History of Russia's Anthem

Before having its melody being reused by the Russian Federation, the Soviet Union anthem started out as a hymn written by Alexander Alexandrov for the Bolshevik Party in 1938. The opening to the song bears resemblance to another song by Alexandrov called Life Has Become Better which was based on a quote made by Stalin at the First All-Union Meeting 3 years earlier. During World War 2, the song was chosen by Stalin to be the official anthem of the Soviet Union in a contest who later commissioned Alexandrov to write lyrics that would invoke the impending victory of the Soviets over Nazi forces. The completed anthem was published on 7 November 1943 before being played at midnight on Soviet radio on New Year's Day 1944 and was formally adopted on 15 March that year.
During Destalinization, the song was stripped of its lyrics until 1977 when new (Stalin free) lyrics were made to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the October/ Bolshevik revolution. For the first 10 years of post-Soviet Russia, a wordless melody was used for Russia's anthem but in late 2000, the Soviet Anthem was back with modernised lyrics by Sergey Mikhalkov.
In former Soviet states like Ukraine, there are laws that bar the Soviet Anthem from being performed with offenders facing a 5 year prison sentence. Somehow that didn't stop the song from gaining internet meme status in the mid-late 2010s along with a plethora of other communism and Soviet themed memes.