Anthems (3) - Russia

My interest in Russian—and Russian history—and Russian literature—has been reviving since I looked up the words to the Tsarist national anthem a month or so ago.  I’ve started watching clips of the old BBC version of War and Peace from the 1980s.  I’ve been teaching myself Russian, bit by bit, since sometime in the 1970s; about the same time I took a Russian history course in college.

Each episode of the BBC War and Peace begins and ends with “God Save the Tsar,” known to me since childhood from Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” and “Marche Slave.”  But, as I’ve mentioned previously, this tune did not become Russia’s Imperial anthem until twenty years after the Napoleonic Wars.  Apparently there was no official Imperial Anthem in 1812.  We will notice this pattern elsewhere—including the United States.  Countries did not always feel the need for an official anthem.  Russia did, after the Napoleonic Wars; and before the selection of the now-familiar “God Save the Tsar,” another set of lyrics, “The Prayer of the Russians,” beginning with the same phrase, was used; set to what many of us know as the British national anthem “God Save the Queen.”  This is another pattern we shall soon notice elsewhere.

Of course, after the abdication of the Tsar during the Russian Revolution, “God Save the Tsar” was no longer used.  During the time of the Provisional Government, an adaption of the “Marseillaise,” titled “The Workers’ Marseillaise,” was used.  I have seen the lyrics but could not fit them to the standard French tune—apparently it was modified to make it sound more “Russian.”  In any case, when the Bolsheviks took power a short time later, the “Internationale” became the national anthem.

Stalin commissioned a new national anthem during World War II.  I’ve heard several versions, including a fine English version recorded by Paul Robeson.  The different versions reflect the varying emphasis given to Lenin and Stalin over time.  With the fall of the Soviet Union, this version was retired.

But only the lyrics.  The music was brought back for the current Russian National Anthem, with new words.  Whereas “God Save the Tsar” sounded like an Orthodox hymn, and the Soviet anthem sounded ideological, the present anthem combines the beautiful Soviet melody with lyrics describing the beauty and grandeur of Russia.  These lyrics fit yet another pattern:  Anthems base on the physical beauty of a country.  More on all these patterns to come.

Meanwhile, if you have the chance, listen to a recording of the current Russian national anthem.  Some people consider it the world’s most beautiful anthem.

Anthems (2) – The 1812 Overture and a Few Inaccuracies

Just finished listening to (about half, actually, of) Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”  I was listening to a version including cannons—not too unusual, that—but one that also included choirs to sing the prayers at the beginning and end, “God Save the Czar,” and the children’s song that occurs about halfway through—this is not so common.

At the end I was simply stunned.  Of course, I was also watching an accompanying slide show of paintings dealing with Napoleon and his invasion of Russia.  But I just sat there for about half a minute afterwards, recovering.

This is probably the first piece of classical music I ever heard.  I think I listened to it on 78 rpm vinyls, back when I was around five (ie. 1956).

One of the things about anthems is that they can transport you into a patriotic or religious space.  Tchaikovsky’s overture certainly has done that for me, over the years.  During the years I was growing up at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, every Fourth of July my family would drive the few miles to Fort Monroe for the Independence Day celebration, including the Overture and the cannon.  It was years before I understood that Tchaikovsky had incorporated national anthems into his music.

In time, while learning French, I also learned “The Marseillaise,” the French national anthem, alluded to several times by Tchaikovsky.  Much later, I discovered that one of the themes Tchaikovsky used at the climax of his overture was the Russian national anthem, “God Save the Czar.”  So the “1812 Overture” symbolically pits the French anthem against the Russian.  And how stirring it is!

But—Tchaikovsky is technically inaccurate in both cases.  “The Marseillaise,” after becoming France’s first national anthem during the French Revolution, was discarded by Napoleon.  During most of the 1800s it was actually not France’s anthem—and was actually banned some part of that time.  So it would not have been used by the French during their invasion of Russia.

Russia, meanwhile, did not yet have a national anthem in 1812.  “God Save the Czar” was chosen as the winner of a competition and became the anthem in 1833 – twenty-one years after the French invasion.

So anthems can stir us, can arouse us to great passion—but can also perhaps mislead us.  Not a bad thing to remember.