A hymn is understood as a solemn work, a song in which someone or something is praised and glorified. In ancient Greece, panegyriks and dithyrabs adjoined to the hymns.
Of the three components of political symbolism (flag, emblem, anthem), it is the anthem that has no centuries-old history, since it changed more often. So, what were the hymns in Russia?
And who remembers this?
In the history of Russia at the end of the 18th century, an event occurred that caused an unprecedented upturn in patriotic feelings. In 1791, Russian troops under the leadership of the already renowned A.V. Suvorov took the Ottoman fortress, which was considered impassable until that time, to Izmail. Everyone rejoiced - from Empress Catherine II to the common soldier.
The unofficial anthem of the Russian Empire since the time of Catherine II
Memories of the hardest assault, the courage of the soldiers and the talent of the commander were to remain in people's memory. It was on this occasion that the first Russian unofficial national anthem was born to the words of G. Derzhavin with the music of O. Kozlovsky - “Thunder of victory, resound!” It happened in 1791. So began the history of the Russian anthem.
Not all imitate!
Emperor Alexander I in 1815 issued a decree on the performance of poems by V. Zhukovsky to the music of the British hymn. This work sounded at the meetings of the emperor and went down in history as the first official national anthem of Russia called "The Prayer of the Russians."
Anthem of the Russian Empire “God Save the Tsar ...”
In 1833, Emperor Nicholas I, who inherited Alexander, was on a foreign trip. He was accompanied by Prince Lvov. Everywhere the Russian emperor heard only the sounds of the British anthem. It was annoying. Upon his return, Nikolai Pavlovich ordered Lviv to write a new music for the anthem to the text of Zhukovsky with the participation of A.S. Pushkin. Contemporaries write that the new anthem sang three times in a row. Tears of happiness and pride for the Fatherland flowed across the face of the far from sentimental emperor.
So that you live in an era of change!
Working Marseillaise
In 1917, in the first months of the February Revolution, the so-called “Working Marseillaise” was used as a hymn with the music Rouget de Lill and the original text of Peter Lavrov. "Renounce the old world!" - this line begins with this text, dating back to the times of the Great French bourgeois revolution.
Since 1910, the Internationale has been performed as an international proletarian anthem. The author of the music is Pierre Geyter, the words are Eugene Potier. Since 1918, the Internationale became the hymn of the proletarian revolution that won in Russia, the hymn of the young Soviet state, and later the USSR. From 1944 to the present, the Internationale has remained the anthem of the Communist Party. These are the anthems in Russia during the period of revolutionary upheavals.
Seriously and for a long time
In 1944, after considering numerous variations of music and text, the anthem of the Soviet Union was adopted. To the sound of it, the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War went into battle and returned home with a victory. The music of the anthem was written by A.V. Aleksandrov. Words - Sergei Mikhalkov and G. El-Registan. However, few people now know that the anthem of the Bolshevik Party became the prototype of this hymn - to the same melody, but with the words of the poet V.Lebedev-Kumach. Stalin in him is praised simply to the skies. By the way, already in the era of "stagnation", under Leonid Brezhnev, the text of the anthem was slightly retouched - just for the sake of removing the name of Stalin from there. Instead of words about Stalin, there was a continuation about Lenin with the addition of the last, new verse.
Whole decade without hymn
After the political changes that took place in 1991, with the collapse of the USSR, a new page in history called the "anthems of Russia" appeared. The mention of Lenin and Communism in the anthem, and even the music itself, began to irritate certain segments of Russian society, including the political elite itself. That is why, during the whole decade of the presidency of President Boris Yeltsin, the composer M. I. Glinka’s “Patriotic Song” written in 1833 became a hymn. It was performed without words, because The text could not be agreed.
Law is law!
Approached the end of the twentieth century. The anthems of Russia of the former format remained in the past. It was not good for the country to enter the third millennium without the official symbols of the state, in particular, without a new hymn. After public polls, we returned to the music of Alexander Alexandrov with the new words of Sergei Mikhalkov.
National Anthem of the Russian Federation
Currently, according to the Law on the Anthem, it is obliged to be broadcast twice - at the beginning and at the end of the broadcast, and with a round-the-clock grid - at 6 o'clock and at 24 o'clock. According to the established tradition, the meeting of the New Year also takes place according to the traditional scenario: the President’s address, then the clock fight at the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin, and, finally, the hymn. In addition, the anthem is played on the parade on May 9, immediately after the speech of the head of state. Such, in very general terms, is a brief history of the Russian anthem.
The author - Pavel Malofeev
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