The basic 19th century Russian guitar had 7 strings tuned DBGDBGD - more like a banjo(!)... to which a number of bass strings (as with your Zimmerman) were occasionally added. Its Romantic/classical repertoire was huge (awash with Russian traditional songs); with great composers such as Sychra, Morkov, Sarenko and Alexandrov et al producing extended and virtuosic concert works. The treble strings used for that style were gut (bass were silk wound with wire), the RH technique was the standard European fingerstyle of the period (usually without using nails and with the little finger resting on the soundboard). The LH technique was not standard classical, however, in that the thumb was very often used to fret the lower string (reminiscent of the balalaika). Incredibly and sadly, the whole world of the Russian guitar is largely forgotten today... Should we blame the influence of Segovia and his visits to Russia in the 1920s, perhaps?
