Novodevichy Cemetery

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Entrance to the Old Territory
A main path in the Novodevichy Cemetery with a view of a building of the monastery of the same name
Columbarium in the cemetery wall
The cemetery in winter

The Novodevichy Cemetery (in Russian: Новоде́вичье кла́дбище ( Novodewitschje Kladbishche ), in German " New Virgin Cemetery ") is one of the most famous cemeteries in Russia . It is located at the southwest end of the Central Administrative District of Moscow on the left bank of the Moscow River . It owes its name to the Novodevichy Monastery , a UNESCO World Heritage Site , in front of whose walls it is located.

history

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

Since the Soviet era , the Novodevichy Cemetery has been a purely honorary cemetery, so only honorary citizens such as important politicians, artists, scientists or members of the military are buried here. Because of the overwhelming flow of visitors and the beginning of vandalism (the head of the Khrushchev tomb is said to have been knocked over), the Moscow administration ordered around 1980 that only relatives should be allowed access to the cemetery. The thus locked out domestic and foreign visitors criticized the closure for the general public with the hints that “... now even after death the privileges of some groups in society continued to work”. This meant that everyone was soon allowed access again, albeit with shorter opening times.

Today only the cemetery area outside the monastery walls is used as a burial place. The old churchyard on the monastery grounds (the so-called necropolis of the New Maiden Monastery ) has been preserved to this day, but only the heads of the monastery find their final resting place there. When the monastery was reactivated in the 1990s, however, existing graves were also exposed.

A total of over 27,000 dead are buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery. In addition to graves, there are columbaria in the old and new cemetery walls .

Due to the multiple expansion of the cemetery area, a distinction is made between the following parts: (a) "Old Territory" (rows 1 to 4), (b) "New Territory" (rows 5–8), (c) "Newest Territory" (rows 9 -11).

Graves of prominent people

A-F

Official plan of the cemetery
Sergei Eisenstein's grave

G-L

Boris Yeltsin's grave (2007, shortly after the funeral)
Grave of Olga Knipper-Tschechowa

M-R

Sergei Prokofiev's grave

S-Z

Anton Chekhov's grave

* = Was on Novodevichy Cemetery reburied

Other known burial sites

Well-known sculptors of the tombs

See also

Notes / individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f The cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent . In: Sputnik (German edition) Jg. 22, 1988, No. 3, ISSN  0131-873X , pp. 146-155.
  2. ↑ Meaning: yellow = politicians and military, brownish = painters and sculptors, gray-brown = heroes of the SU or ZWK, light blue = cosmonauts and aviators, whitish = scholars and constructors, purple = composers, musicians, singers and directors, green = writers and poet, h'violett = interesting monuments
  3. ↑ Ninel Myschkowka's biography on kino-teatr.ru (Russian), accessed on December 6, 2019

Web links

Commons : Novodevichy Cemetery  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 55 ° 43 ′ 29 ″  N , 37 ° 33 ′ 5 ″  E