Lidiya Andreyevna Ruslanova (1900-1973) was one of the greatest and best-loved performers of Russian folk songs. Lidiya was born in a village near Saratov and first started singing for Russian soldiers during the Russian Civil War. She debuted as a professional singer in Rostov-on-Don in 1923.

During WWII she ceaselessly toured from one front to another, helping to boost the soldiers' courage with her patriotic songs. Her signature songs were Valenki and Katyusha, written specially for her. During the Battle of Berlin she performed on the doorsteps of the smouldering Reichstag.

Ruslanova was reputedly the richest woman in Soviet Russia and even financed the construction of two Katyusha batteries, which she presented to the Red Army in 1942. Her rough manners and racy language appealed to the soldiers to such a point that she came to be regarded as a potential threat to the Soviet authorities. Three years after the victory, Lidiya and her husband, General Vladimir Kryuchkov, were arrested and sentenced to 10 years of camp labour for alleged anti-Soviet activities.

In the gulag 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. After Stalin's death, she was permitted to return to Moscow. Although awards and titles bypassed her, Ruslanova presided over the first All-Soviet Festival of Soviet Songs, together with Leonid Utyosov, Mark Bernes, and Klavdiya Shulzhenko.