Novodevichy Cemetery

Adjacent to the Novodevichy Convent, the Novodevichy Cemetery is one of Moscow’s most prestigious resting places – a veritable who’s who of Russian politics and culture. Here you will find the tombs of Bulgakov, Chekhov, Gogol, Mayakovsky, Prokofiev, Stanislavsky and Eisenstein, among many other Russian and Soviet cultural notables.

In Soviet times Novodevichy Cemetery was used for eminent people the authorities judged unsuitable for the Kremlin wall, most notably Khrushchev. The intertwined white-and-black blocks round Khrushchev’s bust were intended by sculptor Ernst Neizvestny to represent Khrushchev’s good and bad sides.

The tombstone of Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Stalin’s second wife, is surrounded by unbreakable glass to prevent vandalism.

The most recent notable addition to the cemetery is former President Boris Yeltsin, who died of congestive heart failure in 2007. His grave is marked by an enormous Russian flag, which is sculpted out of stone but gives the appearance that it is rippling in the wind. If you want to investigate this place in depth, buy the Russian map (on sale at the kiosk), which pinpoints nearly 200 graves.