The “Moscow Defenders’ Song” was initially a set of lyrics published in 1941 by Aleksei Surkov, a reporter for the “Red Army Truth” during the fiercest period of the Battle of Moscow. Later, Boris Mokrolusov composed the music in 1942. The Battle of Moscow began in late September 1941 when Hitler, having torn up the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, launched a brutal attack on the Soviet Union. The German army encircled Leningrad and entered the Moscow region. Hitler concentrated thirty-five divisions to attack Moscow, but the Soviet people, unafraid of sacrifice, brave in struggle, and courageous, repelled multiple German offensives and launched a counterattack on December 6, 1941, annihilating over 500,000 enemies. This shattered the myth of the “invincibility of the German army” and promoted the formation and development of the global anti-fascist united front.
