Murom (Russian: Му́ром; Old Norse: Moramar) is a historic city in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, which sprawls along the left bank of Oka River. Population: 116,078 (2010 Census preliminary results); 126,901 (2002 Census); 124,229 (1989 Census).

In the 9th century CE, the city marked the easternmost settlement of the East Slavs in the land of the Finno-Ugric people called Muromians. The Primary Chronicle mentions it as early as 862.^{[citation needed]} It is thus one of the oldest cities in Russia. Circa 900 CE, it was an important trading post from Volga Bulgaria to the Baltic Sea.

Between 1010 and 1393, it was a capital of a separate principality, whose rulers included Saint Gleb, assassinated in 1015 and canonized in 1071, Saint Prince Konstantin the Blessed, and Saints Peter and Theuronia, subjects of an opera by Rimsky-Korsakov. It was the home town of the most celebrated East Slavic epic hero, Ilya Muromets. The town has a statue which shows Ilya holding the hilt of his sword in the left hand and a cross in the right.

Lidia Andreyevna Ruslanova (sometimes spelt Lidiya or Lydia, Russian: Лидия Андреевна Русланова; 27 October 1900, Saratovskaya gubernia – 21 September 1973, Moscow) was one of the greatest and best-loved performers of Russian folk songs.

She was born in Chernavka near Saratov, into a peasant family, and was christened "Agafia Leykina" (Russian: Агафья Лейкина) By the time she was five, both her parents had died; her father in the Russo-Japanese War 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. However, she did not enjoy academic study. During the First World War, 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, whom she took her surname from.

Jacek Kaczmarski ['jat​͡sɛk kat​͡ʂˈmarskʲi] ( listen) (March 22, 1957, Warsaw - April 10, 2004, Gdańsk) was a Polish singer, songwriter, poet and author.

Kaczmarski was a voice of the Solidarity trade union movement in 1980s Poland, for his commitment to a free Poland, independent of Soviet rule. His songs criticized the ruling communist regime and appealed to the tradition of patriotic resistance within Poles. He remains best known for his protest songs on social and political subjects ("Mury" (Walls) based on "L'Estaca" by Lluís Llach, "Obława" (Wolf hunt (lit. Raid))). However, he was more a poet than a political singer, and his texts have not lost their relevance with the demise of the Soviet union and its communist bloc.

He made his debut in 1977 at the Student Song Festival, where he was awarded first prize for his work "Obława" (Wolf hunt (lit. Raid)) based on song "Охота на волков" by Vladimir Vysotsky. In 1980 he won Second prize at the Opole Song Festival for "Epitafium dla Włodzimierza Wysockiego" (Epitaph for Vladimir Vysotsky).