God Save the Tsar!
| English: God Save the Tsar (Emperor)! | |
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| Bozhe, Tsarya khrani! | |
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Imperial anthem of  Russian Empire
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| Lyrics | Vasily Zhukovsky |
| Music | Alexei Lvov |
| Adopted | 31 December 1833 |
| Relinquished | 1917 |
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"God Save the Tsar!" (Russian: Боже, Царя храни!; transliteration: Bozhe, Tsarya khrani!) was the national anthem of the former Russian Empire. The song was chosen from a competition held in 1833 and was first performed on 18 December 1833. The composer was violinist Alexei Lvov, and the lyrics were by the court poet Vasily Zhukovsky. It was the anthem until the Russian Revolution of 1917, after which "Worker's Marseillaise" was adopted as the new national anthem until the overthrow of the Russian Provisional Government.
Many composers made use of the theme in their compositions, most notably Tchaikovsky, who quoted it in the 1812 Overture, the Marche Slave, his overture on the Danish national anthem, and the Festival Coronation March. During the Soviet era, authorities altered Tchaikovsky's music (such as the 1812 Overture and Marche Slave), substituting other patriotic melodies, such as the "Glory" chorus from Mikhail Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar, for "God Save the Tsar".Charles Gounod uses the theme in his Fantaisie sur l'Hymne National Russe (Fantasy on the Russian National Hymn). William Walton's score for the 1970 film Three Sisters, based on Chekhov's play, is dominated by the theme.
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