Russian military bands fall under the jurisdiction of the Military Band Service of the Armed Forces of Russia, which is the official music service for the Russian Armed Forces, and led by the Senior Director of Music, a billet of an officer with the rank of a Colonel or a general officer. There are between 200 and 300 military bands in the Russian Armed Forces that span across the military as well as all uniformed services in the country. All bands, active or reserve, are composed of graduates from the military music training centers stationed anywhere in the country, as well as of civilian conservatories. While choirs may be attached to military bands, individual staff choirs do not exist in the Russian Armed Forces, since they have attached instrumental ensembles or orchestras. As of 2009, all military musicians are paid around 13,000 rubles ($169.65) for their service in the Armed Forces and other uniformed organizations.

The military band service is designed to provide encouragement and to increase patriotism for the military servicemen and women of the Ground Forces, the Navy and the Aerospace Forces. Former director of bands in the Russian Armed Forces Valery Khalilov described the effect these bands have in the following 2005 interview:

"Military music is incredibly important for Russians, because military music is a component of the Russian army, and the army has always played a crucially important role in protecting Russia’s great statehood and in making it a powerful nation."

For a country that has not just one of the largest armed forces in the world but also has produced some of the greatest composers and musicians, the modern day military band tradition of Russia traces its origins to decree No. 2319 of Peter the Great enacted on February 19, 1711, which mandated the formation of military bands and field music formations within both the Imperial Russian Army and the nascent Imperial Russian Navy following the Western practices. As both the Army's two foundation regiments (the Preobrazhensky Regiment and the Semyonovsky Regiment) had their own bands and corps of drums, which would also inspire the formation of the bands and fanfare band units within the artillery and the cavalry, the age of Peter the Great, aside from laying the foundation of the armed forces, also began centuries of the Russian military band tradition, which continues until today. Russian bands have evolved in every period since then, and as parts of the armed forces military bands were utilized more in wartime and peacetime ceremonial duties during the Imperial era, bandsmen and field musicians (drummers, buglers, fanfare trumpeters and fifers) having fought in almost every military operation fought by the army and the navy. Under Catherine the Great, the number of military bands were increased. In 1804, military bands were introduced in the Baltic and Black Sea, as well as in Cossack forces in the Urals and in Orenburg.

"Peter the Great made the military bands official, he understood the importance of the rituals of military units."

The Imperial Russian Army and the Imperial Russian Navy continued the practice, with composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who was the civilian Inspector of Naval Bands from 1873 to 1884, being considered to be the pioneer of Russian naval music. By 1914, military bands had become a part of Russian daily life. The establishment of the Central Military Band of the People's Commissariat of Defense in 1927 marked the creation of the first modern professional military band in the country, after which military bands became part of Russian/Soviet culture. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, military bands flourished at the front. In 1941, the regiments of the Red Army had musical platoons, however, there were no regular bands. For example, in the 21st Division of the Narodnoe Opolcheniye, a 14-member jazz band appeared, who at the beginning of the war gave many concerts for soldiers and commanders. Close it the end of the war, Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov gave Order Number 071 to the directive of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army, making regimental and divisional bands into regular units in the forces. These regular bands served during the liberation of Poland from the Wehrmacht (often performing with polka and mazurka for the local population) as well as during the Prague Offensive and the Vienna Offensive.

The reform of the bands began in 1948–1949 under the assistant director of the band service, Major General Ivan Petrov, and continued on until the 1970s. It was only in the late 1980s and early '90s was the presence of Soviet military bands available in military tattoos in the West, with the Band of the Moscow Military District and the Band of the Odessa Military District both participating in tattoos in the Netherlands in 1990.

The repertoire of the military band service spans across hundreds of pieces, which included ceremonial and marching music, as well as patriotic songs. Some of these musical pieces (particularly the formal ones) are used elsewhere in the militaries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Many famous melodies such as Katyusha, Siny Platochek, and Podmoskovnye vechera have been converted into marches by military composers.