Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery
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The Smolenskoye Cemetery (in German ''Smolensker Friedhof'') is a Lutheran cemetery on
Dekabristov Island Dekabristov Island (russian: остров Декабристов, lit=Decembrists Island), known prior to 1926 as Goloday Island (остров Голодай – possibly a corruption of a British merchant name Halliday) is an island in Vasileost ...
in
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
,
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. It is one of the largest and oldest non-
orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
cemeteries in the city. Until the early 20th century it was one of the main burial grounds for
ethnic Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...
.


History

The Lutheran cemetery on
Dekabristov Island Dekabristov Island (russian: остров Декабристов, lit=Decembrists Island), known prior to 1926 as Goloday Island (остров Голодай – possibly a corruption of a British merchant name Halliday) is an island in Vasileost ...
is known to have existed in 1747. The Smolenka River divides it from the Smolensky Orthodox Cemetery on
Vasilievsky Island Vasilyevsky Island (russian: Васи́льевский о́стров, Vasilyevsky Ostrov, V.O.) is an island in St. Petersburg, Russia, bordered by the Bolshaya Neva and Malaya Neva Rivers (in the delta of the Neva River) in the south a ...
. This cemetery contained the burials of the parishioners of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saint Katarina The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saint Catherine ( sv, Sankta Katarina kyrka, fi, Pyhän Katariinan kirkko, russian: Евангелическо-лютеранская церковь Святой Екатерины) is an Evangelical Luthera ...
and the Catholic Church of St. Catherine, including
Leonhard Euler Leonhard Euler ( , ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in ma ...
,
Xavier de Maistre Xavier de Maistre (; 10 October 1763 – 12 June 1852) of Savoy (then part of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia) lived largely as a military man but is known as a French writer. The younger brother of Joseph de Maistre, a noted philosopher a ...
,
Germain Henri Hess Germain Henri Hess (russian: Герман Иванович Гесс, German Ivanovich Gess; 7 August 1802 – 30 November 1850) was a Swiss-Russian chemist and doctor who formulated Hess's law, an early principle of thermochemistry. Early li ...
,
José de Ribas Admiral José de Ribas y Boyons (6 June 1749 – ), known in Italian as Giuseppe de Ribas and in Spanish as José Pascual Domingo de Ribas y Boyons and in Russian as Iosif (Osip) Mikhailovich Deribas (russian: Ио́сиф (О́сип) Миха́ ...
,
Moritz von Jacobi Moritz Hermann or Boris Semyonovich (von) Jacobi (russian: Борис Семёнович Якоби; 21 September 1801, Potsdam – 10 March 1874, Saint Petersburg) was a Prussian and Russian Imperial engineer and physicist of Jewish descent. Jac ...
,
Agustín de Betancourt Agustín de Betancourt y Molina ( rus, Августин Августинович де Бетанкур, r=Avgustin Avgustinovich de Betankur; french: Augustin Bétancourt; 1 February 1758 – 24 July 1824) was a prominent Spanish engineer, who wo ...
,
Jean-François Thomas de Thomon Jean-François Thomas de Thomon ( – ) was a French neoclassical architect who worked in Eastern Europe in 1791–1813. Thomas de Thomon was the author of Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange and Rostral Columns on the spit of Vasilievsky Island in ...
,
Ludvig Nobel Ludvig Immanuel Nobel ( ; russian: Лю́двиг Эммануи́лович Нобе́ль, Ljúdvig Emmanuílovich Nobél’; sv, Ludvig Emmanuel Nobel ; 27 July 1831 – 12 April 1888) was a Swedish-Russian engineer, a noted businessman and a ...
,
Fyodor Litke Fyodor, Fedor (russian: Фёдор) or Feodor is the Russian form of the name "Theodore" meaning “God’s Gift”. Fedora () is the feminine form. Fyodor and Fedor are two English transliterations of the same Russian name. It may refer to: Giv ...
,
Georg Friedrich Parrot Georg Friedrich Parrot (15 July 1767 – 8 July 1852) was a German scientist, the first rector of the Imperial University of Dorpat (today Tartu, Estonia) in what was then the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire. Education Georges-Fr ...
,
Karl Nesselrode Karl Robert Reichsgraf von Nesselrode-Ehreshoven, also known as Charles de Nesselrode (Russian: Карл Васильевич Нессельроде, ''Karl Vasilyevich Nesselrode''; 14 December 1780 – 23 March 1862) was a Russian German diploma ...
,
Vladimir Lamsdorf Count Vladimir Nikolayevich Lamsdorf (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Ла́мсдорф; german: Wladimir Nikolajewitsch Freiherr von der Wenge Graf Lambsdorff; ) was an Imperial Russian statesman of Baltic German descent who s ...
and
Vasily Radlov Vasily Vasilievich Radlov or Friedrich Wilhelm Radloff (russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Ра́длов; in Berlin – 12 May 1918 in Petrograd) was a German-born Russian founder of Turkology, a scientific study of Turkic peoples. ...
. Some tombstones of notable people were transferred to the necropolis of famous people at
Alexander Nevsky Lavra Saint Alexander Nevsky Lavra or Saint Alexander Nevsky Monastery was founded by Peter I of Russia in 1710 at the eastern end of the Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg, in the belief that this was the site of the Neva Battle in 1240 when Ale ...
. Among them are Thomas de Thomon (relocated in the 1930s), Euler (1956), Betancourt (1979), and others. In the last
perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
years of the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
two parts of the cemetery were destroyed. The first was a large section in the far north west corner of the cemetery which was entirely flattened to make way for a building for a local
fire department A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...
in 1985. The second was a small section at the entrance which was replaced with a
petrol station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoline ...
in the early 1990s. File:Могила Нессельроде К.В..jpg, The grave of
Karl Nesselrode Karl Robert Reichsgraf von Nesselrode-Ehreshoven, also known as Charles de Nesselrode (Russian: Карл Васильевич Нессельроде, ''Karl Vasilyevich Nesselrode''; 14 December 1780 – 23 March 1862) was a Russian German diploma ...
File:Могила Купфера А.Я..jpg, The grave of Adolph Theodor Kupffer File:Могила Литке Ф.Н..jpg, The grave of Fyodor Nikolajewitsch Litke File:Могила Де Рибаса И.М..jpg, The grave of
José de Ribas Admiral José de Ribas y Boyons (6 June 1749 – ), known in Italian as Giuseppe de Ribas and in Spanish as José Pascual Domingo de Ribas y Boyons and in Russian as Iosif (Osip) Mikhailovich Deribas (russian: Ио́сиф (О́сип) Миха́ ...
File:The grave of Louisa Catherine Adams.jpg, alt=, The grave of Louisa Catherine Adams


Index of burials

The person who has done the most work in investigating the current status of the cemetery is Robert Leinonen, a longtime resident of Saint Petersburg who moved to Germany in 1991. Between 1988 and 1991, Leinonen went on countless personal visits to the cemetery itself and compiled an inventory of all those graves that are still standing today, copying the exact writing on each
headstone A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, da ...
. He has published a two-volume book on the cemetery detailing its history (''Deutsche in St. Petersburg: ein Blick auf den Deutschen Evangelisch-Lutherischen Smolenski-Friedhof und in die europäische Kulturgeschichte'', 1998). The second volume contains an index of all those buried there whose graves are still standing today. The publications are used by
genealogists Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...
for family research in pre-revolutionary Russia and the early
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
period when
vital records Vital records are records of life events kept under governmental authority, including birth certificates, marriage licenses (or marriage certificates), separation agreements, divorce certificates or divorce party and death certificates. In some ...
are missing or prove difficult to find.
Historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
s use them to research the social histories of the city. Somewhere in the cemetery lies the little body of infant Louisa Catherine Adams (August 12, 1811 - September 15, 1812), the fourth and last child and only daughter of
John Quincy Colonel John Quincy (July 21, 1689 – July 13, 1767) was an American soldier, politician and member of the Quincy political family. His granddaughter Abigail Adams named her son, the future president John Quincy Adams, after him. Two days aft ...
and
Louisa Adams Louisa Catherine Adams ( ''née'' Johnson; February 12, 1775 – May 15, 1852) was the First Lady of the United States from 1825 to 1829 during the presidency of John Quincy Adams. Early life Adams was born on February 12, 1775, in the City ...
.


References

* Robert Leinonen & Erika Voigt: ''Deutsche in St. Petersburg: ein Blick auf den deutschen evangelisch-lutherischen Smolenski-Friedhof und in die europäische Kulturgeschichte''. Lüneburg: Institut Nordostdeutsches Kulturwerk, 1998. (volume 1) and (volume 2)


External links


Photos of cemeteryA further site dealing with the history of the cemetery and others in the nearby area. The information relating to this cemetery is towards the bottom of the entry.


{{coord, 59.95, N, 30.254, E, display=title History of Saint Petersburg Cemeteries in Saint Petersburg German cemeteries Lutheran cemeteries Russian and Soviet-German people Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Saint Petersburg