Pavel Kozhin (1904–1975) was a Soviet ceramic sculptor who studied at the Ceramic Department of the Moscow VKhUTEIN (Higher State Artistic and Technical Institute). He created various products that were both beautiful and useful in everyday life. Many of his designs were eventually mass produced. He collaborated mainly with the Dulyovo Porcelain Factory.

A landless peasant Mikhailo Kozhin from a remote Mari village could not even dream that his son Pavel, born in the terrible year when the Russo-Japanese War began, would become a major artist whose fame would spread far beyond the country. Kozhin enjoyed drawing and creating clay items since childhood. Even as a student, he initially started making faience and maiolica sculptures.

Pavel Mikhailovich created works inspired by music, folklore, and fairy tales. Kozhin was also fond of animal sculpture: probably, animals reminded him of his distant childhood, his remote, native village of Bykovka, where he began to explore the world. Perhaps that is why the ceramic animals made by Kozhin are always good-natured and mild.

In the second half of the 20th century, Kozhin turned to genre sculpture. This side of his work may be represented by a small number of examples, but each of them reveals the outstanding talent of this grand master of small-form sculpture, in particular, his ability to convey different types and characters of people with great psychological insight. The sculptor loved expressive details and was able to accentuate them in small sculptures, and to highlight their meaning with color.

Among his thematic sculptures, the “Woman Playing the Gusli” stands out — a figurine of a young Mari woman in a national costume and with the gusli, one of the traditional musical instruments of the Mari people. The sculpture is painted in red, yellow, green, and black. The gusli features gilding depicting strings.

There is a legend about the creation of this musical instrument in Mari mythology: a long time ago, the main Mari god Kugu Yumo created the gusli, and his brother Yin (Keremet) made the bagpipe. People preferred the gusli, and the envious Keremet decided to damage the musical instrument — he punched a hole in the front. But because of this, the gusli played even louder. Since then, the divine musical instrument has become an integral part of ancient cults, for example, prayers in sacred groves.