On 26 January 1946, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR issued a resolution on awarding the Stalin Prize in Science, Technology, Culture and Arts for 1943-1944. Alexander Tvardovsky was awarded the first-class prize in literature in the category “Poetry” for his work 'Vasili Tyorkin'.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Tvardovsky - a war correspondent on the Southwestern Front and then on the 3rd Belorussian Front - together with members of the newspaper “Guarding the Motherland”, came up with the image of Tyorkin back in 1939. The character became the face of the paper's regular humour column and the adventures of Tyorkin were published as a comic book: several drawings were backed up with captions in verse.

Each series was extremely popular with readers, Tvardovsky saw in the image of a daring soldier the potential of a folk hero. In 1942, he wrote a poem under the same name about the down-to-earth daily life of Tyorkin at the front. It really resonated with his soldierly audience on the frontline. The chapters of the poem first appeared in the newspaper of the Western Front “Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda”, then it was reprinted by the central papers "Pravda", "Izvestia", "Znamya". Excerpts were read out on the radio.

Newspaper Pravda, 1942

Another decree issued by the Council of People's Commissars awarded prizes for achievements in feature and documentary filmmaking to the team that worked on the film “Six O'Clock in the Evening After the War” (1944), and to the cameraman who shot the frontline newsreels.

The first-class prize was 100,000 roubles, and the second-class-prize 50,000 roubles.

Sources:

The newspaper "Pravda", No. 23 (10105) from 27 January 1946.

Alexander Tvardovsky’s Interview on how he wrote the poem “Vasili Tyorkin” (answer to readers).