Novodevichy Cemetery

Novodevichy Cemetery lies at the southwestern edge of central Moscow on the left bank of the Moskva, right outside the walls of the UNESCO World Heritage Novodevichy Convent. It was laid out as early as 1524, with its role as a national place of honour growing from the 19th century onwards. Anton Chekhov and Nikolai Gogol are buried here, composers Shostakovich and Prokofiev, ballerina Galina Ulanova, Yeltsin and Gorbachev, but also Lenin's widow Nadezhda Krupskaya and Stalin's wife. The artistically shaped monuments, from realist bronze figures to abstract stone compositions, turn the cemetery into an open-air museum of Soviet sculpture. Visitors orient themselves at the entrance boards or book a guide; a slow loop easily takes two hours.