A second version of the lyrics was written by Mikhalkov in 1970 and adopted in 1977, placing less emphasis on World War II and more on the victory of communism, and without mentioning Joseph Stalin by name.

[6] Yeltsin criticized Putin for supporting the reintroduction of the Soviet-era national anthem even though opinion polls showed that many Russians favored this decision.

"The Prayer of the Russians" was adopted around 1816, and used lyrics by Vasily Zhukovsky set to the music of the British anthem, "God Save the King".

[11] In 1833, Zhukovsky was asked to set lyrics to a musical composition by Prince Alexei Lvov called "The Russian People's Prayer", known more commonly as "God Save the Tsar!"

The modifications Lavrov made to "La Marseillaise" included a change in meter from 2/2 to 4/4 and music harmonization to make it sound more Russian.

Lenin also wanted "The Internationale" to be played more often because it was more socialist, and could not be confused with the French anthem;[14] other persons in the new Soviet government believed "La Marseillaise" to be too bourgeois.

[18][19] When writing the Bolshevik party anthem, Alexandrov incorporated pieces from the song "Life Has Become Better" (Russian: Жить Ста́ло Лу́чше, romanized: Zhit Stálo Lúshe), a musical comedy that he composed.

[21] Over 200 entries were submitted for the anthem contest, including some by famous Soviet composers Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian and Iona Tuskiya.

His rejected entry, "Long Live our State" (Russian: Да здравствует наша держава, romanized: Da zdravstvuyet nasha derzhava), became a popular patriotic song and was adopted as the anthem of Transnistria.

He thought that the song was short and, because of the Great Patriotic War, that it needed a statement about the impending defeat of Germany by the Red Army.

The poets Sergey Mikhalkov and Gabriel El-Registan were called to Moscow by one of Stalin's staffers, and were told to fix the lyrics to Alexandrov's music.

Because of the difficulty of expressing the concepts of the Great Patriotic War in song, that idea was dropped from the version which El-Registan and Mikhalkov completed overnight.

The government began the de-Stalinization process, which included downplaying the role of Stalin and moving his corpse from Lenin's Mausoleum to the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

[36][37] The Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, Boris Yeltsin, was advised to revive "God Save The Tsar" with modifications to the lyrics.

[43] The anthem struck a positive chord for some people because it did not contain elements from the Soviet past, and because the public considered Glinka to be a patriot and a true Russian.

One of the reasons that partially explained the lack of lyrics was the original use of Glinka's composition: the praise of the Tsar and of the Russian Orthodox Church.

[48] CNN also reported that members of the Spartak Moscow football club complained that the wordless anthem "affected their morale and performance".

[54] Two years earlier, during the 1998 World Cup, members of the Russian team commented that the wordless anthem failed to inspire "great patriotic effort".

[43] 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.

[45] 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: His mighty wings spread above usThe Russian eagle is hovering highThe Fatherland's tricolor symbolIs leading Russia's peoples to victoryThe above lines were omitted from the final version of the lyrics.

[64] The liberal political party Yabloko stated that the re-adoption of the Soviet anthem "deepened the schism in Russian society," and led a failed movement to adopt Farewell of Slavianka instead.

He also stated that, while Russia's march towards democracy would not be stopped,[67] the rejection of the Soviet era would have left the lives of their mothers and fathers bereft of meaning.

[64] While it was common to hear the state anthem during state funerals for Soviet civil and military officials,[71] honored citizens of the nation,[72] and Soviet leaders, as was the case for Alexei Kosygin, Leonid Brezhnev,[73] Yuri Andropov[74] and Konstantin Chernenko,[75] Boris Berezovsky, writing in The Daily Telegraph, felt that playing the anthem at Yeltsin's funeral "abused the man who brought freedom" to the Russian people.

While groups have threatened legal action to reverse the re-addition of this phrase on a stone banner at the vestibule's rotunda, it was part of the original design of Kurskaya station and had been removed during de-Stalinization.

[77] The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) strongly supported the restoration of Alexandrov's melody, but some members proposed other changes to the anthem.

The anthem may be played for solemn or celebratory occasions, such as the annual Victory Day parade in Moscow,[81] or the funerals of heads of state and other significant figures.

When asked about playing the anthem during the Victory Day parades, Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov stated that because of the acoustics of the Red Square, only an orchestra would be used because voices would be swallowed by the echo.

[82] The anthem is mandatory at the swearing-in of the President of Russia, for opening and closing sessions of the Duma and the Federation Council, and for official state ceremonies.

Припев: Славься, Отечество наше свободное, Братских народов союз вековой, Предками данная мудрость народная!

Pripev: Slav'sya, Otechestvo nashe svobodnoye, Bratskikh narodov soyuz vekovoy, Predkami dannaya mudrost' narodnaya!