father and leader to the lost and weak members of the Russian cultural intelligentsia. It immediately brought back the memories of Stalin time, and killed all the doubts about the moral fiber of the author.
You can see it here:
http://www.fipresci.org/news/archive/archive_2005/moscow_museum/putin_nmikhalkov.htm
Today he is not much more than an old school party apparatchik.
