Ustinov & Nikitin: Smuglyanka (1945)

N. Ustinov and Victor Ivanovich Nikitin (Виктор Иванович Никитин) sing “Smuglyanka“ with the Alexandrov Ensemble, conducted by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov, 1947. Ustinov is the first soloist, and Nikitin provides the harmony. Nikitin playlist: Apologies for the poor recording. It’s my last one of Nikitin, and I had one or two more photos to show you, so I bundled it all together in a bit of a hotch-potch. (There is also a very, very poor recording of him singing “Meeting With the Chief“ but it’s so rough that I’m not even sure that it’s Nikitin, so I haven’t uploaded it). But this one of Smuglyanka is Nikitin. Enjoy. What impresses me about this is that the Ensemble has been using the same very successful arrangement of Smuglyanka since at least 1945. Even today it gives great pleasure in Moscow when Ivanov and Bogachev sing it, and people are having fun imitating it in Jap