National Anthem of Russia - Modern Adoption

Modern Adoption

The anthem debate intensified in October 2000 when Yeltsin's successor, Vladimir Putin, was approached by Russian athletes who were concerned that they had no words to sing for the anthem during the medal ceremonies at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. Putin brought public attention to the issue and put it before the State Council. CNN also reported that members of the Spartak Moscow football club complained that the wordless anthem "affected their morale and performance". Two years earlier, during the 1998 World Cup, members of the Russian team commented that the wordless anthem failed to inspire "great patriotic effort".

In a November session of the Federation Council, Putin stated that establishing the national symbols (anthem, flag and coat of arms) should be a top priority for the country. Putin pressed for the former Soviet anthem to be selected as the new Russian anthem, but strongly suggested that new lyrics be written. He did not say how much of the old Soviet lyrics should be retained for the new anthem. Putin submitted the bill "On the National Anthem of the Russian Federation" to the Duma for their consideration on 4 December. The Duma voted 381–51–1 in favor of adopting Alexandrov's music as the national anthem on 8 December 2000. Following the vote, a committee was formed and tasked with exploring lyrics for the national anthem. After receiving over 6,000 manuscripts from all sectors of Russian society, the committee selected lyrics by Mikhalkov for the anthem.

Before the official adoption of the lyrics, the Kremlin released a section of the anthem, which made a reference to the flag and coat of arms:

The above lines were omitted from the final version of the lyrics. After the bill was approved by the Federation Council on 20 December, "On the National Anthem of the Russian Federation" was signed into law by President Putin on 25 December, officially making Alexandrov's music the national anthem of Russia. The law was published two days later in the official government Newspaper of record Rossiyskaya Gazeta. The new anthem was first performed on 30 December, during a ceremony at the Great Kremlin Palace in Moscow at which Mikhalkov's lyrics were officially made part of the national anthem.

Not everyone agreed with the adoption of the new anthem. Yeltsin argued that Putin should not have changed the anthem merely to "follow blindly the mood of the people". Yeltsin also felt that the restoration of the Soviet anthem was part of a move to reject post-communist reforms that had taken place since Russian independence and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This was one of Yeltsin's few public criticisms of Putin.

The liberal political party Yabloko stated that the re-adoption of the Soviet anthem "deepened the schism in society". The Soviet anthem was supported by the Communist Party and by Putin himself. The other national symbols used by Russia in 1990, the white-blue-red flag and the double-headed eagle coat of arms, were also given legal approval by Putin in December, thus ending the debate over the national symbols. After all of the symbols were adopted, Putin said on television that this move was needed to heal Russia's past and to fuse the short period of the Soviet Union with Russia's long history. He also stated that, while Russia's march towards democracy would not be stopped, the rejection of the Soviet era would have left the lives of their mothers and fathers bereft of meaning. It took some time for the Russian people to familiarize themselves with the anthem's lyrics; athletes were only able to hum along with the anthem during the medal ceremonies at the 2002 Winter Olympics.