Novodevichy Cemetery (Saint Petersburg)

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Novodevichy Cemetery (Russian: Новодевичье кладбище) in Saint Petersburg is a historic cemetery in the South-West part of the city near the Moscow Triumphal Gate. The cemetery is named after the historical Resurrection (Novodevichy) Convent. In the 19th century it was the second most prestigious cemetery after the Tikhvin Cemetery in Alexander Nevsky Monastery.

The cemetery was started in 1845 when the Smolny Convent was moved there. First burials date to 1849. In 1920 - 1930 the cemetery church was demolished by the Soviet authorities (1929) and many tombs destroyed, while other burials were transferred to the Tikhvin Cemetery. In 1989 there were major restorations of the cemetery.

Notable people formerly interred at the Novodevichy Cemetery include the poets Nikolay Nekrasov and Fyodor Tyutchev, the painter Mikhail Vrubel, the architect Leon Benois, the composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the philologist Yakov Grot, the chess-player Mikhail Chigorin, the politician Vyacheslav Pleve, and the explorer Gennady Nevelskoy.

Many people (even Saint-Peterburgians) confuse the cemetery with the Novodevichy Cemetery at the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow.