The National Anthem of the Soviet Union, the State Anthem of the USSR (Russian: Государственный гимн СССР, Gosudarstvenny Gimn SSSR) was introduced during World War II on March 15, 1944, replacing "The Internationale" as the official national anthem of the Soviet Union as well as the national anthem of the Russian SFSR. The lyrics were written by Sergey Mikhalkov (1913--2009) in collaboration with Gabriel El-Registan (1899--1945) and the music was composed by Alexander Alexandrov (1883--1946). After the process of de-Stalinization was inaugurated after Stalin's death, the lyrics referring to Stalin were considered unacceptable and the anthem was performed without lyrics until 1977, when revised lyrics without references to Stalin and the war were adopted.
