> Sorry I'm a few years late!
> I've read every post in the thread and while many commented on the Russian
> in the dialog, no one seems to have mentioned the Russian of the choir.
> It's poor. Sounds like the choir was handed a second-grade transliteration
> and did the best they could with it. (I'm an American - a Russian
> specialist and live in Russia) For example, when they sing
> "nadezhda". In Russian, 'e' is pronounced like 'yeh'; thus the
> transliteration 'nyet' (no) when in Russian it is written 'n-e-t' Putting
> an apostophe before the 'e' might help. It should sound like
> 'nah-dyezh-duh'. A name like 'Elena' is pronounced
> "Yeh-lyeh-nuh"

> I do appreciate the choir's effort - but their phonetic mistakes made it
> near impossible for my Russian friends to help me when I was studying
> Russian. Took me darn near 15 years to figure most of it out, and am
> grateful to those of you that actually found the lyrics. I never would've
> figured out a few of those words.

Hmm. I have the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra & Erich Kunzel version (bought on iTunes, I'm such a tool), and I decided I wanted to get a somewhat phonetic transliteration of the lyrics so that I could sing along to them. So when I first read your post I thought "oh no, my illusions have been shattered! I won't be singing in phonetically correct Russian!" But...now that I listen to it with the volume cranked up, this particular group appears to be doing the "nyeh" sound fairly well. Hence, "nadezhda" does sound like "nah-dyezh-duh," as it should. So...I dunno. Now, not being a native speaker, and knowing full well that the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra is most assuredly American, I wouldn't know if they were making any OTHER phonetic mistakes...it's just that they appear not to be making the one you're referring to.

Oh, and I'm not suggesting you're wrong or anything, just that you're talking about a different version than the one I currently own (I'm assuming the theatrical or soundtrack version). And thus, my ability to sing in perfectly phonetic Russian (and by extension my status as a totally cool and intelligent person) is assured. (Though "cool and intelligent person" may or may not become "huge nerd." Depends on the audience, I guess.)