Honored Artist of the RSFSR
honorary title, state award of the RSFSR
Honored Artist of the RSFSR (Russian: Заслуженный артист РСФСР, Zasluzhenny artist RSFSR) was an honorary title granted to Soviet artists, including theatre and film directors, choreographers, music performers, and orchestra conductors, who had outstanding achievements in the arts, and who lived in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) from 1931 to 1991.
History
From 1919 until the decree from 1931, it was awarded the title "Honored Artist of the Republic". It was assigned by the collegia of the People's Commissariat of Education of the republics, by the order issued by the People's Commissars of Education, by the executive committees of regional councils.
From 1931 to May 1992, the title "Honored Artist of the RSFSR" was awarded to artists, directors, composers, instrumentalists, circus and colloquial performers, famous performers of classical, pop and jazz music from the RSFSR and the union republics, as well as dozens of other famous creative figures of Russia in the field of cinema, music and other spheres of culture (see the list of Honored Artists of the RSFSR).
The next degree of recognition was the awarding of the title "People's Artist of the RSFSR", then "People's Artist of the USSR".
Since 16 May 1992, all documents refer to the title as "Merited Artist of the Russian Federation". The badge has undergone some changes: the inscription "RSFSR" was removed and instead of the RSFSR flag of 1954, there was a tricolor on the moire ribbon. On the eve of 1996, the decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 1341 was issued, after which new signs were developed.
Description
The badge is made of gilded tombac and has the shape of an oval measuring 28.7 x 43 mm with an eyelet.
“Honored Artist of the RSFSR” enters the record as honorary title, state award of the RSFSR. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Honored, Artist and RSFSR can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q46919. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1931, 1991, 1919 and 1992.
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This entry incorporates text from “Honored Artist of the RSFSR” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.