What secrets does the Novodevichy cemetery keep? Who are the celebrities buried at the Vagankovskoye Cemetery? Famous burials at Novodevichy cemetery

Vagankovskoe cemetery is one of the largest in Moscow. It was built in 1771 by order of Count Orlov.

This happened at a time when the plague was raging in the Russian Empire. The territory of the Vagankovsky cemetery was allocated for the burial of those who were killed by this disease.

It was only in the 19th century that prominent personalities began to be buried in the cemetery - about 100 thousand burials reflect the history of our state.

Participants of the Battle of Borodino, victims of Stalin's repressions, participants of the Second World War (1941-1942), children who died in the terrorist attack on Dubrovka, various famous personalities are buried in the cemetery - in total more than 500 thousand Muscovites, while only 100 thousand of all burials have been preserved .

Where is the Vagankovskoe cemetery in Moscow?

The facility is located at the address: Sergei Makeev Street, building 15.

The cemetery area is almost 48 hectares. This article will serve as a kind of guide between the sites where the graves of famous people are located.

Diagram showing graves

The Vagankovskoe cemetery is very extensive, without any plan or diagram, it is impossible to get your bearings. The diagram presented in the photo shows the location of 60 burial sites, each of which has its own number.

Two mass graves and an Orthodox Church are indicated. The paths between the sections also have their own names. Also, opposite the Vagankovsky cemetery, there is the Armenian cemetery, which is its branch.

Where can I get a complete list of burials?

A complete list of burials can be found at the cemetery administration or on special. resources. For example, here https://nekropole.info/ru/person/list?cemetery_id=3433 provides a list of all persons buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow.

Another interesting resource offers an interactive map http://vagankovo.net/interaktivnaya-karta/. By clicking on any plot number, you follow the link and open a list of people buried there.

Which celebrities are buried

At the Vagankovsky cemetery there are excursions for those interested, during which tourists will see the graves of famous personalities of our country - poets Bulat Okudzhava, Vladimir Vysotsky, Sergei Yesenin, artist Alexei Savrasov, actors Alexander Abdulov, Andrei Mironov, TV presenters Vladimir Voroshilov and Vladislav Listyev, and many others .

Grave of Vladimir Vysotsky

Vladimir Semyonovich was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in 1980. His grave is located next to the entrance to the cemetery, on the right side.

Its site, number 1, still remains one of the most visited. His mother, Nina Maksimovna Vysotskaya, is buried next to Vysotsky.

The grave of Alexander Abdulov

A. A. Abdulov was born on May 29, 1953. The artist died on January 3, 2008. A few months before his death, he was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Alexander Gavrilovich was a famous theater and film actor. Worked at the Lenkom Theater. We have lost count of the number of films in which Abdulov has starred. The quantity varies from 100 to 150 paintings. He was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in plot number 2.

Grave of Georgy Vitsin

G. M. Vitsin was born on April 5, 1917. Due to chronic liver and heart diseases, Vitsin passed away on October 22, 2001. Georgy Mikhailovich was a theater and film actor. He worked at the Ermolova Theater. Was involved in more than 300 works.

People know him from such films as “Prisoner of the Caucasus” and “Gentlemen of Fortune”. Unfortunately, in the last years of his life his work was no longer in demand. He was buried on October 25, 2001 at the Vagankovskoye cemetery on plot 12A.

Igor Talkov's grave

I.V. Talkov was born on November 4, 1956. He was a singer, actor, poet. Took part in 18 projects. During a concert at the Yubileiny Sports Complex in St. Petersburg, Talkov was shot. It was as if he had a presentiment of his death and knew how he would be killed.

He said that they would shoot at him in front of a large number of people, but the shooter would never be found. And so it happened. The killer of Igor Vladimirovich hid in Israel for a long time. The singer’s funeral took place on October 9; he was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery, plot number 25.

Sergei Yesenin's grave

How to find the grave of a famous poet? In order for everyone to honor the memory of Sergei Yesenin, guide signs have been installed at the Vagankovskoye cemetery near the entrance. Near the poet’s grave is the grave of Galina Benislavskaya, a girl in love with the poet.

S. A. Yesenin was born on September 21, 1895. On December 28, 1925, Yesenin was found hanged in his room at the Angeleter Hotel in St. Petersburg. He was an outstanding poet of the Silver Age. His poems have always been in demand and loved. His poems are still read and taught in schools.

The grave of Sergei Alexandrovich is the most visited at the Vagankovskoye cemetery. There are always fresh flowers on it. Yesenin's grave is constantly visited by fans of his work.

Grave of Vladislav Listyev

V. N. Listyev was born on May 10, 1956. He was a TV presenter and TV journalist. He was also the first general director of ORT. Before that, he was the host of numerous popular TV shows, such as “Field of Miracles,” “Guess the Melody,” and “Rush Hour.”

On March 1, 1995, Listyev was shot dead in the front door of his house. He served as director of ORT for a little over a month. The investigation into Listyev's murder is still ongoing. His grave and tombstone are located on plot number 1.

Grave of Vyacheslav Ivankov (Yaponchik)

V.K. Ivankov was born on January 2, 1940. He was a crime boss and thief in law. He created his own criminal group. Groups, under the guise of a police search, entered the apartments of those who, in their opinion, earned money through unclean labor. Some were taken to the forest and tortured. Gangs operated throughout the USSR.

On July 28, 2009, Yaponchik was attacked. He received several gunshot wounds and was taken to the hospital, where he was put into an induced coma. From September 13 to 14, Ivankov experienced clinical death, and on October 9 he died in the oncology center from peritonitis.

Yaponchik's grave arouses great interest, so excursions are conducted to it from time to time. Vyacheslav Ivankov is buried in plot number 55.

Grave of Andrei Mironov

A. A. Mironov was born on March 7, 1941. He was an Honored Artist of the RSFSR. Was involved in more than 80 projects. His work is admired to this day. He gave all of himself to the theater. As they say, he spent his entire life on stage. Death also found him on stage.

At the play “The Marriage of Figaro,” where he played the main role, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. Later, the actor was diagnosed with a congenital aneurysm. Andrei Aleksandrovich Mironov is buried in plot number 40.

Conclusion

The most famous attraction of the Vagankovsky cemetery is the Church of the Resurrection of the Word, built in the period 1819 - 1831. Previously, there was a small wooden church in the cemetery (1773), on the site of which there is currently a rotunda.

In the existing stone church, divine services are regularly held, memorial services are held, a lot of missionary and educational work is carried out, and a Sunday school for children operates.

All information, schedule, opening hours, news and much more can be seen on the official website http://vagankovo.net/.

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There are cemeteries in Russia that are almost impossible for ordinary people to get to. Only those who have certain services to the Fatherland deserve burial there. One of the most famous is the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. Here are the graves of politicians, actors, poets, show business stars, and other celebrities.

Death is an unpleasant event in people's lives that can come both unexpectedly and expectedly. Be that as it may, every deceased person must undergo a funeral ceremony. Which method to choose is the decision of loved ones or the last will of the deceased. Currently there are 2 most common types:

  • burial in the ground
  • cremation.

Regardless of which method is chosen, you should worry about the burial place. And here some difficulties may arise.

If in small villages and towns there are no problems with space in cemeteries, then in big cities it is a real disaster. Not only is it difficult to choose what you want, but the prices are also quite high. In addition, due to the large number of deaths, some cemeteries are closed, and they do not particularly care about opening new ones.

In addition, there is a tendency to move such funeral areas outside the city. Getting to such places is not that convenient, but that doesn't really interest anyone. That is why many people make one grave.

Moscow Novodevichy Cemetery

It is considered one of the most famous cemeteries in Moscow. The year of its foundation is considered to be 1898, near the walls of the Novodevichy Convent. The first burials were made here in the 16th century. These were the nuns of the monastery. Later they began to bury the other deceased.

Since over time the territory was almost full, they decided to allocate another plot of land for expansion. The official opening took place in 1904. Now the old part is called the Old Novodevichy Cemetery, and the modern part is called the New Novodevichy Cemetery.

Nowadays it is also called the necropolis. According to some sources, about 26,000 people are buried here, and the territory reaches 8 hectares of land.

How to get to Novodevichy Cemetery

Its location address: Luzhnetsky passage, 2. You can get there at:

  • metro,
  • bus,
  • trolleybus.

If you choose the metro, you should get off at Sportivnaya station. Turn right and walk along 10th Anniversary of October Street. You will see a monastery. turn left and walk along the wall to the cemetery gate. You can also get there by buses number 64, 132 or trolleybus 5.15.

Opening hours

The opening hours of the Novodevichy Cemetery for visitors are as follows: from Monday to Sunday from 10.00 to 17.00.

Who is buried at Novodevichy Cemetery

Some historical documents say that here lie the remains of the daughter of Ivan the Terrible, the daughters of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the sister of Peter 1 and Tsarina Sophia, the wife of Peter 1. Also in the 19th century, wealthy merchants, political and public figures, scientists, writers, and musicians began to be buried here .

In 1922, the cemetery was given the status of a museum and taken under state protection. Over the course of 8 years, a park with alleys was laid out on the territory of the necropolis. With this improvement of the territory, a large number of ancient graves were destroyed, and many were damaged.

As already mentioned, from the 19th century, burials of famous people began to take place on the territory. The entire territory is divided into 4 sectors. But areas 5 to 8 began to be used only in the 20th century. Also on the territory of the New Novodevichy Cemetery, a columbarium was built, where urns with the ashes of the dead are buried. Currently there are about 7,000 urns here. The most famous is Yeltsin’s grave at the Novodevichy cemetery.

But already in the 80s, the newest territory of the cemetery appeared. Previously, there was a stone-masonry workshop in its place.

As already mentioned, this burial place is not intended for mere mortals. Mostly those who have certain merits are buried here. Among them are a large number of pop stars, poets, actors, politicians and other celebrities. Separately, for a long time we can talk about the monuments at the Novodevichy cemetery. Some of them are architectural masterpieces. Among them there are full-length sculptures and quite extraordinary monumental compositions.

This cemetery contains the burials of the following famous people:

  • political figures: B. Yeltsin, N.S. Khrushchev, R.M. Gorbachev, A.I. Lebed;
  • writers: I.A.Ilf, M.A.Bulgakov, A.N.Tolstoy, S.Ya.Marshak, V.M.Shukshin;
  • actors: O.I. Yankovsky, L.P. Orlov, Y. Nikulin, E. Leonov, R. Bykov, A. Papanov, I. Smoktunovsky, V. Tikhonov;
  • singers: M. Bernes, L. Ruslanova, A. Vertinsky;
  • announcer - Yuri Levitan;
  • aircraft designer - A.N. Tupolev;
  • pilot-cosmonauts - G. Titov and G. Beregovoi;
  • directors - S. Bondarchuk, S. Gerasimov.

Among such famous people, the person Ilya Glazunov stands out. He was a People's Artist of the USSR. After he died on July 9, it was decided to hold the funeral of Ilya Glazunov at the Novodevichy cemetery next to the grave of Vladimir Zeldin.

The graves of celebrities at the Novodevichy Cemetery are located throughout the territory. After all, their location depends on the time of their death. Many people want to see their tombstones and therefore come to the cemetery. And demand, as we know, creates supply. They began to conduct excursions on the territory of the cemetery for everyone who wants to see all the graves and not have to look for them among others.

Since the territory of the cemetery is no longer increasing, and accordingly there are no more places available for this, it was decided that the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery in Mytishchi or Troekurovskoye could become the further resting place of the first persons of the state. An application for such a decision was announced back in 2007 by the head of the presidential affairs, Vladimir Kozhin, after the death of Mstislav Rostropovich. But nevertheless, burials are still carried out.

Currently, this cemetery is a place of frequent visits by tourists. Many tombstones were made by famous sculptors. Also, a large number of urns with ashes and graves are classified as cultural heritage monuments of regional and federal significance.

The Lord is always with you!


Urns with the ashes of stratonauts

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

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

There are never many people at Novodevichy (unless someone important is being buried, but there are very few significant people these days). During a 4-5 hour tour of the cemetery, it’s good if you meet 30-40 people. This is not counting foreign tourists - they are brought in in large groups, but they are taken to see only 10-15 “main” graves - Yeltsin, Chaliapin, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, etc. Most of the tombstones, fences and monuments are unkempt, rickety, areas are overgrown with weeds, and the inscriptions have been erased by time. There are a lot of thrushes and starlings in the tree branches, but 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:

He calculated and theoretically studied many space flight trajectories, determining 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. Formulated the problem of the existence of “space navigation seasons.” The terms “cosmonautics” and “first cosmic velocity” 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 analyze interstellar flights, to improve the accuracy of trajectory calculations, and proved that reaching the stars is, in principle, possible during a human lifetime.

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

In 1934, through the Trade Representation of the USSR 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, having left almost all of his scientific and personal archives with his parents in Lodz and taking only the essentials, he and his wife came to the Soviet Union for permanent residence.”

Well, then there is theoretical and practical work in closed research institutes for 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 the world saw the face of the Russian cosmologist for the first time on the pages of Western media.

Surgeon Bakulev

Poet Velimir Khlebnikov and his relatives

General Eternal and his wife. And what is Pyotr Zigmundovich “Vernon Kress” (writer Demant) doing 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 Aachen, Germany, and 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 NKVD officers and on June 18, deported to Siberia (Narym region).

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

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

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

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

Director Dziga Vertov

Several thousand urns containing ashes are built into the walls of the cemetery. These are mainly burials from the 1930s-60s. Very often epitaphs, poems, and parting words are engraved on the slabs there.

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

And here is Kio’s grave itself:

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

Pyotr Andreevich Zalomov is the prototype of the hero of Gorky’s novel “Mother” by 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, carrying a red flag with the inscription “Down with autocracy!” During the demonstration he was arrested, and at the trial he made a speech directed against the monarchy. He was sentenced to lifelong exile in Eastern Siberia.

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

It is interesting that he joined the CPSU(b) only in 1925. Later life is reported briefly - “at economic and party work”:

Alexander Zinoviev, philosopher and dissident

Academician Igor Tamm

The graves of the numerous Ilyenkov clan, the founder of whose dynasty is Vasily Pavlovich Ilyenkov (1897-1967), writer. Winner 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 Dorogobuzhsky district, 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, editor of the newspapers “Our Village” and “Bryansky Rabochiy”. In 1930 he moved to Moscow, until 1932 he was the organizational secretary of RAPP. In Moscow, he lived with his family in the famous “writer’s house” on Kamergersky Lane:

Journalist and writer Ilya Erenburg

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

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

Politicians were placed together with criminals. The barracks were densely packed with prisoners, but there were three times as many bedbugs in it. Bedbugs shared food, people shared space. Clashes broke out constantly.

Someone poked Hamburg in the side: “Go to the bucket, you idiot!” Joseph, a militant convicted of barricade fighting, did not remain in debt, and many reached out for sharpening. A stabbing was brewing. Frunze jumped off the bunk and shouted to the criminals: “If you start a fight, we’ll kill you, you won’t get any bones.” Remember these words! It sounded pretty impressive. The classes fell silent, and since then quarrels have become rare, and the new “authority” was chosen as the headman: everyone understood that no one could protect the interests of the prisoners before the administration as well as this man.”

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 a deceased person 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 driftwood is 37 years old and has begun to collapse. A rare domestic director whose films received two international awards at once - in 1935 the prize of the Venice Film Festival for “The 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’s sad that the thujas have dried up around the monument, and the caretakers don’t pay attention to it

English orientalist and, apparently, English intelligence officer Yuri Nikolaevich Roerich. He studied at three universities - the School of Oriental Studies at the University of London, 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 enlist him in the Red Army, received the rank of colonel of the Red Army, and served in the Himalayas during the Second World War. In 1957 he returned to the USSR

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

So, that's the end. Fuller, friends, glass.
Forever, historian, mint this date:
Today the Cockroach lay down in the coffin,
And only the mustache threatens us out of habit.

Let the name of God not leave your lips yet,
And, harnessed to a gun carriage,
High priests guide
Funeral march,

Let the cannon muzzles roar,
And an expert in spicy dishes
Russia, fed up,
The last one gives the salute,

Let there be no end to false chants
And crocodile tears, -
He is dead. And no balm
Its rot will not be drowned out.

Monument to traveler and TV presenter Yuri Senkevich

Monument to film director Sergei Gerasimov.
Monument to the artist Sergei Vasilievich Gerasimov -

Satirist Smirnov-Sokolsky. The first director of the Variety Theater. 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 was born Sofia Mushkat. Auditor of the RSDLP cash desk 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 Utesov

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

Urns with the ashes of a family of Indian communists and intellectuals

Burial places of the large Khrushchev family

The modest grave of the former chairman of the government 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 in which the heads of the dead, encrypted inscriptions on monuments, Scandinavian marks and bulletproof caps for tombstones disappeared...

The online publication m24.ru is launching a new project, within which you will learn about the history, legends and current state of the capital's cemeteries. In the first material we will talk about the Novodevichy cemetery, where 57 tombstones of famous figures of art, science and technology were recently restored.

Gogol and Chekhov, Stanislavsky and Vakhtangov, Shostakovich and Prokofiev found their final 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 appeared 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 along the southern wall of the monastery.

The territory of the Novodevichy cemetery has been expanded several times. The total area of ​​all sites 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 burials 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 carriage designed for transporting 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 “Golgotha” stone (it was named so due to its shape resembling the mountain where Jesus Christ was crucified) from the former burial place of Nikolai Gogol in the Danilov Monastery. This spongy Black Sea granite, according to legend, was brought by Konstantin Aksakov from 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 craftsmen dumped production waste.

Since Bulgakov considered Gogol his teacher and even sought inspiration from 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 tombstone of composer Dmitry Shostakovich depicts four notes: D, E-flat, C and B. If you write them in Latin notation, you get DSCH - the composer's initials. The theme of these four notes is considered his calling card.


Photo: m24.ru/Alexander Avilov

Buried twice

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


Photo: m24.ru/Alexander Avilov

Posthumous dialogue

The author of "The Worker and the Collective Farm Woman" Vera Mukhina 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 me 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 Sobinov. 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 People's Republic of China 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, 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 this, 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. The fragile figure of the great ballerina, carved on rough white stone, reflects this contrast.


Yury Nikulin

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


Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin was buried in the central alley of the Novodevichy cemetery. The grave of the first Russian president is located so that it is not adjacent to other graves.


Konstantin Stanislavsky

The monument to Konstantin Stanislavsky was created by the famous sculptor Salavat Shcherbakov. The tombstone 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 cloak without a face under the hood - this is how sculptor Oleg Komov presented the famous theater figure.

Nadezhda Alliluyeva

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


Vladimir Mayakovsky

Initially, the ashes of Vladimir Mayakovsky, who died under mysterious circumstances, were located in the columbarium of the New Donskoye Cemetery. Later, as a result of the persistent actions of Lily Brik and the poet’s elder sister Lyudmila, the urn with Mayakovsky’s ashes 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 life cut short. At first they wanted to bury the writer and film director in his 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, in contrast to its ideologically consistent Soviet “predecessor,” reflects the tragic 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 stronger in the world than free scientific thought.” However, this statement did not receive the approval of Soviet censorship and was replaced with a more “politically correct” one.


Yuri Levitan

During the Great Patriotic War, Yuri Levitan voiced about 2 thousand Sovinformburo reports 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 opened accompanied by melody from the film “Seventeen Moments of Spring.” The bronze figure of “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 General Secretary in 1962. Using black and white colors 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. The machines created by Tupolev set 78 world records and carried out about 30 outstanding flights.

Raisa Gorbacheva

Mikhail Gorbachev insisted that his wife be buried on the site of the 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 flowerbed, but after seeing the work of the architect Friedrich Soghoyan, who depicted the “first lady” of the USSR as young and sad, they agreed.


Located near the Sportivnaya metro station in Moscow, the Novodevichy Cemetery is known primarily for the fact that there are many graves of celebrities on its territory. It is because of this that the necropolis attracts the attention of tourists and people interested in the historical past of Russia and the personalities of prominent people.

History of the necropolis

WITH The cemetery received its name due to its proximity to the Novodevichy Convent. Official documents about scheduled burials here date back to 1898, and its opening took place in 1904. The expansion of the capital and the increase in its population inevitably entailed an increase in the territory of the cemetery. Official decrees on the inclusion of nearby territories into the necropolis were issued twice:

  • in 1949, the so-called New Novodevichy cemetery was formed to the south of the ancestral territory;
  • at the end of the 70s. It was decided to create the Newest Novodevichy Cemetery.

As a result of these expansions, the current territory of the necropolis is approximately 7.5 hectares, and over 26 thousand people are buried here. The importance of Novodevichy as a cultural site is evidenced by the UNESCO decree on its inclusion in the list of one hundred most important necropolises in the world.

Initially, its deceased novices were buried on the lands adjacent to the monastery by order of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III. Over time, graves of ordinary Muscovites began to appear. Since the middle of the 17th century, news appears in sources about the performance of funeral rites for the late daughters of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in the territory of the monastery cemetery. Before this, the necropolis of the ruling dynasty was the Kremlin Archangel Cathedral. The burials of representatives of the reigning dynasty far from the main necropolis are explained by two reasons:

The burials of members of the ruling dynasty at Novodevichy did not make this cemetery a place for the posthumous resting place of privileged persons. A certain trend towards this has been observed since the second half of the 19th century. There are more and more graves of intellectuals and successful merchants. Largely thanks to this, the decrees of 1898 and 1904 were passed, and the cemetery area was fenced off.

The revolution of 1917 stopped for some time the process of turning Novodevichy into

necropolis for the elite. Since then, funerals of ordinary Muscovites have been held here. But already in 1922, the territory of the cemetery was declared a museum. Restoration work is being carried out, and to increase the attractiveness of the place, a large square with picturesque alleys is being created. However, the latter led to the destruction and damage of old graves.

By decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of 1927, the territory of the cemetery was reserved for the burial of persons who occupied a high position in society. At the same time, the necropolis was reorganized. The historical burial sites were divided into four sectors. Subsequently, four more were added to them: on their territory you can find graves only from the 20th century.

In connection with the increase in the number of deceased people associated with the growth of the population of Moscow, a columbarium that is still in operation was opened, where urns with the ashes of the deceased are located. Currently, the columbarium houses over seven thousand urns.

As already mentioned, the special status of the cemetery is associated with the abundance of graves of famous people here. Most of them are marked by monuments made by recognized sculptors. Among those celebrities who are buried at the Novodevichy cemetery, Several groups can be distinguished:

Monument to Yeltsin

Perhaps the most famous burial is the grave, the photo of which is attached below. This is the grave of the first elected president of the Russian Federation - Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin (died April 23, 2007). At first, at the burial site there was a traditional small hill and a wooden Orthodox cross. Later, as an assessment of Yeltsin’s merits in the formation of a new Russian statehood, his grave was “covered” with a marble Russian tricolor.

Tombstone N.S. Khrushchev

The monument to Khrushchev at the Novodevichy cemetery was made by avant-garde sculptor Ernst Neizvestny. When Nikita Sergeevich headed the Soviet Union, he harshly criticized an exhibition of contemporary art. In fact, this meant a ban on creating. However, after being removed from power, Khrushchev reconsidered his views. Therefore, his son Sergei personally turned to Neizvestny with a request to design a monument for his father.

In his work, the sculptor symbolically expressed the duality of the nature of the former general secretary. The monument represents the golden head of Khrushchev, standing in a white marble niche against a background of black granite. This is exactly how Nikita Sergeevich is remembered by society: always wanting the good of his country, he made monstrous mistakes that cost dearly to the economy and foreign policy.

It should be noted that the Brezhnev authorities reacted coolly to the idea of ​​the Unknown. Some saw in the black granite a hint of the stagnation that gripped the country in the 70s. With great difficulty, the family of the deceased managed to obtain permission to install a monument by Neizvestny.

Not all famous people wanted to be buried in a prestigious place. For example, Vasily Shukshin really wanted to be taken to Siberia, where he was born, after his death. His mother insisted on the same thing. But Shukshin’s significance for Soviet culture in the eyes of the authorities seemed to be a more important factor in comparison with the last will of the deceased and the desires of his family.

For the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union, Andrei Gromyko, the grave at Novodevichy turned out to be a kind of demotion in status. The fact is that it was originally planned to bury his body near the Kremlin wall, as was done with the most prominent political figures of the Soviet era. But the situation changed, the USSR entered a period of severe crisis and was falling apart before our eyes. Burial on the territory of the Kremlin has lost its relevance.

Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation in 1998-1999. Evgeny Maksimovich Primakov was also buried at Novodevichy against his will. He wanted to rest next to his wife at the Kuntsevskoye cemetery, but according to the instructions of the authorities, his wish was ignored. The only thing in which his last will was respected was the poem engraved on the gray granite monument: “ I firmly decided: to be in the harness until the end, until I’m exhausted, until I fall. And if it becomes unbearably hard, then even then I will not leave the road.”It was written by Evgeniy Maksimovich himself.

Monument as a symbol

Most of the tombstones at Novodevichy reflect the professional side of the activities of the people buried there. For example, General Lebed is forever imprinted in his jacket, decorated with all the medals and insignia he received. The grave of TV presenter and traveler Yuri Senkevich is decorated with a sculptural wave with a reed vessel in memory of his sailing on the boats "Ra" and "Tigris" with Thor Heyerdahl.

The famous Russian clown and remembered for his role as the Goonie in the comedies of Leonid Gaidai, Yuri Nikulin, was also buried at Novodevichy. His monument is a bronze sculpture sitting with a cigarette between his fingers next to the grave. The monument to another famous actor, Vyacheslav Tikhonov, is a sculptural image of Stirlitz, his character from the popular film series “Seventeen Moments of Spring.”

In recognition of the services of famous writers, their monuments are complemented by artistic depictions of the characters in their works. The tombstone of Alexander Fadeev was created according to this principle: his monument is surrounded by sculptural images of characters from the novel “The Young Guard”. After his death, Alexei Tolstoy, popular under Soviet rule, is also in the company of the heroes of his novels: “Walking Through Torment” and “Peter the Great.”

The poet Andrei Voznesensky personally developed the design of his tombstone. According to his plan, a split tombstone made of dark granite was installed on the grave, along which a massive ball was rolling down. Only a small crucifix keeps the ball from falling completely. At the request of the poet, there are no images or sculptures on his grave.

The history of the burial of N.V. Gogol

Every cemetery has dark legends associated with it.. For Novodevichy, such a legend arose thanks to the reburial of the famous writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in 1931. This happened at the height of anti-religious policies in the USSR. Then a decision was made to liquidate the Danilovsky Monastery and the cemetery belonging to it. While moving the ashes of the deceased, the coffin was opened and it was discovered that the inside of its lid was scratched. Hence the rumors that the writer was buried alive.

The old monument to Gogol (a black stone with an uneven surface symbolizing Golgotha) was given as a tombstone to another Russian writer - Mikhail Bulgakov. Instead, a sculptural image of Gogol was installed with a dedication on behalf of the Soviet government. Only in 2009 the writer’s tombstone acquired its original appearance..

Excursion programs

Even this cursory review allows us to form a certain idea of ​​​​the significance of the necropolis in the complex of cultural heritage of the country. Excursions are constantly held here for both domestic and foreign tourists, and special guides and maps or diagrams by section are compiled. Throughout the week, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the entire Novodevichy Cemetery is open to the public. The address is easy to remember: Moscow, Luzhitsky proezd, 2.

For those who do not have the opportunity to personally join a tour group, virtual tours are offered, which are also much cheaper than standard ones. But people who believe that such a service cannot be compared with the magical feeling that arises when entering the territory where people like Vishnevsky or Chernyakhovsky are buried should, of course, go there in person. There are various types of transport to the Novodevichy Cemetery: you can get to it by metro, and get there by trolleybus or taxi.