The solemn Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia

*WS 75: the solemn Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, Russia*

The Novodevichy Cemetery was inaugurated in 1898 and over 27,000 people have been buried here. It started off as an ordinary public cemetery. At that time the nobleman and the VIP were normally buried in the many church abbeys. After the communist came into power in the 1930s, religion could not be practised, the churches were closed or even destroyed. Burial in churches were no longer possible, so ordinary VIP had to be buried here too. Only the VVIP could be buried at the Kremlin. In fact the remains of many famous Russians buried in church abbeys were disinterred and reburied at the Novodevichy. Now only the VIP could be buried here. We visited the cemetery in 2011.  

It has a park-like ambiance and many of the tombs have simple but attractive sculptured tombstones. The cemetery wall is used as a columbarium, 1st photo. Next 3 are tombs of some famous people: Paisa Gorbacheva (wife of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last President of the Soviet Union), the 3 WW2 heros (Dovator, Talacikhin and Panfilav) and a footballer/coach Vladimir Fedotov. Then a family plot.  The next 2 are more artistic tombs and lastly that of Boris Yeltsin, the 1st President of Russia. A most simple tomb, no bigger area than the others, no names engraved too, just a swaying Russian flag.