People's Artist of Russia

People's Artist of the Russian Federation (Russian: Народный артист Российской Федерации, Narodnyy artist Rossiyskoy Federatsii), also sometimes translated as National Artist of the Russian Federation, is an honorary and the highest title awarded to citizens of the Russian Federation, all outstanding in the performing arts, whose merits are exceptional in the sphere of the development of the performing arts (theatre, music, dance, circus, cinema, etc.).[1]

People's Artist of the Russian Federation
Awarded for	Outstanding achievements in the performing arts
Country	Russian Federation
Presented by	President of Russia
First awarded	February 21, 1992 (1992-02-21)

It succeeded both the all-Soviet Union "People's Artist of the USSR" award (Народный артист СССР), and more directly the local republic's "People's Artist of the RSFSR" award (Народный артист РСФСР), after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Now, the status of the People's Artist of the Russian Federation has risen above that of the earlier RSFSR award.

There are presently two levels to this award:

• The lower Honored Artist of Russia (Заслуженный артист Zasluzhenniy artist) also translates as "Meritorious Artist". This was equivalent to the earlier «Заслуженный артист РСФСР», which became «Заслуженный артист Российской Федерации».[2]
• The higher People's Artist of Russia (Народный артист России, Narodny artist) is the highest honorary title of the Russian Federation for outstanding achievements in the field of theater, music, circus, vaudeville and film art.

Receiving the lower Honored... (Заслуженный, Zasluzhenniy artist) award makes the recipient eligible to receive the higher People's... (Народный, Narodny) award at a later time. For example, the light entertainment singer Sergei Georgievich Zakharov was awarded Honored Artist of the RSFSR (Заслуженный артист РСФСР) in 1988, then People's Artist of Russia (Народный артист России) in 1996.[3]