This year's inaugural session of the Russian State Duma opened last week to a rousing version of the country's new national anthem. Most of the deputies stood smartly to attention for the tune which was once the hymn of the Soviet Union.
But two of them, Yuli Rybakov of the Union of Right-wing Forces, and human rights campaigner Sergei Kovalyov, stayed seated in protest. Kovalyov had good reason to be annoyed. At one stage in his life he frequently stood unwillingly as the tune was played in the Gulag in which he was a prisoner.
"If President Putin had chosen the popular song about a vodka-drinking sparrow, the Duma would have overwhelmingly supported it," Kovalyov informed the Duma.
The two deputies are not on their own in resisting the introduction of what, effectively, is Russia's fifth national anthem in less than 90 years. Before the October 1917 revolution, Russians stood to Bozhe Tsarya Khrani (God Save the Tsar). After the monarchy was overthrown, the Internationale, the song of worldwide socialism, took over. This was followed by the Soviet Hymn, which was sidelined in 1991. It was then replaced with an excerpt from Glinka's opera, A Life for the Tsar.
Now the Soviet Hymn is back with new words. The bit which declared "the party of Lenin, strength of the people, is leading us to the triumph of communism" has given way to a line whose veracity is equally open to question in these days of hardship for many Russians. "Our ancestral wisdom leads us from victory to victory," a sceptical public is told.
The anti-communists are against the song because its music reminds them of the bad old days. References to God in the new lyrics have not only failed to appease them, they have spawned further opposition from a different quarter.
Lev Levinson speaks on behalf of the Moscow Society of Atheists, and a line which refers to "a native land protected by God" has driven him into a fury. "It is not up to the State to establish whether God exists," Levinson fulminated, although few paid attention. The Moscow Society of Atheists has, after all, only 12 members and its image as a passionless, materialistic organisation totally opposed to the supernational has been somewhat diminished by its chairman, Yuri Gorny, who gives his occupation simply as "magician".
The Muslim Tatars of the east are larger in number. Their representatives in what was once the great Islamic fortress of Kazan have declared the anthem to be a symbol of "Russian colonialist policy".
Even old Sergei Mikhalkov (87), father of the Oscar-winning movie director, Nikita Mikhalkov, is in trouble. He wrote the words of the Soviet Hymn in the 1940s and made a comeback to write the new words as well.
A poet, Yelena Khebylova, says the old man has stolen her verse and is threatening to sue.
