Paul Robeson - Hymn of the Soviet Union

The national anthem of the USSR between 1944 and 1991, performed here by American bass singer Paul Robeson. Prior to 1944 the Soviet Union anthem had been The Internationale - however it was replaced in the midst of the 'Great Patriotic War' (the USSR's bitter fight against Nazi Germany) to reflect its struggle as a nation. Like other Soviet propaganda it refers to and links Lenin and Stalin, although this part of the anthem was relegated after Stalin's death in 1953. The lyrics were written by Bolshevik author Sergey Mikhalkov, who was hand-picked for the task by Stalin in 1942. Almost sixty years later Mikhalkov was chosen by Vladimir Putin to pen lyrics for the same tune to constitute a new national anthem for Russia.
Paul Robeson was one of America's best light operatic singers, most widely known for his performances of Ol' Man River from the musical Show Boat. He was invited to visit the USSR in 1931. On arriving, Robeson found that unlike in America, discriminatory treatment of blacks was non-existent. Robeson developed close ties with Soviet Russia, visiting it several times, giving performances (such as this one) and sending his son there for education. However the escalation of the Cold War naturally made Robeson a target for the FBI, McCarthy and HUAC, and for almost a decade he was denied a passport because of his sympathies for the communist state. Robeson was a champion of the fight against segregation and Jim Crow laws within the US, and his connections with the USSR were often use to discredit elements of the civil rights movement.
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[@OnixdroiidArts]

When Robeson was in the USSR he said “Here Im not a negro but a human being, finally i walk in full human dignity”

[@jonathanstow9638]

He was delusional or ignorant, then. I imagine the Russians looked at him as a curiosity, a freak. And he certainly would not have had a good life, had he been a Soviet citizen.

[@celzotertins6462]

​@@jonathanstow9638russians aren't animals like angloids and germanic scum

[@swiatwedugpepego831]

In USSR probably he wouldn't experience racial segregation. But one day he could be sent to Siberia or even Kolyma, or die because of someone's delusione.

[@grizzlycharizard0017]

​​​@@jonathanstow9638 How dare you say that shit you jerk? He was not ignorant, he helped the poor and working class African Americans that was suffering from McCarthyism and Jim Crow! Not just African Americans he also stood for the Scottish and Welsh that was suffering shitty conditions in coal mines! You don't know nothing!

[@thirdvect0r]

@@jonathanstow9638"I imagine" yeah bro you are imagining shit. i.e. making it up. The US was racial segregated when he was in the USSR and women in the US didn't get to open their own bank accounts until 1970

[@Nick-or7xi]

Thank you grandfather for defeating the Nazis

[@kajmak64bit76]

And now you or your father are fighting the Nazis again :) It's a generational thing i guess

[@dravenpainter6958]

Nazis bad

[@dravenpainter6958]

.............

[@dravenpainter6958]

@@kajmak64bit76 Nazis took part of the USSR

[@dailygirl3050]

@@kajmak64bit76 dont remind us

[@brianrunyon266]

Very cool. This was the first recording of his I heard years ago. Awesome singing voice.

[@jimdecamp7204]

The video is the Victory Parade celebrating the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. The parade was held on June 24, 1945.

[@captainl-ron4068]

What ‘victory’?

[@pablomartos2536]

@@captainl-ron4068 The fall of Berlin

[@captainl-ron4068]

@@pablomartos2536 you misspelled Rape

[@pablomartos2536]

@@captainl-ron4068 That's right

[@SirDennisReynolds]

Stunningly beautiful, a testament to the greatest generation that defeated the scourge of this Earth. We must never forget all of those people that fought from across the world.

[@profiterq]

Это нужно повторить! Нужна война!

[@pedromacambira]

Paul Robeson is someone to be known

[@bobmcgahey1280]

my mom knew Paul she had lupus and when Paul was dying she was in the same hospital she got out of bed on hands and knees and tried to ctrawl to his room to say good bye dad and I yhad to get her back to bed

[@marioantonio-vf5pq]

Glory Paul Robeson Glory Urss..

[@larrytabor]

Ussr*

[@nevadasmith9613]

To me this is one of the saddest songs. So much sacrifice, so much hope for the future and nothing to show for it.

[@CLibanoff]

Nothing...is freedom nothing...without the USSR we would be living under the NAZI jack boot!

[@totalnike03]

Clay Libanoff I would argue without the United States we would be living under the Nazi boot. Even by Stalins own admission US machinery won the war and the US lent the Soviets a lot of machinery as a part of lend lease. Also America opened up the north africa and france fronts. Without those the soviets would never have reacher berlin

[@redbassist5590]

Just as the bourgeois revolutions initially fell back to monarchism, our time will come again

[@christophvohland8407]

Die USA haben der UDSSR kaum Waffen! geliefert. Siehe dazu die Arbeiten von A.Tooze etc. . Die zweite Front wurde erst eröffnet, als die UDSSR klar als Sieger feststand und richtete sich gegen sie. Die USA und GB konnten mit dem Faschismus gut leben, solange er gegen den " Bolschewismus" gerichtet war. Münchner Abkommen, Trumans Äußerungen etwa 1941 in der NY Times, Operation unthinkabel. ... Ja, ein trauriges Lied. Soviel Opfer....so ist es.

[@pablomartos2536]

@@totalnike03 You're so wrong, repeating all the propaganda

[@tainahollo]

dallasdawg33, I think he sang Soviet and Russian songs during WWII, when USA and Soviet Union were allies and both fighting Nazis. During the war it was politically correct both to be a good American and feel solidarity for Russians. American - Soviet friendship influenced even women's fashions during the war!

[@twilightsparkle7531]

That’s not how to reply to a comment

[@devonstarks7079]

Well Paul Robeson greatly inspired Lenin and Stalin

[@yourkingorginal3286]

who is dallasdawg33

[@pepedejose]

Los americanos no apoyaron a los rusos hasta que se dieron cuenta que los nazis no podrían ganar. Fué entonces cuando desembarcaron y avanzaron para que Rusia no ocupara toda Alemania. A ver si contamos la verdad. Y la verdad era que el único fín de la WWII fué conquistar Rusia. Ni lo consiguieron antes, ni lo conseguirán en 2.022.

[@greattventertainmententerp5637]

Thank you Cousin for defeating humanity worse enemy, and leading our nation to victory against the Nazis, challenging the West for 50 years and for the rest of time, thank you Joesph Stalin

[@karansunthpaul1331]

I somehow imagine this is what Stalin would have sounded like if he sang it in English.

[@jamesz2246]

Listen to some of Stalin's speeches, he had a higher pitched voice.

[@Fran_van_der_Geld]

@@jamesz2246 Stalin was a despot from Georgia.

[@ziggyzap1]

@burtchp communism believes in equality no matter what the race, age, or hight

[@jackd.ripper9951]

Maintained for force and terror.

[@km38334]

George Orwell wrote well about the nightmare of communist "equality"... Soviet Communism did not treat all nationalities equally; just ask the Crimean Tatars, the Balts, the Belarusans, the Ukrainians, the Siberian peoples --- all subjugated by the Russians

[@eatenhamhawk]

Ksenia Maryniak while I agree that the Soviet Union was not as great as some people say, you should know that George Orwell himself was a SOCIALIST and only took issue with authoritarianism. He even wrote a whole book about how great socialist/anarchist Spain was ( Homage to Catalonia)

[@Boyar300AV]

@@km38334 Belarussians and Ukrainians did not exist before the USSR.

[@Swannerator]

@@Boyar300AV You're an ignoramus. Maybe look up the name Taras Shevchenko, for starters.

[@kissmooremoore6916]

where are this generation now. sometimes i just wonder and ask myself what exactly are we fighting for

[@haraldwacht6689]

Kämpfen? Wir Menschen lernen es nie Für wen kämpfen? Für König Kaiser Diktator?? Zieht den Menschen eine uniform an und du lernst ihr Wesen kennen Bitte nicht falsch verstehen Aber wann lernen wir es endlich nein zu sagen zu prooaganda Medien und ihren Machenschaften

[@grandslam1998]

Bravo Bravo! God Bless all peoples of CCCP.

[@jamesmedina3271]

It’s the Russian Federation 🇷🇺. They are not Commies. ✝️🕊♥️

[@grandslam1998]

@@jamesmedina3271 More like Putinland!

[@jamesmedina3271]

@@grandslam1998 Yeah I guess like England is Charlesland. Or Germany Merkelland. America is Bidenland.

[@zhihuizheng261]

East Germany and Soviet Union

[@superamanda]

I know , Bush, Reagan and Nixon were so passive and gentle.

[@attiepollard7847]

Super Amanda at least they cut my taxes and did not tell us Americans how to think or what to do unlike the former ussr

[@user-nu9xp6km9g]

@@attiepollard7847 What? Why did you said so? It have no logic... What about paranoia about "Empire of Evil" and all that anti-communist stuff,which was "telling what to think". USA propaganda was(and still) worse than Soviet.

[@carandang1720]

Nixon? Almost invading India in 1971, making the world turn against India, supporting Bangladeshi genocide, who saved India and Bangladesh? The USSR.

[@bobmcgahey1280]

STALIN ZHUKOV ROKOSOFFSKY

[@joen.8668]

Why did he sing for Soviet?

[@joen.8668]

Tom Munday Then, why didn't he sing The Internationale instead?

[@joen.8668]

Tom Munday ok, thank you man :)

[@jeffchislett3691]

I don't know the numbers, but it is a historical fact that lots of black Americans fled to the USSR to flee the vile depredations of Jim Crow prior to the Great Patriotic War.

[@denxero]

Because the Soviets were the friends of Mankind and the oppressed worldwide, contrary to the putrid and hypocritical US Empire.

[@km38334]

He was a "useful idiot" and they almost certainly disparaged him behind his back...

[@Paperbacknovel]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting. Putin also, is a scary fellow.

[@user-ts7gw3ic8t]

Уpaaaaaa!!

[@HooDatDonDar]

Don’t know if you care, but in the 1920’s, US Communists supported shipping all the Negroes back down south. They were to be put in two or three US states, the whites shipped out, and a “ Negro Soviet Republic” was to be proclaimed. This was supposed to “appeal to the white worker” as Party boss Jay Lovestone put it, and was based on the Soviet Union’s Nationalities policy. In 1930 new Party boss Wm. Z. Foster dropped the idea, but it continued in the Soviet Union, with different nationalities in Russia being given passports for National areas, and being shipped there, out of Russia proper. A generation later, the idea was borrowed by the National Party in South Africa to craft the Homelands policy that was a part of the apartheid system.

[@HooDatDonDar]

Historian Paul Johnson summarised the whole tendency in many countries as “Social engineering- shipping people around like concrete blocks - the most radical vice of the Twentieth Century”.

[@jonthomas9708]

News to me. Thanks for this

[@TheTrueJedi01]

@burnoutextreme70 Okay, I know you meant well; but please...PLEASE: if you're going to thank someone, use proper grammar. *you're

[@AlbertPaysonTerhune]

Best national anthem ever. I don't like the USSR. But best anthem.

[@user-lv4iq1tr4b]

кто от кукеча

[@showbizsam4440]

A magnificent anthem, even if it pays tribute to the worst political ideology and the worst leader of the 20th Century.

[@robertmiles1603]

not a fan of the ideology but damn, those were the days

[@Fruggert]

@burtchp Uh, and what about Africa?

[@jeffchislett3691]

You need to look into the actions of Thomas "I hope you don't mind if I vaccinate 2.5 million children" Sankara. He was a man among men.,

[@Swannerator]

@@jeffchislett3691 Oh no, an anti-vaxxer. Well, if you don't mind polio, measles, rubella, etc, wiping out swathes of the Earth's population, then yes, your views might be worth a modicum of consideration.

[@witext]

While the hymn is a great piece and awesome as a national anthem, as a socialist who don't like nationalism, the internationale is a more fitting anthem for a socialist country imo. I wish he would've sung that one as well, and maybe updated its lyrics as they're a bit outdated

[@waynetables6414]

No socialist movement has ever succeeded without nationalism. Don't make the mistake of conflating jingoistic patriotism with nationalism in a civics or economics context. The government is the only instrument working people have at their disposal to wield against the trans-national capitalist elite and their corporate quest to privatize the entire globe for private profit. Western governments are captured by the international banking elite, and the response to that is to organize around class interests and organize around uniting sentiments and symbols. Martin Luther King understood this, and so too did every single successful revolutionary left wing movement across the world.. There's nothing inherently reactionary about nationalism from the standpoint of opposition to Brexit.. you can certainly have reactionary reasons and views that lead to opposition to Brexit, but one can also simply reject British involvement in such unaccountable institutions from the standpoint that the EU is undemocratic and does not represent the will of the people. It's an institution, like the IMF the World Bank, that serves the interests of the western elite and multinational corporations. Nationalism manifests itself differently in the global north and the global south for reasons that should be obvious.. The goal of any revolutionary movement that has any interest in actually taking power and not just bitching from the sidelines is a revolution that unites 99% against the 1%.. 99% of people share a common flag have shared histories and shared traditions have shared class interests like empowering common people at the expense of an elite capitalist class who could not care less about the common people or the country we live in.

[@christopherszczepanski7964]

Any body remembering those times? When do we will see Mr. Putin riding a Whitaker horse? Wake up ,please!! Christopher

[@marko11kram]

That was NOT Stalin on the horse--- he fell of while practicing, and Zuhkov was the rider for the victory parade

[@christophvohland8407]

Polen , selbst semifaschistisch, hat ja ab 1934 mit den Nazis paktiert, mit Billigung Englands. 1938 erneut und und und , und heute wieder mit den Banderisten. Es lag an der UDSSR, die Nazis zu stoppen. An ihr allein.

[@sera3759]

Yoshi island theme

[@tovojolo1977]

Russia is the hope of the World!

[@po-ol1xl]

🚩🏴👋🏿

[@PublicDudeBaby]

Yankss

[@steveroberts8719]

He was a great man--well ahead of his time. But he made one mistake: he should have spoken out against Stalin, especially during the Show Trials. I believe he could have done this without playing into the hands of the American Right. But I still love Paul Robeson.

[@hepcat93]

And what's wrong with the trials after exactly ur information about them? As far as I know they were exactly the show ones, made open for attending by any mass media, press, reporters to see what's heppening there.

[@timotheboulder]

The actual show trials were the HUAC hearings. Paul did the right thing.

[@dallasdawg33]

I dont understand? Why did he do this and Ballad for Americans? I mean, I understand him gravitating towards socialistic ideals, but why do send conflicting messages?

[@bobmcgahey1280]

it had to do with the shifting politics of the communist party of the united states and the popular front ballad for americans (which i do not like) was approved by th international communist movement it was during the war the fault was the 6th comintern and the popular front the mistake ws not his in fact the CPUSA dissolved in effect during the war and only resurfaced after Duclos criticized it in 1946 I know my mom was a member :)

[@dnickaroo3574]

Paul Robeson said that it was only when he travelled to the Soviet Union that he felt like a full human being, for the first time in his life. Racism was illegal in the Soviet Union. The message is quite clear -- no conflict at all. On return to the US he was called before the McCarthy Commission. Later he was consigned to a psychiatric hospital, and tortured with repeated ECT (Shock Therapy). He made sure that his son was educated in the USSR so that he would not face the racism of the USA. He supported the working class in many nations, and researched the achievements of African Society.

[@donnydarko8504]

@@dnickaroo3574 who cares it still failed,!!!

[@stugrant01]

@@dnickaroo3574 If he loved visiting the Soviet Union so much, it's funny he didn't stay there.

[@stugrant01]

@@raptornugget5385 "But they showed it's possible and that Communism does work. " No, the Soviets showed that communism DOESN'T work.

[@CB-kl5ew]

... Animal Farm comes to mind.

[@videolanderen]

Because your IQ is in the negatives, my dude.

[@leenguy]

Now Russia is the invader.

[@videolanderen]

No.

[@DEADALEK]

We tried to reason with fashists near boarders one time - they betrayed and atacked. This time, preemptive strike is required.

[@Dreaded88]

Was this Chris Kaepernick's dad!?! *_:D_*

[@bivvystridents3752]

If only Paul knew what a heartless murderer Stalin was.

[@comradev1nce865]

Stalin needed to kill millions of people he didn't have any chance

[@normal2954]

He KNEW what heartless racist enslavers and killers America was/is.

[@RandomDudeOne]

And then Chernobyl blew up.

[@funambuIist]

...over 40 years later. did you think this was smart? you really owned the commies, man.

[@stugrant01]

@@funambuIist Forty years is plenty of time to try to get something right.

[@carinabaas7529]

Blablablabla

[@pluto1310]

@@stugrant01 are you really going to blame a disaster caused by an accident on the soviets..?

[@stugrant01]

@@pluto1310 Chernobyl had been operating many years without having been certified (except for on some forged documents). How is that an accident?

[@elizabethsymynkywicz5875]

Robeson was duped by the Communists, as were many. But he was a great and brilliant man nonetheless. And what a voice!

[@orb3796]

he was supported by the soviets. They actually treated him like a human being.

[@stugrant01]

@Reza Farhad Yes, duped. Listen to the words he is singing: "Freedom, Freedom, Eternal Soviet Union, etc".

[@bryanholden1558]

And you are being duped by capitalism. Victory to Communism!

[@tunit20]

America sure treated him like a cockroach. He should have been a bootlicker like you and renounce his beliefs? So much for freedom of speech.

[@bbell2851]

I agree

[@CantolaoTV]

I'm not agree.........they were pure evils

[@orb3796]

The soviet union was the good side of the iron curtain