The central alley of the Novodevichy cemetery. Which celebrities are buried at the Novodevichye cemetery

Before moving on to the story, I would like to apologize to the readers for such an ordinary title of the article. All the relevant headlines related to the cemetery sounded ambiguous. “How to get to the Novodevichy Cemetery” or “How to get ....” - can be interpreted in different ways, not to mention “How to get to the Novodevichy Cemetery.” We also didn’t like our standard header “Features of the national walk...” Therefore, they left the stable phrase “Novodevichy Cemetery”. Now let's move on to the summary of the article:

• HOW TO GET TO NOVODEVICHY CEMETERY BY METRO
• HOW TO GET TO NOVODEVICHY MONASTERY BY METRO
• HOW TO GET TO NOVODEVICHY CEMETERY FROM NOVODEVICHY MONASTERY
• OPENING SCHEDULE OF NOVODEVICHY CEMETERY
• VISITING NOVODEVICHYE CEMETERY
• WALKING ROUTE THROUGH NOVODEVICHYE CEMETERY
• BURIALS AT NOVODEVICHY CEMETERY
• TOUR OF NOVODEVICHYE CEMETERY

HOW TO GET TO NOVODEVICHY CEMETERY AND MONASTERY BY METRO

The road to the Novodevichy cemetery lies past the Novodevichy Convent. I am adding a second section heading so that the article can be used by people who want to visit only the monastery.
The metro station closest to the Novodevichy cemetery and the monastery is called “Sportivnaya”, this is the red Sokolnicheskaya metro line. Sportivnaya station is located southwest of the center of Moscow.

There are two exits at the station. If you are coming from the center, then take the last carriages and exit to the left. In any case, follow the sign “exit to 10th Anniversary of October Street and Novodevichy Convent.”
The lobby of the Sportivnaya metro station is located on a small square. Immediately at the exit there is a sign on the column with an arrow “To the Novodevichy Convent”.

We go straight across the square to the ground pedestrian crossing.

You need to cross the narrow 10th Anniversary of October Street and immediately turn right. Now we go straight down the street.

Landmarks on the street - on the left hand we first see the cafe “Nineteen Twenty Seven”

When you reach the end of the street, in the distance you will see the white wall and red towers of the Novodevichy Convent. Those who are going to a monastery, skip a couple of paragraphs. We are going to the cemetery. That is, BEFORE the square and BEFORE the pedestrian crossing you need to turn left.

From a distance you can already notice the red brick wall of the Novodevichy cemetery.

Don’t rush to cross the road at the first crossing you come across!

Go to the next one, it will be more convenient. The second crossing is located directly opposite the entrance to the Novodevichy cemetery.

Here is the route map from the Sportivnaya metro station (the desired lobby is marked with a red circle).

Now I'll take a break for a moment and tell people

HOW TO GET TO NOVODEVICHY MONASTERY

We walked from the Sportivnaya metro station along 10 Letiya Oktyabrya Street and parted at its end. I think you yourself have guessed that the Novodevichy Convent is just a stone’s throw away, it’s already clearly visible. Just be careful! You need to cross three overpasses. One is unregulated. Be careful, not all drivers allow pedestrians to pass!

After the transition we continue to move straight. Traffic lights are installed at the other two surface crossings.
Second transition.

And the third.

It's hard to get lost here. The monastery is at your fingertips.

We go to the entrance, to the gateway Church of the Transfiguration.

If you want to walk around the territory of the Novodevichy Convent and go to the Assumption Church, go straight through the gate.

If you are interested in exhibitions in the chambers of the monastery, then you will have to buy a ticket. The ticket office is located to the right of the gate.

I would like to warn you that photo and video shooting on the territory of the Novodevichy Convent is paid, and at the same box office you need to buy a ticket for the right to photograph and video shoot. Until recently, a ticket for a photo shoot cost 100 rubles, a video – 200 rubles.

Remember that the main shrine of the monastery, the Smolensk Cathedral, is not heated. It is open only in the warm season, that is, in summer. Every year it opens at different times, depending on the temperature. Sometimes a visit is possible at the beginning of May, sometimes from the end of the month or even from the beginning of June. The Smolensk Cathedral is closed in September-October. In summer, there is also a high chance that you will find yourself at a locked gate. In rainy weather, the Smolensk Cathedral is closed. If the cathedral is open, you will have to buy a ticket to visit it. It is considered an object of display at the Museum of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Novodevichy Convent is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
An adult ticket costs 300 rubles. Schoolchildren, students, pensioners pay 100 rubles per ticket.

HOW TO GET FROM NOVODEVICHY MONASTERY TO NOVODEVICHY CEMETERY

Although the famous cemetery is located close to the monastery, the through passage through the monastery territory is closed. You need to exit the gate and turn right. At the round corner tower, turn right again.

The path along the monastery wall will lead to the entrance to the Novodevichy cemetery.

Here is a map of the passage from the Sportivnaya metro station to the Novodevichy Convent (purple arrows) and from the monastery to the Novodevichy cemetery (blue arrows).

To visit the necropolis, you need to know

OPENING SCHEDULE OF NOVODEVICHY CEMETERY

Novodevichy Cemetery is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you arrive at the gate at 4:30 p.m., you will be allowed through, but will be asked to finish examining it by 5 p.m.

VISITING NOVODEVICHYE CEMETERY

There are no restrictions for individual visits to the cemetery. If you go alone or two or five of you, admission is free. You can buy flowers at the flower shop. You are allowed to bring your own bouquets or candles.

WALKING ROUTE THROUGH NOVODEVICHYE CEMETERY

The entire territory of the cemetery is divided into three sections: the old territory, the new and the newest. We will offer you the traditional route.

You have entered the main (and only open) gate and found yourself in new territory. Walk straight along the central alley to the former Funeral Square.

At the intersection of two wide alleys, turn right.

To your right will be the graves of T. Samoilova, L. Zykina, S. Mikhalkov, Y. Nikulin, M. Ladynina, I. Moiseev and other famous cultural figures.

Enter the gate of the old territory.

As soon as you enter the gate, immediately turn right, walk along the wall to area No. 2, paying attention to the burials on the left.

You will pass by the graves of L. Kassil, N. Gogol, A. Chekhov, M. Bulgakov, K. Stanislavsky, M. Ermolova, M. Nesterov, I. Levitan, A. Tolstoy. A little before reaching the cemetery fence, turn left at the grave of S. Marshak.

Let's follow this path.

On the left side you will see the grave of D. Shostakovich and his first wife.
Then walk along the stone fence of the cemetery (it will be on your right) to the burial place of N. Alliluyeva, the wife of I. Stalin.

Immediately after her grave, turn left. Don't miss the grave of People's Commissar V. Molotov (left), writer N. Ostrovsky (right), aircraft designer N. Polikarpov, People's Commissar G. Chicherin.
As soon as you reach the wide alley, turn left and then right to site number 4.

Here you will see the burial places of A. Gromyko, A. Scriabin, S. Taneev, F. Chaliapin. Along the central alley of the fourth section you will reach the gate of the new territory. As you exit the gate, you will immediately see the grave of Boris Chirkov.

Here turn left and walk along the wall separating the old territory from the new one.

On the right will be the burial place of N. Podgorny. Walk a little forward to the grave of announcer Yu. Levitan.

You have reached the 11th precinct. People's artists T. Shmyga, V. Tikhonov, M. Ulyanov, O. Yankovsky, N. Kryuchkov L. Gurchenko, G. Zhzhonov, A. Raikin, E. Evstigneev and many other celebrities are buried there. This area is highlighted in red in the diagram.

Then return to the new territory again. The entrance is clearly visible in the photo.

To the left of the fence (it was left behind) in the new territory at the corner of the 7th section you will see the grave of N.S. Khrushchev.

At the seventh site you will also meet many familiar names. When you return to the funeral square, go further past the grave of B.N. Yeltsin, to the southern wall of the cemetery. There you will find the grave of R.M. Gorbacheva, to the right of it you will see a monument on the grave of General A. Lebed.

BURIALS AT NOVODEVICHY CEMETERY

For those who do not have the opportunity to walk around the Novodevichy cemetery, we present several photographs of burials.

TOUR OF NOVODEVICHYE CEMETERY

You can wander around the Novodevichy cemetery for a long time. But without a guide you are unlikely to find the grave of D. Ulyanov (younger brother of V. Lenin) and Vasily Shukshin, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya and Sergei Prokofiev. Of course, you can buy a booklet with a diagram of the main burials, but no booklet will tell you how the “Golgotha” stone from the grave of N.V. Gogol ended up above the burial of M.A. Bulgakov, why a copy of her sculpture was installed on the grave of Nadezhda Alliluyeva portrait and where on Novodevichy you can see “a heart on the palms”. On the excursion you will learn a lot of interesting and unknown information to the general public about the lives of famous people.

Address: Luzhnetsky proezd, 2

Opening hours: daily from 9:00 to 17:00, free admission.

How to get to Novodevichy Cemetery: st. metro station Sportivnaya avt. 64, 132, troll. 5, 15. Or when leaving the station. metro Sportivnaya turn right and walk along the street. 10th Anniversary of the October Revolution to the Novodevichy Convent, then turn left and walk along the monastery wall to the cemetery gate.

The first burials in the area of ​​the current Novodevichy cemetery appeared in the 70s of the 16th century on the territory of the Novodevichy Convent. Nuns were buried in the monastery, and later others.

By the end of the 19th century, the monastery necropolis was almost full, and in 1898, two hectares of land were allocated on the southern side of the monastery to increase the area of ​​the cemetery. Under the guidance of professor of architecture I.P. Mashkov, the walls of the cemetery were built and the plots were laid out. The official opening of the Novodevichy cemetery took place in 1904, but burials began to take place before its opening. Now the territory of this cemetery is called the “old Novodevichy cemetery”.

In 1949, the cemetery was expanded even further to the south, and this territory was named “New Novodevichy Cemetery.” During 1950-1956, walls were built around the new territory, as well as office premises. The Novodevichy Cemetery was expanded once again in 1970, the “Newest Novodevichy Cemetery.” Today, the Novodevichy cemetery consists of four parts with a total area of ​​more than 7.5 hectares. About 26,000 people are buried here.

Since the beginning of the Novodevichy cemetery was laid in the necropolis of the monastery, but it is here that the most ancient burials are located. In the basement of the Smolensk Cathedral of the Novodevichy Convent lie the remains of Ivan the Terrible’s daughter Anna, his daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law. The daughters of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the sisters of Peter I, as well as princesses Sophia (nun Susanna), Evdokia and Ekaterina Miloslavsky, the first wife of Peter I Evdokia Lopukhina (nun Elena) are also buried here. In the 19th century, wealthy merchants, writers, scientists, musicians, prominent political and public figures began to be buried on the territory of the monastery.

In 1922, the Novodevichy Convent, together with the cemetery, acquired the status of a museum and was taken under state protection. But in 1930, it was decided to lay out a park with lawns and alleys on the site of the necropolis. As a result of reconstruction, out of more than two thousand ancient graves, only about a hundred remained, and they were significantly damaged.

But on the territory of the monastery the transformations were not so destructive. Here are preserved the graves of the famous hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, poet Denis Davydov, Prince S. Trubetskoy, Lieutenant Colonel M. I. Muravyov-Apostol, A. N. Pleshcheev, writers I. I. Lazhechnikov and A. F. Pisemsky, the creator of the Nikolai orphanage Rukavishnikov, historian S.M. Solovyov, philosopher Vl.S. Solovyov, writer Vs.S. Solovyov, historian and writer M.P. Pogodin, founder of the Historical Museum, Count A.S. Uvarov, General A.A. Brusilov, father of Herzen, landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev, director of the Department of Spiritual Affairs of the Ministry of Spiritual Affairs and Public Education - A.I. Turgenev, brothers N.A. and D.A. Milyutin. A.P.’s grave has also been preserved. Chekhov. Chekhov died of tuberculosis in the German resort town of Badenweiler in July 1914. The writer's body was delivered to Moscow in a special refrigerator car designed for transporting oysters. At first, Chekhov was buried next to the grave of his father, and later the writer’s ashes were transferred to the “old” site of the Novodevichy cemetery.

Near the apses of the Smolensk Cathedral you can see a large white marble slab - the first abbess of the Novodevichy Convent, Elena Detochkina (died November 18, 1548), is buried here. The abbess, Mother Seraphima Chernaya (life: 1914-1999), was also buried on the territory of the monastery, under whom the monastery’s activities were resumed in 1994.

As already mentioned, after the revolution, the Novodevichy cemetery turned into a burial place for high-ranking officials. When an active anti-religious campaign unfolded in the 30s, the graves of many famous people were moved from the ruined monastery necropolises to the Novodevichy cemetery, among which were the burials of N.V. Gogol, D.V. Venevitinov, writer S.T. Aksakov, artist I.I. Levitan, Sergei and Pavel Tretyakov and others. On the old territory there is also the grave of the famous Russian bass - F.I. Shalyapin. Initially, after his death, Chaliapin was buried in Paris, and almost fifty years later the singer’s ashes were reburied in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.

In the old cemetery territory, the numbering of plots starts from the Central Alley. On the 1st and 2nd sections, the rows run in the direction of Luzhenetsky Proezd, and for the 3rd and 4th sections - towards the “newest” cemetery. The first section has a total of 47 rows, of which 40 are located perpendicular to the monastery wall, and 7 run parallel to it. The second section has 41 rows, the third section has 65 rows, and the fourth section has 61 rows.

Writers M. A. Bulgakov, V. A. Gilyarovsky, A. N. Tolstoy, V. V. Mayakovsky, I. A. Ilf, N. A. Ostrovsky, S. Ya. Marshak, and others are also buried on the old territory of the Novodevichy Cemetery. L.A. Kassil, V.M. Shukshin, directors V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, E.B. Vakhtangov, S.M. Eisenstein, famous actors L.P. Orlova, O.I. Yankovsky, musicians A. N. Scriabin, I. O. Dunaevsky, S. S. Prokofiev, D. D. Shostakovich, sculptor V. I. Mukhina, scientists S. I. Vavilov, I. M. Sechenov, P. P Kashchenko, V. I. Vernadsky, architect A. V. Shchusev, surgeon N. N. Burdenko, political figures L. M. Kaganovich, A. M. Kollontai, A. I. Mikoyan, V. M. Molotov, A. A. Gromyko, Stalin's second wife N. S. Alliluyeva - and this is just a short list of names.

Areas 5 to 8 are considered "New" territory. It began to be used in the mid-20th century. A columbarium for burying urns with ashes was built within the walls of the New Cemetery. Currently, about 7,000 urns are stored in the columbarium of the New Cemetery. One of the most famous burials in this area is the grave of the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, which is located on the Central Alley. To the right of the entrance is the 5th section, to the left is the 6th, and to the left of the 6th section is the 8th (along the wall of Khamovnichesky Val). Plot number 7 is located in the far part of the cemetery behind plots 5, 6 and 8. Writers A. T. Tvardovsky, I. G. Erenburg, N. A. Zabolotsky, Yu. S. Semenov, directors M. I. Romm, I. A. Pyryev, singers Mark Bernes, L. Ruslanova, A. are buried here. Vertinsky, artist A. A. Deineka, aircraft designer A. N. Tupolev, musicians S. Richter, M. Rostropovich, ballerina G. Ulanova, actor Yu. Nikulin, political figures N. S. Khrushchev, R. M. Gorbachev, governor Krasnoyarsk Territory A. I. Lebed.

The “newest” territory of the Novodevichy cemetery arose in the early 80s on the site of a stone-masonry workshop. You can get here along the Central Alley, which starts at the entrance. Actors Evgeny Leonov, Evgeny Evstigneev, Rolan Bykov, Anatoly Papanov, Rostislav Plyatt, Igor Ilyinsky, Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Oleg Borisov, Nikolay Kryuchkov, Klara Luchko, Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Mikhail Ulyanov, Georgy Zhzhenov, Oleg Yankovsky, composers Georgy Svi are buried at the Newest Cemetery reads , Alfred Schnittke, Dmitry Kabalevsky, singers Ivan Kozlovsky, Klavdia Shulzhenko, legendary announcer Yuri Levitan, cosmonaut pilots German Titov and Georgy Beregovoy, heroic pilot Alexey Maresyev, academician P. L. Kapitsa, directors Sergei Bondarchuk, Sergei Gerasimov.

Novodevichy Cemetery is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Many travel companies mention it as a historical and cultural monument. In addition to the burials of prominent personalities, the cemetery is also known for unique tombstones made by such architects as: N. A. Andreev, M. K. Anikushin, E. V. Vuchetich, L. E. Kerbel, S. T. Konenkov, V. I. Mukhina, E.I. Neizvestny, N.V. Tomsky, I.D. Shadr and others. Some graves and urns are cultural heritage monuments of regional and federal significance.

The Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow is one of the most famous necropolises in Russia, which appeared in the 16th century and was officially rebuilt in 1898 at the Novodevichy Convent according to the designs of architects S.K. Rodionov, I.P. Mashkov. Today the pantheon occupies a significant territory of the Moscow Khamovniki district in the Central Administrative District (about 7.5 hectares) and is divided into the Old (1904-1949), New (1949-1970) and Newest (1970-2000) Novodevichy cemetery.

Playwright Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol 31.03.1809-4.03.1852	Writer Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov 15.05.1891-10.03.1940	Artist Isaac Ilyich Levitan 30.08.1860-4.08.1900
President Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin 1.02.1931-23.04.2007	Engineer Andrey Nikolaevich Tupolev 10.10.1888-23.12.1972	Singer Lyudmila Georgievna Zykina 10.07.1929-1.08.2009

More than 25 thousand people are buried on the territory of the cemetery. In the tombs of the Smolensk Cathedral at the monastery there are the graves of Anna Ioanovna (daughter of Tsar Ivan the Terrible), Princess Sophia Ioanovna and Tsarina Evdokia Lopukhina (sister of Tsar Peter I and his first wife), the Obolensky princes.

On the territory of the Old Novodevichy Cemetery there are graves of heroes of the war of 1812, including the poet Denis Davydov (1784-1839), the Decembrist princes S. Trubetskoy (1790-1860), A. N. Muravyov (1792-1863), M.I. Muravyov-Apostol (1793-1863), revolutionary A. N. Pleshcheev (1825-1893), historical writers and philosophers I. I. Lazhechnikov (1790-1869), A. F. Pisemsky (1821-1881), S. M. Solovyov (1820-1879), General A. A. Brusilov (1853-1926).

Here lie the ashes of writers N.V. Gogol, S.T. Aksakov, V.A. Gilyarovsky, A. P. Chekhov, A. N. Tolstoy, I. A. Ilf, M. A. Bulgakov, S. Ya. Marshak, V. M. Shukshin, poets D. V. Venevitinov and V. V. Mayakovsky , artist I. I. Levitan, creators of modern Russian theater K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, actors L. P. Orlov, M. N. Ermolova and V. P. Maretskaya, directors W. B. Vakhtangov, S.M. Eisenstein and V.I. Pudovkin, composers A.N. Scriabin, I.O. Dunaevsky, S.S. Prokofiev and D.D. Shostakovich, singers F.I. Chaliapin and L.V. Sobinov, scientists S.I. Vavilov, I.M. Sechenov, P.P. Kashchenko and V.I. Vernadsky, architects A.V. Shchusev and V.I. Mukhina.

On the new and “newest” territory of the Novodevichy Pantheon the first president of Russia B. N. Yeltsin, N. S. Khrushchev, aircraft designers S. V. Ilyushin and A. N. Tupolev, pilot A. Maresyev, cosmonauts G. Beregovoy and G. are buried. Titov, writers I. G. Erenburg, A. T. Tvardovsky, N. A. Zabolotsky, S. V. Mikhalkov, Yu. Nagibin and Yu. S. Semenov, directors I. A. Pyryev, M. I. Romm, S. Gerasimov, S. Bondarchuk, singers A. N. Vertinsky, L. Utesov, L. G. Zykina, L. A. Ruslanova, M. N. Bernes, K. Shulzhenko, composers O. B. Feltsman, S. T. Richter, M. L. Rostropovich, G. Sviridov, D. Kabalevsky, A. Schnittke, N. Bogoslovsky, J. Frenkel, ballerina G. S. Ulanova, artists Emil and Igor Kio, Yu. V Nikulin, Yu. V. Yakovlev, R. Plyatt, E. Leonov, A. Papanov, I. Ilyinsky, R. Bykov, N. Kryuchkov, I. Smoktunovsky, E. Matveev, E. Evstigneev, M. Ulyanov, O Yankovsky, announcer Yu. Levitan

Since 1922, the Novodevichy Convent has been turned into an open-air museum, although in the 30s more than two thousand burials were destroyed in its necropolis. In 2007, burials in the cemetery were officially stopped after the funeral of M. Rostropovich. Today the cemetery is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Novodevichy Cemetery

Luzhnetsky proezd, 2, st. m. "Sportivnaya"

Every cemetery probably has at least one ghost, and the list of them can be endless. Let's finish this chapter with a story about the main cemetery in the country (except, of course, for Red Square) - Novodevichy.

In 1524, Moscow Prince Vasily III, in memory of the annexation of Smolensk, founded the Novodevichy Convent in Luzhniki, right on the road leading to Smolensk. We have already devoted enough space to the ghosts of this monastery in this book, now let's talk about its cemetery.

At first, as usual, the nobility and clergy were buried there. But over time, graves of representatives of other classes also appeared here: in the 19th century, merchants, writers, musicians, scientists began to be buried here, and the land allocated for the graveyard began to not be enough. And in 1898, two hectares of new land were allocated behind the southern wall of the monastery. Cemetery walls were erected and plots were laid out. This part of the cemetery officially opened in 1904, but burials began to take place earlier. Today it is called the “old Novodevichy cemetery”. In 1949, the cemetery territory was further expanded to the south (the so-called “new Novodevichy cemetery”), and in 1950–1956 walls, gates and service premises were built here. At the end of the 1970s, after another expansion, the “newest Novodevichy Cemetery” appeared.

Today, the Novodevichy Cemetery area includes four territories with an area of ​​more than 7.5 hectares, where 26,000 people are buried.

In the thirties of the last century, when other Moscow cemeteries were actively being destroyed, the ashes of many famous people were transferred to Novodevichye: N. Gogol, poet D. Venevitinov, writer S. Aksakov, artist I. Levitan, etc.

Writers M. Bulgakov, V. Gilyarovsky, A. N. Tolstoy, V. Mayakovsky, I. Ilf, N. Ostrovsky, S. Marshak, V. Shukshin, actress L. P. Orlova, composers I. Dunaevsky, S. Prokofiev, D. Shostakovich, Stalin's wife N. Alliluyeva.

Writers A. Tvardovsky, I. Ehrenburg, Yu. Semenov, singers M. Bernes, A. Vertinsky, actor and clown Yuri Nikulin, political figures N. Khrushchev, A. Lebed, the wife of the first and only president of the USSR R were buried in the new territory Gorbachev.

On the new territory lie the actors E. Leonov, E. Evstigneev, A. Papanov, R. Plyatt, the legendary pilot A. Maresyev and many more famous people.

In it, people see black nuns who suddenly appear out of nowhere and disappear into nowhere. These nuns are seen by women, and it is believed that seeing a ghostly nun means the fulfillment of what a person came to ask for in the cemetery from those lying here.

Three ghostly figures in monastic robes are often seen walking together. The nuns are sure that these are the first three nuns of the monastery, buried here: schema-nun Elena Devochkina, Abbess Dominica and novice Feofaniya.

It is also interesting how the destinies of its inhabitants intersect on Novodevichy, sometimes even across centuries. Mikhail Bulgakov once, in difficult times, exclaimed, turning to Gogol, whom he considered his teacher: “Cover me with your cast-iron overcoat!” And then, when he felt bad, he often repeated this phrase. When Mikhail Afanasyevich died, his widow, Elena Sergeevna, could not decide for a very long time which monument was worthy of decorating the master’s grave. And one day, by chance, at the entrance to Novodevichye, I saw a large old stone thrown out with traces of a hewn inscription. He was apparently being prepared for some kind of grave, but he was never in demand. She paid workers to move the stone to her husband's grave. After some time, one of the cemetery workers told her that this was a tombstone from Gogol’s old grave, which was in the Danilov Monastery, and at Novodevichy, a new monument was erected to the great writer with the inscription “To the Great Russian Artist from the Soviet Government.”

For a long time, the story about Gogol’s stone on Bulgakov’s grave was just a beautiful legend, but in the 1970s, photos of Gogol’s old grave were found, which showed that the stone was exactly the same, and studies of the stone itself finally confirmed this. The fact is that Aksakov brought this stone especially for Gogol’s grave from his Crimean estate, noticing that it looked like Mount Golgotha. A study of the stone showed that it is a typical Crimean granite, which does not exist in more northern latitudes.

When the novel “The Master and Margarita” was finally published in 1967, Elena Sergeevna fulfilled the Master’s will. The writer asked, if the novel was published, to give half of the fee for it to the first person who came with flowers to his grave. This person turned out to be a young man from Leningrad, who, after reading the novel, was shocked and specially went to Moscow to put flowers on the grave of the great writer.

But let's return to Gogol. The story of his grave is perhaps one of the most mysterious on Novodevichy. The writer suffered from prolonged fainting and was very afraid that he would be buried in such a state, when his pulse and breathing practically disappeared, and he would wake up in a grave. Gogol bequeathed to bury him only when obvious signs of decomposition appeared on his body. But no one supposedly waited for these signs. Then rumors arose about the scratched lining of the coffin, but still this was not true. There are memoirs of the sculptor Nikolai Ramazanov, who removed the death mask from Gogol. They say that the assistant who was kneading the plaster said: “Hurry up, there are clear signs of decomposition.” In addition, when removing the death mask, a living person would suffocate.

But when Gogol’s ashes were transferred, those who opened the grave discovered with horror that the writer’s skull was not in the coffin. This is how writer Vladimir Lidin, an eyewitness to the events, who today also lies on Novodevichy, recalls this: “Gogol’s grave was opened almost the whole day. It turned out to be at a much greater depth than ordinary burials... Having started to dig it out, they came across a brick crypt of unusual strength, but did not find a walled up hole in it; Then they began to dig in a transverse direction so that the excavation would be to the east. By evening, a side aisle of the crypt was discovered, through which the coffin had been pushed into the main crypt. The work of opening the crypt took a long time. It was dusk when the grave was finally opened. The top boards of the coffin were rotten, but the side boards with preserved foil, metal corners, handles and partially surviving bluish-purple braid were intact. There was no skull in the coffin. True, when the opening of the grave began, at a shallow depth, much higher than the crypt with a walled-up coffin, a skull was discovered, but archaeologists recognized it as belonging to a young man... And Gogol’s remains began with the cervical vertebrae: the entire skeleton of the skeleton was enclosed in a well-preserved tobacco-colored frock coat; Even underwear with bone buttons survived under the frock coat; On his feet there were high-heeled shoes, approximately 4–5 centimeters, which gives reason to assume that Gogol was short. The next morning, the remains were transported on a simple cart, in the rain, to the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent, where they were interred...” By the way, Vladimir Lidin took a piece of a frock coat (as an element of the case for the first edition of “Dead Souls” from his library), writer Vsevolod Ivanov - a fragment of a rib, and the director of the cemetery, Komsomol member Arakcheev, took off his shoes and took them for himself.

They say that the writer’s skull was stolen from the grave on the order of a fan of the Russian theater, the founder of the current Theater Museum, merchant Alexei Aleksandrovich Bakhrushin, who already had the skull of the artist Shchepkin on his bureau. When the restoration of Gogol’s grave was carried out in 1909, he incited two guards of the monastery necropolis to be kidnapped. Bakhrushin crowned Gogol's head with a silver wreath and placed it in a special rosewood casket with a glass window. But after this acquisition, troubles began in the merchant’s life, both in business and in the family field. Bakhrushin connected this with the sacrilege he had committed, but he did not know how to return the skull - the grave, as we know, on his orders, was deepened and covered with bricks.

Meanwhile, Bakhrushin’s “prank” was not a secret, and soon rumors about it reached the writer’s descendant, naval officer Yanovsky, who came to the merchant and laid a revolver on the table:

There are two cartridges here. One for you, if you refuse to give up the skull, and the second, then, for me.

Bakhrushin did not have to be persuaded, and he happily gave the skull to the strange visitor. However, the story did not end there.

Yanovsky wanted to bury the skull of his ancestor on the soil of Italy, which Nikolai Vasilyevich loved very much and where he spent a lot of time, but he still could not get out there. And then the opportunity just turned up: in the spring of 1911, Italian ships came to Sevastopol to pick up the ashes of their compatriots who died in the Crimean campaign of 1854–1855 and rebury them in their homeland.

Yanovsky asked one of the captains, Borghese, to deliver the rosewood casket to Italy and hand it over to the Russian consul there so that he could bury it according to the Orthodox rite. But it was apparently not fate for the writer’s skull to end up in the ground. The captain, loaded with official affairs, did not hand over the chest to the consul, but went on another voyage.

In the summer of 1911, a very long railway tunnel for that time was cut in Italy in the Apennines, about which there were many rumors that it was cut in a cursed place and so on. On the first train, the captain's younger brother and his company decided to go through this tunnel and took a skull with him to scare fellow travelers.

But before entering the tunnel, passengers were seized with panic, and a milky-white cloud of fog began to emerge from the tunnel itself. The panic was so great that some began to jump from the running boards of the moving train. The younger Borghese also jumped, leaving the casket with Gogol's skull in the compartment. The train with passengers entered the tunnel and disappeared. No clear explanation has been given for this fact even today, but the tunnel was immediately blocked with stones, and during the Second World War, a bomb hit the mountain through which it passed and completely collapsed the tunnel.

Today, the organization “Nationalism - a Weapon of Modernity” (NOS) announced a reward for anyone who finds Gogol’s skull or at least indicates its exact coordinates. Eight million rubles will be paid after the authenticity of the skull is confirmed by genetic testing.

But whose skull was found over Gogol’s grave is still unknown.

Another legend of Novodevichy is associated with Fyodor Chaliapin. The great bass appeared in a dream to the artist Korovin and asked him to remove a stone from his chest. Korovin tried to do this, but discovered that the stone had grown in and the maestro himself had grown cold... A few weeks later the news came that the singer had died in Paris, where he spent the last 16 years of his life. Chaliapin's ashes were transported from France to Russia only in 1984, and the singer's first burial was in the French Batignelles cemetery.