The ship was built by Slovenské Lodenice at their shipyard in Komárno, Czechoslovakia, and entered service in 1981.

At 3,953 tonnes,[3] Mstislav Rostropovich is one of the world's biggest river cruise ships.

Her sister ships are Valerian Kuybyshev, Mikhail Frunze, Feliks Dzerzhinskiy, Fyodor Shalyapin, Sergey Kuchkin, Aleksandr Suvorov, Semyon Budyonnyy and Georgiy Zhukov.

After reconstruction in 2008–2011[1] all rooms are equipped with automatic climate control system.

[7] Media related to Mstislav Rostropovich (ship, 1981) at Wikimedia Commons