National Anthem of the Soviet Union

Государственный гимн СССР

English: The National Anthem of the Soviet Union
Gosudarstvenniy Gimn SSSR
Flag of the Soviet Union
anthem of Russian SFSR Soviet Union
Lyrics	Sergey Mikhalkov, 1943 and 1977
Music	Alexander Alexandrov, 1938 (?)
Adopted	1 January 1944 1 September 1977 (new version)
Relinquished	26 December 1991 (as anthem of the Soviet Union) 23 November 1990 (as anthem of the Russian SFSR)
Music sample
Instrumental

The National Anthem of the Soviet Union or the State Anthem of the USSR (or Hymn, Russian: Государственный гимн СССР, Gosudarstvenniy Gimn SSSR) was introduced during World War II on March 15, 1944, replacing The Internationale as the official national anthem of the Soviet Union as well as the national anthem of the Russian SFSR. The lyrics were written by Sergey Mikhalkov (1913–2009) in collaboration with Gabriel El-Registan (1899–1945) and the music was composed by Alexander Alexandrov (1883–1946). It was believed that Soviet soldiers would respond more to an anthem that was dedicated only to the Soviet Union rather than to a worldwide movement. The song was originally written as the Anthem of the Bolshevik Party with lyrics in the Alexandrine meter by Vasily Lebedev-Kumach in 1939.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia adopted a new national anthem called Patriotic Song without any lyrics, although there were made suggestions for adopting them and few versions were made.^[1] In 2000, the Soviet national anthem (tune) was restored with Mikhalkov writing new lyrics. See National Anthem of Russia.

Also, the same music was used for a proposal of the anthem of the State Union of Russia and Belarus entitled Derzhavny Soyuz Narodov (Union of Sovereign Nations). Although never officially adopted, the lyrics of that piece were not tied to any specific nationality, and could be adopted for a broader union. However, there appears to be no plans to utilize that piece in any official role. The anthem also had official versions in the languages of every Soviet republic and in several other Soviet languages.

Versions

The actual version of the Anthem was played for the first time on the Soviet radio at midnight of the 1st January 1944.^[2] The 1944 lyrics had three different refrains following three different stanzas; in each refrain, the second line was consequently modified with references to friendship, then happiness and finally the glory. Later on, in 1977, these refrains were replaced by a uniform refrain following all stanzas. Joseph Stalin was originally mentioned in the lyrics; however, after his death in 1953 and the process of Destalinization, the lyrics referring to Stalin were considered unacceptable. Because of this, from that time until 1977, the anthem was played without lyrics. Revised lyrics without the references to Stalin and World War II were approved in 1977.

1944

1977

See also

• Grom pobedy, razdavajsya! ("Let the thunder of victory sound!")
• God Save the Tsar!
• Worker's Marseillaise, Russian version of La Marseillaise
• The Internationale
• Patrioticheskaya Pesnya
• National Anthem of Russia

References

1. ^ http://www.hymn.ru/#related-to-glinka-anthem^{[dead link]}
2. ^ Гимн СССР (1943)

External links

• Russian Anthems museum - extensive set of downloadable recordings and official sheet music.
• 20 Most popular Soviet songs
• The author of Russian national anthem: sources of the USSR's anthem in Russian.
• by K.Kovalev - Eng. Bortniansky's anthem "Kol slaven" - Eng.
• Vocal performance of the National Anthem of the Soviet Union with Subtitles