Boris Timofeyevich Shtokolov, was a famous Soviet and Russian singer, one of the greatest basses of the 20th century.
Boris Shtokolov was born in the settlement of Kuzedeyevo in Gorno-Shorsky District of Kuznetsk Okrug in Siberian Krai. In 1949, he entered the Ural State Conservatory in Sverdlovsk, but wanted to become a military pilot. Georgy Zhukov, having heard his singing, said: There are many guys like you in aviation, but in opera singing you are unique. In 1950 and 1951, he was singing at the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic Society before he became a soloist at the Sverdlovsk Opera and Ballet Theater. In 1959, he was invited to the Mariinsky Theater in Leningrad where he gained world fame as a leading soloist from 1959 to 1989. At the Mariinsky Theater he sang a great number of roles, such as Ruslan, Don Basilio, Boris Godunov, Ivan Susanin, the title role in Anton Rubinstein's The Demon, Prince Gremin, Mefistofele, and many others.
He died on 6 January 2005 in St. Petersburg, and was buried at the Literatorskie Mostki of the Volkovo Cemetery.
Boris Shtokolov was also a prominent theorist of opera singing and breathing techniques.