A small provincial town in France, having nothing in common with Russia, except… almost 10,000 Russian people resting in the cemetery of this town.
Once there was a nursing home for Russian emigrants here, and when its residents died, they were buried in the local cemetery. Over time, it turned into a ‘Russian cemetery’. Although today, funerals are only allowed for those living in the town.
A small church built in the style of Novgorod churches of the 15th-16th centuries, Russian names are written in Russian letters on the graves… The graves of great princes and princesses, tombstones and memorial complexes of Cossacks, cadets, Kornilovites, Kolchakites, Kuteppovites, Alexeyevites, Wrangelites.
Here lie the graves of Ivan Bunin, the first Russian writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize, and many other writers – Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Zinaida Gippius, Viktor Nekrasov, Maximov, Teffi (Nadezhda Buchinskaya), Alexey Remizov.
Here rest the artists Konstantin Somov, Konstantin Korovin, Andrei Lansky, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, and the creators of modern French ballet – Serge Lifar, Matilda Kshesinskaya, Olga Preobrazhenskaya…
Zinovy Peshkov, the elder brother of Yakov Sverdlov, a man whose fate can be considered one of the most extraordinary in the 20th century, also found his final resting place here near the graves of Alexander Galich, Rudolf Nureyev, and Andrei Tarkovsky.
Sculptors, generals, thinkers, musicians, artists, soldiers – the pride of Russian culture and the embodiment of its spirit…
It is located about 40 km from Paris, with a travel time of about 2.5 – 3 hours. Next to the cemetery is a flower shop.
