Kuzminsky cemetery is one of the oldest in the Leningrad region. It inherited its name from the settlement of the same name, which was located near the Kuzminka River in the 18th century. Then, in the fifties of the same century, it became Tsarskoye Selo, thereby indicating an increase in the number of "inhabitants" of the latter. For the same reason, the churchyard was moved several times, forbidding burial within the summer imperial residence. In the era of Catherine the Great, the Kuzminsky cemetery was moved across the river.
Paul did not favor the man-made child of his mother, and the city of Sofia, which, according to the plan of the empress, was to become a model for the whole state, fell into disrepair. This does not mean that life in Tsarskoye Selo has completely stopped. People still lived here, and the Kuzminsky cemetery became their final resting place after the funeral service in the Church of the Sign. The same applies to the priests who served in this temple, which for a long time were considered courtiers.
The architects who built Tsarskoye Selo and created its architectural ensemble deserve special mention. The first of them lay in the consecrated ground in 1782, Vasily Ivanovich Neelov. his graveprotected by the state as a historical monument. The architects of the late period, Alexander Romanovich Bach and his son, who continued his father's work, were buried in the late thirties of the XX century.
Although old, but not very famous Kuzminsky cemetery. The list of burials almost does not contain surnames, which, as they say, are “on hearing” among modern people, although this is not always deserved. Visitors should pay tribute to the memory of Nyktopolion Svyatsky - a poet, a disabled hero of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, a real Russian nobleman. He was paralyzed, could not write with his hands, and created his wonderful works, filled with a piercing feeling of love, holding a pen in his teeth.
Book publisher Pyotr Petrovich Soikin also deserves respect as a person who has done a lot for culture and education in our country. It is to him that we owe A. Brem's three-volume "Animal Life", the first Russian editions of fantasy novels by Jules Verne and Charles Dickens.
Kuzminsky cemetery was visited by Nikolai Gumilyov, his father was buried here.
Then the October Revolution took place, and cruelty towards their memory was added to the ruthlessness of the new government towards people. The Kuzminsky cemetery was no exception. Pushkin - this is the name of Tsarskoye Selo since 1937. For the Bolsheviks, the old graves were of no value, and, guided by a materialistic worldview, they allowed to destroy tombstones using valuable types of stone.again. During the years of godlessness, crosses were massively destroyed in the cemetery, and the church was looted in 1923. In 1939, it was closed - as the then masters of life thought, forever.
During the Great Patriotic War, the line of defense of besieged Leningrad passed here. The Kuzminskoye cemetery received victims of battles and bombings. The dead were buried in mass graves.
Then were decades of neglect. In the eighties of the XX century, the city grew, the old cemetery was remembered, and people began to bury here again. On the basis of the Church of the Annunciation destroyed during the fighting, in 2007 a chapel was erected, which overshadowed everyone lying in this land, both known and unknown. May they have eternal memory and eternal rest!
