Священная война - The Sacred War

“The Sacred War“ (Also Known As “Arise, Vast Country“) is a popular Soviet war song written one week after the Nazi invasion in 1941. The lyrics were written by Vasily Ivanovich Lebedev-Kumach and the Music was composed by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov on Stalin’s orders following the German invasion. Today the song is still popular among the Russian and former Soviet states’ armies and is still performed on Victory Day, remaining one of the most well-known Soviet-Era songs of all time. On June 21, 1941, the fascist barbarians invaded the Soviet Union raping and murdering their way across the vast country. Entire villages were burned down with their entire populations killed off. As Stalin described them: “men with the morals of animals“, had invaded the USSR, and these animals showed their true colours to the Soviet people and the whole world. The only response to Hitler’s described “war of annihilation“ was a Sacred War for peace, freedom, and su