Victory Day (song)

In March 1975, poet Vladimir Kharitonov, who had taken part in the war,[1] approached his traditional co-author, the young composer David Tukhmanov with a proposal to write a new song for the occasion.

Thereupon the song was not performed until 10 November when Leshchenko revived it for a grand concert, which was broadcast live on Soviet television and that took place in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses on Militsiya Day.

[1] Since then, the song has been invariably performed during every Victory Day celebrations in the Soviet Union and Russia, often concluding a program of festivities, with the last stanza drowned in sounds of fireworks over the Red Square.

According to Komsomolskaya Pravda, the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev liked this song greatly, especially when performed by Joseph Kobzon, and predicted to Kharitonov that "folks would sing this tune for many years after you and I are gone".

[1] Brezhnev's expectation did not fail to materialize, in part because, as the US-American researcher David MacFadyen explains, "this powerful song draws not upon the bravery of youthful soldiers but the private memories of ageing, greying veterans.