Smolensky Cemetery () is the oldest continuously operating

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

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 transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

.The Encyclopaedia of St. Petersburg
It occupies a rectangular parcel in the western part of

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 ...

, on the bank of the small

Smolenka River The Smolenka (russian: Смоленка) is a minor river in the city of Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is one of the armlets of the Neva forming its delta. It branches off the Malaya Neva armlet at , and flows through the Smolensky Cemetery into ...

, and is divided into the

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 ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

, and

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

n sections.

Orthodox cemetery

The Orthodox cemetery is known to have existed in 1738, but lacked official recognition until 1758. Not only was it far removed from the city center, but it was also damp, necessitating the construction of drainage canals. The cemetery has two churches. The older church is dedicated to the Theotokos of Smolensk. The azure-painted Neoclassical building was erected between 1786 and 1790. The

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

closed the church for worship between 1940 and 1946. The newer (1904), under repair, is dedicated to the

Resurrection of Christ The resurrection of Jesus ( grc-x-biblical, ἀνάστασις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lord ...

. It is the only example of

Naryshkin Baroque Naryshkin Baroque, also referred to as Moscow Baroque or Muscovite Baroque, is a particular style of Baroque architecture and decoration that was fashionable in Moscow from the late 17th century into the early 18th century. In the late 17th century ...

in Saint Petersburg. The church used to be known for its dazzling Neo-Baroque icon screen with a set of Vasnetsov icons. Other buildings on the grounds included the first wooden church, that of

Michael the Archangel Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

(destroyed by the ), then rebuilt in stone as a Church in honor of the Holy Life-giving Trinity (1831-1932) and an almshouse designed by

Luigi Rusca Luigi Rusca (Алоизий Иванович Руска; 1762–1822) was a Neoclassical architect from Ticino who worked in Russia, Ukraine and Estonia between 1783 and 1818. Life and career Rusca was apprenticed to Georg Veldten and Giacomo ...

. The cemetery became a traditional burial place for the professors of the

Imperial Academy of Arts The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the T ...

(founded in 1757) and of

St. Petersburg University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter t ...

(founded in 1724) - both sited on Vasilievsky Island.The cemeteries of St. Petersburg
/ref> Up to 800,000 people are estimated to have been interred at the Smolensky Cemetery before the Russian Revolution of 1917, making it the largest 19th-century cemetery of Saint Petersburg. Interments included: * Xenia of Saint Petersburg (died ), the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of the city; her tomb is marked by a chapel. Смоленская церковь

Vasily Trediakovsky Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky (russian: Васи́лий Кири́ллович Тредиако́вский ; in Astrakhan – in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian poet, essayist and playwright who helped lay the foundations of classical R ...

(1769) *

Mikhail Kozlovsky Mikhail Ivanovich Kozlovsky (6 November 1753 – 30 September 1802) was a Russian Neoclassical sculptor active during the Age of Enlightenment. Biography Beginning his training at the Imperial Academy of Arts with Anton Losenko in 1764, he we ...

(1802) * Andreyan Zakharov (1811) * Elisabeth Kulmann (1825, later moved to the

Tikhvin Cemetery Tikhvin Cemetery (russian: Тихвинское кладбище) is a historic cemetery in the centre of Saint Petersburg. It is part of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, and is one of four cemeteries in the complex. Since 1932 it has been part of the ...

) * Dmitry Bortniansky (1825) *

Ivan Martos Ivan Petrovich Martos (russian: Иван Петрович Мартос; uk, Іван Петрович Мартос; 1754 — 5 April 1835) was Ukrainian and Russian sculptor and art teacher who helped awaken Russian interest in Neoclassical ...

(1835) *

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( uk, Тарас Григорович Шевченко , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukrainian poet, wr ...

(1861, reburied on Chernecha Hora near

Kaniv Kaniv ( uk, Канів, ) city located in Cherkasy Raion, Cherkasy Oblast (province) in central Ukraine. The city rests on the Dnieper River, and is also one of the main inland river ports on the Dnieper. It hosts the administration of Kaniv urb ...

)The Encyclopaedia of Ukraine
/ref> * Nikolay Ustryalov (1870) *

Vasily Karatygin Vasily Andreevich Karatygin (russian: Василий Андреевич Каратыгин) (–-) was a leading actor of Russian Romanticism. Karatygin joined the Bolshoi Theatre in St Petersburg in 1820 and moved to the Alexandrine Theatre in 1 ...

(1880) *

Nikolay Zinin Nikolay Nikolaevich Zinin (russian: link=no, Никола́й Никола́евич Зи́нин; 25 August 1812, in Shusha – 18 February 1880, in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian organic chemist. Life He studied at the University of Kazan where ...

(1880) *

Ivan Kramskoi Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi (russian: Ива́н Никола́евич Крамско́й; June 8 (O.S. May 27), 1837, Ostrogozhsk – April 6 (O.S. March 24), 1887, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian painter and art critic. He was an intellectual ...

(1887) *

Alexander Mozhaysky Mozhaysky, identified as the "Creator of world's first airplane", on a 1963 Soviet postal stamp. Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaysky Pol. Aleksander Teodorowicz Możajski (also transliterated as Mozhayski, Mozhayskii and Mozhayskiy; russian: Алек� ...

(1890) *

Ivan Shishkin Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (russian: Ива́н Ива́нович Ши́шкин; 25 January 1832 – 20 March 1898) was a Russian landscape painter closely associated with the Peredvizhniki movement. Biography Shishkin was born to a Russian m ...

(1898) *

Dmitry Gamov Dmitry Ivanovich Gamov (russian: Дмитрий Иванович Гамов; 30 June 1834, Vyhovka village, Odoevsky uyezd, Tulskaya province – 22 May 1903, Moscow) was a Russian general and explorer of the eastern coast of Korean peninsula. ...

(1903) *

Arkhip Kuindzhi Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi (; rus, Архи́п Ива́нович Куи́нджи ; ; 27 January 1841 – 24 July 1910) was a Ukrainian landscape painter active in the Russian Empire, of Pontic Greek descent. Date of birth Kuindzhi's exact da ...

(1910) * Nikolay Beketov (1911) *

Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky Pyotr Petrovich Semyonov or Semenov (russian: Пётр Петрович Семёнов; 2 January ''( New style: 14 January)'', 1827 – 26 February ''( New style: 11 March)'', 1914) was a Russian geographer and statistician who managed the Rus ...

(1914) * Leonid Pozen (1921) *

Alexander Blok Alexander Alexandrovich Blok ( rus, Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Бло́к, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈblok, a=Ru-Alyeksandr Alyeksandrovich Blok.oga; 7 August 1921) was a Russian lyrical poet, writer, publ ...

(1921) *

Alexander Friedmann Alexander Alexandrovich Friedmann (also spelled Friedman or Fridman ; russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Фри́дман) (June 16 .S. 4 1888 – September 16, 1925) was a Russian and Soviet physicist and mathematician ...

(1925) *

Fyodor Sologub Fyodor Sologub (russian: Фёдор Сологу́б, born Fyodor Kuzmich Teternikov, russian: Фёдор Кузьми́ч Тете́рников, also known as Theodor Sologub; – 5 December 1927) was a Russian Symbolist poet, novelist, transl ...

(1927) * Fyodor Uspensky (1928) * Nikolay Likhachyov (1936) *

Boris Piotrovsky Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky (russian: Бори́с Бори́сович Пиотро́вский; also written Piotrovskii; – October 15, 1990) was a Soviet Russian academician, historian- orientalist and archaeologist who studied the ancient c ...

(1990) *

Eduard Khil Eduard Anatolyevich Khil ( rus, Эдуа́рд Анато́льевич Хиль, , ɨdʊˈart ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈxʲilʲ; 4 September 1934 – 4 June 2012), often anglicized as Edward Hill, was a Soviet-Russian baritone singer. Khil be ...

(2012) After the Russian Revolution the local authorities announced plans to demolish the cemetery by 1937, replacing it with a public garden "for

sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation syste ...

's sake".The History of Smolensky Orthodox Cemetery
/ref> Entire tombs or their sculptural details were moved to museums in order to preserve them. The remains of Kozlovsky, Zakharov, Martos, Bortniansky, Karatygin, Kramskoi, Shishkin and Kuindzhi were transferred to the

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 Alex ...

. Alexander Blok was the last to be reburied - in 1944. The outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

put the redevelopment plans on hold. The cemetery eventually reopened for select burials in the early 1980s.

Lutheran cemetery

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 Vasileos ...

is known to have existed in 1747. The minor Smolenka River separates it from the eponymous Orthodox cemetery. 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 Saint 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 ...

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 ...

, Vasily Dokuchayev,

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 diplo ...

, and

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 ...

. In the 20th century, several parts of the cemetery were destroyed; the remains of Euler and Betancourt were reburied in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. File:Могила Нессельроде К.В..jpg, The grave of

File:Могила Купфера А.Я..jpg, The grave of Adolph Theodor Kupffer File:Могила Литке Ф.Н..jpg, The grave of Count Friedrich Michael Lütke File:Могила Де Рибаса И.М..jpg, The grave of

Armenian cemetery

The Armenian section of the cemetery has a church consecrated in 1797. The architect was probably

Georg Veldten Yury Matveyevich Felten (russian: Ю́рий Матве́евич Фе́льтен, german: Georg Friedrich Veldten) (1730–1801) was a Russian Imperial architect who served at the Empress's Catherine the Great court. Yury Felten was born Georg ...

In Literature

An annual mourning ceremony accompanied by a picnic feast is recorded in

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. The writings of Landon are transitional between Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Her first major breakthrough ...

's poem ''Cemetery of the Smolensko Church'' of 1836.

References

{{reflist, 2 1756 establishments in the Russian Empire Armenian cemeteries Armenian diaspora in Russia Cemeteries in Saint Petersburg Eastern Orthodox cemeteries Eastern Orthodoxy in Russia Lutheran cemeteries Cultural heritage monuments of federal significance in Saint Petersburg

Orthodox cemetery

Lutheran cemetery

Armenian cemetery

In Literature

See also

References