Novodevichy cemetery, Moscow
It's not often that I stop at a cemetery during a trip and I consider the experience to have been a highlight. But, I must say, the Novodevichy cemetery, next door to the convent (see previous), is well worth a visit. Here are buried some of the most prominent Russians politicians, scientists, military men and artists. Most burials are recent; most, if not all lived in the 20th century. But what's interesting are the monuments, many sculpted to the likeness of the deceased.
All the inscriptions, of course, are in Russian. So, just for the fun of it, and with the help of a Russian alphabet equivalency table, I was able to decipher the names associated with several of the monuments. Once you have that, you can look up the person on the Internet and often you can find him or her. For example, I was able to decipher the name on the third monument from the right on this photo – Konstantin Krainukov (or Kryukov) – but I could not find anything about him on the Internet. The one to the left (the fourth from the right), however, is Vasilli Emelianovich Makarov, a lieutenant general in the Russian Army who served on the western front during WWII. He later became the Deputy Head of the Main Political Directorate of the Armed Forces, a post that he occupied from 1962 until his death in 1975…if you like trivia!
Novodevichy cemetery, Moscow
It's not often that I stop at a cemetery during a trip and I consider the experience to have been a highlight. But, I must say, the Novodevichy cemetery, next door to the convent (see previous), is well worth a visit. Here are buried some of the most prominent Russians politicians, scientists, military men and artists. Most burials are recent; most, if not all lived in the 20th century. But what's interesting are the monuments, many sculpted to the likeness of the deceased.
All the inscriptions, of course, are in Russian. So, just for the fun of it, and with the help of a Russian alphabet equivalency table, I was able to decipher the names associated with several of the monuments. Once you have that, you can look up the person on the Internet and often you can find him or her. For example, I was able to decipher the name on the third monument from the right on this photo – Konstantin Krainukov (or Kryukov) – but I could not find anything about him on the Internet. The one to the left (the fourth from the right), however, is Vasilli Emelianovich Makarov, a lieutenant general in the Russian Army who served on the western front during WWII. He later became the Deputy Head of the Main Political Directorate of the Armed Forces, a post that he occupied from 1962 until his death in 1975…if you like trivia!