NOVODEVICHY CEMETERY

Description

Essentials about Novodevichy Cemetery in brief

Novodevichy Cemetery is one of the most famous honorary cemeteries in Russia, where some of the most famous personalities of the Soviet Union and Russia have found their final resting place. It is located in the southwest of the city center on the left bank of the Moskva River. The cemetery owes its name to the Novodevichy Convent, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in front of whose walls it is located.

The history of Novodevichy Cemetery

Founded in 1524 at the instigation of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III, the New Virgin Monastery had a churchyard on its territory, which over time became a burial place for the upper classes. Initially, mainly the Moscow nobility and clergy were buried here, later increasingly merchants, professors, generals and artists. In 1898 the convent was given a new area south of the previous convent wall for burial purposes, and in the following years it was given its own wall. In 1949 the cemetery was expanded again.

Since Soviet times Novodevichy Cemetery has been a purely honorary cemetery, so only honorary citizens such as important politicians, artists, scientists or military personnel are buried there. Due to the overflow of visitors and the beginning of vandalism, the Moscow administration ordered in 1980 to allow only relatives access to the cemetery. However, this led to massive criticism from home and abroad, which is why the city administration felt compelled to soon grant access to everyone again.

The tombs on Novodevichy Cemetery

Today, only the cemetery outside the convent walls is used as a burial ground. The old churchyard on the convent grounds has been preserved to this day, but only the convent’s female superiors find their final resting place there. In total, more than 27,000 dead people are buried on Novodevichy cemetery. Besides graves, there are columbariums in the old and new cemetery walls.

Among the most famous dead on Novodevichy Cemetery are world-famous writers Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol and Mikhail Bulgakov, composers Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, film director Sergei Eisenstein, aircraft designers Sergei Ilyushin and Andrei Tupolev, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. The latter would have deserved a grave in the necropolis at the Moscow wall, but due to his controversial personality Khrushchev was denied this last honor.