During the Soviet period, the Soviet Union encouraged the development of music in Dushanbe, a less culturally crowded place then typical Russian megacities. Revolutionary songs, like the Marseillaise, were promoted and translated into Tajik. The Tajik Philharmonic Society was founded in 1938; today, it is named after Akasharif Juraev. Sergei Artemevich Balasanyan, an Armenian, was one composer who originally went to Dushanbe from 1936–1943 to prepare the SSR for an upcoming Tajik cultural festival to be held in Moscow. While we was there, he described himself as a "composer, social-musical worker, folklorist, and pedagogue." He also became the head of the Tajik Composer's Union and the artistic lead of the opera house. Large numbers of Russian and Ukrainian symphonies moved to Dushanbe during World War 2.