This week the music world celebrates the 120th birth anniversary of the Russian singer Lidia Ruslanova, the singer with remarkable voice of wide range.

She created her own style of performing folk songs, which she collected all her life. Among the most popular of her songs were: "Steppe and the steppe all around", "The age-old linden", "I went up the hill", "Golden mountains", "The moon is colored crimson", "The moon is shining", "Valenki" and many others. Lydia Ruslanova performed the songs by the Soviet composers as well. She was one of the first singers, who performed “Katyusha”. Lydia Andreevna was light on her feet. Even in the hard war years, she more often than other artists toured with concerts both behind the lines and on the front line. Ruslanova was musical from birth. She had a special talent - Lydia Ruslanova could expressively begin each song with the strongest emotional note. Moreover, it is no coincidence that each of her concerts turned into a triumph. For inexplicable reasons, the audience always guessed the moment when the entertainer was going to announce Ruslanova's appearance on the stage - the singer's entrance was always accompanied by loud applause. Then, the singer was not released from the stage for very long time. She always responded very generously to the love of her listeners.

The museum Collections houses a prominent collection of musical pieces performed by Lidia Ruslanova. For the 120th anniversary of the singer's birthday, we have prepared a musical selection of her performances, digitized from gramophone records stored in the museum Musical Library.