, birth_date = , birth_place = Chernavka, Serdobsky Uyezd,

Saratov Governorate Saratov Governorate (russian: link=no, Саратовская губе́рния, ''Saratovskaya guberniya'', Government of Saratov), was an administrative division (a '' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian Socialist Federative Sovi ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, death_date = , death_place =

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, genre =

russian folk music Russian folk music specifically deals with the folk music traditions of the ethnic Russian people. Ethnic styles in the modern era The performance and promulgation of ethnic music in Russia has a long tradition. Initially it was intertwined with ...

, instrument = singing , background = solo_singer Lidia Andreyevna Ruslanova (sometimes spelt ''Lidiya'' or ''Lydia'', russian: Лидия Андреевна Русланова; 27 October 1900 in

– 21 September 1973 in

) was a performer of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n folk songs.

Early life

She was born in the village of Chernavka near Saratov, into a peasant family, and was baptized as ''Praskovya Andrianovna Leykina-Gorshenina'' (russian: Прасковья Андриановна Ле́йкина-Горшенина). Her mother was an Erzya by ethnicity. By the time she was five, both her parents had died; her father in the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

and her mother soon after. As a result, she spent most of her childhood in an orphanage. She began singing when she joined the local parish children's choir and soon became a soloist. Her uncle invited her to work in a furniture factory. One of the factory's owners heard her singing as she worked and recommended that she go to study at the

Saratov Conservatory Saratov Conservatory is a music conservatory in Russia. The conservatory in Saratov, was founded in 1912, and was the first provincial conservatory to be founded in Russia, after St Petersburg Conservatory and Moscow Conservatory. Saratov was, at ...

.MacFadyen, p.202 However, she did not enjoy academic study. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, she worked on a hospital train and met Vitalii Stepanov during this period, with whom she had a child, born in May 1917. He left her after a year, due to her erratic lifestyle. According to a Saratov source, she married a different man who later died in the

Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...

, whom she took her surname from.

Career

Ruslanova gave her first concert at the age of 16, to a military audience, where she sang everything she knew. She first started singing for Russian soldiers during the

, and debuted as a professional singer in Rostov-on-Don in 1923. She was noted for her peculiar singing voice and

timbre In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musica ...

, which was a revival of old traditions in which female soloists would perform on festive occasions. Until 1929, she lived with a Cheka official, then she married again, this time to Vladimir Kryukov.MacFadyen, p.203 During the 1930s, Ruslanova became extremely popular. She became an artist of the state association of musical, variety and circus enterprises in 1933, and performed all over Russia throughout the rest of the decade. When

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

broke out, she ceaselessly toured from one front to another, helping to boost the soldiers' courage with her patriotic songs. Her signature songs were ''

Valenki Valenki ( rus, ва́ленки, p=ˈvalʲɪnkʲɪ; sg valenok ( rus, ва́ленок, p=ˈvalʲɪnək)) are traditional Russian winter footwear, essentially felt boots: the name ''valenok'' literally means "made by felting". They are not wate ...

'' and '' Katyusha'', written specially for her. During the Battle of Berlin, she performed on the doorsteps of the smouldering Reichstag. Ruslanova became one of the richest women in Soviet Russia and even financed the construction of two Katyusha batteries, which she presented to the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

in 1942. That same year, she was made an Artist of Honour of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Her rough manners and racy language appealed to the soldiers to the point that she was regarded as a potential threat to the Soviet authorities. In 1948, due to association with Marshal

Georgy Zhukov Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov ( rus, Георгий Константинович Жуков, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ ˈʐukəf, a=Ru-Георгий_Константинович_Жуков.ogg; 1 December 1896 – ...

(who led the

to the defeat of

Nazi-Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

during

, and who became a strong political opponent of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

in the post-war years) Ruslanova's husband, Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Kryukov was arrested and Ruslanova followed two years later. Ruslanova was forced to sign a declaration that her husband was guilty of treason, but refused so sentenced to 10 years of camp labour. In the

gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

she was dispatched to, Ruslanova became a star lionized by inmates and administration alike. Therefore, she was moved to a prison cell in the Vladimirsky Tsentral. Following Stalin's death, she was released on 4 August 1953; she was thin, gray, and had difficulty walking. However, she returned to singing almost immediately. Her time in prison was unmentioned in the press until decades after. Although awards and titles bypassed her, Ruslanova presided over the first All-Soviet Festival of Soviet Songs, together with

Leonid Utyosov Leonid Osipovich Utyosov or Utiosov (russian: link=no, Леонид Осипович Утёсов, uk, link=no, Леонід Йосипович Утьосов); real name Lazar (Leyzer) Iosifovich Vaysbeyn or Weissbein ()) (, Odesa – 9 March ...

Mark Bernes Mark Naumovich Bernes (russian: link=no, Ма́рк Нау́мович Берне́с) (,This date: – is a mistake found in the '' Great Soviet Encyclopaedia''. True date: – was engraved on the Bernes's gravestone at Novodevichy Cemeter ...

, and

Klavdiya Shulzhenko Klavdiya Ivanovna Shulzhenko (russian: Кла́вдия Ива́новна Шульже́нко, uk, Клавдія Іванівна Шульженко; – June 17, 1984) was a Soviet popular female singer and actress. Biography Shulzhenko ...

. She went on singing right up until her death in 1973, at the age of 72. Ruslanova crater on Venus is named after her.

Discography

* 1996: ''Поёт Лидия Русланова'' (Lydia Ruslanova sings) * 2000: ''Царица Русской песни'' (Queen of the Russian Song) * 2001: ''Великие исполнители России XX века'' (Great performers of Russia of the XX century) * 2002: ''Русские народные песни'' (Russian folk songs) * 2007: ''Имена на все времена'' (Names for all time)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruslanova, Lidiya 1900 births 1973 deaths People from Serdobsky Uyezd Erzyas Russian folk singers Soviet women singers Russian people of World War II Soviet women in World War II Saratov Conservatory alumni 20th-century Russian singers Inmates of Vladimir Central Prison 20th-century Russian women singers Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery