Rise up, Enourmous Nation! (The Sacred War)

On June 24, 1941, two Soviet the newspapers published verses by V. I. Lebedev-Kumach which began with the words: “Rise up, enourmous nation, rise up to the deadly fight…”

The drafts stored in the archive indicate that Lebedev-Kumach rewrote and refined individual lines and stanzas many times, sometimes replacing entire quatrains.

The verses were read by the head of the Ensemble of the Red Army A.V. Aleksandrov. They made such a strong impression on him that he immediately sat down at the piano. The next day, having come to the rehearsal, the composer announced: “We will learn a new song – The Sacred War”. He wrote the words and notes of the song on a slate with chalk (there was no time to type) and the singers and musicians copied them into their notebooks. Already next day, there was a rehearsal with the orchestra, and in the evening, immediately after the intense rehearsal, the ensemble left for the Belorussky railway station to perform in front of the fighters leaving to the front.

The view of the station was unusual: all the premises were filled up by the soldiers. Everybody had new, not yet fitted uniform. Many have already managed to get rifles, machine guns, sapper blades, gas masks – everything that a front-line soldier should have. In the waiting room, a platform was made of freshly rounded boards – a kind of stage for performances. The artists of the ensemble climbed this dais in doubts: is it possible to perform in such an environment? In the hall, there was noise, harsh commands, radio sounds. The words of the presenter, who announced that the song “The Sacred War” will now be performed for the first time, drowned in the common hum. But when Alexandrov lifted his hand as a signal to the performers, the hall gradually calmed down… Turned out, there were no reasons for worries… From the very first bars, the song captured the attention of fighters. And when the second verse started, there was absolute silence in the hall. Everyone stood up as if they were singing a hymn. Tears were visible on stern faces, and this energy passed to the performers as well – they all had tears in their eyes…

The song finished, but the fighters demanded to repeat. Over and over again – five times in a row the performers sang “The Sacred War”.

Thus began the path of this song, a glorious and long path. From that day on, “The Sacred War” was adopted not only by the Soviet army but by all the people, and became the anthem of the Second World War (Great Patriotic War for Russians). It was sung everywhere – at the forefront, in partisan detachments, in the rear where weapons for victory were forged. Every morning it sounded on the radio.

The author of “The Sacred War”, A. V. Aleksandrov once wrote: “I have never been a military specialist, but I still had a powerful weapon in my hands – a song. The song can strike the enemy as well as any weapon!”

Since then, when this song is performed in public, it is customary to stand up like you are listening to the coutry’s anthem.