Ivan Rom-Lebedev, was a famous Soviet actor, playwright, and guitarist, and the founder of the world’s first all-Romani Romen Theater in Moscow. He often visited the Glinka Museum of Musical Culture, nowadays known as the Russian National Museum of Music.

Lebedev was mostly interested in the guitar of the famous “gypsy singer Tanya.” She was the one who sang for Alexander Pushkin the day before his wedding. Currently, another legendary instrument is displayed alongside Tanya’s guitar.

This instrument used to belong to Ivan Rom-Lebedev himself. The seven-string guitar was created by Ivan Krasnoshchyokov — one of the best guitar builders in 19th century Russia.

The instrument was donated to the museum by Nina Rafanskaya, Lebedev’s wife, in 1999. On the front of the pegbox, there is a metal plate with the engraving “N.A. Orlov.”

The encyclopedia by Mikhail Yablokov “Classical Guitar in Russia and the USSR” contains a summary of information about Nikolay Orlov — a Moscow-based guitarist, collector, and craftsman who specialized in restoring old instruments. It also refers to an article from the “Soviet Russia” newspaper of May 28, 1967.

The article read,

The guitar from the museum’s collection features a label with the same year. The matching dates and the fact that Nikolay Orlov performed in the Romen Theater most likely indicate that this guitar used to belong to Orlov before it was acquired by Ivan Rom-Lebedev.

In 1999, Nina Rafanskaya told a story of this small-sized guitar designed mainly for smaller female hands. It used to belong to a certain noblewoman who went into a convent and sang religious songs to the accompaniment of this guitar. Later, through third parties, this instrument found its way into the collection of Orlov who must have sold it to Rafanskaya’s husband in the 1970s.

In December 1981, Ivan Rom-Lebedev played this guitar on the stage of the Moscow Musical-Dramatic Romen Theater during the celebrations of the theater’s 50th anniversary.