Popular Soviet War Ballad May Come To Defense Of Motherland As Russia’s Olympic ‘Anthem’

By Michael Scollon

(RFE/RL) -- As Russian athletes prepare for the day when they again hoist Olympic medals to the sound of an unfamiliar anthem and a generic flag, they are calling on Katyusha to help assuage their loss.

The ballad of a Soviet woman yearning for her partner fighting on the front lines of World War II was...