Maria Plotnikova acquaints us with Tchaikovsky. No, not the composer, the town named for him in Siberia's Perm Krai.

Dmitry Shostakovich created classical music that spoke to modern times. Read up on his life story and listen along to some of finest works along the way. 

St. Petersburg (or Leningrad) has always occupied a special place in the world of Russian music. Famous for its rich classical traditions, especially at the Mariinsky Theater, in the second part of the twentieth century St. Petersburg became the epicenter of underground and experimental music.

Who knew? The heart of Siberia, a place best known for its severe winters, was the birthplace of one of the most original, raw rock movements ever to hit the USSR.

For 40 years, Boris Grebenshchikov and Aquarium have made music like no other band in Russia, combining poetry and beautiful, often quizzical instrumentals into a charming sound that is at once entirely unique and entirely Russian.

No rock musician has had such a profound, lasting effect on Russian culture as Victor Tsoy.

A history of Leon Theremin, inventor of electronic music and the instrument which bears his name.

A short consideration of the life and work of Alexander Scriabin, born on Jan. 6, 1872, a composer whose life was cut tragically short, but who nonetheless set the stage for much that was to come.

As a festival in Moscow brings together virtuoso guitarists from across Europe, the traditional Russian seven-stringed form of the instrument is enjoying a renaissance… in America.

The fiercely independent Russian National Orchestra, the finest of Russian classical ensembles, turns 20 this year. We look at how they have flourished against the odds.

Musicians have not been spared from the criminalization of protest and expression. We also share Ilya Yashin's final words.