Hymn of the Russian Federation - Definition and Overview

The Hymn of the Russian Federation is the national anthem of Russia. It was composed by Alexander Alexandrov and written by Sergey Mikhalkov. It was established in late 2000 with the approval of President Vladimir Putin and replaced the former anthem, the Patriotic Song, this anthem is a reintroduction of that introduced by Stalin (Gimn Sovetskogo Soyuza) without Soviet lyrics. The first public broadcast of the new anthem happened in the first minutes of year 2001 on the TV. According to the section 4 of Russian Anthem Law, all state-owned TV and radio channels must broadcast the national anthem twice a day.

Lyrics

Russian original

Россия — священная наша держава,
Россия — любимая наша страна.
Могучая воля, великая слава —
Твое достоянье на все времена!

Припев:
Славься, Отечество наше свободное,
Братских народов союз вековой,
Предками данная мудрость народная!
Славься, страна! Мы гордимся тобой!

От южных морей до полярного края
Раскинулись наши леса и поля.
Одна ты на свете! Одна ты такая —
Хранимая Богом родная земля!

Припев

Широкий простор для мечты и для жизни.
Грядущие нам открывают года.
Нам силу дает наша верность Отчизне.
Так было, так есть и так будет всегда!

Припев

Transliteration

Rossiya — svyashchennaya nasha derzhava,
Rossiya — lyubimaya nasha strana.
Moguchaya volya, velikaya slava —
Tvoe dostoyan’e na vse vremena!

Pripev:
Slav’sya, Otechestvo nashe svobodnoe,
Bratskikh narodov soyuz vekovoy,
Predkami dannaya mudrost’ narodnaya!
Slav’sya, strana! My gordimsya toboy!

Ot yuzhnykh morey do polyarnogo kraya
Raskinulis’ nashi lesa i polya.
Odna ty na svete! Odna ty takaya —
Khranimaya Bogom rodnaya zemlya!

Pripev

Shirokiy prostor dlya mechty i dlya zhizni.
Gryadushchie nam otkryvayut goda.
Nam silu daet nasha vernost’ Otchizne.
Tak bylo, tak est’ i tak budet vsegda!

Pripev

English translation

Russia — our holy country,
Russia — our beloved country.
A mighty will, a great glory —
Are your inheritance for all times!

Refrain:
Be glorious, our free Fatherland!
Eternal union of fraternal peoples,
Common wisdom given by our forebears,
Be glorious, our country! We are proud of you!

From the southern seas to the polar region
spread our forests and fields.
You are unique in the world, inimitable,
Native land protected by God!

Refrain

Wide spaces for dreams and for living
Are opened for us by the coming years
Faithfulness to our country gives us strength
Thus it was, so it is and always will be!

Refrain

National anthems of Russia and the Soviet Union

• 1791-1833: unofficially Grom pobedy, razdavajsya! ("Let the sound of victory sound!")
• 1833-1917: God Save the Tsar
• 1917: Otrechemsya ot starogo mira, Russian version of La Marseillaise
• 1922-1944: Internationale, adopted as the first hymn of the Soviet Union
• 1944-1992: Gimn Sovetskogo Soyuza, the "Hymn of the Soviet Union"; in 1977 there was a slight change of the lyrics in order to remove the mention of Joseph Stalin.
• 1991-2000: Prior to Russian independence the Patriotic Song (Patriotiskaya Pesnya) became the national anthem of Russia. It has no lyrics; in 1999 there was a contest to add lyrics to the anthem, but the new text did not become official, since the new president Vladimir Putin wanted to change the anthem again.
• 2001-: Gimn Rossiyskoj Federatsii ("Hymn of the Russian Federation"); this is in fact the old hymn of the Soviet Union, but the text was rewritten by Mikhalkov (who also wrote the lyrics for the Soviet hymn).

External links

• MP3 file (http://www.gov.ru/main/symbols/gimn_rf_t3.mp3), from the Russian government website (5 MB)
• Other recordings of the anthem (http://www.vad1.com/anthems/), an extensive collection