Soviet does not mean Russian

An attempt to restore the Stalinist anthem is unacceptable - this would seem to be a moral axiom. Everything rebels against - both the mind and the heart. Hecatombs that no one can count, the transformation of an entire generation into cannon fodder, the betrayal of millions of prisoners - such is the genesis of Alexandrov’s music. There is no need to talk about words: this is a rhymed gurgle that does not pretend to be anything and does not touch any emotional strings. People who are ready to sanction the resurrection of this death march - death under the guise of national happiness, probably do not realize that the anthem is truly a national song. After all, there is no greater blasphemy than that committed through music. Music, time, soul are phenomena of the same order, the only difference being that music is man-made.

They talk about the inconsistency of the current anthem - alas, it really resembles a hastily solved harmony problem. It says that the Soviet anthem is remembered and loved. The first is indisputable, you would have to be a complete idiot not to remember a tune that was heard on the radio at least twice a day for fifty years. As for the second, this is true exactly as much as the saying “if you endure it, you fall in love” is true. The emotional perception of the anthem is nothing more than a form of manifestation of national feeling. Even semantically, “unbreakable union” sounds like an outright mockery. Wonderful are your deeds, Lord, since the Soviet anthem evokes something other than nostalgic groaning.

But what’s most surprising is that someone can hear Russianness in Stalin’s anthem. Of course, depending on what you compare with, if with the Soviet pop music, which, let’s say, to a certain extent fell under the charm of the East, then marching rhythms may seem organically inherent in Russian music. It’s still worth remembering that Russia was not born in 1917, rather the opposite. It was the Soviet mass song of the times of the Comintern that was like two drops of water similar to the German song and only with the beginning of the war it acquired that bearish gait, slightly colored by plagality (harmonic sequence - Ed. ), which is so dear to the hearts of Soviet patriots. In fairness, it must be admitted that the Russian state adopted the pompous four-beat major as an expression of ideological correctness and military power back in the nineteenth century. It feels like “God Save the Tsar” was written with an eye on the famous equestrian statue of Alexander III by Paolo Trubetskoy - so hated, by the way, by Black Hundreds of all stripes, including the Red one. Arakcheev's canine loyalty to the anthem, officially called the “national one,” got along perfectly with the Prussian soldiery. Whether this was a consequence of Lvov's mediocrity as a composer - or something else, German influences, for example, to which Revel native Alexey Fedorovich Lvov was somehow especially sensitive - God knows.

I confess that I do not know the circumstances that preceded the approval of this clumsy anthem. It seems to have replaced the English God save the King, which was performed on ceremonial occasions at the courts of many European monarchs. It seems that the highest wish that Lvov become the author of the anthem was conveyed to the latter through his immediate superior A.Kh. Benckendorf. It seems that when they heard “God Save the Tsar” for the first time, Nicholas I and others like him were so delighted that they had to repeat the anthem three times, after which the Tsar kissed the composer and said: “You understood me completely.”

But I am absolutely convinced of one thing: every Slavic anthem tends to have three parts, it is traditionally bright, lyrical, and is characterized, so to speak, by a spring sound. This was - and remains - “Kol is Glorious.” Dating back to the era of Russian classicism, this little masterpiece is precious for Russia, just as precious is the time itself in which it was created, and the spirit of which clearly rested on it. At the same time - a rare case! - text and music (Kheraskov, Bortnyansky) are congenial and have long merged into a single whole. Before us is the Russian Te Deum and the national anthem at the same time. The very fact that for two hundred years “Kol Slaven” equally sanctified and spiritualized the sometimes irreconcilable phenomena of Russian life, naturally establishes it as the “national song of the Russians” - even those who do not suspect it: Yuri Gagarin, who sang in space “The Motherland Hears...”, had no idea that he was actually singing a Russian spiritual hymn, the melodic grain of which Shostakovich transplanted onto Soviet soil.

“How glorious” was introduced into their solemn ritual by absolutely everyone, from the first Freemasons to the Vlasovites. It was sung by Russian scouts around their fires and accompanied the promotion of cadets to officers. “How glorious” the chimes on the Spasskaya Tower rang. What am I getting at? Not at all what should be designated as the Russian anthem... the Russian anthem. He is one, he never ceased to be one, and there is no need to break into an open door shouting: “Give us an anthem that is adequate to our national idea!” It exists, just as the idea exists, you just need to be worthy of them. Today this means the ability to clearly see the opposition of the Soviet to the Russian. Then a lot will be decided by itself.

Leonid GIRSHOVICH, writer, professional musician