white guard, white flock.
White army, white bone...
Wet slabs will overgrow with grass.
Russian letters. French churchyard…
I touch history with my palm.
I'm going through the Civil War...
How they wanted to go to the Mother See
Ride once on a white horse! ..
There was no glory. The Motherland was no more.
The heart was gone. And the memory was...
Your excellencies, their nobility -
Together at Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.
They lie tightly, knowing enough
Their torments and their roads.
Still, Russians. It seems to be ours.
Only not ours, but draws ...
How are they after - forgotten, former
Cursing everything now and henceforth,
Rushed to look at her - the victorious one,
Let it be incomprehensible, let it not forgive,
Motherland, and die ...
Noon. Birch reflection of peace.
Russian domes in the sky.
And clouds like white horses
Rushing over Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.
(Cemetery near Paris. Robert Rozhdestvensky)
The famous Cemetery called "Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois" is located in France, in the town of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, 30 km from the south of Paris
Emigrants from Russia were buried there along with the locals.
The cemetery is considered Orthodox, although there are burials of other religions.
10 thousand representatives of Russian people in France found peace here.
These are the great princes, generals, writers, artists, clergy, artists
Ivan Bunin
Andrei Tarkovsky
In 1960, the French authorities raised the issue of demolishing the cemetery, as the term of the leased land would soon expire.
The Russian government did not stand aside and allocated a certain amount to pay off the debt, as well as further rent and maintenance.
The ashes of some graves were reburied in Russian cemeteries in the 2000s
After mass emigration during October revolution some old people were left all alone.
In order to somehow alleviate their fate, the emigrant committee in April 1927 bought old lock near Paris and arranged in it a shelter for elderly lonely emigrants
It began to be called the Russian House, in which 150 people lived.
To this day, relics of Russian culture and the life of white emigrants are kept there.
On the very edge of the park adjacent to the castle, there was a small local cemetery, which soon began to replenish with Russian graves.
And later, the dead Soviet soldiers and Russians who took part in the French Resistance found their last shelter there.
Even on the way to the cemetery, the realization came that visiting it can be considered a duty.
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Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois cemetery lies 30 kilometers south of Paris in a small town, after which the cemetery got its name. It was at the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery that since the beginning of the 20th century almost all Russian citizens living in Paris and its environs were buried.
In the first half of the century, the Orthodox Assumption Church was built on the territory of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, designed by the architect Albert Benois.
Today, the cemetery is occupied mainly by the graves of Russian emigrants, and Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois is considered to be a Russian cemetery all over the world. Here you can find the graves of more than 10 thousand of our former compatriots, including such famous people, as: Princess Obolenskaya Vera Appolonovna, ballerina Semennikova Tamara Stefanovna, Yesaul Yaganov Illarion Davidovich, officers of the tsarist army and descendants of noble families Prince Felix Yusupov, great philosopher and the theologian Sergei Bulgakov, the touching Ivan Bunin, the writer Boris Zaitsev, the amazing and talented Teffi, the artists Zinaida Serebryakova and Albert Benois, the director Andrei Tarkovsky and many others.
Russian tourists often come to the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery to pay tribute to all the dead and their ancestors. There is a cemetery in the town of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois on Léo-Lagrange Street, open March-September Mon-Sun 7.00-19.00, October-February Mon-Sun 8.00-17.00.
Cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois
And in this cemetery, the builder of St. Petersburg, the architect Pavel Mikhailovich Mulkhanov, is buried. He built more than 80 houses (most of all on the Petrograd side), as well as a church near St. Petersburg in Lisy Nos. It is sad that such a prolific architect is now little known even in St. Petersburg itself. In the photo at his grave, his great-granddaughter Lyudmila.
Saint Genevieve de Bois. Cemetery of the greats
Earlier posts about Sainte-Genevieve de Bois here and here
There are more than 7,000 Russian graves in the cemetery, including famous Russian writers, scientists, artists, artists, statesmen and politicians, military and clergy. The cemetery church of the Assumption was built according to the project of the architect Albert A. Benois in the Novgorod style with the Pskov belfry and gates, it was solemnly consecrated on October 14, 1939.
Drawing by artist Vasily Kuks
Mozart - Requiem
More than 10 thousand Russians are buried in the cemetery. Many famous people rest there: writer Ivan Bunin (1870-1953), poet-bard Alexander Galich (1919-1977), writer Dmitry Merezhkovsky (1866-1941), his wife poetess Zinaida Gippius (1869-1949), film actors brothers Alexander ( 1877-1952) and Ivan (1869-1939) Mozzhukhins, writer, chief editor. magazine "Continent" Viktor Nekrasov (1911-1987), dancer Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993), writer Alexei Remizov (1877-1957), Grand Duke Andrei Romanov (1879-1956) and his wife, ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya (1872-1971) , Grand Duke Gavriil Romanov (1887-1955), artist Zinaida Serebryakova (1884-1967), artist Konstantin Somov (1869-1939), economist and statesman Pyotr Struve (1870-1944), film director Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986), writer Teffi (Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya) (1875-1952), writer Ivan Shmelev (1873-1950) was then reburied on May 30, 2000 in his native Moscow, Prince Felix Yusupov (1887-1967).
At the cemetery is the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin in the spirit of Novgorod churches, built and painted by Albert Benois in 1938-1939. In the crypt of the church are buried: the architect of this church Albert Benois (1870-1970), his wife Margarita, nee Novinskaya (1891-1974), Countess Olga Kokovtsova (1860-1950), Countess Olga Malevskaya-Malevich (1868-1944).
To the right of the iconostasis there is a memorial plaque in memory of 32,000 soldiers and officers who served in World War II in the German army. They were handed over by the allies to the Soviet command and executed for treason.
At the very beginning of the 1920s, when the first wave of Russian emigration appeared in Paris, a problem arose: what to do with the elderly, the older generation who had left Bolshevik Russia? And then the emigrant committee decided to buy a castle near Paris and turn it into a nursing home. Such a castle was found in the department of Essons, 30 kilometers south of Paris, in the town of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois. Then it was a real wilderness.
On April 7, 1927, an old man's house was opened here with a large park adjoining it, at the end of which there was a communal cemetery. At the very beginning of its existence, the Russian House in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois was destined to become the custodian of the relics of pre-revolutionary Russia. When France officially recognized the Soviet Union, Maklakov, the ambassador of the Provisional Government in Paris, had to cede the embassy building to the new owners. But he managed to transport portraits of Russian emperors, antique furniture and even a royal throne made of wood with gilding to the Russian House. Everything is still in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois to this day.
This first Russian old house in France was inhabited by 150 residents. Wonderful and even outstanding people ended their earthly journey here. Many Russian diplomats, artists Dmitry Stelletsky, Nikolai Istselenov... The last famous person who died in this house at the age of 94 is Princess Zinaida Shakhovskaya. So by the beginning of the 30s, Russian graves appeared here, on the foreign side.
Shortly before the war, the Russians prudently bought here a piece of land of about a thousand square meters and according to the project of Albert Benois (a relative of Alexandra Benois) built a church in the Novgorod style. On October 14, 1939, this church was consecrated and thus the churchyard, called the Russian cemetery in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, took shape. Later, both Soviet commanders and soldiers were buried here.
The road to the cemetery from the bus stop. Sunny and deserted, cars rush past from time to time. Ahead is a cemetery fence.
Cemetery central gate, behind them - a church with a blue dome. Everything is closed on Saturday. The entrance to the cemetery is a little further.
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. Calm and quiet.
Side by side - Nadezhda Teffi.
Monument to the Russians who fought and died in World War II on the side of the French Resistance.
Rimsky-Korsakovs
Rudolf Nureyev
Sergey Lifar
Alexander Galich
Grand Duke Andrey Vladimirovich Romanov and "Malechka" Kshesinskaya
Merezhkovsky and Gippius
"In the trenches of Stalingrad". Writer Viktor Platonovich Nekrasov
Writer Vladimir Emelyanovich Maksimov
Captain Merkushov
Grand Duke Gabriel Konstantinovich Romanov
Archpriest Sergei Bulgakov
Veniamin Valerianovich Zavadsky (Writer Korsak) is a very interesting monument.
Professor Anton Vladimirovich Kartashev
Shmelev. Symbolic grave.
Felix Yusupov, murderer of Rasputin. And his (Felix's) wife.
Monument to the Drozdovites
General Alekseev and his faithful comrades (Alekseevtsy)
Alexei Mikhailovich Remezov. Writer.
Andrei Tarkovsky ("To the man who saw an angel" - as it is written on the monument)
The symbolic grave of General Kutepov (for those who read Pryanishnikov's Invisible Web, it should be clear why it is symbolic).
Galipoli...
The famous theologian Archpriest Vasily Zenkovsky
One of the first actors of Russian cinema Ivan Mozzhukhin
The alleys of the cemetery are clean ... and quiet ... only the birds give voices
Cossacks - sons of Glory and Will
View from the altar of the Assumption Church.
A Russian old man's house in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, where fragments of the first post-revolutionary emigration are still living. Among them is Lydia Alexandrovna Uspenskaya, the widow of the famous icon painter Leonid Uspensky, who painted the Three Hierarchs Church and was buried in this cemetery. In October this year. she will be 100 years old. She ended up in France in 1921, she was 14...
Lydia Alexandrovna Uspenskaya before the memorial service at the cemetery:
Memorial service on February 13, 2006 at the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery for all compatriots who died and were buried here (as part of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Three Hierarchs Compound of the ROC MP in Paris).
The memorial service was led by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad (V.R. - currently Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church).
And here they are already burying complete strangers ...
Tomorrow other Russian people will come here and a quiet prayer will sound again...
Buried here:
Father Sergius Bulgakov, theologian, founder of the Theological Institute in Paris
L.A. Zander, professor at the Theological Institute
Archpriest A. Kalashnikov
V.A. Trefilova, ballerina
V.A. Maklakov, lawyer, former minister
N.N. Tcherepnin, composer, founder of the Russian Conservatory. Rachmaninoff in Paris
A.V. Kartashev, historian, professor at the Theological Institute in Paris
I.S. Shmelev, writer (only a symbolic grave remains)
N.N. Kedrov, founder of the Quartet. Kedrova
Prince F.F. Yusupov
K.A. Somov, artist
A.U. Chichibabin, chemist, biologist
D.S. Steletsky, artist
Grand Duke Gabriel
S.K. Makovsky, artist, poet
A.E. Volynin, dancer
I.A. Bunin, writer, laureate Nobel Prize
M.A. Slavina, Opera singer
S.G. Polyakov, artist
V.P. Krymov, writer
S.N. Maloletenkov, architect
A.G. Chesnokov, composer
Archpriest V. Zenkovsky, theologian, professor at the Theological Institute in Paris
Princes Andrei and Vladimir Romanov
Kshesinskaya, prima ballerina
K.A. Korovin, artist
N.N. Evreinov, director, actor
I.I. and A.I. Mozzhukhins, opera and film artists
O. Preobrazhenskaya, ballerina
M.B. Dobuzhinsky, artist
P.N. Evdokimov, theologian
A.M. Remizov, writer
Common Grave of the Gallipoli
Common grave of members of the Foreign Legion
Z. Peshkov, adopted son of Maxim Gorky, general of the French army, diplomat
K.N. Davydov, zoologist
A.B. Pevsner, sculptor
B. Zaitsev, writer
N.N. Lossky, theologian, philosopher
V.A. Smolensky, poet
G.N. Slobodzinsky, artist
M.N. Kuznetsova Massenet, opera singer
S.S. Malevsky-Malevich, diplomat, artist
Common grave of members of the Russian Cadet Corps
L.T. Zurov, poet
Common grave of the Cossacks; Ataman A.P. Bogaevsky
A.A. Galich, poet
P. Pavlov and V. M. Grech, actors
V.N. Ilyin, writer. Philosopher
Common grave of parishioners
S. Lifar, choreographer
V.P. Nekrasov, writer
A. Tarkovsky, film director
V.L. Andreev, poet, writer
V. Varshavsky, writer
B. Poplavsky, poet
Taffy, writer
Rudolf Nureyev, dancer, choreographer
D. Solozhev, artist
I.A. Krivoshein, resistance member, prisoner of Nazi and Soviet camps
S.T. Morozov, the last representative of the Morozov family in France.
The famous cemetery called "Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois" is located in the town of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, 30 km from the south of Paris. Along with the locals, immigrants from Russia were buried there. The cemetery is considered Orthodox, although there are burials of other religions. 10,000 immigrants from Russia found peace here. These are the great princes, generals, writers, artists, clergy, artists.
In 1960, the French authorities raised the issue of demolishing the cemetery, because the lease was expiring. land plot. but Russian government allocated the necessary amount for further rent and maintenance of the cemetery. In the 2000s, some graves were sent for reburial in the Russian Federation.
How did the Russian cemetery in Paris appear?
During the October Revolution, many emigrated from France, leaving only elderly people who had nowhere to flee. In April 1927, a castle near Paris was purchased by an emigrant committee to organize a home for lonely elderly emigrants. The castle bore the unspoken name "Russian House", in which 150 people lived. Today, here you can find preserved relics of Russian culture and the life of white emigrants.
On the very edge of the park adjacent to the castle, there was a small local cemetery, which soon began to replenish with Russian graves. And later, the dead Soviet soldiers and Russians who took part in the French Resistance found their last shelter there.
Church of Our Lady of the Assumption
Before the Second World War, the Russians bought the site, where in 1939 the construction of the Russian Orthodox Church was completed. Assumption Mother of God.
The church is the work of the architect Albert Benois, the brother of a Russian artist, who chose the style of Pskov architecture of the Middle Ages for building. The architect's wife, Margarita Benois, painted the walls and restored the iconostasis. The nun Ekaterina, who worked in the Russian House, and its director, Sergei Vilchkovsky, as well as the general treasurer of the cemetery, Konrad Zamen, also took a feasible part in the construction of the temple.
Subsequently, the architect of the church was buried in the cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.
Mention of the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery in poetry and songs
Many Russian tourists consider it their duty to visit Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, and the creative bohemia from the Russian Federation is no exception. So, the poet and bard Alexander Gorodnitsky composed a song with the name of the cemetery; Robert Rozhdestvensky wrote about famous cemetery a poem, and composer Vyacheslav Khripko - music to it; Marina Yudenich wrote a novel of the same name.
Big names on ancient monuments
Incredibly many famous and worthy names are carved on ancient monuments.
Here is a small part of a string of Russian surnames:
- poet Vadim Andreev;
- writer Ivan Bunin;
- architect Albert Benois;
- Grigory Eliseev, founder of a chain of stores named after him;
- artists Konstantin Korovin and Konstantin Somov;
- General Alexander Kutepov;
- poetess Zinaida Gippius.
Additional Information
The main entrance goes through the church. There is also a shop that sells cemetery maps and guidebooks daily. The first entrance from the bus stop is the service entrance.
The famous Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois is located in the village of the same name near Paris.
In fact, this is the burial place for all the inhabitants of the Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois commune. However, starting in 1926, the first burials of Russian immigrants appeared, who lived in the nearby "Russian house". Gradually, the cemetery turned into a burial place for all Russians, not only of the village, but of the entire Parisian region, all of France and even abroad. Now the cemetery consists of more than 5,000 graves, where about 15 thousand people are buried. Here is located Orthodox Church Assumption of the Mother of God, designed by Alexandre Benois.
How to get to Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery?
You need to take the RER line C, direction: Saint-Martin d "Estampes (C6) or Dourdan-la-Forêt (C4). The Ste-Geneviève-des-Bois stop is located in the 5th RER zone, so be careful when choosing a train (RER may not stop at all stops).
Once you reach the train station in Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois, you will either need to walk to the cemetery (about half an hour) or take a bus. You need any bus, from 001 to 004, that goes past the Mare au Chanvre stop. You will also have to walk a little from this stop, but the locals can tell you the way (the Russian cemetery in French is "simetye rus"). Please note that buses do not operate on weekends.
Who is buried in the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery?
There are over 15,000 people in the cemetery. Among the most famous are Ivan Bunin, Albert Benois, Sergei Bulgakov, Alexander Galich, Andrei Tarkovsky, Zinnaida Gippius, Rudolf Nureyev, Felix Yusupov and many, many others.