[2] Oistrakh was born to a Jewish family in Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (present day Ukraine).

[4][5][6] At the age of five, young Oistrakh began his studies of the violin and viola as a pupil of Pyotr Stolyarsky.

In 1927, Oistrakh relocated to Moscow, where he gave his first recital and met his future wife: the pianist Tamara Rotareva (1906–1976).

From 1940 to 1963, Oistrakh performed extensively in a trio that also included the cellist Sviatoslav Knushevitsky and the pianist Lev Oborin.

During World War II he was active in the Soviet Union, premiering new concerti by Nikolai Miaskovsky and Aram Khachaturian as well as two sonatas by his friend Sergei Prokofiev.

Oistrakh's career was set from this point, although the Soviet Union was "protective" of its people and refused to let him perform abroad.

He continued to teach in the Moscow Conservatory, but when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, he went to the front lines, playing for soldiers and factory workers under intensely difficult conditions.

His first foreign engagement was to appear at the newly founded "Prague Spring" Festival where he was met with enormous success.

In 1951, he appeared at the "Maggio Musicale" Festival in Florence, in 1952 he was in East Germany for the Beethoven celebrations, France in 1953, Britain in 1954, and eventually, in 1955, he was allowed to tour the United States.

The year 1968 saw wide celebrations for the violinist's sixtieth birthday, which included a celebratory performance in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory of the Tchaikovsky concerto, one of his favourite works, under the baton of Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

Oistrakh was now seen as one of the great violinists of his time, alongside fellow Russian Nathan Milstein, Romania's George Enescu and Lithuanian-born Jascha Heifetz.

Several reputable works from the standard violin repertoire are dedicated to Oistrakh, including a concerto by Khachaturian, two concerti by Shostakovich, and several other pieces.

His 1937 match against the composer Sergei Prokofiev was a widely observed event in the Soviet Union and is seen as an important factor in the game's enduring popularity in ex-Soviet nations today.

[17] The competition aims to popularize and develop the best traditions of Russian violin performance, and to discover young musicians.