From the film Два бойца (Two Soldiers, 1943). Mark Bernes (1911-1969) with a guitar, between two battles.

Тёмная ночь, Dark night. Только пули свистят по степи, Only bullets whistle across the steppe. Только ветер гудит в проводах, Only the wind hums through the wires, Тускло звезды мерцают, Dimly the stars flicker.

Yanka Dyagileva (Янка Дягилева), also known simply as Yanka, originally Яна and musically associated with Янка и Великие Октябри (“Yanka and the Great Octobers”), was born (in Novosibirsk) in 1966 and died (in 1991) at the age of 24. Allegedly by her own hand, though the official version states утопление в результате несчастного случая – drowning as a result of an accident.

A poem by Mikhail Lermontov ( Михаил Лермонтов), written long ago (1841), shortly before his life came to an end. It was set to music by Elizaveta Shashina in 1861 and has since been performed by many.

World-famous in Russia, perhaps forgotten or unknown outside. A song with its own Wikipedia pages – Нежность in Russian, Nezhnost in English. It means tenderness, but you may hear it even without knowing.

Константин Ступин (Konstantin Stupin) performed this Когда я умер (When I Died) in 2015. On YouTube, there are also performances from 2014 and 2015, but those are outdoors, as well as a live version from 2016. Ступин was born in 1972 and passed away in 2017.