Putin Homogenizing Even Hymns of Russia’s Federal Subjects, ‘NeMoskva’ Reports

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 2 – Vladimir Putin is homogenizing Russia in large ways and small, including imposing ever tighter controls on the content and messages contained in hymns prepared or at least approved by the governments of Russia’s more than 80 federal subjects, according to NeMoskva.

            The portal, which focuses on developments beyond the ring road, collected and analyzed official hymns written and adopted over the last 30 years and reports that there have been major changes in the style and content of such songs particularly in the course of Vladimir Putin’s rule (nemoskva.net/gimny/page46706469.html).

            Few of the regional and republic hymns approved in the 1990s made any reference to the unity of the region with the Russian Federation as a whole, NeMoskva says; but in the texts of those approved after 2000 when Putin came to power, “almost all of them” include such references.

            “Among the 17 hymns written or approved in the 1990s, specify that a region was certainly united with Russia apparently wasn’t necessary,” the portal says. Only three republics specified that at the time – Adygeya, Kabardino-Balkaria and Mordvinia -- but all the others spoke only about the region or republic.

            However, in the first decade of Putin’s reign, the share making such references rose to 79 percent; and in the second decade, it rose still higher to 84 percent, NeMoskva reports. And that trend has continued: three of the four hymns approved since 2020 specify that the region or republic is “part of a great land;” and the fourth may follow once it is finally approved.