Anna Marly

In recognition of the importance of "Le chant des partisans" Marly was named a chevalier de La Légion d'Honneur by François Mitterrand in 1985, the fortieth anniversary of the liberation of France.

Anna Marly also wrote "A Song in Triple Time" ("Une chanson à trois temps") for Édith Piaf and "La Complainte du Partisan" (known as "The Partisan"). In the United States, "The Partisan" gained popularity when Leonard Cohen released it in 1969 and Joan Baez in 1972.

Many French singers have recorded "Chant des partisans", including Yves Montand in 1955.

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.

Anna Marly was born on October 30, 1917 in Petrograd, Russia as Anna Yurievna Betulinskaya. She was married to Yuri Smirnov and Baron van Doorn.