In the distant past, cemeteries were created only as an exception. The deceased Christians were initially buried in the catacombs, a little later in the church building; in the fourteenth century, only noble people began to be buried in churches, while the churchyard served as the main burial place for ordinary citizens.
The urban population grew, the territories of church yards began to be missed and burials began to be carried out on the outskirts of cities. In the XVII century, in order to comply with sanitation, it was not allowed to arrange burials at churches, and in the XIX century it was not allowed to arrange cemeteries inside villages and cities. The first Russian legislation on the construction of cemeteries appeared during the time of Catherine the Great and was prescribed in the medical charter. According to this set of rules, it was forbidden:
- use abandoned cemeteries for agriculture;
- construction on the territory of cemeteries;
- carry remains or coffins from the cemetery;
- transfer the territory of pogosts to private property;
- conducting any economic activity on the territory of burials.
The person who bought the place in the cemetery did not become its owner, but received the right to use this place for burial.
This legislation primarily concerned the cemeteries of St. Petersburg, but eventually spread to the graveyards of all of Russia.
Red cemetery in St. Petersburg
One of the cemeteries in St. Petersburg is called "Red", thanks to the river Krasnenka, which flows through it. The area of the necropolis is approximately 30 hectares.
History of the Graveyard
The cemetery was formed around 1776 (according to some sources, in 1757) with the participation of parishioners of St. Peter Metropolitan, who was in the village of Ulyanka.
At the graveyard, burials were made for residents of the nearby villages of Ulyanka and Avtovo. A wooden Kazan chapel was erected in the cemetery in 1776.
In 1824, a flood occurred in St. Petersburg, as a result of which the villages of Avtovo and Ulyanka were flooded, buildings were destroyed, 152 people died. All the dead were buried in the Red Cemetery in a common grave, the tombstone of which has survived to this day.
From the 19th to the 20th century, the cemetery was a city-wide cemetery, and residents of the adjacent districts of St. Petersburg were buried there.
In 1901, the Church of Our Lady of Kazan was built on the territory of the graveyard, but the 1941 fire completely destroyed it.
During the Great Patriotic War, the region was in the front line. Mass graves of soldiers who died during the defense of Leningrad and ordinary residents of the city who did not survive the blockade were carried out in the cemetery.
Since 1961, the Red Cemetery of St. Petersburg became half-closed and was reborn only in 2000, with the construction of the church in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. It is an object of cultural heritage of the Russian Federation.
Here are buried: an opera singer, a close friend of Blok A. A. - Andreeva-Delmas L. A .; opera singer, professor of the Leningrad Conservatory - Brian M. I .; sculptor –Evseev S.A .; actress - Kaziko O. G .; writer - Soloviev L.V. and many other prominent figures of science and art.
Red cemetery in Nizhny Novgorod
In Nizhny Novgorod, this cemetery appeared in the 90s of the XIX century and at first it was Old Believers. Since its foundation it has different names. Until the 30s of the twentieth century, residents of the city called it “New,” but they also used the name “Red”, which was assigned to the graveyard due to the color of the brick wall enclosing the cemetery. In the official documentation, the churchyard is currently called the “Cemetery on Krasnaya Street”. The most common name for the Nizhny Novgorod cemetery is “Bugrovskoe”, in honor of the merchant Bugrov N.A., a famous philanthropist of the city.
The history of the churchyard in Nizhny Novgorod
Bugrov and all members of his family were buried in the city cemetery, which has not been preserved to this day, but was destroyed in the Soviet years and built up with residential areas.
The modern cemetery inherited from "Bugrovsky" only its name. It was also formed as an Old Believer. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Red Cemetery began to improve. The territory was fenced with a red brick wall, the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God was built. By 1916, the area of the churchyard reached 16 hectares.
The terrible period in the history of the cemetery is associated with years of Stalinist repression. Until 1938, anonymous convicts and executed were buried in mass graves on the territory of the graveyard, in honor of which a memorial has now been erected. Now the Red Cemetery is closed for burial.
A lot of famous Novgorodians were buried at the Bugrovsky cemetery: the writers Melnikov-Pechersky P.I. and Kochin N.I .; shipbuilding scientists Alekseev R.E. and Kalashnikov V.I .; People's artists of the USSR Samarina A.N. and Kasyanov A.A .; daughter of Maxim Gorky; Decembrist Annenkov I.A. and his wife Annenkova-Goble P.E. and many other prominent residents of the city and country.
Cemetery of the city of Podolsk
The cemetery "Red Hill" is located in the city of Podolsk, Moscow Region. It is officially called the "Podolsk City Cemetery", but the townspeople call it "Red Hill" - in honor of the hill on which it is located.
Today, the Krasnaya Gorka cemetery in Podolsk is half-closed; burials are carried out only in family graves.
History of Podolsk necropolis
On the right bank of the Pakhra river near Podil there was an old city cemetery, but it was completely destroyed during the years of Soviet rule, and a park was built in its place. Currently, a chapel has been erected on the territory of the park in memory of all those who were buried there.
On the territory of the modern churchyard is the Church of St. Nicholas the Martyr, three mass graves of soldiers of the Great Patriotic War, the graves of famous residents of the city: Professor and People's Artist of Russia Igor Agafonnikov, Colonel A. Pechenevsky; Chairman of the City Executive Committee of the city of Podolsk Shcheglova A.V .; turner Vasily Zvezdochkin (who created the nesting doll) and many others.