The Orthodox cemetery is known to have existed in 1738,[1] but lacked official recognition until 1758.[2] Not only was it far removed from the city center, but it was also damp, necessitating the construction of drainage canals.[3]
The cemetery became a traditional burial place for the professors of the Imperial Academy of Arts (founded in 1757) and of St. Petersburg University (founded in 1724) – both sited on Vasilievsky Island.[2] Up to 800,000 people are estimated[by whom?] to have been interred at the Smolensky Cemetery before the Russian Revolution of 1917, making it the largest 19th-century cemetery of Saint Petersburg.[3] Interments included:
Xenia of Saint Petersburg (died c. 1803), the patron saint of the city; her tomb is marked by a chapel. The Smolensky Church (1786–90) is dedicated to the Theotokos of Smolensk
After the Russian Revolution the local authorities announced plans to demolish the cemetery by 1937, replacing it with a public garden "for sanitation's sake".[3] Entire tombs or their sculptural details were moved to museums in order to preserve them.[3] The remains of Kozlovsky, Zakharov, Martos, Bortniansky, Karatygin, Kramskoi, Shishkin and Kuindzhi were transferred to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Alexander Blok was the last to be reburied – in 1944. The outbreak of the Second World War put the redevelopment plans on hold. The cemetery eventually reopened for select burials in the early 1980s.[1]
On August 29, 2023, Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin, a businessman, the head of the Concord Group and the Wagner PMCs, was buried at the cemetery. The funeral took place in the strictest secrecy, at 6 o'clock in the morning. Subsequently, relatives and representatives of Prigozhin's company staged the funeral service and preparations for the funeral at the Serafimovsky and Northern cemeteries in order to hide the true burial place from vandals.[5]
.jpg)
