Novodevichy cemetery subburial. Novodevichy cemetery celebrity graves, how to get there, who is buried

The Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow is known no less than the Kremlin, it is the burial place of the dead. The land area of ​​seven and a half hectares is the whole history of the Russian people.

History of occurrence

The Novodevichy cemetery appeared next to the monastery of the same name in 1898, which is located on the peninsula in Luzhniki. The monastery was founded by Prince Vasily III and dedicated to the liberation of Smolensk from the Lithuanian invasion.

There are several versions of the origin of the name of the monastery. According to one of them, it came from the field on which it is located. Once upon a time, the Tatars selected Russian girls for themselves. Another version connects the name of the monastery with its first nun, Elena Devochkina.

One way or another, this place has a rich history: the monastery burned down more than once, wandered from hand to hand, was used as a laundry, a gym, a kindergarten.

Next to the monastery was founded a cemetery for the repose of the nuns. One of the first to be buried here was the author of the Novodevichy Convent - N. E. Efimov.

There were few burials in this place for a long period. However, over time, Novodevichy Cemetery became one of the most expensive and elite burial places. The graves of celebrities of the state and cultural-historical levels are located there at every turn.

Who was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery?

People from higher circles found their last refuge under the Novodevichy Convent. These were statesmen - military leaders and ministers, painters and sculptors, poets and writers, academicians and scientists. The personalities buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery are known to many. These are (poetess), V. Bryusov (playwright), A. Chekhov and N. Chukovsky (writers), artists and sculptors A. Bubnov, N. Zhukov, V. Svarog, V. Shestakov. There are many relatives of famous politicians here - the wives of Stalin, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Dzerzhinsky.

There were no cheap, let alone free, places at the Novodevichy Cemetery. It was and remains one of the richest and most comfortable burial places. In this regard, the graves were repeatedly abused and vandalized. After the revolution, in 1917-1920, most of the tombstones, crosses, sculptures and fences were destroyed or taken out.

History of Russia in burials

After the October Revolution, it was decided to make the Novodevichy Cemetery a burial place for "persons with social status." In 1930, the graves of N. V. Gogol, D. V. Venevitinov, S. T. Aksakov, I. I. Levitan, M. N. Ermolova and other public figures were transferred to the Novodevichy Cemetery. Celebrity graves take center stage here.

Geographically, the churchyard consists of three parts: the old cemetery (1-4th sections), the new (5-8th) and the newest cemetery (9-11th). It has expanded three times in its history. About 26,000 people rest in the necropolis.

Many historical figures are buried in the old site. Among them are M. Bulgakov and his wife, A. N. Tolstoy, V. V. Mayakovsky, I. A. Ilf, S. Ya. Marshak, V. M. Shukshin, V. I. Vernadsky, P. P. Kashchenko, A. I. Abrikosov, I. M. Sechenov, L. M. Kaganovich, V. M. Molotov, V. S. Chernomyrdin, N. S. Alliluyeva (Stalin's second wife) and many others.

The "new" territory of the cemetery is a columbarium for urns with ashes, which has about 7,000 urns. There is the ashes of the writers A. Tvardovsky and S. Mikhalkov, the aircraft designer A. N. Tupolev, the grave of the great actor of all times and peoples - Yuri Nikulin. Politicians B. Yeltsin and N. Khrushchev rest in these places.

The “newest” site is the burials of Russian cultural figures, among them - E. Leonov, L. Gurchenko, M. Ulyanov, N. Kryuchkov, S. Bondarchuk, A. Schnittke and hundreds of other people.

Novodevichy Cemetery - tourism direction

Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow is one of the ten most beautiful and unique burial places in the world. It is a cultural and memorial property of Russia, and is also included in the UNESCO heritage list.

It is not surprising that this burial place is on the list of many travel companies in Moscow. Indeed, in addition to the graves of celebrities, the Novodevichy cemetery is filled with the works of famous sculptors and architects. The tombstones of the Novodevichy cemetery were made by such creators as M. Anikushin, E. Vuchetich, S. Konenkov, V. Mukhina, N. Tomsky, G. Schultz. The works are made in the new Russian style, neoclassicism and modernism were also used.

Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow: secrets and mysticism

The land of the Novodevichy cemetery has absorbed a lot of human tears and grief throughout its history. And let it sound paradoxical, but for many women the churchyard gave healing and hope. Perhaps this is because its fate, like the fate of the monastery, was largely determined by the feminine principle. Many female individuals are buried here, who during their lifetime were deeply unhappy. They loved and suffered, believed and hoped, but did not find happiness. Now the "sufferers" are in a better world, and their energy is able to heal and heal. She helps to find female happiness - to meet her destiny, to get married, to give birth to a long-awaited child ...

More than one eyewitness claims that strange silhouettes and shadows were seen while walking around the burial sites. Perhaps this is Abbot Devochkin, who has been guarding these lands for centuries. Maybe it's Stalin mourning at his wife's grave. Or maybe Gogol is looking for those who desecrated his grave? Rumor has it that when the writer was reburied, his body lay on its side and without a head. According to one version, the head was stolen by an unknown collector.

The most visited monument at the Novodevichy Cemetery

Many famous people rest at the Novodevichy Cemetery. However, not all tourists are attracted by such gloomy places. This graveyard is an exception. There are hundreds of those wishing to visit the burial places of great cultural and political figures.

Urns with the ashes of stratonauts

Cemeteries speak better about the history of Russia than all the textbooks and howls of propagandists. Novodevichy is a cemetery where the founders of the state lie, their graves are the foundation of Russia.

Novodevichy is the second most important cemetery in Russia. The first is the Mausoleum and the Kremlin wall. But today Novodevichy is becoming the main burial place for honored persons.

There are never a lot of people on Novodevichy (only if they don’t bury someone significant, but there are very few significant ones these days). During a 4-5-hour inspection of the cemetery, it is good if you meet 30-40 people. This is not counting foreign tourists - they are brought in in large groups, but they are led to see only 10-15 "main" graves - Yeltsin, Chaliapin, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, etc. Most of the tombstones, fences and monuments are unkempt, rickety, the areas are overgrown with weeds, the inscriptions have been erased by time. There are many thrushes and starlings in the branches of trees, for some reason there are no crows at all.


Alfred Schnittke

Arkady Raikin

Belaa Akhmadullina

Artyom Borovik, journalist

Nobel Laureate Academician Ginzburg

Legendary personality - Ari Abramovich Sternfeld. Dry lines of biography about him:

Calculated and theoretically investigated a lot of space flight trajectories, having determined the energetically optimal ones. These trajectories, with a preliminary distance from the target, allowing significant fuel savings, are called "Sternfeld". He introduced the concept of cosmic velocities and calculated their starting values. He formulated the problem of the existence of "seasons of space navigation". The terms "cosmonautics", "first cosmic speed" were introduced by him for the first time in his book "Introduction to Cosmonautics" (1934; in Russian - Moscow, 1937). For the first time, he applied the theory of relativity to the analysis of interstellar flights, to improve the accuracy of trajectory calculations, and proved that reaching the stars, in principle, is possible during a human life.

Back in 1932, Sternfeld, at the invitation of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry, came to Moscow to design his project on an android robot. Android, like two other inventions: devices for recording the movements of human organs and a screw press with a controlled force, Sternfeld proposed to use when performing time-consuming and dangerous work on earth and in space.

In 1934, through the USSR Trade Representation in Paris, Sternfeld transferred a copy of his typewritten manuscript in French "Initiation à la Cosmonautique" ("Introduction to Cosmonautics") to Moscow.

A year later, in June 1935, leaving almost all of his scientific and personal archives with his parents in Lodz and capturing only the most necessary, he and his wife come to the Soviet Union for permanent residence.

Well, then theoretical and practical work in closed research institutes in astronautics. Interestingly, it was Sternfeld who first introduced Europe to Tsiolkovsky, whom he considered his teacher, corresponded and was friends with him until his death. In 1932, he translated and published part of Tsiolkovsky's works in the French communist newspaper L'Humanité. At the same time, Tsiolkovsky sent him his photograph, and for the first time the world saw the face of a Russian cosmologist on the pages of the Western media.

Surgeon Bakulev

Poet Velimir Khlebnikov and his relatives

General Eternal and his wife. And what does Pyotr Zigmundovich “Vernon Kress” (writer Demant) do in this grave?

He is a subject of Austria-Hungary, lived in Bukovina. After the collapse of the empire, he graduated from universities in Brno and German Aachen, served as an officer in the Romanian army (Bukovina then went to Romania). In 1940 he became a Soviet citizen. On June 13, 1941, among a large group of Chernivtsi Jews, he was arrested by the NKVD and on June 18 he was exiled to Siberia (Narym Territory).

Peter Demant managed to escape from the settlement (Pudino), but after 5 months of wandering in the taiga he was caught, accused of spying for Austria and sentenced to 5 years in the camps and 5 years of disqualification. Shortly after his release, he was arrested again, convicted on charges of counter-revolutionary activities. From September 1946, he served a term in the Asino camp in the Tomsk region, then worked at a pig farm in the Usvitlovsky invalid camp, at the New Pioneer mine.

Released in 1953 under an amnesty, for 23 years he worked as a loader in the trade office of the workers' supply department in the village of Yagodnoye, Magadan Region. In 1975 he received a passport.

In 1978 he was allowed to move to the Crimea. Having married Irina Petrovna Vechnaya, the daughter of a prominent Soviet military leader, he got the opportunity to go to her in Moscow. At the same time, without hope of publication, he began to write memoir prose. In 1992, the publishing house published a book of the writer's memoirs about camp life, Zecameron of the 20th Century, in a small edition.

A number of mass graves are victims of the crashes of airships and the Maxim Gorky aircraft in 1936-38. The ashes of these people are mounted in the wall of the Novodevichy Convent:

Directed by Dziga Vertov

At the cemetery, several thousand urns with ashes are built into the walls. Mostly these are burials of the 1930-60s. Very often epitaphs, poems, parting words are carved on the plates there.

The grave of the first president of Russia - Yeltsin. There are very few flowers from fans of his work. Ironically, he is buried right next to the grave of the magician Kyo.

And here is the grave of Kyo itself:

Young Guard Zhora officially died three times. The first time, Zhora was confused with another underground worker thrown by the Germans and Cossack collaborators into a mine in Krasnodonsk. The second - at the end of 1944 on the battlefield, confusing him with another fighter. And both times mothers sent funerals for George. The third death turned out to be real - he died of cancer.

Pyotr Andreevich Zalomov - the prototype of the hero of the novel by M Gorky "Mother" Pavel Vlasov.

Born into a working-class family, a mechanic by profession. Organizer of an anarchist circle in Nizhny Novgorod. He was one of the leaders of the May Day demonstration of 1902 in Sormovo, carried a red flag with the inscription "Down with the autocracy!". During the demonstration he was arrested, at the trial he made a speech directed against the monarchy. He was sentenced to life exile in Eastern Siberia.

In March 1905, with the assistance of A.M. Gorky, who sent 300 rubles to organize the escape, he escaped from exile. Together with the Bolsheviks, he participated in the Moscow December Uprising of 1905, the organizer of military squads.

Interestingly, he joined the CPSU (b) only in 1925. About the future life is reported briefly - "on economic and party work":

Alexander Zinoviev, philosopher and dissident

Academician Igor Tamm

The graves of the numerous clan of the Ilyenkovs, the founder of the dynasty of which is Vasily Pavlovich Ilyenkov (1897-1967), writer. Laureate of the Stalin Prize. Member of the RCP(b) since 1918. Father of the philosopher Evald Ilyenkov.

V.P. Ilyenkov was born in 1897 in the village. Shilovo-Smolenskoye (now the Dorogobuzh district of the Smolensk region) in the family of a priest. After four classes at the Smolensk Theological Seminary, in 1915-1917 he studied at the Faculty of History and Philology of Yuryev University (did not graduate). In 1917 he was drafted into the army. In 1928-1930 he was the editor of the newspapers Our Village and Bryansk Worker. In 1930 he moved to Moscow, until 1932 he was the organizational secretary of the RAPP. In Moscow, he lived with his family in the famous "writer's house" in Kamergersky Lane:

Journalist and writer Ilya Ehrenburg

Joseph Hamburg, one of the famous militants of the RSDLP. There are the following lines about his time in the tsarist prison:

“The friendship between Hamburg and Frunze was entrenched in the Alexander Central, where they were transferred in August 1914.

Politicians were placed together with criminals. The barrack was densely packed with prisoners, but there were three times more bedbugs in it. Bed bugs shared food, people shared places. Skirmishes broke out constantly.

Someone poked Hamburg in the side: “Go to the bucket, zhidyara!” Joseph, a militant convicted of barricade fighting, did not remain in debt, and many reached for sharpeners. A stabbing was brewing. Frunze jumped off the bunk and shouted to the criminals: “If you start a fight, we’ll beat you up, you won’t pick up the bones. Remember these words! It sounded pretty impressive. Urki fell silent, and since then quarrels have become a rarity, and a new "authority" was chosen by the headman: everyone understood that no one could protect the interests of prisoners before the administration like this person.

An interesting monument for 1962, especially since the one lying under it is an ordinary teacher

Academician Landau and his family

General Lebed, Yeltsin's failed successor

A rare case in the Soviet era, when the deceased is immortalized with an artifact of his field of activity

Chairman of the Communist Party of South Africa, adhered to the Stalinist version of communism, for which he was expelled from the party by his comrades-in-arms

Writer Yuri Nagibin

Actor Anatoly Papanov

Writer Panferov

Writer Yuzovsky

Directed by Ptushko (Ptushkin). The monument in the form of a snag is 37 years old, it began to collapse. A rare domestic director whose films received two international awards at once - in 1935 the prize of the Venice Film Festival for "New Gulliver" and in 1953 the Silver Lion of the same film festival for "Sadko"

Monument to Raisa Gorbacheva; perhaps the largest number of flowers is on her grave. But it is sad that arborvitae have dried up around the monument, and the caretakers do not pay attention to this.

An English orientalist and, apparently, an English intelligence officer, Yuri Nikolayevich Roerich. He studied at three universities - at the School of Oriental Studies at the University of London, at the American Harvard and the University of Paris. He spent almost his entire life on expeditions in British India and Tibet. In 1941, he turned to London with a request to be enlisted in the Red Army, received the rank of colonel of the Red Army, while serving in the Himalayas during the Second World War. In 1957 he returned to the USSR

Old Bolshevik Alexei Isidorovich Rudenko. In 1939 he was sentenced to 5 years in the camps and 5 years of exile, in 1954 he was rehabilitated. It is believed that he was the first author of an anti-Stalinist poem on the death of Stalin, here it is:

So, end. Full, friends, a glass.
Forever, historian, mint this date:
Today the cockroach lay down in the coffin,
And only a mustache threatens us out of habit.

May the name of God never leave your lips,
And, harnessed to the gun carriage,
High priests suggest
deadly marafet,

Let the cannons roar
And a master of spicy dishes
Russia, fed up
The last salute

May there be no end to false chants
And crocodile tears
He is dead. And no balm
Won't drown out his rot.

Monument to the traveler and TV presenter Yuri Senkevich

Monument to film director Sergei Gerasimov.
Monument to the artist Gerasimov Sergey Vasilyevich -

Satirist Smirnov-Sokolsky. The first director of the Variety Theatre. The owner of the largest private library in the USSR - about 15 thousand volumes. After his death, the library was valued at 6 million rubles

The wife of Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky is nee Sofya Mushkat. Auditor of the cash desk of the RSDLP in Geneva. She spent 8 years in Siberian exile. After the death of her husband - a major functionary of the Comintern and party historian

Monument to pop singer Leonid Utyosov

One of the most revered graves by fans is the football player of the CDKA Fedotov. True, fans are too lazy to pull out numerous weeds on the grave

Urns with the ashes of the families of Indian communists and intellectuals

Burials of the numerous Khrushchev family

The modest grave of former prime minister and "president for an hour" (he acted as president during Yeltsin's heart surgery) Viktor Chernomyrdin

Monument to the writer Yulian Semyonov, on the reverse side - to his relatives Lyandres

Son of Felix Dzerzhinsky. Worker of the Comintern, since 1943 - in the apparatus of the CPSU (b)

The history of the capital's cemeteries has hundreds of secrets and legends. Reburials, during which the heads of the dead disappeared, encrypted inscriptions on the monuments, Scandinavian marks and bulletproof caps for tombstones...

The network publication m24.ru is launching a new project, in which you will learn about the history, legends and current state of the capital's cemeteries. In the first article, we will talk about the Novodevichy Cemetery, where 57 tombstones of famous figures of art, science and technology have recently been restored.

Gogol and Chekhov, Stanislavsky and Vakhtangov, Shostakovich and Prokofiev found their last refuge at the Novodevichy Cemetery. Yeltsin, Khrushchev, Stalin's wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva and even the head of the Chinese Communist Party Wang Ming are buried here.

Burials on the territory of the Novodevichy Convent arose in the 16th century. By the beginning of the 20th century, there was practically no free space left in the monastery necropolis, and graves began to appear near the southern wall of the monastery.

The territory of the Novodevichy cemetery was repeatedly expanded. The total area of ​​all plots is now more than 7.5 hectares. About 26 thousand people are buried in the cemetery, the territory of which is divided into old, new and new. On the monastery territory, the graves of mainly Decembrists and heroes of the war of 1812, as well as famous professors and public figures, survived.

Chekhov's mark

The body of Anton Chekhov, who died in Germany from tuberculosis, was transported to Moscow in a wagon designed to transport oysters. The writer is buried next to the grave of his own father. At the foot of the monument, a Scandinavian mark has been preserved - an ancient graphic image of a Christian cross.

Stone "Golgotha"

The tombstone on the grave of Mikhail Bulgakov is the stone "Golgotha" (it was named so due to the shape resembling the mountain where Jesus Christ was crucified) from the former burial place of Nikolai Gogol in the Danilov Monastery. This porous Black Sea granite, according to legend, was brought by Konstantin Aksakov from the Crimea. Bulgakov's widow Elena Sergeevna discovered Calvary, according to one version, in the workshops of the Novodevichy cemetery, according to another, in a pit where the craftsmen dumped production waste.

Since Bulgakov considered Gogol his teacher and even looked for inspiration at his monument in Moscow, there was no doubt about the fate of the stone: it was bought and installed on the grave of the author of The Master and Margarita.

Photo: m24.ru/Alexander Avilov

four notes

The gravestone of the composer Dmitry Shostakovich depicts four notes: D, E-flat, C and B. If you write them in Latin notation, you get DSCH - the initials of the composer. The theme of these four notes is considered his hallmark.

Photo: m24.ru/Alexander Avilov

Buried twice

It is believed that Maria Yermolova has two graves. Initially, the actress was buried on the territory of the temple in the former village of Vladykino. Shortly before the war, Yermolova's ashes were transferred to the Novodevichy cemetery, but no documents confirming this have been preserved.

Photo: m24.ru/Alexander Avilov

Posthumous dialogue

Vera Mukhina, the author of The Worker and the Collective Farm Girl, and her husband, the surgeon Zamkov, are buried in the old territory of the cemetery. On the monument to Zamkov, there is an inscription: "I gave everything to people," and on the monument to Mukhina, who died 11 years after the death of her husband, - "... And I, too."

Photo: m24.ru/Alexander Avilov

By the way, Mukhina considered her best creation not "Worker and Collective Farm Woman", but a memorial sculpture in the form of a dying swan, made for the grave of an opera singer Leonida Sobinova. He is also buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Photo: m24.ru/Alexander Avilov

Chinese communist leader

Novodevichy Cemetery is one of the most popular attractions among Chinese tourists. This is because one of the former leaders of the Communist Party of China Wang Ming, who fell into disgrace after the formation of the PRC and spent the last years of his life in the USSR, is buried here.

Photo: m24.ru/Alexander Avilov

Gogol without a head

During the reburial of Nikolai Gogol, who was originally buried in the Danilov Monastery, experts discovered that the skull of the author of Dead Souls was missing. In addition, the writer's head and body were turned to one side. After that, rumors spread that Gogol was buried alive during a lethargic sleep.

Photo: m24.ru/Alexander Avilov

Galina Ulanova

Galina Ulanova gave people the impression of an unprotected and touchingly weak woman, but she had an extremely persistent character. Carved on a rough white stone, the fragile figure of a great ballerina reflects this contrast.

Yury Nikulin

Yuri Nikulin on the monument is depicted at the age of a little over 40 years - the way his fans remembered and loved him. The composition of the monument depicts Nikulin's favorite - a dog of the Giant Schnauzer breed, which the artist brought from abroad.

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin was interred in the central alley of the Novodevichy cemetery. The grave of the first Russian president is located in such a way that it does not coexist with other graves.

Konstantin Stanislavsky

The monument to Konstantin Stanislavsky was created by the famous sculptor Salavat Shcherbakov. The headstone is a monument with a snow-white cross, under which the legendary Moscow Art Theater "seagull" and flowing curtains are depicted.

Evgeny Vakhtangov

Evgeny Vakhtangov died of stomach cancer at the age of 39. An abstract figure in a raincoat without a face under a hood - this is how the sculptor Oleg Komov presented the famous theatrical figure.

Nadezhda Alliluyeva

In the mid-70s, vandals threw the monument to Stalin's wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva from the pedestal, after which two cast-iron roses disappeared from it. The nose of the monument itself was chipped off. After the restoration, the bust was placed in a plastic cube, about the "bulletproof" which was legendary.

Vladimir Mayakovsky

Initially, the ashes of Vladimir Mayakovsky, who died under mysterious circumstances, were in the columbarium of the New Donskoy cemetery. Later, as a result of the persistent actions of Lilya Brik and the elder sister of the poet Lyudmila, the urn with the ashes of Mayakovsky was moved and buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Vasily Shukshin

The sculptors made the monument to Vasily Shukshin in the form of a cube and an arrow without a tip passing through it - a symbol of a cut short life. At first, they wanted to bury the writer and film director in their homeland in Siberia, but a whole galaxy of famous people insisted that Shukshin's body should rest in the Novodevichy cemetery.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

The ashes of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya were transferred to the Novodevichy Cemetery in May 1942. The current monument, unlike its Soviet ideologically sustained "predecessor", reflects the tragedy of the fate of the first female hero of the Soviet Union during the war years and the pain that she had to endure.

Vladimir Vernadsky

Initially, it was planned to use his quote as an epitaph for the monument to Academician Vladimir Vernadsky: "There is nothing in the world stronger than free scientific thought." However, this statement did not receive the approval of the Soviet censorship and was replaced by a more "politically correct" one.

Yuri Levitan

During the Great Patriotic War, Yuri Levitan voiced about 2 thousand reports of the Sovinformburo and over 120 emergency messages. On the monument, the main announcer of the USSR is depicted speaking, next to him is his constant companion - a microphone.

Vyacheslav Tikhonov

The long-awaited monument to Vyacheslav Tikhonov was unveiled to the accompaniment of the melody from the film "Seventeen Moments of Spring". The bronze figure "Stirlitz", cast in Italy, rises against the background of a bas-relief based on the gospel story "The Adoration of the Magi".

The author of the monument to Nikita Khrushchev is the sculptor Ernst Neizvestny, one of the participants in the exhibition of young Moscow artists "destroyed" by the Secretary General in 1962. With the help of black and white and broken lines, the sculptor wanted to emphasize the complexity and ambiguity of Khrushchev's nature.

Andrey Tupolev

It is easy to recognize the monument to the outstanding Soviet aircraft designer Andrei Tupolev. It depicts the engineer's life's work - an airplane and three stars of the Hero of Socialist Labor. On the machines created by Tupolev, 78 world records were set, about 30 outstanding flights were made.

Raisa Gorbacheva

Mikhail Gorbachev insisted that his wife be buried on the site of a former flower garden opposite the columbarium. They say that at first the relatives of those buried in the wall were against the destruction of the flower bed, but when they saw the work of the architect Friedrich Sogoyan, who depicted the "first lady" of the USSR as young and sad, they agreed.

The Vagankovsky cemetery is probably the most famous necropolis of our time. The history of this place began almost three hundred years ago and continues to this day. It is unlikely that one day it will be possible to establish an exact list of everyone who is buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery for at least the last hundred years, not to mention its entire long history. The list of the deceased, who found their last shelter here, according to the most conservative estimates, should have numbered about half a million names. However, many burials remain unnamed.

and the foundation of the cemetery

One of the last outbreaks of plague in Russia in 1770-1772 was marked not only by the mass death of the population, but also by significant popular unrest in Moscow and its environs. The unrest was suppressed, however, by decree of Empress Catherine II, the deceased citizens were forbidden to bury within the city.

The preventive sanitary measure had an effect, the disease receded, and a necropolis grew up near Moscow in the village of Novoe Vagankovo, where ordinary Muscovites were buried.

Who is buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery? Of course, no one kept a list of burials in those distant times. In the 18-19 centuries, the last refuge of those who died from epidemics, soldiers who fell in the Battle of Borodino, died on the Khodynka field and many other victims of wars and historical tragedies found their last refuge there.

The Great Patriotic War added to the Vagankovsky cemetery of mass graves and monuments to the defenders of the city.

Do they remember everyone? Who is buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery from celebrities

Today, we associate the largest with the graves of all our beloved actors, cultural and art figures, politicians - our contemporaries. Meanwhile, many people forget that, in fact, this place became a necropolis of celebrities more than a hundred years ago. If at the very beginning of its history, the Vagankovskoye cemetery could only boast of nameless mass graves and modest graves of ordinary people, then after half a century it turned into the resting place of the greatest people of its era.

Among those buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery are the most famous families of the 19th century. These are politicians, military men, cultural figures, writers and artists. Next to the magnificent graves of famous historical figures, there are modest burials of now almost forgotten people, whose names are known only to specialists.

Memory of the Decembrist uprising

The list of those buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery can be started with the names of the Decembrists. Currently, only seven of their graves have been preserved. In one fence there are tombstones of Alexander Filippovich Frolov and Pavel Sergeevich Bobrischev-Pushkin, next to them is a pink marble stele of Ivan Nikolayevich Khotyaintsev.

The grave of Mikhail Alexandrovich Bestuzhev is located on the main alley. His daughters and sister Elena are also buried here. A great woman, whose name is undeservedly forgotten by descendants. It was she who preserved the most valuable archival artifact for history - the famous Bestuzhev gallery of portraits of the Decembrists, taking it out of Siberia after the death of her brother.

A black granite monument crowns the grave of the Decembrist Alexander Petrovich Belyaev, and the grave of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Zagoretsky is also nearby.

Friends of A. S. Pushkin

Few people remember where the burial place of the greatest poet is. No, of course, he does not rest at the Vagankovsky cemetery. The grave of the classic of Russian literature is located in the Svyatogorsky Monastery, in the Pskov region. Nevertheless, of those of his contemporaries who are buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery, many were closely associated with A. S. Pushkin and his family.

So, near the church ensemble are the graves of close friends of the poet: Count Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy and the famous theater figure and composer Alexei Nikolaevich Verestovsky.

brush masters

Famous people buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery, not always, having ended their lives, came to this place in glory and honor. Especially if it was about creative people who gave all their strength to art and thought little about worldly affairs.

The host of outstanding artists, painters and graphic artists who are buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery is impressive. Vasily Andreyevich Tropinin, a great painter of the Romantic era and the founder of a realistic portrait in Russian painting, is buried in a modest grave. He left more than three thousand portraits of his contemporaries, and it is to his talent and skill of the brush that Russian art owes the development of realism and the appearance of the portrait-type.

V. A. Tropinin was the first famous artist buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery. Following him, this Moscow necropolis became the last refuge for such masters of the brush as Vasily Ivanovich Surikov, Vasily Vladimirovich Pukirev, Nikolai Alexandrovich Klodt, Aristarkh Vasilyevich Lentulov and many others. The Wanderers and avant-garde artists, illustrators, decorators, graphic artists and painters who worked in the 19th and 20th centuries rest here.

The people buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery and who left an indelible mark on history are today mostly forgotten by their contemporaries. Many graves are dilapidated, some do not even have commemorative plaques. Nevertheless, they are gradually returning the names.

The grave of the author of "Rooks ..."

At the Vagankovsky cemetery there is the grave of the creator of a cult, or, as they say, "archetypal" work of Russian painting. The famous work "The Rooks Have Arrived" is still known from school. However, few people know the tragic fate of its creator.

Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov is one of the founders of the Association of Traveling Exhibitions, a brilliant painter and teacher. Alas, he spent the last years of his life in poverty. Personal tragedies that the artist could not cope with, alcoholism and constant need led to the fact that he was completely alone, forgotten and sick. He died in a Moscow hospital for the poor.

Initially, his grave was crowned with the cheapest wooden cross and a modest inscription on it read: “Academician Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov. Born May 12, 1830, died September 26, 1897. The boards on the cross rotted and collapsed, in the end it disappeared, and the burial place of the great painter was abandoned and forgotten for many years.

However, the words of Isaac Levitan about Savrasov turned out to be prophetic: “One of the deepest Russian artists has died ... Since Savrasov appeared lyrics in landscape painting and boundless love for his native land ... and this undoubted merit in the field of Russian art has never been will be forgotten."

Today, his grave at the Vagankovsky cemetery is decorated with a granite obelisk with a laconic inscription: "Outstanding Russian artist Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov, 1830-1897."

The last journey of the servants of Melpomene

The list of celebrities buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery is impressive. Paradoxically, the necropolis, which appeared as a result of the greatest tragedies in the history of the state, has become a favorite burial place for theater and film actors, directors, musicians and composers.

According to legend, the tradition of burying people of acting professions here came from one of the Moscow mayors, by whose decree it was instructed to bury acting people on Vagankovsky. Perhaps because this cemetery was the largest and it was quick and convenient to get to it, which reduced the cost of funerals, which often took place at public expense. However, there is another mystical coincidence: it was on the site of the future necropolis that jesters and buffoons settled in the 17th century.

Today, the number of beloved actors, musicians and singers resting here is difficult to pin down. The actors buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery were the idols of their time, and the glory of many has not been forgotten to this day.

At the entrance stands a snow-white iceberg-monument in the style of constructivism on the grave of Alexander Abdulov. The original monument-memorial in the form of film frames reminds of everyone's favorite Mikhail Pugovkin. Not far away is the grave of “the best Watson in the world” Vitaly Solomin. Actors Andrei Mironov, Oleg Dal, Leonid Filatov, directors and playwright, playwright and satirist Grigory Gorin. Do not count all those who are buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery from celebrities who have enriched domestic and world culture. Below is a list (far from complete, of course, of celebrities not mentioned in the text):

• - writer.
• Alov Alexander - director.
• Bogatyrev Yuri - actor.
• Braginsky Emil - playwright.
• Burkov Georgy - actor.
• Balter Alla is an actress.
• Vitsin George is an actor.
• Voroshilov Vladimir - presenter.
• Spiridonov Vadim - actor.
• Garin Erast is an actor.
• Glebov Peter - actor.
• Gluzsky Mikhail - actor.
• Dvorzhetsky Evgeny - actor.
• Kaverin Veniamin is a writer.
• Mikhail Kononov is an actor.
• Marina Levtova is an actress.
• Liepa Maris - dancer.
• Listyev Vlad - journalist.
• Migulya Vladimir - composer.
• Rozov Victor - playwright.
• Rostotsky Andrey - actor.
• Sazonova Nina - actress.
• Samoilov Vladimir - actor.
• - actor.
• Streltsov Eduard - athlete.
• Tanich Mikhail is a poet.
• Tulikov Serafim - composer.
• Fedorova Zoya - actress.
• Kharitonov Leonid - actor.
• Chekan Stanislav is an actor.
• Chukhrai Grigory - film director.
• Yumatov Georgy - actor.
• Yashin Lev is an athlete.

Two graves of one genius

There is also a monument to Vsevolod Meyerhold. Tragic, like the life of the director himself, is the fate of his grave. For a long time, the circumstances and place of Meyerhold's death were kept secret. Only in 1987 did his real burial place in the cemetery near the Donskoy Monastery become known. A black stone stele with the name of Meyerhold was installed on the grave of his tragically deceased wife Zinaida Reich 20 years before the discovery of the real burial place of the theater director reformer.

"Faithful Galya"

Poet Sergei Yesenin is buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery. The rebellious life and tragic death of the young genius of poetry attracted the attention of admirers and admirers to his resting place. Alas, the grave of Sergei Yesenin is notorious. Neither the bust, carved in a block of white marble, nor the granite plinth, immersed in flowers, can erase the sad facts of the history of this burial. One of the cemetery legends says that at night the ghost of a young woman appears near the grave.

“I committed suicide here, although I know that after that even more dogs will hang on Yesenin. But he and I don't care. In this grave for me all the most precious ... ".

Perhaps this legend was based on the sad fate of his friend and assistant. A year after the death of the poet, she shot herself at his grave, leaving the famous suicide note. She rests here, next to her idol. The first inscription on a modest grave: "Faithful Galya" very accurately reflected the essence of her feelings for Yesenin and their difficult, drama-filled relationship. However, now the snow-white slab is decorated with long lines from the poet’s letter to her: “Galya, dear! I repeat to you that you are very, very dear to me. Yes, and you yourself know that without your participation in my fate there would be a lot of deplorable things.

A series of suicides that followed after that at the grave of the "Moscow reveler" enveloped the place with an ominous veil of fatalism and misfortune. In total, 12 people committed suicide here - all women.

Idols of millions

What celebrities are buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery and what stories and legends envelop their death and resting place, it is difficult to count. The grave of Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky was no exception. A slightly pretentious monument depicts everyone's favorite singer and artist, expressive, eager as he was during his lifetime. On the one hand - a portrait, on the other - a monument-allegory, the leitmotif of which was the lines of the artist's prophetic song "Fussy Horses". Pathetic, strange monument. Eyewitnesses to Vysotsky's funeral claimed that his widow Marina Vladi sobbed when she saw the tombstone, calling it an ugly example of socialist realism.

Vysotsky was not supposed to find his last resting place on the main alley. The authorities assigned him a place in the far corner. However, fate intervened in the person of the director of the Vagankovsky cemetery, a great admirer of the work of Vladimir Semyonovich. It was he who allocated an empty place for the funeral at the very entrance, where the singer rests to this day.

The gravestone of another great bard is distinguished by modesty and conciseness. Bulat Okudzhava is also buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery. A tombstone in the form of a large boulder with an intricately executed inscription - the name of the singer and composer. This tombstone can rightfully be considered the most magnificent example of artistic minimalism.

One of the few graves, to this day littered with flowers, belongs to Igor Talkov. Another idol of millions who tragically died at a young age. And his death is shrouded in secrets, rumors and legends, like many of his predecessors who were buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery. The photo of the singer in a frame with a wooden carved pediment, reminiscent of a Russian hut, is almost always framed with garlands of carnations and roses. The tombstone itself is decorated in the neo-pagan Slavic style. A huge bronze cross rises on a black pedestal, the surface of which is decorated with Cyrillic script, and at the base of the pedestal the famous lines “And defeated in battle, I will rise and sing ...” are inscribed with gilding.

At the grave of Igor Talkov, as well as at the grave of Sergei Yesenin, there were some suicide attempts. Fortunately, in this case, suicide was prevented and the restless female fans were saved.

Who are they, the saints buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery?

There are special graves on this huge necropolis. Near them is always crowded, they come here from afar with prayers and requests for help. One of these graves belongs to Father Valentine. Although officially he was never canonized, people sincerely believe in his intercession and consider the grave miraculous.

Father Valentin during his lifetime was known for his good disposition, open generous heart. The poor and orphans, widows and the homeless turned to him for help. The clergyman took a sincere part in the fate of all those who sought his protection and support.

It is noteworthy that the exact burial place of Father Valentine is unknown. The priest died in 1908, and in the turbulent 20s they wanted to destroy his grave in order to stop the pilgrimage. In 1941, when they dug up the supposed burial place, no remains were found. It is believed that, fulfilling the will of Father Valentine, he was buried two meters deeper than it was customary to bury the dead.

Today, at the alleged resting place of the holy father, there are two crosses at once, literally a meter apart. White, stone, installed by the great-granddaughter of the clergyman, the second, wooden, erected by pilgrims. From somewhere there was a belief that it was here, away from the official grave, that the ashes of Father Valentine were buried. Both crosses have flowers, candles, and there is always a line of people praying for help and thanking for intercession.

Celebrity graves at the Novodevichy Cemetery - the most famous and prestigious necropolis in Moscow - are included in the list of "must see" sightseeing and tourist routes in the capital of Russia. The churchyard was founded at the end of the 19th century near the southern wall of the Novodevichy Convent. Subsequently, the burial places of prominent compatriots, major politicians, scientists, and people of art were located here.

Yeltsin's grave and statesmen at the Novodevichy Cemetery

Boris Yeltsin, the First President of the Russian Federation, is buried in plot 6 of the Novodevichy cemetery (central alley). A Russian tricolor of red porphyry, sky-blue Byzantine mosaics and white marble spread out in monumental folds on a wide tombstone.

The grave of Alexandra Kollontai, a Russian revolutionary of noble origin, is decorated with her sculptural image. Kollontai became the first woman minister in the world, then the plenipotentiary representative of the USSR in Mexico, Norway, Sweden, and in 1944-1945. - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USSR to the Kingdom of Sweden.

Tombstone of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR in 1958-1964. Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev confirms the unspoken rule that disgraced statesmen were not buried near the Kremlin wall. The difficult political fate of the Soviet leader is symbolically reflected in the tombstone made by Ernst Neizvestny, commissioned by Khrushchev's son. Simple, sculpted with the maximum portrait resemblance, the face of the First Secretary is surrounded, like an angular spacesuit, by a white and black vertical composition - faith in a bright communist future and the dark legacy of mass repression.

Andrei Gromyko, the foreign minister, Mr. No to Soviet foreign policy, was the last to be buried at the Kremlin wall. Nevertheless, the grave was placed at the Novodevichy cemetery at the will of Gromyko himself and at the request of his relatives.

The monumental monument to General Alexander Lebed, governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, who died in a plane crash, depicts the commander sitting, in full dress with a full set of orders.

Viktor Chernomyrdin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers - the Government of the Russian Federation in 1992-1998, rests in a paired family grave, decorated with monuments in the traditional Russian style, carved in black marble.

The tombstone of Yevgeny Primakov, intelligence officer and diplomat, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, was a massive monolith of gray granite and a light stone scroll with the text of a poem written by this outstanding politician: “I firmly decided everything: to be in team until the end, until I won't breathe until I fall. And if it becomes unbearably hard, then I won’t leave the road either.”

Famous scientists at the Novodevichy cemetery

Powerful thinkers, founders of scientific directions and schools, who lived extremely fruitfully, are buried in the Novodevichy necropolis.

The snow-white marble monument, covered with a transparent protective case, marks the burial place of the Russian cosmic scientist, an outstanding mineralogist Vladimir Vernadsky, who first introduced the terms "biosphere" and "noosphere". At the base of the monument is a quote: "We live in a wonderful time when man becomes a geological force that changes the face of our planet."

The tombstone of the brilliant theoretical physicist, Nobel Prize winner Lev Landau was made by Ernst Neizvestny. A block of dark granite with a pectoral sculptural portrait of a scientist rests on a metal column formed by three concave sections.

The grave of the geologist and geographer Vladimir Obruchev is marked by a gray granite monolith with a sculptural portrait and a symbolic image of a geological hammer crossed by a writer's pen. Obruchev perfectly mastered the art of effective time management, successfully combining intensive scientific work with the creation of science fiction works, including such voluminous ones as "Plutonia" and "Sannikov Land".

Famous composers at the Novodevichy Cemetery

The names of the composers buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery entered the history of music as significant events.

The black marble stele with the dates of Sergei Prokofiev's life marks the burial place of the world famous author of instrumental concertos, symphonies, seven operas and eleven ballets.

No less concise is the tombstone of Dmitri Shostakovich, one of the most performed composers in the world. His numerous works had a significant impact on the development of the musical culture of mankind.

The restless grave of Gogol. Burials of writers at Novodevichy

The great classic Nikolai Gogol was buried at the Danilovsky cemetery. In 1931, during the liquidation of this monastery churchyard in the midst of the struggle against religion, the ashes of the writer were transferred to the Novodevichy cemetery. In 1952, instead of the old cross with a stone foot, a sculptural monument with the inscription "To the Great Russian Artist of the Word from the Government of the Soviet Union" was erected over the new grave. In 2009, the tombstone again acquired its former appearance: only a stone and only a cross.

A special black stone with a bumpy surface, located on the original grave of Gogol, reminiscent of Golgotha ​​- the place of the crucifixion of Christ, was installed as a tombstone over the burial place of another master of the word - Mikhail Bulgakov.

The Novodevichy Cemetery as a whole has become a real pantheon of writers and poets. Here, under a white stele in the new Russian style, lies Anton Chekhov. The urn with the ashes of the frantic futurist, proletarian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky is buried under a massive slab of dark gray granite. Above the grave of the creator of new words, "Chairman of the Globe" Velimir Khlebnikov laid an ancient statue from the Kyrgyz steppes. The tombstone of the intellectual symbolist Valery Bryusov, who sought inspiration at the intersection of science and poetry, adorns an accurate, stylistically consistent profile portrait of the poet. The medallion with a bas-relief profile of Alexei Tolstoy, favored by the Soviet authorities, is accompanied by sculptural images of the characters of his most monumental works - the novels "Peter the Great" and "Walking Through the Torments". The monument to Alexander Fadeev is complemented by Krasnodon heroes from the Young Guard. There are no sculptures or portraits on the grave of the remarkable poet Andrei Voznesensky. The tombstone, made according to his own design, is an inclined polished plane of dark granite. It is as if a large stone ball is about to roll down it, which keeps only a small bronze crucifix from swift movement down the slope.

Steel arms-wings, fiery motor of the heart - creators and heroes

Bas-relief and sculptural portraits mark the burial places of prominent aircraft designers - Pavel Sukhoi (Su fighters), Andrei Tupolev (Tu aircraft), Semyon Lavochkin (LaGG and La fighters), Alexander Yakovlev (Yak fighters).

Polar pilot Anatoly Lyapidevsky, the first to receive the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and Air Marshal, three times Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Pokryshkin, an ace fighter, one of the most productive pilots of the Great Patriotic War, are buried at Novodevichy.

Space. Earth. Ocean

Above the grave of cosmonaut No. 2 German Titov, his sculptural portrait with an eagle is installed. "Eagle" was Titov's call sign in radio sessions with the Earth. Pilot-cosmonaut, test pilot Georgy Beregovoy, who piloted the Soyuz-3 spacecraft, buried at Novodevichy, received his first title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War.

The space theme is displayed on the exclusive tombstone of Yuri Senkevich, who for 30 years was the permanent TV presenter of the Film Travel Club. Senkevich was engaged in medical training of space and high-latitude expeditions, took part in ocean voyages on papyrus boats "Ra" and "Tigris" at the invitation of Thor Heyerdahl. On the tombstone, these journeys are represented by a sculptural wave with a reed ship under direct sail.

Act four, last and eternal

Life, like a play in three acts - presentation, twists and turns and denouement - for the people of the stage can have a fourth action, which continues in the memory of followers and admirers.

The author of the acting technique of genuine emotions, which has been followed for a hundred years, Konstantin Stanislavsky rests at the Novodevichy cemetery under a red granite slab. On it is a white vertical stele-curtain with the emblem of the Moscow Art Theater - a seagull, topped with a large Orthodox cross.

On the grave of a direct follower of Stanislavsky, Yevgeny Vakhtangov, a bronze figure of a woman is installed, whose sadly bowed face is hidden by a cape.

The burial place of the great Maria Yermolova is marked by a vase made of dark polished granite with a flowing drapery. A bas-relief profile of the actress is placed on a dark pedestal.

The bas-relief profile of the actor of unique talent, Innokenty Smoktunovsky, is depicted in a round medallion on a gray grave boulder. The bronze sculpture by Vyacheslav Tikhonov reproduces the image of an actor in the role of a scout Stirlitz. On the grave of Oleg Efremov there is a white marble rounded stele with a bas-relief Orthodox cross. The monument to Lyudmila Gurchenko combines black polished granite and snow-white marble with a full-length sculptural image of the actress. Yuri Yakovlev's grave is overshadowed by a white marble eight-pointed cross, decorated in the style of Chekhov's tombstone. The great comedian Yuri Nikulin is forever imprinted in bronze, sitting on a low curb-pedestal.

There are many memorable places at the Novodevichy Cemetery that allow you to remember the great voices of Russia - Chaliapin, Zykin, Yuri Levitan, a whole galaxy of artists, outstanding chess players, film directors, doctors, teachers, architects. This necropolis with twenty-five thousand graves is a real encyclopedia of Russian celebrities.

Novodevichy cemetery. Celebrity Lists

• Alexander Vertinsky
• Ludmila Zykina
• Elena Obraztsova
• Galina Vishnevskaya
• Claudia Shulzhenko
• Fyodor Chaliapin
• Leonid Utyosov
• Yuri Levitan

World Chess Champions

• Vasily Smyslov
• Mikhail Botvinnik

A galaxy of artists and famous patrons

• Valentin Serov
• Witold Byalynitsky-Birulya
• Isaac Levitan
• Mikhail Nesterov
• Tretyakov brothers

actors

• Arkady Raikin
• Yury Nikulin

Film directors

• Sershgei Eisenstein
• Sergey Bondarchuk
• Eldar Ryazanov

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