Semyon Tchernetsky

Major General Semyon Alexanderovich Tchernetsky (Russian:Семё́н Алекса́ндрович Черне́цкий) was a Soviet military conductor and the founder of modern Russian military bands. He served as the Senior Director of the Central Military Band of the People's Commissariat of National Defense of the USSR from 1924 to 1950.

Tchernetsky was born on October 24, 1881 in Odessa to a musical family. From 1892-1893, Tchernetsky studied the trombone in the orchestra of the 24th Dragoon Lubny Regiment in Chisinau, where his uncle was the conductor. In 1911 he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory, which he graduated in 1917. In 1918 Chernetsky joined the Red Army and was appointed as the head of the military bands of the Petrograd military district. He quickly rose through the ranks, eventually being appointed as the director of the Military Band of the Workers and Peasants Red Army in 1924. After more than 10 years in this position, he formed the Central Military Band of the People's Commissariat of National Defense, which later became the first military band to be formed in modern Russia. In 1935, together with professor Heinrich Neuhaus at the Moscow Conservatory, he created the Military Faculty of the Moscow State Conservatory, where music students get a curriculum based on the conducting and combat repertoire. On 1 August 1937, Cherneysky founded the Moscow Military Music College as a means of building and enhancing the knowledge of potential military musicians in the Red Army. On June 24, 1945, Tchernetsky led the massed bands during the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945 on Red Square.

In 1946, he suffered from a paralysis, which resulted in his retirement from active service after 25 years in the armed forces. Tchernetsky died on April 13, 1950 in Moscow. He is buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.

Tchernetsky is highly regarded in the Russian military music sphere and one of the most outstanding Russian military composers in the 20th century. Depending on sources, he wrote between 100-200 marches, patriotic songs and other works in his lifetime. In addition to military marches, he also wrote some socio-political ones such as Glory to the Motherland, Lenin's Call and the March of Moscow Pioneers. Many of his military marches are the most famous and common ones used by the Russian Military Band Service, some of which have been used Moscow Victory Day Parade on Red Square for decades.

Marches