The unique Russian seven-string guitar was first played in the late 1700s and reached its peak popularity in the mid-19th century. The instrument's predecessor was the English guitar, which thrived in England, Scotland, and the United States, and also flourished in Bohemia, Germany, and Poland.

In Russia, the earliest musicians to adopt this instrument were the Czech guitarist-composers von Held, Sychra and Kamensky, but it was the Roma (Gypsies) who became the virtuosi of this guitar. Appealing both to guitarists and the general public, the instrument explores a spectrum of musical styles - nineteenth-century Romantic, modernist from the 1920s and 1930s, Russian Gypsy, Russian Jewish, and contemporary. Technically similar to the Western European examples, this music makes use of both the unique tuning of the Russian guitar (DGBdgbd') and the heritage of Russian folklore.

What makes the repertoire so attractive to the listener is this mingling of Western European genres, techniques, and textures with typical Russian melodies and harmonies.