The Soviet Union's various constituent republics each had their own anthem.
Aram Ilyich Khachaturian was a Soviet Armenian composer and conductor. He is considered one of the leading Soviet composers.
"Sabre Dance" is a movement in the final act of Aram Khachaturian's ballet Gayane (1942), where the dancers display their skill with sabres. It is Khachaturian's best known and most recognizable work worldwide. In the composer’s own words, the “Dance of the Kurds”, which subsequently became the “Sabre Dance”, originated with the insistence of the Director of the Kirov Theatre already after the rehearsal process had commenced. Although Khachaturian considered the score to be complete, he reluctantly agreed to add another dance in the last act.
"Our Fatherland" is the national anthem of Armenia. It was arranged by Barsegh Kanachyan; the lyrics were written by Mikayel Nalbandian. First adopted in 1918 as the anthem of the short-lived First Republic of Armenia, it was subsequently banned after the country was invaded by then incorporated into the Soviet Union. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the restoration of sovereignty in 1991, the song was re-adopted as the national anthem, albeit with slightly modified lyrics.
The State Anthem of the Republic of Belarus, better known as "We Belarusians", is the national anthem of Belarus. It was originally written in the 1940s and adopted in 1955 for use in the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. The music of the Belarusian SSR anthem was composed by Niescier Sakałowski and the lyrics were written by Michas Klimkovič. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the music composed by Sakalowski was kept and the lyrics were discarded. New lyrics, which were written by Klimkovič and Uładzimir Karyzna, were adopted by a presidential decree issued on 2 July 2002.
Gayane is a four-act ballet with music by Aram Khachaturian. Originally composed in or before 1939, when it was first produced as Happiness. Revised in 1941–42 to a libretto by Konstantin Derzhavin and with choreography by Nina Aleksandrovna Anisimova, the score was revised in 1952 and in 1957, with a new plot. The stage design was by Nathan Altman (scenery) and Tatyana Bruni (costumes).
The "State Anthem of the Russian Federation" is the national anthem of Russia. It uses the same melody as the "State Anthem of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics", composed by Alexander Alexandrov, and new lyrics by Sergey Mikhalkov, who had collaborated with Gabriel El-Registan on the original anthem. From 1944, that earliest version replaced "The Internationale" as a new, more Soviet-centric and Russia-centric Soviet anthem. The same melody, but without any lyrics, was used after 1956. A second version of the lyrics was written by Mikhalkov in 1970 and adopted in 1977, placing less emphasis on World War II and more on the victory of communism, and without mentioning Joseph Stalin by name.
Orinats Yerkir is a political party operating in Armenia. Its foundation was in 1998, and founder Artur Baghdasaryan continues to lead the party. The party was formerly known as Armenian Renaissance, during the run-up to the 2017 parliamentary elections.
The national flag of Armenia, also known as the Tricolour, consists of three horizontal bands of equal width, red on the top, blue in the middle, and orange on the bottom. The Armenian Supreme Soviet adopted the current flag on 24 August 1990. On 15 June 2006, the Law on the National Flag of Armenia, governing its usage, was passed by the National Assembly of Armenia.
Mikayel Nalbandian was a Russian-Armenian writer, poet, political theorist and activist.
Spartacus is a ballet by Aram Khachaturian (1903–1978). The work follows the exploits of Spartacus, the leader of the slave uprising against the Romans known as the Third Servile War, although the ballet's storyline takes considerable liberties with the historical record. Khachaturian composed Spartacus in 1954, and was awarded a Lenin Prize for the composition that same year. It was first staged in Leningrad on 27 December 1956, as choreographed by Leonid Yakobson, for the Kirov Theatre of Opera and Ballet, where it stayed in repertory for many years, but only with qualified success since Yakobson abandoned conventional pointe in his choreography. Yakobson restaged his version for the Bolshoi in 1962 and it was part of the Bolshoi's 1962 tour to New York. The ballet received its first staging at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow in 1958, choreographed by Igor Moiseyev; however it was the 1968 production, choreographed by Yury Grigorovich, which achieved the greatest acclaim for the ballet.
Alexander Grigori Arutiunian, was a Soviet and Armenian composer and pianist, widely known for his 1950 Trumpet Concerto. A professor at Yerevan State Conservatory, he was recognized with many awards for his work, including the Stalin Prize in 1949 and People's Artist of the USSR in 1970, as well as numerous honors from his homeland of Armenia.
Boris Khristoforovich Parsadanian was a Soviet Armenian and Estonian composer, violinist, and arts administrator.
The Emblem of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic was devised from an initial prototype sketch by Martiros Saryan, a famous Armenian painter, and was adopted in 1937 by the government of the Armenian SSR.
The Alexander Spendiaryan National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, simply known by locals as Opera, is an opera theatre in Yerevan. It officially opened on 20 January 1933, with a performance of Alexander Spendiaryan's opera Almast as its first show. The opera building was designed by architect Alexander Tamanian. It consists of two concert halls: the Aram Khatchaturian Concert Hall with 1,400 seats and the Alexander Spendiaryan Opera and Ballet National Theatre with 1,200 seats.
Edgar Hovhannisyan, Hovhannisian or Oganesian was an Armenian composer, Professor of Composition at the Yerevan State Conservatory, People's Artist of the USSR (1986).
Masquerade was written by Aram Khachaturian in 1941 as incidental music for a production of Mikhail Lermontov's play of the same name. He turned it into a suite with five movements for an orchestra in 1944. It is best known for the Waltz, widely considered one of Khachaturian's finest and most popular pieces, second in popularity only to "Sabre Dance" from the ballet Gayane.
Gayane Chebotaryan was an Armenian composer and musicologist. She was born in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, and graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory. She studied composition with K'usnaryan and piano with Moisei Khalfin. In 1947 she took a teaching position with the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory where she was appointed professor in 1977. She was made an Honored Art Worker of the Armenian SSR in 1965, and published a work on the polyphonic characteristics of Aram Khachaturian in 1969.
Geghuni Chitchyan or Chitchian is an Armenian composer, pianist, and pedagogue. Her parents were veteran teachers; her brother, Henrikh, an established violinist.
