THE place to have your corpse buried in Moscow...

...other than the Kremlin, of course, is the Новодевичье кладбище (Novodeviche cemetery).


One Saturday a couple of weeks ago, Nathan and I decided while everyone slept, that we wanted to do something and not sleep all day. I looked through my rough guide and the notes from my good подруга, Hannah, and told him that we should check out the Novodeviche cemetery - it's supposed to be huge and quite the sight.

So we set off, on our way to what we thought was the right metro station. We got off and looked at a map near the street, hoping to get our bearings and find out exactly where we needed to go to find the graveyard. After looking at the map and doing a few of those hand-in-front-of-your-chest-while-rotating-your-hips-and-looking-at-the-ground things, we set off down the road.

We kept walking straight for a while, and for the first few streets, it seemed like we were on the right track. That is, until we got to a point where there wasn't a street directly in front of us, as should have been the case based on the map. We decided to head down an alley, which curved and weaved, eventually leading to a large, multi-lane street. That certainly didn't seem right, so we turned left and headed down the road, hoping to catch a glimpse of some gold or something - anything that could help us find our way to the church.

After about 20 minutes of walking straight, seeing absolutely nothing that looked like a church or a graveyard, we gave up and headed back to the metro. We decided to try the next stop down from the one we had previously attempted. The map looked a little simpler since it should have taken us only a few turns to get to the church instead of walking straight for an undefined distance and then turn.

So we set off from the new metro, following our devised plan of motion. Ultimately we saw the all brick walls that signified the Novodeviche convent, meaning that the cemetery should be just behind the churches.

The Novodeviche convent.

We followed the red bricks until we found a gate and entered the somber field of monuments.


I knew from seeing some pictures that there were going to be some pretty elaborate monuments in the cemetery, but man...Russians put some major effort into their headstones. What is most interesting is that some of the most intricate and interesting tombs don't belong to those internationally known people. I'm sure some of them are famous in Russia, but some of the most impressive graves I saw bore names that I'd never seen in my life.

But anyway, before I get to those lesser-knowns, here is the first wave of pictures - these are those big names:

Just as you pass the first few rows of graves, you see one massive hunk of color off on it's own. That'd be Boris Yeltsin's grave. Yes, it IS a massive Russian flag, made to look like it's waving. It's pretty bad.

I guess it was supposed to be patriotic?

Speaking of former Soviet politicians, father back in the yard is the marker that represents Nikita Krushchev's final resting place.

The head sitting there sans body is kind of intimidating, no?

Then, of course, any large gathering of Russians (even if they're dead) requires the presence of some world-famous writers.

Mikhail Bulgakov - writer of The Master and Margarita. Damn good book. Damn weird book. Book that I can't seem to make myself read except when I'm on the metro.

Anton Chekhov. Contemporary of Tolstoy and pretty influential in the world of theater.

Nikolai Gogol. He's that guy whose name seems to come up once you get past the Tolstoys, Pushkins and Dostoevskys in terms of the great Russian writers (At least as far as I've heard...need to get some of his stuff). Also had an awesome hair/mustache combo.


Probably the most recognizable statue in the cemetery. I forget whose grave it is.

The rest are simply graves that I found to be of particular interest. I didn't know who any of them were, but the level of detail in some of the graves makes me wish I did.


These pictures also give you some level of knowledge of just how much Russians love honoring the dead, be it at statues of poets or writers or others. I know we do such things in America as well, but it just seems like it's on another level in Russia.


This next picture in particular struck me. I have no idea who this is, but the amount of flowers, scarves and such was simply astounding.


We stayed for about an hour or so and saw maybe 20% of the graves there (that might be a generous estimate). Granted, many of them are more boring, but really, the place is humongous and filled with many, many, many more impressive monuments. I figure I'll be going back soon. Other than Yeltsin's grave, the level of respect for the dead there is fascinating to see.

The only question I had in leaving was - if one were to go in the summer, when the snow has thawed...would it detract from the experience or add to it or simply be a different experience altogether?