National anthem presence of the Monarch in some Commonwealth realms, was first performed in 1619 under the title "God Save the King". It is not officially the national anthem of the UK, though it became such through custom and usage. Spain's national anthem, the "Marcha Real" (The Royal March), written in 1761, was among the first to be adopted as such, in 1770. Denmark adopted the older of its two national anthems, "Kong Christian stod ved højen mast", in 1780; and "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem, was written in 1792 and adopted in 1795. Serbia became the first Eastern European nation
National anthem of Russia argued that "The Internationale", which was historically associated with the Comintern, should be replaced as the National Anthem of the Soviet Union. Alexandrov's music was chosen as the new anthem by the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin after a contest in 1943. Stalin praised the song for fulfilling what a national anthem should be, though he criticized the song's orchestration. In response, Alexandrov blamed the problems on Viktor Knushevitsky, who was responsible for orchestrating the entries for the final contest rounds. When writing the Bolshevik party anthem, Alexandrov incorporated pieces from the song "Life Has Become Better" (), a musical comedy