The name given to LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN'S three string quartets, op.59. Count Rasoumowsky was the Russian ambassador to Vienna who liked to play the violin. The result demonstrates how immortality could be bought by commissioning a great composer to dedicate a piece to an important official or a wealthy person.

In the first two quartets of this group, Beethoven used a Russian popular song that he picked up from a German collection. For this reason the Rasoumowsky Quartets are also known as the Russian Quartets.