Dostoevsky and mystical history. Funeral Where is the grave of Dostoevsky

February 9, 2011 marks the 130th anniversary of the death of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. The graves of his parents, sons, grandson, older brother, two sisters, aunt and other relatives were lost during the Soviet years. In foreign Europe, the burial places of both daughters of Fyodor Mikhailovich have been preserved. They are under the patronage of local authorities. The destruction, and this is the correct definition, of the graves of close relatives of “one of the most famous citizens of Russia in the world” is a shameful page in Soviet history. The acts of this grave vandalism, most likely, were a response to the public and religious beliefs of F.M. Dostoevsky. They were not compatible with the official ideology for a long time.

O from the bottom of unmarked graves at the Vagankovsky cemetery. Bright red stencil on a metal cross. He is visible from afar. It says "Attention. Please contact the cemetery immediately. And on the ground there is a sign "Go to the office." The author, with the help of the Forensic Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, determined that it was in this nameless grave that Fyodor Fyodorovich Dostoevsky- the eldest son of the great writer.

Fedor Fedorovich is known for the fact that in 1918 he delivered to Moscow from the Crimea engulfed by the civil war the archive of his father. He miraculously managed to avoid being shot, as allegedly a smuggler. The archive was kept in the Yalta house of the writer's widow - Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya…

The graves of the tsarist nobles, generals and other "enemies of the working people" were hated by the Bolsheviks, like many old regime monuments. In Sevastopol, at the grave of a revolutionary, lieutenant Peter Schmidt they moved a massive tombstone from the destroyed grave of the commander of the battleship Potemkin, captain of the first rank, killed by sailors Evgeniya Golikova. A parade ground was built on the site of the liquidated necropolis of the Trinity-Sergius Primorskaya Hermitage in Leningrad. Cadets marched along it in marching order. And in the ground under the parade ground were the remains of the daughters of the Generalissimo Alexandra Suvorova and field marshal Mikhail Kutuzov. The tombstone of the grandson of the famous commander with the inscription "Alexander Arkadyevich Suvorov, Count Rymniksky, Prince of Italy" was used for household needs.

The graves of not only representatives of the nobility, generals, officials, wealthy merchants, but also pre-revolutionary doctors, engineers, teachers, and writers disappeared. Writer's grave destroyed in Pavlovsk, Leningrad Region Mikhail Mikhailovich Dostoevsky the writer's older brother. The creators of monumental Soviet monuments needed snow-white marble and magnificent granite for merchant and other expensive tombstones. Therefore, the grave of the elder sister of the writer Dostoevsky, the widow of a wealthy official, disappeared. Varvara Mikhailovna Karepina. Burials not preserved Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky and Vera Mikhailovna Ivanova- father and sister of the writer Dostoevsky. Today, a symbolic monument was erected to the father of Fyodor Mikhailovich at the supposed place of his burial. In 1931, in the Zaraisky district of the Moscow region, where the Dostoevsky estate was located in the past, demonstrative collective farms and state farms were created. Energetic organizers and agitators were hastily sent here from Moscow. Violent anti-religious agitation was carried out. In the group of authorized will be Nikolay Elizarov, communist internationalist. His real name is Jiang Jingguo. He was the son Chiang Kai-shek. During that period, he was a political opponent of his father. It is not surprising that the grave, although not rich, but still the landowner Mikhail Dostoevsky, was razed to the ground. But his son was in the royal penal servitude. The grave has not survived Alexei Dostoevsky- the youngest son of the writer. He died at the age of three. In 2006, they celebrated the anniversary - 500 years of the Dostoevsky family. They planned to install a memorial plate at the entrance to the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery in St. Petersburg, where Alyosha Dostoevsky was buried. On the plate they wrote that the son of the writer F.M. was buried in this cemetery. Dostoevsky. The authorities did not allow the stove to be installed, and it is kept in the local museum of F.M. Dostoevsky.

The grave of the writer's grandson was lost at the Simferopol cemetery Fedor Fedorovich Jr.. Remains Maria Feodorovna Dostoevskaya- the mother of the great writer could be moved to another cemetery. Her grave was at the Lazarevsky cemetery in Moscow. The grave was destroyed during the liquidation of the cemetery. The remains of even the little-known deceased, and even more famous ones, including priests, were transferred after the official appeal of relatives, as well as cultural institutions and other organizations. Mikhail Vasilievich Volotskoy, the author of the fundamental work "The Chronicle of the Dostoevsky Family" (1934) saves the monument on the grave of M.F. Dostoevskaya. The monument is stored in the basement of the Moscow Museum of F.M. Dostoevsky. And why were the remains of the writer's mother not transferred?.. The grave of M.V. Volotsky (died in 1944) disappeared at the Vagankovsky cemetery - today it is no longer listed in the cemetery database.

A question for museum staff and historians: why wasn't Volotsky's grave preserved? And how many dissertations and other scientific papers, and even more so magazine and newspaper articles, have been written with references to the work of this researcher?.. Museum workers, literary critics and descendants of F.M. Dostoevsky are also responsible for the disappearance of the graves of the relatives of the great writer. They had to protect the graves.

Local historians and necropolises today are trying to protect the burials. On the tombstone Semyon Raicha after the words "poet and translator" the inscription "Lermontov's teacher, Tyutchev's teacher" had to be added. This will probably help save the grave. Alexander Sergeevich Plevako, he is 80 years old, the grandson of two celebrities: a lawyer Fedor Nikiforovich Plevako and artist Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin bitterly confirmed to me that his grandmother's grave had disappeared at the Vagankovsky cemetery. grave Lydia Vasilievna Vereshchagina nothing stood out. And if they wrote on the monument - "the widow of the great Russian artist who died near Port Arthur", the grave could be saved. At cemeteries, guides today show the burial places of criminals more than the graves of famous scientists or writers. I remember how we, students, were shown the grave of the unknown and mysterious “N.F.I.” for a long time. Lermontov dedicated Natalya Fedorovna Ivanova, by husband Obreskova, forty poems. And ten meters under the tall metal palm trees, the grave Sonya - Golden handles. Lots of inscriptions. On her monument. I remember one: "Sonya, help me have more metal."

The grave of the eldest son of the writer F.M. Dostoevsky was lost, oddly enough, not in the 1930s, but in the early 1970s. Dies in 1968 Andrei Fyodorovich Dostoevsky, son of F.F. and grandson F.M. Dostoevsky, his mother - Ekaterina Petrovna Dostoevskaya, will be abroad after the war. In German-occupied Simferopol, a provocative ad was placed on her house. "Do not occupy the house of the daughter-in-law of the writer Dostoevsky." The commandant's office spread false rumors about E.P. Dostoevskaya with the invaders. The sick woman was forced to leave her homeland. The tragic fate of the mother will affect the life of her son, and indirectly on the fate of the grave of F.F. Dostoevsky. Documents on the burial in January 1922 of Fyodor Fyodorovich Dostoevsky have not been preserved. After all this, the grave of the writer's son will be left unattended. And the books on the accounting of burials in Moscow until 1942 were destroyed after the state of siege was introduced in the capital. I did not look for the lost burial place of Fyodor Fyodorovich Dostoevsky for a very long time. Received from the museum a copy of the only photograph of his grave. An expert from the ECC of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia is examining an illegible inscription on the cross of the grave, which is to the left of Dostoevsky's burial place. The surname, part of the patronymic, the last digits of the year of birth and the full year of death of the deceased are determined. This grave has survived. Now, instead of a cross, there is a granite monument on it, on which everything agrees with the data of the examination. Consequently, half a meter from this preserved grave is the burial place of the writer's son. At this place, as it is written above, there is a grave mound, on which a metal cross without an inscription is installed.

I come with a certificate from the ECC of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia to the State Unitary Enterprise "Ritual". Moscow cemeteries are subordinated to this enterprise. There were no objections to the examination. But on the issue of transferring the graves of F.F. Dostoevsky had to apply to the Department of Consumer Market and Services of the city of Moscow. Received a response from the Department. It regretted that "it is not possible to satisfy the request at the present time." They promised to inform about additional information on this issue. State the reason for the rejection. In the nameless grave, as written in the letter, there are two burials. 1946 and 1863. But for some reason, there were no credentials for them. The names of the dead were determined only by the inscriptions on the cross during the inventory of 1991. And there is an account for the burial of the urn (1994). The letter from the Department indicates the person responsible for the burial and his home address. The phone number of the person in charge, and it turned out to be a very elderly woman, does not answer calls from employees of the State Unitary Enterprise "Ritual". The Moscow City Prosecutor's Office recommended contacting the local police inspector. The district police officer said that this citizen lives at the specified address. Why isn't she answering her phone calls? The police officer did not have an answer to this question.

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Lazarevskoe and Tikhvinskoe cemeteries of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra

Lazarevsky cemetery was founded under Peter the Great, the first burials took place in the Church of the Annunciation. Many associates of the first Russian emperor were buried in this small wooden church, including V. M. Dolgorukov and B. P. Sheremetev. In 1717, the stone church of the Resurrection of Lazarus was erected and solemnly consecrated, thanks to which the cemetery got its current name. This church became the tomb of the sister of Peter I, Princess Natalya Alekseevna, later it was expanded and rebuilt according to the drawings of the famous architect L. Ya. Tiblen.

View of a part of the Lazarevsky cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra

At present (since 1947) there is an interesting museum exposition in the Lazarevskaya tomb, where you can find more than 80 monuments, including tombstones, sarcophagi and wall monuments. Here, in the western part of the hall, is the family place of the Counts Sheremetevs. Burial at the Lazarevsky cemetery was initially available only to very rich people, and even then not to everyone - only honored figures of the Russian Empire were buried here. Each tombstone of this cemetery is of the greatest historical value, since all of them were created by the best masters of that era.

02. Tombstone on the grave of cavalry guard A. Ya. Okhotnikov

Now the Lazarevsky necropolis is a reserve, where all historical burial places were transferred from those cemeteries of St. Petersburg that were liquidated or were supposed to be liquidated. Here you can find tombstones made by such talented craftsmen as V.I. Demut-Malinovsky, A.P. Voronikhin, I.P. Martos and others.

Gravestone monument to M. V. Lomonosov

Monument to Princess A. G. Beloselskaya-Belozerskaya

Grave of the Ponomarevs. 1913

Gravestone monument to Ponomarev 1913

Tombstone over the grave of Alexander Mikhailovich Malein (1812-1900)

Official on the graveyard path.
before 1914

Lazarevsky cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra

Legends and myths

Among the variety of tombstones at the Lazarevsky cemetery, special attention is drawn to the tombstone, made in the form of a young man in the form of an officer of the Semenovsky regiment, sleeping on the lid of the sarcophagus. The author of this monument is the sculptor A. I. Shtreykhenberg. The exact circumstances of the death of the military man, whom he portrayed in such an unusual way, are unknown. In St. Petersburg, it was said that once an officer of the Semenovsky regiment, I. Reising, while on guard at the palace, fell asleep at his post. At this time, Emperor Nicholas I was passing by. Seeing the sleeping guardsman, he approached and woke him up. Waking up and seeing the emperor bending over him, the officer was so frightened that he died of a broken heart. This monument was moved here from the Lutheran Volkovsky cemetery.

Tikhvin

Chapel at the Tikhvin Cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra

By the beginning of the 19th century, there was not enough space at the Lazarevsky cemetery, and in 1823 Novo-Lazarevsky was founded not far from it. In 1869, in its northern part, with the money of the merchants Polezhaevs, who wanted to build their own tomb, the Church of the Tikhvin Mother of God was founded, after which the cemetery was later called. Since the 30s of the 19th century, all burials were mainly carried out precisely at the Tikhvin cemetery, which was twice the size of the old Lazarevsky one. Such famous personalities as the historian N. M. Karamzin, the poets V. A. Zhukovsky, N. I. Gnedich, I. A. Krylov and P. A. Vyazemsky, the writer F. M. Dostoevsky, composers M. P. Mussorgsky, A. P. Borodinsky, P. I. Tchaikovsky. Burials at the Tikhvin cemetery continued until the 30s of the 20th century, after which it was closed for reconstruction and acquired the status of a memorial park.

The grave of the composer A. S. Dargomyzhsky

Tombstone to the poet I. A. Krylov

Grave of composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka

Tombstone of the writer F. M. Dostoevsky. 1913

Tombstone of the writer F. M. Dostoevsky.

Grave of composer Borodin Alexander Porfiryevich (1833-1887)

Grave of Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich (1766-1826)

The grave of the St. Petersburg farmer A. I. Kosikovsky, who supplied the Russian army with food in 1812

The grave of the composer Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolai Andreevich (1844-1908)

Grave of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

In the future, burials at the Tikhvin cemetery were extremely rare, after the war only some of the most significant artists were buried here, such as the artist M. I. Avilov, artists, V. A. Michurina-Samoilova, Yu. M. Yuryev and some others. The last burial in this cemetery took place in 1989, when the famous director G. A. Tovstonogov was buried.

Grave of G. A. Tovstonogov

Legends and myths

The remarkable sculptor Vasily Ivanovich Demut-Malinovsky was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery. One of his little-known works is the statues of two huge bulls, currently decorating the entrance to the meat processing plant near Srednyaya Rogatka. These sculptures were created by Demut-Malinovsky in 1827 to decorate the entrance to the Animal Farm. Petersburg, it was said that once the sculptor had a dream, as if sculptured animals came to visit him. He tried for a long time to solve a strange dream, but could not. In 1936, almost a hundred years after the death of the sculptor, the bulls that had previously stood at the corner of Moskovsky Prospekt and the Obvodny Canal were transported to the building of a new meat processing plant, which was built on the very outskirts of the city, behind Srednyaya Rogatka. In 1941, the sculptures were hastily transported to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where they were supposed to be hidden underground from enemy bombardments. But for some reason this was not done, and the mighty animals stood in front of the gates of the Necropolis throughout the war. Thus, it turned out that a strange dream was prophetic - in the end, the bulls came to visit their creator, who rested in the grave of the Necropolis of the Masters of Arts. After the war, the bulls were returned to their place in front of the meat packing plant.

Nikolskoye cemetery

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Plan of the Nikolsky cemetery, 1914

Nikolskoye cemetery (with the Bratsk site), founded in 1861 - the third in time of foundation from the cemeteries of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. At first, this cemetery was called Zasoborny. It received the name "Nikolskoe" in 1877 after the church of St. Nicholas of Myra, built in 1868-1871. designed by the diocesan architect G. I. Karpov.

View of the cemetery

In the 19th century, the Nikolskoye cemetery was one of the most expensive and, oddly enough, in relation to the cemetery, prestigious in the city. It goes without saying that the best necropolis in the capital was kept in perfect condition, had a regular layout and was more of a beautiful park than a burial place. In the northern part of the necropolis, a picturesque shady pond with rounded banks was built.

View of the Nikolsky cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra

Priests in the cemetery

Priests on the cemetery bridge

In the second half of the 19th century, motifs from ancient Russian architecture were often used in architecture and sculpture. This trend was also reflected in the design of numerous crypt-chapels at the Nikolskoye cemetery. In addition, many rich people sought to perpetuate themselves in bronze, granite or marble, and therefore the relatives of the deceased ordered from the famous masters of that time - N. Laveretsky, I. Podozerov, R. Bach, I. Schroeder and others - not just tombstones, and sculptures. Of particular interest are memorial monuments in the Art Nouveau style, lavishly decorated with majolica, mosaics and ceramic tiles. In combination with polished granite and marble of various shades, the rich finish creates a spectacle of unique beauty.

The grave of the poet A. N. Apukhtin

The grave of a student of the Theological Academy B. A. Muromtsev

In 1927, the Nikolskoye cemetery was closed. In the late 1970s, burials at the Nikolsky cemetery were resumed, but all of them have an exceptional, honorable character.

The following are buried at the Nikolsky cemetery: architect V. A. Kenel, artist M. O. Mikeshin, scientists B. B. Golitsyn, A. I. Voeikov and N. A. Kotlyarevsky, the first Russian aviators S. I. Utochkin and L. M. Matsievich, historian LN Gumilyov, State Duma deputy Galina Starovoitova, former mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak.

Grave of Tamara Krivoshlyk

The grave of Lieutenant General Roman Isidorovich Kondratenko (hero of the defense of Port Arthur.)

Grave of Lieutenant General Roman Isidorovich Kondratenko (1857-1904)

Grave of actress Vera Fedorovna Komissarzhevskaya

Chapel at the grave of the composer A. G. Rubinstein

Monument to composer Anton Grigorievich Rubinstein

The grave of the pilot L. M. Matsievich.

There were many rumors about the death of one of the first Russian aviators, Lev Makarovich Matsievich, who was buried at the Nikolsky cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. It crashed during the First All-Russian Aeronautics Festival in front of thousands of spectators. The Farman airplane, on which Matsievich made a demonstration flight, for some mysterious reason fell apart in the air and crashed to the ground. It happened in 1912. Matsievich was a member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, and it was said that shortly before the holiday he was instructed to kill Prime Minister P. A. Stolypin and, while doing this task, to die himself. But Matsievich did not want to become a kamikaze. For violating party discipline and disobeying the leadership of the party, he secretly damaged the plane, which fell apart in the air. According to another version, Matsievich committed suicide, considering his refusal to kill the minister as cowardice.

A monument over the grave of Yulia Ivanovna Kazarina (she came from the well-known merchant Old Believer family of the Ryabushinskys; she was the daughter from the second marriage of Ivan Mikhailovich Ryabushinsky (1818 - 1866) - the eldest son of the founder of the cotton manufactory Mikhail Yakovlevich Ryabushinsky).

Cross over the grave of Metropolitan Anthony of St. Petersburg and Ladoga

Legends and myths

1. It must be said that among the native Petersburgers there are many legends and beliefs associated with the Lavra. They say that on a white night you can encounter a ghost here, who was dubbed the "drunken gravedigger".

Swinging like a heavily plucked man, he wanders in a dirty mantle from one grave to another. If a belated passer-by meets on his way, he asks to treat him with vodka. God forbid, the unfortunate will not have alcohol: the ghost then cuts him in half with a shovel!

2. They say that the monk Procopius lived at the Nikolsky cemetery in the early 70s. He hobnobbed with evil spirits and treated the afflicted with drugs prepared from the powder of the bones of the dead, and even mixed with some kind of abomination.

Once, according to those who knew the healer closely, the devil appeared to him and offered a deal - the elixir of immortality in exchange for the soul of a monk. The temptation was too great for a mortal, and Procopius sealed his contract with his signature. According to the agreement, the clergyman had to tie the sinner to the cross on Easter night, gouge out her eyes, cut off her tongue, and fill the church goblet with flowing blood.
He did all this with a girl of easy virtue, whom, without much trouble, he picked up at the Moskva Hotel. Following this, Procopius had to curse the Almighty 666 times and drain the cup of blood before the rising of the heavenly body. But the monk did not have time - the rays of the sun flashed orange.

And the stinking corpse of the sorcerer, dotted with myriads of small swarming worms, was found near the monstrously disfigured body of the prostitute. Eyewitnesses swear that the right foot of the old man became a cat. After that, a large black cat with a gray undercoat on the lower jaw began to be met in the cemetery. There were cases when he attacked people and tried to bite the throat of a dumbfounded person ...

3. It was said that when the coffin with the body of A. V. Suvorov was taken to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, his hearse, covered with a high canopy, suddenly stopped in front of the Lavra gates: Petersburgers, who were seeing off the great commander on his last journey, were afraid that the gates would be too narrow and the hearse will get stuck in them. And at that moment, one of the veterans who participated in Suvorov's military campaigns declared with confidence: "Don't be afraid, it will pass! He passed everywhere!" The hearse actually passed safely through the gates.

The Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra is a territory where the greatest figures of Russian literature, music, fine, architectural, sculptural and theatrical art of the 19th century rest nearby. Many tombstones are a landmark of the northern capital of Russia.

Alexander Nevsky Lavra of St. Petersburg

The Alexander Nevsky Lavra is the heart of the city on the Neva. It was ordered to be built by Peter I, in honor of the Battle of Neva and the feat of Prince Alexander Nevsky. March 25, 1723 is considered to be the completion date for the construction of the Lavra (at that time a monastery). In May of the same year, Peter the Great ordered the relics of Prince Alexander Nevsky to be delivered from Vladimir to the new church. From that time to the present, it has been the main shrine. Peter I in 1724 awarded the monastery the status of a Lavra. Monastic life existed here until the 1930s. This is the time when all the monasteries and temples in the country were closed. The same fate befell the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Monasticism was revived here only in 1996.

Lavra necropolises

There are 4 cemeteries on the territory of the Lavra. Lazarevskoye was considered the most elite. To bury a deceased relative here, the permission of the emperor was required. The Tikhvin cemetery was reconstructed in the 20th century. Here rest sculptors, painters, composers and writers. The third cemetery is Nikolskoye. It received its name in 1869-1871 after the construction of the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (former name Zabornaya) on the territory of the Lavra. During the years of the revolution, another cemetery appeared - the fourth, where the Cossacks were buried.

In addition, near the Trinity Cathedral, opposite its main entrance, there are burials of the late 19th century - early 20th century, but they do not belong to any necropolis.

Nikolskoye cemetery

S. P. Seleznev, commander of the Leningrad Military District, and his wife were buried at the cemetery in 1996. Both died in a plane crash. Their grave is located next to the church.

In 1998, G. V. Starovoitova, a deputy of the State Duma, was buried near the temple, who was killed in the entrance of her house.

In 2000, A. A. Sobchak, the first mayor of St. Petersburg, found eternal rest.

In 2008, F. G. Uglov, a famous surgeon, was buried here.

On the left side of the main alley is the grave of L. N. Gumilyov, a historian and son of the famous poets A. A. Akhmatova and N. S. Gumilyov. Modest Korf, the lyceum friend of A. S. Pushkin, the artist M. O. Mikeshin, the architect V. A. Kenel and many other prominent people are also buried here. This cemetery is not as clean and well-groomed as Tikhvin. Some of the old tombstones are lopsided.

Lazarevsky cemetery

This cemetery is one of the oldest in St. Petersburg. It originated around the beginning of the 18th century. It is located on the left side of the main entrance to the Lavra. The cemetery was founded simultaneously with the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. Only very noble citizens were buried here with the personal permission of Peter I. In this place, in 1717, Peter's sister Natalya Alekseevna was buried, as well as his son, Tsarevich Peter. On the site of the graves, the chapel of St. Lazarus was erected, after which the cemetery was named. Later, their remains were transferred to the Church of the Annunciation, which turned into a royal tomb in St. Petersburg.

Most of the burials in the cemetery date back to the 18th century, but they continued into the 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the last buried was Count S. Yu. Witte. In 1919, the Lazarevskoye cemetery was closed for burials, and in the early 1930s a museum of artistic tombstones was organized here.

Currently, the Lazarevskoye and Tikhvinskoye cemeteries, together with the Annunciation tomb, are part of the State Museum of Urban Sculpture. Entrance to the territory of the objects is paid.

A. N. Voronikhin, K. I. Rossi, I. E. Starov, J. Quarenghi are buried at the Lazarevsky cemetery.

M. V. Lomonosov was buried in this place, the tomb stele was revived in 1832. Here, not far from the chapel, is the grave of the wife of A. S. Pushkin - N. N. Lanskaya-Pushkina.

Pre-revolutionary history of the Tikhvin cemetery

The Tikhvin cemetery is located opposite Lazarevsky. It is very popular among tourists and locals. The necropolis was organized at the beginning of the 19th century. On the territory of the Lazarevsky cemetery there was no longer any place for burials. In 1823, it was decided to organize a new cemetery, which was originally called New Lazarevsky. In the northern part of the territory of the necropolis in 1869, a temple of the icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God was erected. The cemetery also received the same name.

In the late 1870s, the area with the burials was fenced off. The stone fence has been preserved to this day. In the same year, there was an expansion of the cemetery at the expense of neighboring territories and monastery gardens. In 1881, it already occupied an area equal to the modern one. The territory of the necropolis is several times larger than Lazarevsky.

Initially, burials were carried out here as often as in the old Lazarevsky. However, since 1830, they began to bury mainly only here. Some monuments of this period have been preserved in the eastern part of the modern cemetery. For example, near the fence on the side of the square there was a gazebo, near which the monk Patermufiy was buried in 1825.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 1330 tombstones in this cemetery. Next to each other stood crosses of various shapes, monumental steles, altars. Many family plots were in the form of chapels and crypts.

Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Tikhvin Cemetery: its history in the revolutionary years

The post-revolutionary years became a catastrophic period for the Tikhvin cemetery. It was not possible to save the graves and monuments, and they quickly collapsed. In 1918, Skipetrov passed away in the Lavra. He was killed by soldiers who burst into the corps, whom he tried to stop. He was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery. But his grave, like other burials of 1917-1932, did not survive.

In 1926, the Tikhvin cemetery was closed. In the 1930s, the Church of the Icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God was closed. The building originally housed a post office, and currently houses the Museum of Urban Sculpture.

In 1934, it was decided to create a museum on the territory of the cemetery. In the same year, burials at the cemetery were officially stopped.

In 1935, the reconstruction of the necropolis began, timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the death of A. S. Pushkin. In connection with this date, the cemetery receives its second name "Necropolis of masters of arts and contemporaries of A. S. Pushkin."

The reconstruction project was developed by the architect of Leningrad L. A. Ilyin. During the work, many ancient monuments were demolished and were lost forever. After the reconstruction, the old Tikhvin cemetery was practically destroyed. At the beginning of the 20th century there were 1330 tombstones here. After the reconstruction, about 100 remained. The ashes of famous sculptors, artists, artists, composers and musical figures were transferred here from other cemeteries in St. Petersburg (at that time Leningrad) and reburied. About 70 monuments were moved. Currently, there are about 200 graves here.

War years

During the Patriotic War, many sculptural valuables from the monuments were kept under the floor in the cache of the Annunciation tomb. The cemetery was badly damaged by German airstrikes. In 1942, the tombstone of actress V.N. Asenkova was destroyed. Currently, you can see the new monument, which was installed in 1955.

Postwar years

Immediately after the end of the war, restoration work was carried out. The reconstruction and restoration of the necropolis ended in 1947, and it was opened to visitors. In the late 1960s, the old stone fence was overhauled. Burials were practically not carried out, only the most prominent and famous figures of Soviet art were buried. The last burial was in 1989.

Burials of prominent people

Outstanding figures of Russian culture and art have found their eternal rest on the territory of the necropolis. - Tikhvin cemetery in St. Petersburg. Who is buried here? Who found their last resting place here?

On the right side of the entrance, F. M. Dostoevsky found eternal rest, next to which his wife Anna Grigoryevna and grandson A. F. Dostoevsky rest.

Not far from the Dostoevskys, Pushkin's friends and seconds at his duel - A. A. Delvig, K. K. Danzas - rested. Next to them is the grave of the admiral, who made a round-the-world trip - F. F. Matyushkin. Along the northern wall, on the composer's path, there are the graves of composers P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. I. Glinka, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. S. Dargomyzhsky, M. A. Balakirev, A. P. Borodin, Ts A. Cui, A. G. Glazunova.

To the west of these graves, the artists I. N. Kramskoy, I. I. Shishkin, B. M. Kustodiev, A. I. Kuindzhi are buried. Next to them is the grave of N. M. Karamzin, a famous historian, as well as his wife.

In the central part of the cemetery there are the graves of famous artists - N. K. Cherkasov, V. N. Asenkova, Yu. M. Yuriev, V. F. Komissarzhevskaya, choreographer M. I. Petipa. Busts are erected over many graves, but some of them are simple and modest.

Along the southern fence wall is the grave of I. A. Krylov, the great Russian fabulist. N. I. Gnedich, a Russian poet, translator of the poem "Iliad", rests nearby. Across the road is the burial place of the great navigator Yu. F. Lisyansky, who made the first Russian round-the-world expedition.

In 1972, the ashes brought from France, the composer A. K. Glazunov, were reburied in the necropolis.

The last to be buried in 1989 was the famous theater director G. A. Tovstonogov, who since 1956 headed the Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater. A. M. Gorky. Above his grave there is a cross with the crucifixion of Christ - the work of the outstanding sculptor Levon Lazarev.

How to get to the necropolis

The Tikhvin cemetery in St. Petersburg is especially old, it has preserved the unique architectural appearance of old St. Petersburg. To touch the culture of that time, you need to go to the address: St. Petersburg, Prospekt metro station, 179/2 a.

Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra: opening hours

The necropolis is open from Monday to Sunday, except for Thursday. To visit, you must purchase a ticket at the box office, which is open until 17:00.

Tikhvin cemetery St. Petersburg opening hours: from 10:00 to 17:30.

Price

Entrance to the necropolis is paid. Tickets can be purchased at the box office. The entrance fee to the territory of the Tikhvin cemetery is: for pensioners, students, and other privileged categories of citizens - 50 rubles, a regular ticket - 300 rubles .

Disputes about the resting place of the writer's mother do not subside.

The Raznochinny Petersburg Memorial Museum is holding an action called Dostoevsky Through Time on Pionerskaya Square. It is dedicated to two significant dates - this year marks the 135th anniversary of the writer's death and will be 195th anniversary of his birth. Visitors are shown the exhibitions "A Writer's Diary" and "Feuilleton for the whole summer." The latter tells about the writer's summer trips and their literary reflections.

Meanwhile, the almost mythical story that took place after the death of Maria Feodorovna, the mother of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, received a continuation. Connoisseurs of his work claim that it looks like a detective and is mysterious in the same way as much that happens to the heroes of the writer's works in St. Petersburg and other cities.

From the grave to the museum cabinet

Maria Fedorovna lived for almost 37 years. She died on February 27 (according to the old style - March 11), 1837 and was buried at the Lazarevsky cemetery in Moscow. After the burial place was liquidated, the remains were exhumed in 1934 at the initiative of Mikhail Volotsky, a researcher of the Dostoevsky family. The skull was sent to anthropologist and sculptor Mikhail Gerasimov for sculptural reconstruction. For unknown reasons, he was then “lost”, and the remains were kept in the closet of the Museum and Research Institute of Anthropology of Moscow State University for almost eight decades.

“Anthropologist Mikhail Volotsky was busy with preserving the remains in the museum, where they had lain until 2012,” Vladimir Viktorovich, Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Kolomna State Social and Humanitarian University, helped to restore the recent events. “When they began to destroy the Lazarevskoye cemetery, he organized the opening of the grave of Maria Fedorovna, took out her remains and a tombstone, on which the inscription-epitaph of Karamzin was engraved: “Rest, dear ashes, until the joyful morning,” chosen by his sons, Mikhail and Fedor.”

Today, disputes about the resting place of the writer's mother do not subside. Viktorovich clarified that Nikolai Bogdanov, a researcher of the Dostoevsky genealogy, Candidate of Medical Sciences, was the first to raise the question of the burial of the remains. At that time, many people joined his opinion, including the descendants of the writer, in particular, the great-grandson of Dmitry Dostoevsky.

With incredible effort, since it was a “storage unit” (museums know how difficult, and sometimes impossible, to withdraw and transfer such a “unit” to someone), they managed to convince the management of the Museum of Anthropology to transfer the remains for burial. “Given the legal subtleties, we found the best option: the museum issued a transfer through the Orthodox Church. The procedure was long, Kolomna University acted as an intermediary. The blessing of the Metropolitan of Krutitsy and Kolomna Yuvenaly was received. In the act of transfer, it is indicated: for subsequent burial on the churchyard of the Holy Spirit Church in Monogarovo. This is an official document that has not been canceled,” Viktorovich recalled.

Through the efforts of the researchers of the Russian Dostoevsky Society, with the help of philanthropists and the administration of the Zaraisky district of the Moscow region, the ashes of Maria Feodorovna were transported to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in the Zaraisky Kremlin. It was supposed to be kept there until the final restoration of the grave of her husband, Mikhail Dostoevsky.

“It was a collegial decision of the Dostoevsky Society that we should find the grave of Father Fyodor Mikhailovich, the exact place of his rest. The churchyard in the village of Monogarovo near the Darovoye estate was destroyed in the 1930s,” said Vladimir Viktorovich. - With the help of benefactors, a cenotaph with a wooden cross was installed near the temple. With the help of ground penetrating radar, it was possible to determine the boundaries of the churchyard, Kolomna archaeologists made a vertical layout - they removed the top layer of the earth and established exactly where the graves were located. There are no more than fifteen graves. The discovery of the remains of Mikhail Andreevich seemed to us a very real task. After excavations, anthropological and then genetic expertise will be required. All of the above works require not too much time and relatively small funds - about three hundred thousand rubles, the collection of which was once announced on the website of the Reserve Darovoy.

However, in 2015, an opposite initiative arose from the head of the Moscow branch of the Society of Orthodox Doctors, A. V. Nedostup, to bury the remains of Maria Feodorovna in their original place, in Moscow. The arguments of the opponents of Viktorovich and the Russian Dostoevsky Society are as follows: Darovoye and Monogarovo are a “bear corner”, the Dostoevsky temple is supposedly solid ruins, and the cemetery next to it is a wasteland overgrown with weeds. Another “weighty” evidence against Monogarov is put forward - a tenacious myth about the cruelty of heart and unworthy behavior of the landowner Dostoevsky, next to whom it is impossible to bury the writer’s mother (and at the same time, his beloved wife, with whom even after her death Mikhail Andreevich spoke aloud).

One can only answer here with the words of Fyodor Mikhailovich himself about his parents: “... After all, these were advanced people ... And such family men, such fathers ... we will not be with you, brother! ..” Over the rehabilitation of the good name of Father Dostoevsky and the “return” of the land of childhood writer and caring people have been working for many years.

"Sign of fate" after death

Today, no one argues with the fact that the repeatedly disturbed remains of Maria Feodorovna, according to all human laws, must be buried. But where? On a plot of land closed to visitors at the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit in Moscow (where she was originally buried) - a cemetery destroyed in the thirties? Or next to your spouse, on the graveyard of the Holy Spirit Church in Monogarovo, which is near the family estate Darovoye in the Moscow region, places that are thoroughly saturated with the memory of the Dostoevskys?

To understand this issue, we, together with senior researcher Natalya Schwartz, who worked for many years in the F.M. Dostoevsky, visited places of memory of the writer. Together we went first to Moscow - to the place where the Lazarevsky cemetery, which was liquidated 82 years ago, was previously located, then to the Moscow Museum-Apartment of F.M. to Zaraysk and further to Darovoye, to the churchyard near the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit (built in 1763) in the village of Monogarovo, where the husband of Maria Feodorovna, the father of the writer Mikhail Andreevich, was buried.

From the 18th century until the 30s of the 20th century, there was a cemetery near the Moscow Holy Spirit Church, most of which was converted into a recreation area in Soviet times (now the Festivalny Park). That's where we went first. A woman selling church utensils was asked how we could get to the closed plot of land at the temple and if anyone could show us, at least approximately, the place where the grave of Maria Feodorovna was located.

Soon sister Anna came out to us and led us to a small courtyard behind the temple. She explained that at the church there is a sisterhood in the name of St. Ignatius of Stavropol, whose sisters take care of its territory. “Of course, go ahead and have a look… But we only know the approximate location of the grave. There has been nothing here for many years, ”Anna explained and recalled how one of the sisters said that in winter there was a man who also tried to determine the location of the grave. “He asked, measured the snowdrifts with steps, and left without naming himself,” she shrugged her shoulders.

In the immediate vicinity of the temple, behind the altar part, only two graves have been conventionally restored.

The efforts of the guardians, the atrocities of the vandals

For almost a decade and a half, the Dostoevsky Darovoye estate and the surrounding memorial surroundings in the Moscow region have been under the voluntary tutelage of researchers from Kolomna - Professor Vladimir Viktorovich and his associates, mainly teachers and students of the State Social and Humanitarian University. Together they put the territory of the estate in order (most recently, with difficulty, but fruitful contact has been established with the Zaraisky Kremlin Museum), they are studying its history, initiating archaeological work in Darovoye and Monogarovo; treat old-growth trees in the reserved Linden Grove, which is 300 years old; conduct landscape research, conferences, publish scientific collections. A summer volunteer camp has been running at the estate for 13 years.

In 2011, the Zapovednoye Darovoye Non-Commercial Partnership was created, which included dostoevologists, the State State University for the Humanities, the Museum of F. M. Dostoevsky in St. Petersburg, and the descendants of the writer. Philanthropists and partner organizations are involved in the implementation of scientific, cultural and educational projects. In 2013 Zapovednoye Darovoye became the winner of the International Orthodox Initiative grant competition held under the patronage of Patriarch Kirill. Project “Life-Giving Shrine. The place of memory of Dostoevsky's parents" made it possible to activate the parish life of the Monogarovsky Church.

But so far there is no salvation from vandals, free and involuntary. A few years ago, their victim was an old linden tree on the “mound”, where the Dostoevsky family held tea parties. In June of this year, during haymaking in the manor garden, an apple tree fell - a gift to Darovoy from the Dickens Museum, Dostoevsky's favorite writer. The efforts of many people and organizations, thanks to which this “gift to Darovoy” became possible, were “mowed” in one fell swoop by the indifferent order of the current new owners of Darovoy, which bears a very strange “title” of the Zaraisky Kremlin museum sector.

The surviving values, from the point of view of historians, may be few. And a lot - from the fair position of those who are trying to save this little. Backyard spaces, Linden Grove - a haven for children's games; Losk, who "resurrected" Dostoevsky in hard labor; Fedin's grove, and in it a ravine - a place of dreams of the future writer; Mamenkin Pond, mossy gravestones of the Nechaevsky churchyard; the long-suffering temple in Monogarovo, which still can’t rise (money for restoration was released, but suspiciously quickly ran out - alas, it’s not a rare story nowadays) ... And in the local cemetery there are the graves of one of Dostoevsky’s nieces, the last mistress of Darovoy - Maria Alexandrovna Ivanova and her faithful housekeepers.

Sale of surrounding lands continues. In the immediate vicinity of the manor wing, a defiantly out of place house has already been built, destroying the historical space associated with the Dostoevskys.

We also looked into the neighboring village of Cheremoshnia (the name of which the writer mentions in the novel The Brothers Karamazov) is tiny, with a broken road. The inhabitants complained that the local grandmothers could not get to the main roads during the muddy road, and it even occurred to someone from the authorities to remove the road sign: as if the village did not exist. It turned out that people are aware that their village is not simple - with a history involved in the life and work of the great Dostoevsky.

People will come to the monogarovsky churchyard

It suffered from time, but the Holy Spirit Church in Monogarovo survived. Complex restoration work has been suspended, but this does not negate the significance of the temple for a modest number of parishioners. Father Grigory Reshetov serves here only on major holidays. On the tables in front of the altar, where there was a shop in Soviet times, there are icons in homemade settings. The territory at the temple is well-groomed - through the efforts of volunteers and caring local residents, and on the old churchyard there are monuments to the landowners: Khotyaintsev, Kostyurin, Melgunov ... All the neighbors of the Dostoevskys.

Maria Fedorovna did not even think about the mournful change in the “sign of fate” after death. In her strangest dreams, she could not foresee future repeated funerals. Where - now you will not ask her. But given that there is nothing left of the Lazarevsky cemetery in Moscow, and the Monogarovo churchyard is being restored by volunteers in its entirety, maybe, after all, in Monogarovo?

In the Moscow region, many people go to Dostoevsky (and visiting the temple is an obligatory part of excursions to Darovoye), and here, too, the husband of Maria Fedorovna is buried in the churchyard; the surrounding fields and forests breathe memories of her and her loved ones, and Fyodor Mikhailovich himself admitted: “This small and unremarkable place left the deepest and strongest impression on me for the rest of my life.”

Evgenia Dyleva

February 9 is the 130th anniversary of the death of the great Russian writer. As a sign of memory and sorrow, we present the notes of the literary critic Yevgenia Sarukhanyan and the testimony of the widow of Fyodor Mikhailovich

On January 26, 1881, at night, when everything was quiet in the house, Dostoevsky, as usual, worked in his office. By chance, he dropped a pen on the floor, which immediately rolled behind a bookcase with books. Dostoevsky with a sharp movement moved the heavy bookcase from its place. He started bleeding from his throat. It happened again over the next two days...
According to the story of the writer's daughter, the day before Fyodor Mikhailovich had a difficult explanation with a relative about the division of the wealthy aunt's inheritance. Dostoevsky, who had been in need all his life, was afraid that the same fate would befall his children. The conversation upset the writer. This, apparently, also affected his condition. But when Dostoevsky felt better, he, wanting to reassure his wife and children, joked, showed the children pictures in a new magazine, talked about plans for the future ...
Writer B.M. Markevich recalled: “In the depths of the unsightly, gloomy room, his office, he lay, dressed, on the sofa with his head thrown back on the pillow. The light of a lamp or candles that stood nearby on a table fell flat on his forehead and cheeks, as white as a sheet of paper, and an unwashed dark red blood stain on his chin ... His breath was interrupted by some faint whistle from his throat, through convulsively parted lips. The eyelids were closed, as if by such a mechanical convulsive process of the affected organism ... He was in complete oblivion.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky died on January 28 (February 9 according to the new style), 1881, at 8:38 in the evening, at the age of fifty-nine.
Anna Grigorievna, wishing to fulfill the will of her husband, decided to bury him next to N.A. Nekrasov at the Novodevichy Cemetery. The next morning after the writer's death, Dostoevsky's relatives went to the Novodevichy Convent to buy a place in the cemetery. The abbess of the monastery asked for such a high price that the writer's family could not give it. In the evening of the same day, the editor of Saint Petersburg Vedomosti, V.V. Komarov handed over to Anna Grigoryevna the official proposal of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra to bury Dostoevsky on its territory. All expenses were covered by the Lavra. The widow was forced to agree and chose a place at the Tikhvin cemetery of the monastery next to the grave of V.A. Zhukovsky.
At that time there were four laurels in Russia, they were privileged, richest monasteries. Petersburg Lavra was especially influential and rich. Her condition was estimated according to the inventory at forty million rubles in gold. The expenses for the funeral of the writer, of course, were not burdensome for her. In addition, the Alexander Nevsky Lavra made its proposal not without intent: the clergy thought to turn the funeral into a grandiose spectacle, designed to demonstrate Dostoevsky's unity with the church, with the ruling circles. However, they failed to carry out their plan. The funeral of Dostoevsky turned into a multi-thousand people's procession.
On February 1, 1881, by ten o'clock in the morning, the entire Kuznechny Lane, Vladimirskaya Square and the streets adjacent to them were crowded with people who had gathered to escort the body of the writer to the burial place.
The ceremonial procession behind the coffin was scheduled in the following order: students from almost all St. Petersburg educational institutions, among them pupils of the Main Engineering School, which Dostoevsky graduated from, dressed in full dress; then artists, actors, deputations from Moscow - in total more than seventy institutions and societies were represented. Even before the removal, when all the participants in the procession took their places, the beginning of the cortege was at the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and Vladimirskaya Street. / that is, it extended for a distance of about one and a half kilometers - "SG"/
At the end of the twelfth hour, at the sign of the steward, D.V. Grigorovich, the funeral ceremony began. The coffin was raised in their arms by the relatives of Fyodor Mikhailovich and some writers, among whom were A.N. Pleshcheev and A.I. Palm. Until the Lavra, the coffin, mounted on a stretcher, was carried by friends, admirers of the writer ... Relatives, writers and then a crowd of thousands of people silently and reverently said goodbye to the writer behind the coffin. There were fifty or sixty thousand people seeing off. The funeral chariot, covered with crimson velvet and adorned with ostrich feathers, rode empty. / well-known modern Dostoevskologist Igor Volgin gives a more modest figure of thirty thousand mourners, but he also recalls the words of the famous critic Nikolai Strakhov: “We can safely say that such a funeral had never happened in Russia until that time” - "SG"/

A huge garland of fresh flowers surrounded a group of people and writers close to the deceased. Many wreaths were carried in front of the coffin, including very large ones made of live roses and camellias - from the city of St. Petersburg. The wreath of university students was intertwined with white ribbons, on which the names of the main works of the late writer were printed: “Notes from the House of the Dead”, “Humiliated and Insulted”, “The Brothers Karamazov”, etc. In front of the university wreath was the rector of St. Petersburg University - a friend of youth F.M. . Dostoevsky Professor A.N. Beketov / grandfather of the future poet A.A. Block - "SG"/. On the wreath from the city of Moscow was the inscription: "From the heart of Russia - to the great teacher." A wreath from the actors was carried by N.F. Sazonov and M.G. Savina.
The writer who attended the funeral E.P. Letkova-Sultanova recalled: “For one minute there was some kind of commotion on Vladimirskaya Square. The gendarmes galloped up, surrounded someone, took something away. The youth immediately put out this noise and silently handed over the prison shackles that they wanted to carry for Dostoevsky and thereby repay his debt as a victim for political convictions.
At four o'clock the procession reached the gates of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, and only persons carrying wreaths and representatives of various institutions were let in.
Narodovolets I.I. Popov, who was among them, said: “It was impossible to get into the Church of the Holy Spirit, where Dostoevsky was buried. There were also crowds at the grave; monuments, trees, a stone fence separating the old cemetery - everything was strewn with those who came to pay their last debt to the writer. Grigorovich asked the students to clear the way to the grave and the place near it. We did it with difficulty and lined up wreaths and banners with tapestries on both sides of the aisle. The service and funeral went on for a very long time. Several speeches were made in the church. Numerous clergy, Alexander Nevsky singers and monks proceeded to the grave, where it was already impossible for us to get through. I did not hear speeches, but, climbing a tree, I saw speakers.
The list of speakers was limited. The first to speak was Petrashevets A.I. Palm, playwright, poet and novelist. He remembered the young years of Dostoevsky, the arrest of the writer, the rite of execution, hard labor, his difficult life, said that all this hastened the death of the writer. There was no mention of this in other speeches - apparently, appropriate measures were immediately taken. The speakers spoke only about the enormous talent of Dostoevsky, that he made a great contribution to Russian culture with his work.
“They dispersed from the grave,” I.I. continues his story. Popov, - when the lanterns were already lit. We came across groups of people who, after the service, went to pay their last debt to the writer. This worship of the memory of Dostoevsky continued until March 1.

Evgenia SARUKHANYAN, "Dostoevsky in St. Petersburg", 1970

Recall that on March 1, 1881, an attempt was made by members of the "Narodnaya Volya" on Emperor Alexander I, which led to the death of the monarch.
In the book of her memoirs, Anna Grigorievna DOSTOYEVSKAYA makes it clear that her husband would not have survived this assassination attempt on the Emperor. Here are her thoughts and testimony from one of her last conversations with her dying husband.

- Light a candle, Anya, and give me the Gospel!
This gospel was presented to Fyodor Mikhailovich in Tobolsk (when he was going to hard labor) by the wives of the Decembrists. They begged the warden of the prison to allow them to see the political criminals who had arrived, stayed with them for an hour, “blessed them on a new path, baptized them and clothed each with the Gospel - the only book allowed in the prison.” Fyodor Mikhailovich did not part with this holy book during all four years of his stay in hard labor. Subsequently, she always lay with her husband in plain sight on his desk, and he often, thinking or doubting something, opened this Gospel at random and read what was on the page. And now Fyodor Mikhailovich wished to test his doubts in the Gospel. He himself opened the holy book and asked to read it.
The Gospel of Matthew was revealed: “But John held Him back and said: I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me? But Jesus answered and said to him: do not hold back, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill the great righteousness.
- You hear - "do not hold back." So, I will die, - said the husband and closed the book.
The words of the Gospel, revealed to Fyodor Mikhailovich on the day of his death, had a deep meaning and significance in our lives. It is possible that my husband could have recovered for some time, but his recovery would have been short-lived: the news of the villainy of March 1 would undoubtedly have greatly shocked Fyodor Mikhailovich, who idolized the tsar - the liberator of the peasants; the barely healed artery would have ruptured again and he would have died. Of course, his death in troubled times would have made a great impression, but not as colossal as it did then: the thoughts of the whole society would have been too absorbed in thoughts of villainy and of those complications that may follow at such a tragic moment in the life of the state. In January 1881, when everything was apparently calm, the death of my husband was a "social event": it was mourned by the most diverse people in their political views, the most diverse circles of society. The extraordinary solemnity of the funeral procession and funeral of Fyodor Mikhailovich attracted a lot of readers and admirers from among those who were indifferent to Russian literature, and, thus, my husband's lofty ideas received much more dissemination and a proper assessment worthy of his talent.
After the death of the generous king-liberator, it is possible that our family would not have been shown royal mercy, but it fulfilled my husband’s always dream that our children would be educated and could later become useful servants of the king and the fatherland.

Anna DOSTOYEVSKAYA, "Memoirs", 1916