Songs of the 1941-1957

Oath to the People’s Commissar
Words by Vissarion Sayanov /1941

   This song was composed in the summer of 1941. The exact date it was written is unknown; according to Sofya Khentova, “Oath to the People’s Commissar” was composed between June 23 and July 12, that is, during the first days of the war. However, the poem of the same name by Vissarion Sayanov, on which the song was based, is dated July 1941, and it was first published at the end of that month: it was printed on the front page of the newspaper Leningradskaya pravda on July .This was probably when Shostakovich became acquainted with the poem. The first edition of the song (signed to press on 1 September 1941) was published as part of the first of twelve collections entitled Songs of the Red Banner Baltic, edited by Lev Krutz (Leningrad, 1941).

Song of the Guards’ Division
Words by Lev Rakhmilevich /1941

   This song was written in the summer of 1941, probably at the same time as “Oath to the People’s Commissar”. The exact date it was written is unknown: Sofya Khentova dates this composition to the middle of July (12-14 July); Derek Hulme gives a similar date—15 July. According to Aleksandr Tishchenko, Shostakovich and Lev Rakhmilevich, who knew each other before the war, met in the Leningrad militia. The poet showed Shostakovich the poems he had just written and the composer wrote the song based on their words; later it “was performed [in the Leningrad militia units] in various arrangements and adaptations by ensembles and orchestras”. The song was first published in 1941 in a collection called “Onward into Battle, People of Leningrad” (Leningrad, Moscow, 1941), the issue of which was announced in the newspaper Leningradskaya pravda on 26 September. It was not published again until 1975 in the collection “We Cannot Forget Those Roads...,” dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

The Invincible Red Army
(co-authored by Aram Khachaturian)
Words by Mikhail Golodny /1943

   The exact date the song was written is unknown. Apparently it appeared after the government USSR National Anthem competition, in which both Shostakovich and Khachaturian participated in 1943. Shostakovich wrote three versions of the anthem and one version together with Khachaturian, based on lyrics by Sergey Mikhalkov, which the authors submitted for the competition finals in November-December 1943. In terms of its music, the song is almost identical (with minor differences) to this version of the anthem, but the composers used words from the poem “The Invincible Red Army” by Mikhail Golodny. The piece was published in the newspaper Krasnaya zvezda on 26 February 1944 under the title “Song of the Red Army”.

To the Health of Our Motherland
Words by Iosif Utkin /1944

   The exact dates the song was composed are unknown. Iosif Utkin’s poem “To Our Health” was written in 1943 and was published in the newspaper Krasnaya zvezda on 10 August 1943. The song was first published in 1944 in the collection Glory to the Fatherland (Moscow, 1944), and was later repeatedly published in songbooks.

The Black Sea
Words by Sergey Alymov and Nikita Verkhovsky /1944

   The exact date the song was written is unknown. Its first performance most likely took place in a series of concerts called “Sea Soul”, conducted by the Central Red Navy Song and Dance Ensemble (artistic director—Vano Muradeli) under the baton of Semen Gerchikov in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall on 25, 29, 30, 31 July and 1, 2 August 1943. Two versions of the song have survived—the score for piano and bass entitled “The Black Sea” and the score for symphony orchestra and male choir entitled “The Black Sea Song”. The song was first published in the collection Songs of the Navy in 1944 (Issue 1, Moscow, 1944). Later it was included in Shostakovich’s Collected Works (Vol. 34).

Our Song
Words by Konstantin Simonov /1950

   Konstantin Simonov’s poem was published in August 1949 during the time the First All-Union Conference of the Partisans of Peace was underway in Moscow, in which Shostakovich and Simonov participated as members of the presidium. The exact date the song was composed is unknown. It was most likely written between the end of August 1949 and 14 January 1950 (the date of the first sheet music edition of the song signed by Muzgiz). The first edition of the song was published in Moscow in 1950, after which it appeared in numerous collections of songs and arrangements, as well as in Shostakovich’s Collected Works (Vol. 34).

March of the Peace Supporters
Words by Konstantin Simonov /1950

   The precise date the song was written is unknown. In the surviving manuscript of the score, it is entitled “March of the Peace Champions” (the manuscript of the piano score is lost). According to Sofya Khentova, Shostakovich composed the song while he was working on 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, that is, probably between 10 October 1950 and 25 February 1951. The song was first published under the title “March of the Peace Supporters” in the collection Siberia Calls (Moscow, 1956), and it was later published under the same title in Shostakovich’s Collected Works (Vol. 34).

Long Live the Army of Our Nation
(co-authored by Aram Khachaturian)
Words by Sergey Mikhalkov /1951

   The exact date the song was written and location of the manuscript based on lyrics by Sergey Mikhalkov are unknown. It was first published in 1951 in two military newspapers: Krasnaya zvezda (2 November) and Na strazhe Rodiny (13 November). Later the song was published in various songbooks.

[Glory to Our Soviet Nation]
Words by Mikhail Issakovsky /1956

   The song to words by Mikhail Issakovsky is apparently a version of the USSR National Anthem for a government competition held in 1955-1956. The title and date the song was written are not given in the manuscript, but the manuscript can be dated and attributed thanks to the lyrics. According to historian Anton Kuropatkin, in December 1955, a second contest for a new USSR anthem was announced (even before Nikita Khrushchev had officially exposed Stalin’s “personality cult” and the decision was made to perform the anthem without words). According to the documents, three versions—by Mikhail Issakovsky, Maksim Rylsky and Sergey Mikhalkov—made it to the final. However, for unknown reasons the competition was not carried through to the end, and later it was decided to perform the old anthem without words. Shostakovich’s manuscript based on Issakovsky’s words proves that a similar competition was also held at the same time among composers (it seems unlikely that Shostakovich would have composed such a piece if he had not been contracted to do so), but this assumption has not yet been sufficiently substantiated. The song has not been published, and no information about its performance has been found.

October Dawn
(co-authored by Aram Khachaturian)
Words by Vladimir Kharitonov /1957

   In “October Dawn”, Shostakovich uses precisely the same lyrics as he does for the “The Invincible Red Army” he wrote with Khachaturian (it is also a slightly modified version of the USSR National Anthem by the same authors). The whereabouts of the manuscript is unknown. The song was first published in a magazine in November 1957; later it was published in songbooks and included in Shostakovich’s Collected Works (Vol. 34).

We Cherish the October Dawns in Our Hearts
Words by Valentin Sidorov /1957

   This song uses the music of the third version of the USSR National Anthem (with slight modifications) written by Shostakovich for the final of the government competition that took place in November-December 1943. We have not been able to find information on the publication of Sidorov’s poem, the words of which were used for this version of the music. In Shostakovich’s Collected Works (Vol. 34), in which it was later included, it says that the song was composed for the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution in 1957. The song was published in many collections.

We Sing Glory to Our Country
Words by Valentin Sidorov /1957

   The music of the song is primarily based on the second version of the USSR National Anthem, which Shostakovich composed in the summer of 1943 (the composer reworked the refrain, which, on the whole, retained the harmonic line of the anthem). No information on the publication of the poem by Valentin
Sidorov has been found. In Shostakovich’s Collected Works (Vol. 34), in which it was included, it says that the song was written for the 40th anniversary of the October Revolution in 1957. It was first published shortly afterwards in the collection titled D. Shostakovich. Songs (1958).

Glory to Our Communist Country
(co-authored by Valentin Makarov)
Words by Yakov Belinsky /1950

   The surviving manuscripts belonging to Makarov and Shostakovich indicate that Makarov was the author of the song, while Shostakovich edited it and did not identify himself as the author. The exact date the song was written is unknown. According to Grigori Shneerson, the song was Makarov’s “last composition” and was dedicated to the 19th Congress of the CPSU, which was held in Moscow between 5 and 14 October 1952.62 He did not live to see the congress, dying on 26 September of the same year; the song was probably written in the last months of his life. Perhaps Shostakovich wrote his own version after Makarov’s death at someone else’s request, but no documentary evidence of this has been found.
   The song was written to the words of one of Makarov’s favourite poets—Yakov Belinsky. The composer wrote many compositions to his lyrics. The main changes Shostakovich made applied to the refrain—he wrote different music, while retaining the overall “outline”. The piano introduction was shortened by two bars, and Shostakovich replaced the instrumental coda with an instrumental-choral ending that featured slightly different music. No information can be found about the first performance of the song. It was first published in 1954 as part of Makarov’s collection of choral works.The solemn cantata “Glory to the Motherland!” (Makarov’s version) opened not only this collection, but also almost all those published later. Shostakovich’s version was never published.