Maria (Mariya) Veniaminovna Yudina (Мари́я Вениами́новна Ю́дина, Mariya Veniaminovna Yudina; September 9 [Old Style: August 28], 1899 – November 19, 1970) was an influential Soviet pianist.
from “Maria Yudina: The Pianist Who Moved Stalin” from The Ladder of the Beatitudes by Jim Forest:
One of the people of modern times whose heart was radiantly pure was the Russian pianist Maria Yudina. I have come to know her indirectly through the memoirs of her friend and one-time classmate, composer Dimitri Shostakovich, and also through Tatiana Voogd, a member of our parish who knew Yudina personally and has slept under her piano—“the most sheltered place in her apartment,” she tells me.
It was Maria Yudina’s fate to live through the Russian revolution and its aftermath, seeing many of her dearest friends and colleagues disappear into the Gulag. A fearless Christian, she wore a cross visibly even while teaching or performing in public—an affirmation of belief at…
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Talmidimblogging 
Wow what a window into the frightening world of Stalin’s USSR…and a Christian bearing witness in the midst of that terrible reign.
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I had ancestors who fled from Stalin, old school Russian Orthodox.
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Wow that sounds like a story you should tell sometime!
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I’ve been kicking that idea around the last few days…
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