"My Moscow", also known as "My Dear Capital", is the municipal anthem of the Russian capital of

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, officially adopted in 1995. The music was composed in 1941 by

Isaak Dunayevsky Isaak Osipovich Dunayevsky ( ; also transliterated as Dunaevski or Dunaevskiy; 25 July 1955) was a Soviet film composer and conductor of the 1930s and 1940s, who composed music for operetta and film comedies, frequently working with the film dire ...

and the lyrics were written by Sergey Agranyan and Mark Lisyansky. Singer Zoya Rozhdestvenskaya was the first person to perform this song.
The original lyrics had four verses, of which the last pertained to

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

. They were replaced by the current lyrics which were introduced during the

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...

era.

History

In November 1941, during the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...

, Junior Lieutenant and former journalist Mark Lisyansky was returning from a hospital in

Yaroslavl Yaroslavl (; , ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. ...

to fight on the

Kalinin Front The Kalinin Front was a major formation of the Red Army active in the Eastern Front of World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions ...

. He later participated in the

Battle of Moscow The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II, between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated H ...

.''Мухтаров Е.'' Песни нашей Победы // 4 года из 1000: 65-летию Победы посвящается: �рославцы в Великой Отечественной войне: альманах/ Авт. вступ. ст. проф. Ю. Ю. Иерусалимский; Авт. колл.: А. Е. Власов; А. В. Кононец, Е. О. Мухтаров, С. В. Рябинин, Д. Е. Озерова. — Ярославль: Ярновости, 2010. — С. 23—76. — 272 с. — ISBN 978-5-88697-190-3. Worried about the fate of Moscow, Lisyansky wrote a poem in a notebook he titled "My Moscow (My Dear Capital)". After stopping on

Pushkin Square Pushkinskaya Square or Pushkin Square () is a pedestrian open space in the Tverskoy District in central Moscow. Historically, it was known as Strastnaya Square () before being renamed for Alexander Pushkin in 1937. It is located at the juncti ...

, Lisyansky then sent his work to the literary journal ''

Novy Mir ''Novy Mir'' (, ) is a Russian-language monthly literary magazine. History ''Novy Mir'' has been published in Moscow since January 1925. It was supposed to be modelled on the popular pre-Soviet literary magazine ''Mir Bozhy'' ("God's World"), w ...

''. The poem was originally set to be published in the December 1941 issue of the magazine; however, due to the editorial office moving to Kuybyshev, it got pushed back to February 1942. The text then consisted of two verses, but later two more verses were added with the help of Sergey Agranyan.

Lyrics

Current official

Original version

Notes

References

*http://www.sovmusic.ru (for the Stalin-era and Brezhnev-era lyrics) *http://www.personal.psu.edu/npi103/mos1_himn.htm (for the English translation) *https://web.archive.org/web/20080604144129/http://www.mos.ru/cgi-bin/pbl_web?vid=1&osn_id=0&subr_unom=1907&datedoc=0 (for the current lyrics)

External links

MP3 Vocal and instrumental recordings of the current anthemA Brezhnev-era MP3 vocal recordingA Stalin-era MP3 vocal recording"My Moscow" – korean version"My Moscow" – chinese version
{{authority control 1941 songs Culture in Moscow 20th century in Moscow Russian anthems Songs about Moscow Compositions by Isaak Dunayevsky Soviet patriotic songs Compositions in A minor Compositions in C minor