The Museum of the 112th Bashkir (16th Guards) Cavalry Division proudly presents a brass quray.

The quray is an open endblown flute and the national musical instrument of the Bashkirs. It is traditionally made from a 1-meter-long umbelliferous reed plant. Its stem is cut, dried and then shortened to the necessary length. After that, the fingerholes are made. The quray was named after the plant it is made of (the common name “quray” for the Bashkor rose).

The musical instrument from the museum’s collection is not the usual kind, for it is made of brass instead of reed. During the Great Patriotic War, this quray belonged to an unknown cavalryman. The thing about a common reed quray was that it proved to be too fragile for field conditions while making a new instrument was not always possible: the reed of a necessary size grew only in the southern steppe and mountainous regions of the Urals.

The Bashkir cavalrymen found a resourceful way out of the situation by making the instrument from brass pipes taken from a downed enemy plane. Although the brass quray did not sound as harmonious, the instrument proved to be durable.