Maria Alexandrovna Emskaya (1881-1925) was a famous singer of the early 20th century. She gained fame for performing gypsy romances, which made her name extremely popular, and included opera arias in her repertoire. Emskaya actively recorded her songs on gramophone records and during World War I performed many patriotic compositions such as "We Will All Die or Win", "For the Motherland and Honor", "On the Battlefield", "Death of a Hero", "Soldier's Lullaby", and "It's Cold and Damp in the Trenches". She set a record for the number of recordings on gramophone records, releasing over 400 discs.

Due to the popularity of her songs, Maria Emskaya became one of the first victims of music piracy. In St. Petersburg, the Tonofon factory illegally released her records. After conducting research to identify the most popular performers, fraudsters began to actively replicate Emskaya's records. Being the wife of D.A. Boghemsky, a well-known author of satirical sketches and publisher of the magazine "Gramophone World", she was able to record with almost all existing companies in Russia. As soon as her new successful record appeared, pirate copies from Tonofon would show up in the market within a couple of days. One of the pirates confessed that he sold tens of thousands of discs without paying Maria Alexandrovna a single kopeck. The artist complained: "Not only did this gentleman rob me, but he also gave me bad publicity: Tonofon records do not represent my vocal abilities, they sound like a hoarse voice and an old person's wheeze."

Judging by the expensive and finely crafted monument, her death was a great tragedy for D.A. Boghemsky, who in 1925 found the means and opportunities to create it. The tombstone is adorned with a marble weeper, on which lines from her romance are inscribed: "I am tired of singing songs, Only the fog sways, only tears are not heard, Do not disturb me to sleep peacefully."