RUSSIAN LYRICS

Soyuz nerushimiy respublik svobodnykh
Splotila naveki velikaya Rus'!
Da zdravstvuet sozdanniy voley narodov
Velikiy, moguchiy Sovetskiy Soyuz!

CHORUS:
Slavsya Otechestvo nashe svobodnoye,
Druzhbi narodov nadyozhniy oplot,
Partiya Lenina, sila narodnaya
Nas k torzhestvu kommunizma vedyot!

Skvoz tuchi siyalo nam solntse svobodi,
I Lenin velikiy nam put' ozaril,
Na pravoe delo on podnyal narodi,
Na trud i na podvigi nas vdokhnovIl!

CHORUS

V pobede velikikh idey kommunizma
Mi vidim gryadutshee nashey strani,
I krasnomu znameni slavnoy otchizni
Mi budem vsegda bezzavetno verni!

CHORUS

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ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Unbreakable Union of freeborn Republics,
Great Rus' has welded forver to stand.
Created in struggle by will of the people,
United and mighty, our Soviet land!

CHORUS:
Sing to the Motherland, home of the free,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.
O Party of Lenin, the srtength of the people,
To Communism's triumph lead us on!

Through tempests the sunrays of freedom have cheered us,
Along the new path where great Lenin did lead.
To a righteous cause he raised up the peoples,
Inspired them to labour and valourous deed.

CHORUS

In the vict'ry of Communism's deathless ideal,
We see the future of our dear land.
And to her fluttering scarlet banner,
Selflessly true we always shall stand!

CHORUS

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OFFICIAL ENGLISH LYRICS (pre 1978)

United Forever in Friendship and Labour,
Our mighty Republics will ever endure.
The Great Soviet Union will Live through the Ages.
The Dream of a People their fortress secure. 

CHORUS:
Long Live our Soviet Motherland, built by the People's mighty hand.
Long Live our People, United and Free.
Strong in our Friendship tried by fire. Long may our Crimson Flag Inspire,
Shining in Glory for all Men to see. 

Through Days dark and stormy where Great Lenin Lead us
Our Eyes saw the Bright Sun of Freedom above
and Stalin our Leader with Faith in the People,
Inspired us to Build up the Land that we Love. 

CHORUS

We fought for the Future, destroyed the invader,
and Brought to our Homeland the Laurels of Fame.
Our Glory will live in the Memory of Nations
and All Generations will Honour Her Name. 

CHORUS

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Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
"Gimn Sovetskogo Soyuza" (Hymn of the Soviet Union)

Words by:Sergey Vladimirovich Mikhalkov and G.G. El-Registan
Music by:Alexandr Vasilievich Alexandrov
In use:1944-1992

From 1944 until its break-up in 1992, the Soviet Union used an anthem that has
long been one of my top favourites (and a favourite of many other anthem
collectors as well). It has since been readopted as the official anthem of
Russia, but with new words to reflect its new democratic nature.

In 1936 Stalin decided a change in national anthem was needed, believing the
lyrics of the "Internationale" spoke of work that was yet to be done by the
workers of the world; Stalin, however, believed that the worker's ultimate goal
has been achieved. (Also that "The Internationale" was written by non-Russians
was an issue for him.) This task was delayed by the outbreak of World War II,
however, during the heat of the war in 1942, money was set aside to create a
new anthem. On June, 18, 1943 the deputy prime minister of the USSR Marshal
Kliment Voroshilov and Party's Secretary Alexander Shcherbakov for about two
hours had been instructing about 20 soviet poets and composers what anthem they
should create: ``Its lyrics must live decades at least, and maybe, and even for
sure, hundreds years. Its music must be easy to understand, expressive, plain
for Russians as well as for Kalmyks. People will sing in both in joy and in
misfortune."

Two war reporters Captain S. Mikhalkov (also a popular children's author) and
Major Gabriel Ureklyan (being an Armenian he used the name ``El-Reghistan'')
were not invited to visit Voroshilivs lecture about future anthem. One night
El-Reghistan in his sleep saw himself with his friend Sergey Mikhalkov writing
these words of anthem: ``The noble union of free peoples / Great Russia has
welded for ever!'' In early morning he came in a great hurry to Sergey and they
finished the first stanza together.

On September, 20 they were called into the Kremlin. Then the text was corrected
by Stalin (who has written poetry in his youth). The fist variant of text,
officially adopted on Sep. 26, had only two stanzas and a refrain, different
from the one that was eventually approved for use. But after the meeting with
Foreign Ministers of the countries of the Anti-Hitler coalition in Moscow, at
night on Sep., 27 Stalin by phone asked Mikhalkov to write the third,
``militant'' stanza. After the text was ready work was begun on the music.
Mikhalkov and Reghistan considered that the music must be created by the
composers S.S. Prokofiev and D.D. Shostakovich. But, on Nov., 4 Stalin again
telephoned to Mikhalkov and told him to write new ``reserve'' refrain in
Alexandrov's hymn meter: ``Keep present stanzas and in new chorus emphasize
that our country is soviet and socialist''. Alexandrov's melody was already in
use as the anthem of the Bolshevik party, and Stalin perhaps had in mind to use
this melody as the anthem, holding the contest so that lyrics could be written
that matched the tune.

Some of the failed entrants of the competition went on to write anthems of the
various republics, like Tikhon Khrennikov (whose entry became the anthem of the
Russian region of Omsk, with new lyrics); Boris Alexandrov (son of the winning
composer), whose entry became the anthem of the Transdneiester_Republic; Pavel
Tychina, who later wrote the lyrics for the Ukrainian_SSR anthem; Samed Vurgun,
who later wrote the Azerbaijan_SSR anthem lyrics; and the composer
Shostakovich, who was advised by Stalin to collaborate with Khachaturyan
(another failed entrant, and the composer of the Armenia_SSR_anthem), their
joint venture was "The Song of the Red Army".

Also, from the period of 1944-1955, most Soviet republics adopted their own
anthems (links are below). Only Russia didnt get its own anthem, however party
authorities chose the lyrics of Stepan Shchipachev as the basis for further
work and the famous composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote music ``Hymn of the
RSFSR'', yet it was never adopted. After the death of Stalin in 1953 (as his
name appeared in the lyrics of the anthem at the time), it was proposed to
create a new anthem for the nation, but this never came about. Instead, it was
performed without words until 1977, when the text was slightly altered to
remove the mention of Stalin from the lyrics.

A unique property of the Soviet anthem is how many languages there are official
versions of. It was the wish of the government to have the lyrics known not
only all across the USSR, where dozens of different languages are spoken, but
all across the world. The English lyrics given are the lyrics meant to be sung
to the tune, also provided are the English translation of the Russian lyrics.

Special thanks to:Klaus Caussmacher for some of this information and the
official English lyrics, and to Bernardo Galker and Pavel Zinovatny for some
additional information.

See also: Union_of_Soviet_Socialist_Republics_(1922-1944), Russia, Armenia_
(1944-1991), Azerbaijan_(1978-1992), Belarus_(1955-1991), Estonia_(1945-1990),
Georgia_(1946-1991), Karelia_(1950s-1956), Kazakhstan_(1945-1992), Kyrgyzstan_
(1946-1992), Latvia_(1945-1990), Lithuania_(1950-1990), Moldova_(1945-1991),
Tajikistan_(1946-1994), Turkmenistan_(1946-1997), Ukraine_(1949-1991),
Uzbekistan_(1947-1992).

MUSIC
