Вестник Самарского университета: История, педагогика, филология (Jul 2022)

Historical and textual analysis of the drafts of the new national anthem of the USSR of 1955–1956

  • G. E. Kozlovskaya,
  • A. P. Artyukov,
  • G. D. Drobinin

DOI
https://doi.org/10.18287/2542-0445-2022-28-2-60-66
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 28, no. 2
pp. 60 – 66

Abstract

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The relevance of this topic is that on the basis of a wide range of archival sources, the work of a special commission under the leadership of D.T. Shepilov, which was created by the decision of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU at the end of 1955, is being considered. The Commission organized a competition to create a new national anthem and selected text works among a large number of participants who submitted more than fifty works. Textual analysis was used to study this topic, which allowed not only to identify the semantic meanings of the content of the work laid down by the author, but also to identify and see the differences in the stylistics of the works of the competition. A comparative research method was also used when comparing both the content of the texts of the works and when comparing with the text of the official anthem of the USSR of the 1943/44 model. A problem-chronological approach was also applied when considering the stages of the work of a special competition commission. The competition to create a new anthem took place in several stages. The texts of the songwriters selected at the first stage were refined by the second stage to better match the new goals and tasks facing the country. The texts of the winners of the second stage were also not final and could be subject to content adjustments in the future. This allows us to conclude that there were apparently no clear parameters for the content of the texts or were corrected during the work of the entire commission. Participation in this competition was not based on the altruistic principles of poets and musicians, but assumed a good financial incentive to the participants and winners of the competition. The texts of the winners differed in their structure and content both among themselves and from the official anthem of the USSR of the 1943/44 model.

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