The music was created around 1938 by Alexander Alexandrov, a great Russian composer who earlier started the Alexandrov Ensemble. The original lyrics were by Sergey Mikhalkov and Gabriel El-Registan and first written in 1943. They mentioned Joseph Stalin by his name as well as the Great Patriotic War. When Stalin died in 1953, the lyrics were no longer appropriate and so the music was performed without them. For the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution in 1977, the lyrics were brought back, but changed so that they do not mention Stalin or the war.