Shahzoda (Шахзода; real name Zilola Bahodirovna Musayeva, as it is spelled in Uzbek) is an Uzbek singer and actress. Shahzoda grew up in Fergana, in the Uzbek SSR. She was interested in music from her childhood, but has no musical education—she studied management at the International State University of Kyiv, but left the university to […]

Zhenya Milkovskiy (Женя Мильковский) is a Russian-speaking Ukrainian musician who sings, plays the piano and guitar, and writes his own music. Most recently, he is the leader of the band Nerves (Нервы), which blends many elements of R&B, pop, and rap with generally very soft lyrics and vocals. Milkovskiy’s musical education started early, when he […]

Vera Brezhneva (Vera Viktorovna Kiperman, Вера Брежнева / Вера Викторовна Киперман) is a Russian-speaking Ukrainian singer from Dnipropetrovsk oblast. While she was growing up, she acted in local productions at a youth theater. She enrolled in an engineering college after finishing school, but when the group VIA Gra was auditioning for new members in 2002, […]

Secret (Секрет) was a very popular band during the Soviet era. They still occasionally tour and perform their old hits today. Secret was founded in 1982 in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), when two of the original four members, Maksim Leonidov (vocals, guitar, keyboard) and Nikolay Fomenko (vocals, bass guitar), met at the Leningrad State Institute […]

DDT (ДДТ) is a Russian rock band founded in Ufa, in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, in 1980. The group’s name is taken from the insecticide DDT (though among several erroneous interpretations of the band’s name is “Добрый день, товарищи!”—“Good day, comrades!”). The band was formed in 1979 and they soon recorded a home […]

Anna Sedokova (in Ukrainian Анна Володимирівна Сєдокова) is a Russian-Ukrainian singer from Kyiv and a former member of the pop group VIA Gra. Sedokova was involved in music and dance from a very young age, participating in a Ukrainian folk group from the time she was six. She studied piano at music school and then […]

Bulat Okudzhava (1924–1997) (Булат Окуджава) was a Georgian-Armenian Russian-speaking poet and singer-songwriter, and one of the founders of Russia’s bardic tradition. Okudzhava’s parents both worked for the Communist Party, but they were arrested during the Stalinist purges of 1937, and he was raised by other relatives. He started writing poetry as a child. He volunteered […]

MakSim (real name Marina Abrosimova Maksimova; МакSим / Марина Абросимова) is a Russian singer, author, and producer. Her stage name was given to her by her brother, Maksim—it was her nickname growing up, and she carried it over to her musical career. It is derived from her patronymic, a Russian naming tradition in which the […]

Maksim Leonidov (Максим Леонидов) is a Russian singer originally from St. Petersburg. Best known for leading the popular Soviet band Secret (Секрет), he has also led a solo career in Israel and Russia. Leonidov’s parents both worked in theater, and he grew up surrounded by theater and music. He attended music school in St. Petersburg, […]