Alexander Alexandrov composed the melody for the State Anthem of the Soviet Union in 1938. He drew from his earlier piece titled Life Has Become Better and incorporated elements from bylina epic songs.
The State Anthem of the Soviet Union officially adopted its lyrics on the 15th of March 1944 following a broadcast on Soviet radio at midnight on the 1st of January 1944. Stalin personally chose Alexandrov's music after reviewing more than 200 entries submitted during a contest that began in mid to late 1943.
Lyrics referencing Joseph Stalin became unacceptable after his death in 1953 so the anthem played without any words from 1956 until 1977. This silence lasted for two decades across the Soviet Union while an instrument-only version remained standard practice throughout most of this period.
Revised lyrics written in 1970 by original author Sergey Mikhalkov were adopted in 1977 coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution. The line praising Stalin disappeared completely from the text and references to the Great Patriotic War also vanished from the verses.
Vladimir Putin took office on the 7th of May 2000 and moved to replace the existing anthem before the federal legislature approved the music of the National Anthem of the Soviet Union in December 2000. New lyrics written by Sergey Mikhalkov accompanied the melody for the modern Russian Federation following a revival that occurred a decade after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.