An Anthem to Evoke the «Serious Strong Feeling» It Should: Kasta’s Rap Provocative Alternative to the Russian National Anthem

Abstract

In November 2019 the Russian rap group Kasta released the song Our Russian Anthem (Naš gimn Rossii). The song was introduced by a direct invitation to President Putin to consider the song as an alternative to the current national anthem. The analysis, summarizing the «national anthem crisis» Russia went through in the year 2000, indicates that Kasta’s song, similarly to other unofficial anthems, questions the traditional didactic structure of anthems, and carves out agency in the self-imagining of the nation.