Boris Fomin (full name Boris Ivanovich Fomin; 12 April 1900 – 25 October 1948) was a Soviet composer and accordionist who wrote chiefly romances and songs. Born in St. Petersburg, he showed musical ability early and learned to play the accordion at the age of four. Although his parents initially opposed a musical career, hoping he would become an official, officer, or scholar, he later attended a realschule and took lessons from the pianist Anna Yesipova.
In 1918, Fomin moved with his family to Moscow. He went to the front in 1919, subsequently worked on restoring frontline railways, and began giving concerts at the front. After returning to Moscow, he continued composing and explored genres including operetta and ballet, but the romance became his principal calling.
Fomin soon established himself as a master of the romance. His early success included “Only Once in a Lifetime Does a Meeting Occur,” which he dedicated to the Romani singer Maria Masalskaya. Among his other well-known romances were “Along the Long Road,” with words by Konstantin Podrevsky, “Hey, Friend Guitar,” and “Your Green Eyes.” The English version of “Along the Long Road,” titled “Those Were the Days,” became a hit for Mary Hopkin in 1968. After the romance was banned at the 1929 All-Russian Music Conference in Leningrad, Fomin’s work fell into obscurity.
During the Second World War, his output experienced a resurgence. He composed 150 frontline songs and, with friends, created the Yastrebok frontline theatre at the Ministry of Internal Affairs club in Moscow. Its concert programmes and productions were among the city’s active wartime theatrical offerings. Songs including “Not Once, Not Twice,” “Wait for Me,” “Quiet in the Little Hut,” and “Letter from the Front” spread widely after their premieres.
Fomin died in Moscow in 1948 and was buried at Vvedenskoye Cemetery. He performed most of his works from memory and did not write down their scores; consequently, many compositions have not survived. Some works whose sheet music he published during the 1920s also remain lost. His surviving catalogue includes romances, Russian songs, intimate songs, wartime songs, dance sketches, the ballets “Max and Moritz,” “Moidodyr,” and “The Crystal Slipper,” and operettas including “The Career of Pierpont Black.”