Novodevichy Cemetery

Novodevichy Cemetery is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site.
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.
A 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. It was at that time that the remains of Anton Chekhov were moved outside the monastery walls. His grave served as the kernel of the so-called "cherry orchard" – a section of the cemetery which contains the graves of Constantin Stanislavski and the leading actors of his company.
Interments
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. More than 27,000 are buried at Novodevichy. There is scant space for more burials. A new national cemetery is under construction in Mytishchi north of Moscow. Notable burials include Dmitry Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev and Anton Chekhov.
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.
Monuments
Notable graves
The following noteworthy graves, among others, can be found at Novodevichy Cemetery:
1850s
Nikolai Gogol (1809–1852)
Sergey Aksakov (1791–1859)
1900s
Isaac Levitan (1860–1900)
Vladimir Solovyov (philosopher) (1853–1900)
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904)
1910s
Valentin Serov (1865–1911)
Vasili Altfater (1883–1919)
1920s
Pyotr Kropotkin (1842–1921)
Valery Bryusov (1873–1924)
Yevgeny Berens (1876–1928)
1930s
Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893–1930)
Nikolay Andreyev (1873–1932)
Nadezhda Alliluyeva (1901–1932)
Eduard Bagritsky (1895-1934)
Konstantin Stanislavski (1863–1938)
Boris Shchukin (1894-1939)
1940s
Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940)
Mikhail Kaganovich (1888–1941)
Ivan Shadr (1887–1941)
Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko (1858–1943)
Demyan Bedny (1883–1945)
Alexander Alexandrov (1883–1946)
Nikolai Podvoisky (1880–1948)
Sergei Eisenstein (1898–1948)
Yevgeniy Abalakov (1907–1948)
1950s
Vsevolod Vishnevsky (1900–1951)
Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1952)
Sergey Merkurov (1881–1952)
Vera Mukhina (1889–1953)
Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953)
Aleksey Abrikosov (1875–1955)
Karo Halabyan (1897–1959)
Boris Lavrenyov (1891–1959)
Daniil Andreyev (1906–1959)
1960s
Vsevolod Aksyonov (1902–1960)
Nadezhda Kolesnikova (1882–1964)
Nâzım Hikmet (1902–1963)
Mira Mendelson (1915–1963)
Ilya Ehrenburg (1891–1967)
Ivan Agayants (1911–1968)
Lev Landau (1908–1968)
Vasily Azhayev (1915–1968)
1970s
Abram Isaakovich Alikhanov (1904–1970)
Nikolai Basistiy (1898–1971)
Sergey Konenkov (1874–1971)
Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971)
Andrey Tupolev (1888–1972)
Andrei Abrikosov (1906–1973)
Averky Aristov (1903–1973)
Yevgeny Vuchetich (1908–1974)
Vasily Shukshin (1929–1974)
Yekaterina Furtseva (1910–1974)
Nikolay Kuznetsov (1904–1974)
Nikolai Bulganin (1895–1975)
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)
Pyotr Koshevoy (1904–1976)
Sergei Lemeshev (1902–1977)
Roman Karmen (1906–1978)
Anastas Mikoyan (1895–1978)
1980s
Filipp Golikov (1900–1980)
Nikolai Podgorny (1903–1983)
Yuri Levitan (1914–1983)
Nikolai Tomsky (1900–1984)
Pavel Batov (1897–1985)
Kirill Moskalenko (1902–1985)
Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986)
Yakov Zeldovich (1914–1987)
Arkady Raikin (1911–1987)
Valery Legasov (1936–1988)
Sergey Gorshkov (1910–1988)
Andrei Gromyko (1909–1989)
Kirill Mazurov (1914–1989)
1990s
Vasili Kuznetsov (politician) (1901–1990)
Vasily Margelov (1908–1990)
Boris Shcherbina (1919–1990)
Semyon Kurkotkin (1917–1990)
Matvey Blanter (1903–1990)
Lazar Kaganovich (1893–1991)
Yevgeny Ivanovsky (1918–1991)
Viktor Grishin (1914–1992)
Grigori Abrikosov (1932–1993)
Nikolai Ogarkov (1917–1994)
Yevgeny Leonov (1926–1994)
Boris Alexandrovich Alexandrov (1905–1994)
Alexander Shelepin (1918–1994)
Viktoria Brezhneva (1908–1995)
Dmitry Shepilov (1905–1995)
Pyotr Lushev (1923–1997)
Mikhail Anikushin (1917–1997)
Nikolai Tikhonov (1905–1997)
Yuri Nikulin (1921–1997)
Raisa Gorbacheva (1932–1999)
2000s
Gherman Titov (1935–2000)
Sergey Afanasyev (1918–2001)
Alexander Lebed (1950–2002)
Lev Kerbel (1917–2003)
Mstislav Rostropovich (1927–2007)
Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007)
Lyudmila Zykina (1929–2009)
Vyacheslav Tikhonov (1928–2009)
Yegor Gaidar (1956–2009)
2010s
Vladimir Arnold (1937–2010)
Viktor Chernomyrdin (1938-2010)
Lyudmila Gurchenko (1935–2011)
Pavel Grachev (1948–2012)
Victor Merzhanov (1919–2012)
Galina Vishnevskaya (1926–2012)
Sergey Sokolov (1911–2012)
Viktor Kulikov (1921–2013)
Yevgeny Primakov (1929–2015)
Lev Durov (1931-2015)
Vladimir Etush (1922–2019)
Yury Mikhailovich Luzhkov (1936–2019)
2020s
Sergei Khrushchev (1935–2020)
Vladimir Dolgikh (1924–2020)
Vasily Lanovoy (1934–2021)
Vladimir Zhirinovsky (1946–2022)
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931–2022)
Inna Churikova (1943–2023)
Vera Vasilyeva (1925–2023)
Igor Yasulovich (1941–2023)
Gleb Panfilov (1934–2023)
Nikolai Dobronravov (1928–2023)
See also
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery
Federal Military Memorial Cemetery
Kremlin Wall Necropolis
List of burial places of classical musicians
References
External links
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)
Cemeteries in Moscow
1898 establishments in the Russian Empire
Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Moscow