When I was a child, my first music lesson at school was learning the National Anthem of Soviet Union. Every child had to know it by heart. Years later the country ceased to exist and an anthem of a new country was created. I am not sure if children still learn the lyrics and sing Russia’s main song at school, but its history is worth to be known.
Alyona
CONTROVERSY OVER RUSSIA’S MAIN SONG
People say “like country like anthem”. You can hardly find any other country which has changed melodies and lyrics of the National Anthem for so many times. Years ago impossibility to agree upon this matter characterized the inner condition of Russian people not in a very pleasant way. It seemed extremely discrepant, unsettled and obscure even to its “owners”. It surely affected the everyday life, characters of people, economical and cultural achievements. For many years people of one of the world’s biggest countries – one of the most famous and powerful nations – couldn’t sing their own National Anthem. Paradox! In nineties for almost the whole decade the anthem of Russia had no lyrics. When the anthem was being played, people kept silent or simply mumbled the melody.
This happened in 1990 when Soviet Union was divided into 15 separate countries. It was then that Russia stayed with no flag and no anthem. For many years different song writers and composers had been trying to write a new national song. But the debate for the national anthem of Russia seemed to be unending as it was surrounded by lots of controversary.
The present day national song of Russia is actually an adaptation of the national hymn of the then Soviet Union of 1944, with music composed by Alexander Alexandrov and the lyrics written by the famous Russian federalist Sergey Mikhalkov, a visionary writer whose writings inspired people to participate in the subsequent Russian revolutions.
Lyrics-English Translation
O Russia, for ever you’re strong sacred country !
O Russia, for ever the land that we love!
The fame that is great and the will that is mighty –
So be they thy treasure in ages to come.
Praised be the Fatherland, cherishing home of ours –
Cent’ries-old union of peoples in free,
Popular wisdom given us by ancestors.
Praised be our country! And we’re proud of thee!
From seas in the South and up to polar border
Our woods and our meadows have stretched far away.
Alone in the whole world, you stand one and only!
By God saved as ever our dear native land.
Chorus
For generous dreaming, for life and for longing
The years approaching give us ample scope.
With faith in our Homeland we are getting stronger.
It was so, it is so and it will be so!
Chorus
Lyrics in Latin Transcription
Rassiya svyashennaya nasha derzhava!
Rassiya lyubimaya nasha strana!
Maguchaya volya, velikaya slava –
Tvayo dastayan’ye na vse vremena!
Slafsya atechestvo nashe svabodnaye –
Bratskih narodaf sayuz vekavoy!
Predkami dannaya mudrast’ narodnaya.
Slafsya strana mi gardimsya taboy!
At yuzhnih marey da palyarnava kraya
Raskinulis’ nashi lesa i payla.
Adna ti na svete, adna ti takaya
Khranimaya bogam randaya zemlya!
Chorus
Shirokiy prastor dlya mechti i dlya zhizni,
Gryadushiye nam atkrivayut gada.
Nam silu dayot nasha vernast’ atchizne
Tak bilo, tak yest’ i tak budet fsegda.
Chorus
Video with Transliteration Lyrics (many thanks-Only4Russian )
Note by WanWan: I love Russian National Anthem very much! even keep practicing to play this song with my tenor sax . Like “Moscow Nights” I also hope deeply can learn to sing it! So I ask Alyona to write an introduction for this song. and wrote down the Lyrics with Latin Transcription!
Zhenya singing National Anthem @OG 2008-those suffused tears of eyes. is my favortie moment of OG Beijing! I watched the video of “Award Ceremony of OG 2008” for N+times! Every time I watched it I am sooo touched by Zhenya’s emotional expression! In order to post this article, I re-oploaded this Award Ceremony video, again I got tears in my eyes when I re-watched it…..
一直以來，我非常喜歡俄羅斯國歌，雖然不懂歌詞，可是那個旋律總是讓人熱血沸騰。喜歡俄羅斯國歌並不是因為Zhenya，我第一次聽到這首歌就立刻愛上了，而那是在知道Zhenya之前很久的事了。畢竟我是個俄羅斯控，喜歡Zhenya之前，很迷俄羅斯女排。
由於很喜歡這首歌，所以經常拿著自己的Saxophone練吹這首曲子，也一直希望可以學唱。因此繼”Moscow Nights”之後，我再度請Alyona寫一篇介紹文章，並請她將俄文歌詞用拉丁文拼寫出來。非常感謝她總是很快速的寫好文章!
Alyona 這篇文章主要是說，在蘇聯政權解體後，好幾年的時間俄羅斯沒有國歌，後來碰到播放國歌時只是播旋律沒有歌詞。很多人聽到國歌只能保持沈默或者小生的隨著旋律哼唱。當時很多作曲家想譜寫新曲，但始終爭論不休無法達成共識找到一首新的而眾人都同意的曲子。最後俄羅斯還是沿用舊曲調，只是由俄羅斯總理 Puting寫上新詞。所以現在俄羅斯的國歌，歌詞是由Puting所寫的。
我個人認為這是很正確的決定，因為原本的旋律實在太棒了，我想要找到能取代它的很難。我覺得這是世界上最好聽的國歌之一!
Note by WanWan: Zhenya在北京奧運，眼睛泛著淚光唱國歌的畫面，總是縈繞我心久久不去，那是那年奧運，我覺得最珍貴的畫面 
頒獎典禮我看了N次，每次看還是都很感動。這次為了PO這篇文章，我將頒獎典禮影片傳到Dailymotion (怕Youtube會以版權理由拒絕我上傳)，看著真情流露的Zhenya，再一次地，我又淚濕了雙眼。。。
Zhenya Kanaeva Gymnasium 
你真的迷上俄罗斯了啊！说实话我也很喜欢这个国歌，歌词也有意境的，很有气势，不过差点我们就听不到了，因为苏联解体后俄罗斯的国歌不是这首，后来普京上台之后用回了苏联时代的国歌，不过歌词都改了
The Russian anthem is surely one of the finest I know. Personally, I find the text of the German better (unfortunately the full text of the anthem is often misunderstood -> "Germany above all"), but the music of Russian is perhaps even a bit better.
Mónica!! Precioso tu comentario! Estoy super de acuerdo contigo!Some weeks ago, people in my High School carried out a survey about National Anthems and flags. Russian Anthem was in the third position on the list. I also think that Russian National Anthem has a unique melody! I like sooo much it!Thanks to Alyona!!! Very interesting article!
Mónica :)Well said, I totally agree with you!!! You are doing the same job with Zhenya, so you can understand her, feel her feeling. In fact, Zhenya ever made the similar statement. she got so emotional was because when she finished the last routine @OG or @podium of EC Baku 2007. the whole previous things came to her mind, her path of RG career-those hard working, joy and tears. So she couldn\’t help to cry.
Моника! Шикарный отзыв, подписываюсь под каждым словом! Great comment, Monica! I sign under each word you have said)))))))
Frankly speaking, I think this is one of the most beautiful anthems in the whole world. Brilliant melody and beautiful lyrics. For example, Spnaish national anthem hasn\’t got lyrics.I should say that everytime I see Zhenya singing the anthem with tears in her eyes I can\’t help it, but I always cry. I have always think that her tears means something impossible to explain. But all of her hard work, all of her intense training, all of the bad moments, ALL, are included in the meaning of this tears, a gold tears.Alyona, большое спасибо за вашу статью!
羨慕兔子~~~不過還好, 總算去年世運時我也在現場跟著Zhenya一起聽俄羅斯的國歌! 當時也是非常高興跟感動, 並為Zhenya感到光榮.
沙发~08欧锦赛成年组个人全能颁奖的时候，俺和阿pu恰巧在RUS拉拉队阵容中，小孩们那份激情呀。。。RG大赛俺最爱听的国歌一是RUS一是ITA。。。
BIG BIG THANKS Alyonka 🙂 Always wrote article so quickly!!! I simply LOVE Russian National Anthem (L). I am totally fascinated with the melody. Full of passion! This is one of my favorite National Anthems! and Not because of Zhenya 🙂 I loved this song long time ago.