The Soviet Union's national anthem survived its country's collapse to become Russia's anthem today.
In short: Born from a 1943 contest to replace The Internationale, the Soviet anthem underwent dramatic lyrical shifts to survive the political tides of the twentieth century. Despite the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, the melody endured, eventually returning as the official anthem of the Russian Federation in the year 2000.
The anthem's melody originated in 1938 as the Hymn of the Bolshevik Party, composed by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov. Its opening bars drew from Alexandrov's earlier work, Life Has Become Better, which was inspired by a 1935 speech from Joseph Stalin. When the Soviet Union needed a new anthem in 1943 to replace The Internationale, Alexandrov submitted his composition. Stalin personally selected the music, though he requested specific lyrical themes, including references to the Red Army's victory over Germany and the Soviet Union itself. Sergey Mikhalkov and El-Registan were tasked with writing the lyrics, completing the first draft in a single night.
The anthem's lyrics were highly sensitive to the political climate. The original 1944 version explicitly praised Stalin, a inclusion he reportedly resisted before relenting. Following his death and the subsequent de-Stalinization process, references to Stalin became unacceptable. From 1956 to 1977, the anthem was performed as an instrumental piece. In 1977, to mark the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution, Mikhalkov provided revised lyrics that removed Stalin's name and introduced a uniform refrain, while also replacing a reference to the national flag with a nod to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Russia briefly adopted the lyricless Patriotic Song. However, in December 2000, the Russian legislature approved the return of the Soviet-era melody with new lyrics, again penned by Mikhalkov. While the music remains a symbol of national identity for many, it is controversial in other post-Soviet states. Countries like Ukraine, Latvia, and Lithuania have enacted decommunization laws that criminalize the public performance of the anthem, with Ukrainian offenders facing up to five years in prison.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: State Anthem of the Soviet Union
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