The place where the enemies of the people were buried. New Don cemetery in Moscow

If a walk through an ordinary cemetery seems like a strange undertaking, then a visit to a historical cemetery is quite within the scope of adequacy for most people. Including for me. That is why I went to the Donskoye cemetery in Moscow to see what the place where the enemies of the people was buried looks like.

The main gate, the entrance to the Donskoy cemetery The main gate, the entrance to the Donskoy cemetery Which one?

When I write “new Donskoy cemetery”, I mean a cemetery adjacent to the Donskoy monastery , but located outside its walls. I will tell you about the necropolis on the territory of the monastery separately. Further in the text I will write “ Donskoy cemetery & # 39 ;, meaning the new Donskoy cemetery.

Wall of the Donskoy Monastery. Despite the intended passage, it is impossible to enter the monastery through the cemetery (at least for a person from the outside) Wall of the Donskoy Monastery. Despite the envisaged passage, it is impossible to enter the monastery through the cemetery (at least for a person from the outside) What is remarkable

The Don cemetery is called new only conditionally, so that emphasize the difference with the necropolis on the territory of the monastery. It itself almost does not accept new burials, only relatives and burials of urns.

On one site you can see a large number of graves. On one site you can see a large number of graves.

almost abandoned.

Relatively fresh monuments coexist with such wonderful representatives of antiquity, so to speak Relatively fresh monuments coexist with such beautiful representatives of antiquity, so to speak

Among the famous burials I found only the grave of Faina Ranevskaya, buried in the same area with my sister.

Faina Ranevskaya's grave at the Donskoy cemetery. A year ago they wrote that there were more cases when unknown persons took from the memorial stone a figurine of a beloved dog Faina Ranevskaya → I expected to see a large sculpture, but it turned out to be a cute figurine of a dog. It was in place (I believe that this is another copy). The grave of Faina Ranevskaya at the Donskoy cemetery. A year ago, they wrote that there were more cases when unknown persons took from the memorial stone a figurine of the beloved dog Faina Ranevskaya →

But the cemetery is not known by individual graves, but by common ones. ..

Graves with unclaimed ashes

When entering the cemetery, you can see a diagram where three common graves are marked.

One is decorated with a sculpture of a grieving woman and many tablets with a list of victims of political repression. After 1945 .

Common grave No. 3. The photo is not mine, because I did not know what the burial was supposed to look like, and I confused it with the memorial at the “ eternal fire (in quotes, because it does not burn), photo taken from https://hraniteli-nasledia.com/articles/proekty/renovatsiya-donskogo-kladbishcha/Common grave # 3. The photo is not mine, because I did not know what the burial was supposed to look like, and I confused it with the memorial at the “ eternal fire (in quotes, because it does not burn), photo taken from https://hraniteli-nasledia.com/articles/proekty/renovatsiya-donskogo-kladbishcha/

The other is the most unremarkable . Only because little is known about her. It is known that victims of repression were buried here during the Great Patriotic War . There are no records left.

Common grave # 2 at the Donskoy cemeteryCommon grave # 2 at the Donskoy cemetery

But the last (by numbering the first) looks more colorful than all the others. This is the period of pre-war repressions . There are no sculptural compositions and lists, there are separate tablets and a large stone with an inscription that the repressed in 1930-1940 were buried here.

Common grave number 1 at the Donskoy cemetery An fact is that not only the interesting are buried here, but most of them are “ executioners → You can read more about this in a third-party article, the link to it will be below Common grave No. 1 at the Donskoy cemetery If someone is interested in a story related to how this happened, how they found out where people were buried, etc., then follow the link below, there is a good article¹ (and a video in it) about common graves.

It was from this article that I learned that October 30 is the day of remembrance of victims of political repression … And the Donskoy cemetery is one of the famous burial places of the repressed in the Soviet years.

As far as I understood, a crematorium was opened in this chapel in the Soviet years … Now there is a chapel here again As I understand, a crematorium was opened in this chapel in the Soviet years … Now there is a chapel here again

I know little about what was happening in the USSR, I do not understand the names of Soviet leaders, and so on … But such places reveal a story for me , which did not want to be absorbed into me from the pages of a textbook during my school years (and could I then understand something among the dry figures of statistics).

Novoe Donskoe cemeteryNew Don cemetery

The Don cemetery has become something interesting for me both from the point of view of history and from the point of view of spirituality. He has a very pacifying atmosphere. You can get there from the Shabolovskaya metro station.

¹ – The victims and executioners united: the graves of the repressed at the Donskoy cemetery (external link)

< p class = "article-render__block article-render__block_unstyled" data-points = "4"> Thank you for your attention. Like, share your opinion, subscribe to the channel . There are still so many interesting things ahead!

My blog | tourist| travel The place where the enemies of the people were buried. New Don cemetery in Moscow

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *