A young woman or maiden, also called utushka lugovaya, spends a night in the wood (or in the meadow[1]), near a willow.

The maiden asks the gudocheks not to tinkle, not to wake her (however, in some versions, her father[1][2]) up.

According to Alexander Tereshchenko, ″Utushka lugovaya″ could be performed during traditional Russian marriage celebrations.

[8] Alexander Potebnja regards it – for its time signature – as an example of the so-called summer or spring songs.

[7] Before 1792, Vasily Pashkevich created for his third opera a theme based on the song.

[9][10] In the following two centuries, many composers (such as P. I. Tchaikovsky,[11] Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov,[12] Anatoly Lyadov,[13] Alexander Ivanov-Kramskoi[12]) arranged "Utushka lugovaya".

The song appeared in the repertoires of Lidia Ruslanova,[14] Lyudmila Zykina,[15] Alexandra Strelchenko,[16] and other famous Russian folk singers.