Борис Иванович Фомин

Boris Ivanovich Fomin (Борис Иванович Фомин, 12 April 1900, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire – 25 October 1948, Moscow, USSR) was a Soviet musician and composer who specialized in the Russian romance. Several of Fomin's songs became popular in 1920s, most notably "Dorogoj dlinnoju" (Russian: Дорогой длинною, By the long road), commonly known for its English version "Those Were the Days", made world-famous in 1968 by Mary Hopkin and credited to Eugene Raskin who in 1962 wrote the English lyrics for the tune and claimed the song for his own. It was composed by Boris Fomin in 1924, first interpreted and recorded by Tamara Tsereteli (1925) and Alexander Vertinsky (1926); it was the latter who popularized it abroad.