The melody comes from the State Anthem of the Soviet Union, composed by Alexander Alexandrov and adopted in 1944, later adapted as Russia's current anthem. Online, an intentionally distorted earrape version spread through YouTube, gaming videos and communist meme edits in the 2010s, where the solemn anthem became shorthand for ironic USSR nostalgia. Creators kept reusing the loud edit because the contrast between formal patriotic music and blown-out audio reads instantly as a joke, even without any visual context.