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"The Prayer of Russians" [a] is a patriotic hymn that was used as the national anthem of Imperial Russia from 1816 to 1833. After defeating the First French Empire, Tsar Alexander I of Russia recommended a national anthem for Russia. The lyrics were written by Vasily Zhukovsky, and the music of the British anthem "God Save the King" was used.
The melody of the anthem was used in a German song to the lyrics Ich bete an die Macht der Liebe ("I pray to the power of love") by Gerhard Tersteegen. Also, the music of the anthem was used by the composer G. Beck when writing the anthem of the Jewish Socialist Party Bund "Di Shvue". [6]
"The Prayer of the Russians" was adopted around 1816, and used lyrics by Vasily Zhukovsky set to the music of the British anthem, "God Save the King". [10] Russia's anthem was also influenced by the anthems of France and the Netherlands, and by the British patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!". [11]
There was no official Russian anthem until 1815, from which time until 1833 the anthem was "The Prayer of Russians" (Molitva russkikh), sung to the tune of "God Save the King". [26] The two songs both start with the same words, God Save the Tsar!, but diverge after that.
Also favored by the Russian Orthodox Church, the music went without lyrics for several years. In 1999, Viktor Radugin won a contest to provide suitable words for it with his poem "Glory to Russia!" (Russian: Славься, Россия!, romanized: Slávsya, Rossíya!). However, no lyrics and none of the entries were ever adopted.
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"God Save the Tsar!" (Russian: Боже, Царя храни!, IPA: [ˈboʐɨ tsɐˈrʲa xrɐˈnʲi]) was the national anthem of the Russian Empire.The song was chosen from a competition held in 1833 and was first performed on 18 December 1833.
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