Maxim Dormidontovich Mikhailov was a Soviet and Russian bass singer. His son, Igor Mikhailov was the bass of the Bolshoi for several decades. His grandson Maxim Mikhailov was also a bass singer.
Mikhailov was born in Koltsovka, Kazan Governorate. He had no musical training beyond that as an archdeacon in the Russian Orthodox Church, but was a physical phenomenon with enormous depth and volume. He was directly recruited as a singer by the Soviet authorities, his beard was shaved but he did not abdicate his curacy, and sent to study in preparation for the Bolshoi Theatre. He became Joseph Stalin's favorite singer and most famous interpreter of the role of Ivan Susanin in the reworked "patriotic" Soviet version of the opera of that name, formerly and since better known as Mikhail Glinka's A Life for the Tsar. Mikhailov sang Susanin nearly 400 times from his first performance of the role in 1939 to his last stage appearance in 1957. He also was frequently invited by Stalin to sing and drink with him late at night in Moscow Kremlin.