Boris Yeltsin wanted to get rid of everything sounding of Communism while he was President of Russia, and so he threw out the beautiful Russian National Anthem adopted in 1944 and tried to come up with something new. But he and others following him soon found that the Russian hearts ached for the old anthem, and so it was decided to bring back its music but substitute some new words for the old words touting Communism. Lenin's importance is still acknowledged. Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZwpA4L7bws&feature=related
"Gymn Sovetskovo Soyuza" is, indeed, dramatic, powerful music. It's an example of how music can be hijacked and used to attract and capture human emotion and empathy. Then, the dance evolves into a goose-step. "Gimn" IMO, is long when played in all verses and stanzas -- but so is the "Star Spangled Banner" in full exposition.
Take-over examples are not uncommon. Listen to the strong, affirming national anthem of the now defunct East Germany("Auferstanden aus Ruinen" {"Arisen from Ruins}"): there's something about the work that rings familiar- even though we've never heard it before. The 'something' is the construction of the anthem: it can be overlayed upon the traditional German "Deutschland ueber Alles" and note for note, tempo for tempo, it fits inside the traditional song, precisely. Was that a foretaste of ultimate national unity? Maybe - but on whose side of the (also now gone) Inner German Border?
"Gimn" is good music, but I think about the millions whose freedom it proscribed while the USSR used it. Spacibo bol'shoye!
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever," according to John Keats, and I must agree. In fact, these very lines by Keats have become immortal themselves. The Russian Anthem is beautiful and powerful, about the most powerful music I have ever heard. Appropriately, it grew out of WWII, the greatest war in history, and it belongs to all of us, especially us WWII veterans.
