Novodevichy Cemetery

For a cemetery in St. Petersburg, see Novodevichy Cemetery (Saint Petersburg)

Novodevichy Cemetery in summer. Tomb in foreground is that of a relatively minor Soviet official, M. P. Georgadze

Novodevichy Cemetery in winter

Novodevichy Cemetery (Russian: Новоде́вичье кла́дбище, Novodevichye kladbishche) is the most famous cemetery in Moscow, Russia. It is next to the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site.^[1] It should not be confused with the Novodevichy Cemetery in Saint Petersburg.

History

The cemetery was inaugurated in 1898, when it was judged that there were too many burials within monastery walls. One of the first notables to be buried there was Anton Chekhov, whose gilded tomb is the work of Fyodor Shekhtel. Today, the cemetery holds the tombs of Russian authors, musicians, playwrights, and poets, as well as famous actors, political leaders, and scientists.^[2][3] More than 27,000 are buried at Novodevichy.

The cemetery has a park-like ambience, dotted with small chapels and large sculpted monuments. It is divided into the old (Divisions 1-4), new (Divisions 5-8) and newest (Divisions 9-11) sections; maps are available at the cemetery office.^[4]

Interments

Main article: Burials at the Novodevichy Cemetery

Under Soviet rule, burial in the Novodevichy Cemetery was second in prestige only to burial in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin Wall is no longer used for burials and the Novodevichy Cemetery is used for only the most symbolically significant burials. For example, in April 2007, within one week both the first President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin and world renowned cellist Mstislav Rostropovich were buried there.

In 2001 there was an attempt to move ballerina Anna Pavlova's remains to the Novodevichy Cemetery in accordance with her requests and after considerable controversy.^{[citation needed]}

Notable monuments

• 

  Aleksandr Bakulev

• 

  Artyom Borovik

• 

  Mikhail Bulgakov

• 

  Anton Chekhov

• 

  Sergei Eisenstein

• 

  Nikolai Gogol

• 

  Raisa Gorbachyova

• 

  Andrei Gromyko

• 

  Nazim Hikmet

• 

  Nikita Khrushchev

• 

  Vladimir Mayakovsky

• 

  Artem Mikoyan

• 

  Sergei Prokofiev

• 

  Ivan Petrovsky

• 

  Dmitri Schostakovich

• 

  Leonid Sobinov

• 

  Nadezhda Alliluyeva-Stalin

• 

  Galina Ulanova.

Sculptors

The work of these sculptors, among others, can be found at Novodevichy Cemetery:

• Nikolay Andreyev (1873–1932)
• Mikhail Anikushin (1917–1997)
• Lev Kerbel (1917–2003)
• Sergey Konenkov (1874–1971)
• Vera Mukhina (1889–1953)
• Ernst Neizvestny (b. 1925)
• Alexander Rukavishnikov (b. 1950)
• Ivan Shadr (1887–1941)
• Nikolai Tomsky (1900–1984)
• Yevgeny Vuchetich (1908–1974)

References

1. ^ Vorhees, Mara; Ryan Ver Berkmoes (2003). Lonely Planet Moscow. Lonely Planet. pp. 256. ISBN 1864503599, 9781864503593. http://books.google.com/books?id=INb_KUWwigIC&pg=PA116#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
2. ^ Roskies, David G. (1999). The Jewish search for a usable past. Indiana University Press. pp. 217. ISBN 0253335051, 9780253335050. http://books.google.com/books?id=ebMvIU5XJxQC&pg=PA144#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
3. ^ Brooke, Caroline (2006). Moscow: a cultural history. Oxford University Press. pp. 268. ISBN 0195309529, 9780195309522. http://books.google.com/books?id=M-Fz-xAHVSoC&pg=PA118#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
4. ^ Gilbert, Hillary (2009). Frommer's Moscow Day by Day. Frommer's. pp. 192. ISBN 0470723041, 9780470723043. http://books.google.com/books?id=aF6V0lFPut0C&pg=PT23#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 

See also

• Burials at the Novodevichy Cemetery
• Novodevichy Cemetery (Saint Petersburg)
• Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery

External links

• Unofficial site. Hi-resolution photos
• Photographs
• More photographs
• Famous and picturesque (24) memorials photographed June 2005
• Novodevichy Cemetery (in Russian) – article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Coordinates: 55°43′29″N 37°33′15″E / 55.72472°N 37.55417°E / 55.72472; 37.55417