Anna Marly

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Anna Marly (Russian: Анна Юрьевна Смирнова-Марли, Anna Yurievna Smirnova-Marli) (30 October 1917 – 15 February 2006),^[1] born Anna Yurievna Betulinskaya, was a Russian-born French singer-songwriter. Born into a wealthy Russian noble family, Marly came to France very young, just after her father was killed in the aftermath of the October Revolution.

She is best remembered as the composer of the "

In her youth Marly worked as a ballet dancer in Monte Carlo, and was taught by the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. By the age of 17 she was performing her own compositions in the cabaret clubs of Paris, it was at this time that she adopted the name "Marly", selecting it from a telephone directory, her original name Betoulinsky being too difficult for French speakers to pronounce.

War years

After the fall of France in 1940 Marly fled to London with her Dutch husband. It was while she was in London that she made contact with the Free French rebels. Emmanuel d'Astier de La Vigerie, a prominent figure in the resistance, heard Marly sing the Chant des Partisans in Russian when he visited London in 1943. He asked the writers Joseph Kessel and Maurice Druon, both of whom had travelled with him, to translate the song into French. D'Astier asked for the translation with the intention of using the song as a replacement for La Marseillaise, which had been banned by the Nazi Party. Following this translation, the song quickly established itself as the surrogate anthem of the supporters of the French resistance both in France and Britain. Kessel and Druon, however, took the credit for writing the song; it was not until some years later that she gained the recognition she deserved for writing the original song.^[1]

Towards the end of the war Marly joined the Entertainments National Service Association, performing her songs to the Allied forces across Europe.

Later life

Marly divorced her husband after the war, shortly afterwards marrying a fellow Russian White émigré refugee. They originally moved to South America before coming to the United States. They lived in Pennsylvania where her husband was a professor. Upon his retirement, they were drawn to Richfield Springs, New York, because of the Russian Orthodox Monastery, the only such monastery in North America. Her husband is buried there; shortly after his death she moved to Lazy Mountain, Alaska.

Anna Marly also wrote "A Song in Triple Time" ("Une chanson à trois temps") for