I am inclined to think that part of the reason for the name change was that Stalin wanted an anthem that mentioned himself.
BTW the Great Patriotic War was the first time in history that Russia's Muslim community declared Jihad: against the Germans. If I am not mistaken, the soldiers who placed the Soviet flag atop the Reichstag were not Russians, but Muslim Bashkirs.
andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> wrote: Yes, or amyway, he thought so; the Soviets called the war The Great Patriotic War. Then there was the point about not offending possible allies like the US and Britain. My guess is that the Red Army would have fought as well or poorly as it did under any anthem. But patriotism was a big motivator. jks
--- Doug Henwood wrote:
> Googling on "The Interionale" (I've got a playlist
> with 14 versions,
> so I was curious to find out its history) brought me
> to a website
> that claimed that Stalin dropped it as the anthem of
> the USSR during
> WW2 because the troops wanted to die for Mother
> Russia, not the
> international working class. Is that true?
>
> Doug
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