Domra – is an ancient Russian string instrument. There are no much knowledge about its origin. In Russia only old palace books and popular prints contain information about domra. A man who played domra was called domrachey. Some historians consider the ancient instrument tanbur to be domra’s ancestor. It didn’t look exactly like domra, but it had a corpus, a neck and strings. Like other music instruments tanbur was modified depending on those countries where it happened to occur. It was most likely brought to Russia by Mongolians who were ruling Russia at that time.

It is domra that 500 years ago street musicians called skomorohks traveled around the cities of Russia with. Their repertory consisted of comic songs, dramatic episodes, played in masks to the accompaniment of domra, bagpipes and tabret. But the church persecution of skomorohks in the XVII century made domra become silent for more then two centuries.

The reconstruction of domra made at the end of XIX century by outstanding musician – illuminer Vassily Vassilievich Andreyev in association with string instrument master maker Semen Ivanovich Nalimov, immediately put domra to the sphere of the academic music art. Domra group has become not only irreplaceable part of Russian folk orchestra, but formed its melodical base, background for artistically convincing presentation of different, polyphonic texture, complicated multicomponent contexture.