Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery

Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery () is part of the ''Cimetière de Liers'' and is called the Russian Orthodox cemetery, in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, close to Paris, France.

History

The ''Cimetière de Liers'' was created as the second communal cemetery on February 8, 1879 in the city of Sainte Geneviève des Bois in France, 25 km south from Paris. To house the burials of the White Russians who arrived in Paris after the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, some of the land was granted in 1927 to an English benefactress, Dorothy Paget who had set up with Elena Orlov and her sister Princess Vera Meshchersky a still active retirement home for Russian émigrés nearby in the Château de la Cossonnerie. This part of the cemetery is since known as ''the Russian Cemetery''.

In 1938–39 Albert Benois designed the Dormition Church (Église de la Dormition-de-la-Mère-de-Dieu) which serves the cemetery. The church is regarded as an important historic monument and is built in the style of Novgorod Churches of the 15th and 16th century.

Future

Since the 1960s, the municipal authorities have periodically attempted to close the cemetery, claiming that the grounds are needed for public services. Part of the area surrounding the cemetery has recently been developed as housing estates.

There have been reports that some of the graves will be opened and the exhumed remains cremated. The cemetery is not officially considered a landmark and has no legal protection, although the French Ministry of Culture and Communication recognises the cemetery as an important historical monument (the most important necropolis of Russian emigrants in the world) and it has an entry in the Base Mérimée.

As its future remains precarious, several notable Russians – including Ivan Ilyin and Ivan Shmelev – were exhumed and reburied in Moscow. The cemetery is closed to new burials. It was only after pressure from the central government that the burial of Rudolf Nureyev was sanctioned there. His tomb is covered with a mosaic decoration to represent a traditional kilim blanket.

In November 2000 Russian president Vladimir Putin visited the cemetery to pay homage to those buried there.

Description

Many trees have been planted to create an authentic Russian feel to the cemetery. It is estimated that there are more than 5,000 graves. There is one mausoleum.

Notable burials

It is estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 Russian emigrants or French people of Russian origin have been buried here. Among those are
* Nobel Prize winner author Ivan Bunin, Gaito Gazdanov, Zinaida Gippius, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Viktor Nekrasov, Aleksey Remizov, Ivan Shmelyov, Nadezhda Teffi and Boris Zaytsev;
* ballerina Olga Preobrajenska;
* chemist Aleksei Chichibabin;
* composers Nikolay Kedrov Sr. and Nikolai Tcherepnin;
* dancers Serge Lifar and Rudolf Nureyev;
* journalist Anton Kartashev;
* painters Konstantin Korovin, André Lanskoy, Serge Poliakoff, Sergey Solomko, Konstantin Somov, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky and Zinaida Serebriakova;
* philosopher Nikolai Lossky;
* poets Georgy Ivanov

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