"These were talented musicians from among the people...their songs frequently contained pointed satire and adorned ridicule and sharp words that hit their mark."

The buffoons were eventually exiled after their criticism offended courtiers and "certain greedy personages of the church."

In the 1880s, Vasily Andreyev, "a musician and advocate of Russian Folk music," is credited with resurrecting the Balalaika from an obscure peasant instrument to a popular concert instrument.