thumb|upright=1.2|The cemetery wall is used as a [[columbarium.]]

Novodevichy Cemetery () is a cemetery in Moscow, Russia. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent.

History

The cemetery was designed by Ivan Mashkov and inaugurated in 1898. Its importance dates from the 1930s, when the necropolises of the medieval Muscovite monasteries (Simonov, Danilov, Donskoy) were scheduled for demolition. Only the Donskoy survived the Joseph Stalin era relatively intact. The remains of many famous Russians buried in other abbeys, such as Nikolai Gogol and Sergey Aksakov, were disinterred and reburied at the Novodevichy. The 19th-century necropolis within the walls of the Novodevichy convent, which contained the graves of about 2000 Russian noblemen and university professors, also underwent reconstruction. The vast majority of graves were destroyed.

During the Soviet Union, burial in the Novodevichy Cemetery was second in prestige only to burial in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Among the Soviet leaders, Nikita Khrushchev and Mikhail Gorbachev would be buried there. 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. In 1997, former premier Nikolai Tikhonov was buried in the cemetery at state expense (since he didn't have any money of his own). In April 2007, within one week both the first President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich were buried there.

Today, the cemetery holds the tombs of Russian authors, musicians, playwrights, and poets, as well as famous actors, political leaders, and scientists. Notable burials include Dmitry Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev and Anton Chekhov.

Monuments

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File:Bulgakow Grab.JPG|Mikhail Bulgakov

File:Novodevicij Cemetery Anton Chekhov.JPG|Anton Chekhov

File:Post-2009 gravesite of Nikolai Gogol in Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow, Russia.jpg|Nikolai Gogol

File:A grave of Dmitry Shostakovichi.jpg|Dmitri Shostakovich

File:Grave of Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev.jpg|Sergei Prokofiev and his wife Mira Mendelson

File:V Majakovskij.jpg|Vladimir Mayakovsky

File:02 serov.JPG|Valentin Serov

File:Эйзенштейн.jpg|Sergei Eisenstein

File:Могила композитора Бориса Александрова.JPG|Boris Alexandrovich Alexandrov

File:Tumba de Aleksandr Rodímtsev y su esposa.jpg|Alexander Rodimtsev

File:Tumba de Iván Petrov.jpg|Ivan Yefimovich Petrov

File:Надгробие на могиле Кирилла Семёновича Москаленко.jpg|Kirill Moskalenko

File:Ilya Ehrenburg grave.JPG|Ilya Ehrenburg

File:Nadezhda Alliluyeva Tomb 20160930.jpg|Nadezhda Alliluyeva

File:Sergey Ilyushin's grave at Novodevichy cemetery, Moscow.jpg|Sergey Ilyushin

File:Глиэр Рейнгольд, композитор. Новодевичье кладбище.jpg|Reinhold Glière

File:Герцен Петр Алексеевич.JPG|Peter Herzen

</gallery>

See also

  • Burials at the Novodevichy Cemetery
  • Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery
  • Federal Military Memorial Cemetery
  • Kremlin Wall Necropolis

References

  • Unofficial site. Hi-resolution photos
  • Famous and picturesque (24) memorials photographed June 2005
  • Novodevichii Cemetery – article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia
  • Novodevichy Cemetery: Where History sleeps (video)