Short answers, pulled from the story.
Sergey Mikhalkov was a Russian author of children's books and satirical fables, born in Moscow into the noble Mikhalkov family. He is best known for the Uncle Styopa poems, featuring a friendly giant policeman, and for writing the lyrics to the Soviet and Russian national anthems.
Stalin wanted a more patriotic anthem to replace The Internationale during World War II. In 1942, when Mikhalkov was 29, Stalin took notice of his work and commissioned him to write the new lyrics. The anthem was introduced on the 1st of January 1944.
Mikhalkov wrote the anthem lyrics three times. He co-wrote the original Soviet anthem words in 1943. He rewrote them in 1970 to remove references to Stalin, with the new version approved on the 1st of September 1977. At age 87, he wrote a third set of lyrics adopted as the National Anthem of Russia on the 30th of December 2000.
Mikhalkov and his wife Natalia Konchalovskaya sometimes worked for the KGB during the Soviet era. One known case involved French ambassador Maurice Dejean, who was compromised by the KGB in the 1950s; the Mikhalkovs helped by introducing undercover KGB officers to foreign diplomats.
Sergey Mikhalkov is the father of filmmakers Nikita Mikhalkov and Andrei Konchalovsky. Konchalovsky dropped the Mikhalkov portion of his hyphenated surname after leaving Russia.
Mikhalkov died on the 27th of August 2009 in Moscow at age 96. His funeral was held at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, and he was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow with full military honours.