Where Dostoevsky is buried and why he died. Dostoevsky and mystical history. The years of the life of Fyodor Dostoevsky

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. He accidentally dropped it on the floora pen, 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, standing 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 weredammed people who 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 mourners. The funeral chariot, covered with crimson velvet and adorned with ostrich feathers, rode empty. The well-known modern Dostoevsky scholar Igor Volgin cites 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 living 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 most important works of the late writer were printed: “Notes from the House of the Dead”, “Humiliated and Insulted”, “The Brothers Karamazov”, etc. The rector of St. Petersburg University, a friend of youth F.M. . Dostoevsky Professor A.N. Beketov (grandfather of the future poet A.A. Blok - "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 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 in new way, were baptized and each was given the Gospel - the only book allowed in 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 not have lasted long: 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 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 people of the most diverse 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 given 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.

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, just like 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 lay until 2012,” Vladimir Viktorovich, Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Kolomna State Social and Humanitarian University, helped restore 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 specified that Nikolay 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 efforts, 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 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 benefactors 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, they managed 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. 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 churchyard 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. Dostoevsky, where the tombstone, once installed on the grave of Maria Fedorovna, is stored in the basement, and then to Zaraysk and further to Darovoe, 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 land plot at the temple and can anyone 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 studies, conferences, issue 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 frames. 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 a visit to the temple is obligatory part excursions to Darovoye), and here the husband of Maria Fedorovna is buried in the graveyard; 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

By the beginning of the 19th century, the Lazarevsky cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra was overcrowded, and it was decided to allocate a new site for burials. The cemetery, originally named Novo-Lazarevsky, was founded in 1823.

In 1869-1871, in the northern part of the Novo-Lazarevsky cemetery, a tomb church was erected, consecrated in the name of the miraculous icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God. Money for the construction of the temple in the Byzantine-Russian style was donated by the merchants Polezhaevs, for whose family members 20 places with 13 graves were allocated in the tomb. Soon the cemetery began to be called by the name of the new church - Tikhvin.

By 1881, the Tikhvin cemetery acquired its modern size and shape. It was almost twice as large as Lazarevsky, and since the 1830s, burials have been carried out mainly on its territory. Unfortunately, many graves from this period have been lost. In 1826, the writer and historian N. M. Karamzin, the author of the monumental work "History of the Russian State", was buried at the Novo-Lazarevsky cemetery. In 1857, a grave monument to V. A. Zhukovsky, designed by P. K. Klodt, was erected near his grave. In February 1833, the funeral of N. I. Gnedich, the famous translator of the Iliad, took place at the cemetery. The funeral was attended by prominent writers of that time A. S. Pushkin, I. A. Krylov, P. A. Vyazemsky, P. A. Pletnev, F. P. Tolstoy, A. N. Olenin. All of them, except for Pushkin, after their death were buried in the cemeteries of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, including Novo-Lazarevsky.

On February 1, 1881, F. M. Dostoevsky was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery. According to the memoirs of his widow, the Alexander Nevsky Lavra offered for the burial of the writer, who did so much to spread and strengthen Orthodoxy in the hearts of people, any place on the territory of the Lavra. In the end, the site was chosen next to the graves of Karamzin and Zhukovsky. The tombstone, designed by the architect X. K. Vasiliev and sculptor N. A. Laveretsky, was installed on the grave of the great Russian writer two years later, in 1883. In the 1880s, composers M. P. Mussorgsky and A. P. Borodinsky were buried in the northern part of the Tikhvin cemetery. Next to them, a tombstone was erected for P.I. Tchaikovsky, who died in 1893.

By the beginning of the 20th century, there were more than one thousand three hundred tombstones at the Tikhvin cemetery. All kinds of crosses, sculptures, obelisks, small chapels and family crypts, representing the development of monumental art throughout the 19th century, stood in great crowding. Soon after the revolution of 1917, the Tikhvin cemetery was closed, but burials continued until the early 1930s, when a decision was made to create a museum-necropolis of art masters. In 1935-1937, large-scale works were carried out to improve and reconstruct the cemetery, which acquired the status of a memorial park. Burials and monuments of great historical and artistic value were transferred to the Necropolis of Masters of Arts from other cemeteries of the city (Farforovsky, Mitrofanievsky, Malookhtinsky Orthodox, Vyborgsky Roman Catholic, Smolensk Orthodox, Lutheran and Armenian, Volkovsky Orthodox and Lutheran, Novodevichy, Nikolsky). At the same time, many graves were destroyed at the Tikhvin cemetery itself, which, according to the leaders, were of no value. During the Great Patriotic War some sculptural details from a number of monuments of the Necropolis of Masters of Arts were hidden in the underground cache of the Annunciation tomb. The bombings caused great damage to the museum-necropolis, as a result of which several monuments were destroyed. In the post-war years, restoration work was carried out in the necropolis, which returned the museum to its pre-war appearance.

After World War II, some famous cultural figures of the Soviet era were buried in the Necropolis of Masters of Arts: artist M. I. Avilov, artists V. A. Michurina-Samoilova, E. P. Korchagina-Aleksandrovskaya, Yu. M. Yuryev, N. K. Cherkasov and others. In 1972, the ashes of the composer A. K. Glazunov, brought from France, were placed in the Necropolis. The last to be buried at the former Tikhvin cemetery was the outstanding director G. A. Tovstonogov. His funeral took place in the summer of 1989.

In the Necropolis of Masters of Arts, you can see the works of outstanding sculptors and architects who created magnificent monumental monuments - I. I. Gornostaev, I. Ya. Gintsburg, N. E. Lansere, P. K. Klodt, A. I. Terebenev, N. A. Laveretsky, P. P. Kamensky, M. K. Anikushin, I. A. Fomin, L. K. Lazarev, N. K. Roerich, A. V. Shchusev and others. The following are buried in the Necropolis of Masters of Arts: writers, writers, poets E. A. Baratynsky, P. A. Vyazemsky, N. I. Gnedich, I. F. Gorbunov, A. A. Delvig, F. M. Dostoevsky, V. A. Zhukovsky, A. E. Izmailov, N. M. Karamzin, I. A. Krylov; composers: V. V. Andreev, A. S. Arensky, M. A. Balakirev, A. P. Borodin, D. S. Bortnyansky, A. K. Glazunov, M. I. Glinka, A. S. Dargomyzhsky, K. A. Cavos, Ts. A. Cui, M. P. Mussorgsky, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. N. Serov, P. I. Tchaikovsky; choreographer M. I. Petipa; artists F. A. Bruni, M. N. Vorobyov, A. A. Ivanov, I. N. Kramskoy, A. I. Kuindzhi, B. M. Kustodiev, A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, I. I. Shishkin ; sculptors I. Ya. Gintsburg, V. I. Demut-Malinovsky, P. K. Klodt, B. I. Orlovsky, S. S. Pimenov; architect V.P. Stasov; artists: V. N. Asenkova, M. V. Dalsky, I. A. Dmitrevsky, P. A. Karatygin, V. F. Komissarzhevskaya, Yu. Ya. Korvin-Krukovsky, E. P. Korchagina-Aleksandrovskaya, P. V. Samoilov, G. A. Tovstonogov, N. I. Khodotov, N. K. Cherkasov, Yu. M. Yuriev.

How to get there

Get to the metro station "Alexander Nevsky Square" and cross the square to the Church of Sorrow. Pass under the arch of the Holy Gates, and you will find yourself in a small passage. On both sides of this passage rise stone fences with small entrance gates located symmetrically. The entrance to the Necropolis of the Masters of Arts is on the right.

1823- the foundation of the New Lazarevsky cemetery.
1826- N. M. Karamzin was buried at the New Lazarevsky Cemetery.
1869-1871- construction of a church-tomb in the name of the miraculous icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God (architect N.P. Grebenka).
1870s- expansion of the cemetery.
1876- The new Lazarevskoye cemetery was renamed Tikhvinskoye.
1881- the writer F. M. Dostoevsky is buried at the Tikhvin cemetery.
1937- opening of the Memorial Park Necropolis of Masters of Arts.
1985- An exhibition hall of the Museum of Urban Sculpture was opened in the Tikhvin Church.
1989- the last burial in the Necropolis of Masters of Arts (an outstanding Soviet director G. A. Tovstonogov was buried).

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 bypass channel, 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 Masters of Arts. After the war, the bulls were returned to their place in front of the meat packing plant.

August 24, 2016 President Russian Federation V.V. Putin signed a decree on the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the writer F.M. Dostoevsky.
The government was instructed to form an organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the celebration. A plan of major preparatory activities will be developed. Regional executive authorities of the Russian Federation will take part in its development and holding solemn actions.

However, just like 5 years ago, the situation with the restoration of the lost burial places of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky's close relatives has not changed for the better. If such research and work is being carried out today, it is mainly by individual citizens. They do not often receive tangible assistance from state organizations. It's time to change this state of affairs!

History mercilessly treated the graves of the ancestors and descendants of our great writer and thinker F.M. Dostoevsky. The graves of his parents, both sons, first wife, two brothers, all four sisters, grandson, uncle, aunts, grandfather and grandmothers from the side of the father and mother and other relatives were lost in Soviet times. And in foreign Europe, the burial places of both his daughters and his son's wife have been preserved!

Personally, I feel just and natural indignation from these shameful historical facts. And many foreign and even domestic admirers of the talent of our brilliant writer are not yet aware of these facts. But closer to the anniversary they will find out!

Holding all kinds of international meetings dedicated to the life and work of F.M. Dostoevsky, is a good and necessary thing. At these meetings, you can hear the following: they say, high forehead in Dostoevsky, this is from his maternal ancestors, from the Nechaevs and Kotelnitskys. However, the remains of M.F. Dostoevskaya, the mother of the writer, after an 80-year stay in the stock basement of the Scientific Research Institute and the Museum of Anthropology of Moscow State University, is still not buried. And the remains of the Kotelnitskys, grandfather and uncle of Maria Feodorovna, since 1934 are still in the same basement. Her grandfather was a "famous 18th-century intellectual" and her uncle an equally famous professor of medicine. According to his allowances for army doctors, Russian soldiers were saved from death. The famous physician Nikolai Pirogov and others were his students.

Recently, the place of the lost grave of the writer's mother was determined: it is 40 steps from the current church on the former territory of the demolished Moscow Lazarevsky cemetery. The church territory is fenced off from the children's park, which arose on the former territory of the cemetery. At the church there is an Orthodox sisterhood, around - a decent atmosphere and silence.
During the exhumation of the remains of M.F. Dostoevsky, some of them remained in the grave, like the coffin itself. And most of the remains were delivered after 78 years for storage in one of the churches near Moscow. The organizers of this act are going to bury the remains in the devastated churchyard, where the estate of Dostoevsky - Darovoe was. Now it is in the remote Zaraysk region.

The organizers said that these remains will be buried next to the restored grave of the writer's father. But the remains of M.F. Dostoevsky are irretrievably lost. This is the opinion of experts. I had to put up only a cenotaph - a conditional grave sign. However, the remains of the writer's mother are refused to be returned to Moscow. The long-suffering ashes of Maria Feodorovna!

Her skull will mysteriously disappear before the war, after being in the workshop of M.M. Gerasimov - a famous anthropologist and sculptor. He made a sculptural reconstruction of her skull. And why was this done if a magnificent portrait of M.F. Dostoevskaya? This is not the skull of Yaroslav the Wise, Ivan the Terrible, Ulugbek or Timur. And what words could our great thinker Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky call these deeds?
What does our initiative group, which many people support, offer?

On the church territory of the Moscow Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, at the former Lazarevsky cemetery, it is necessary to create a memorial to all the close relatives of the writer buried here. According to known information, about 16 relatives of F.M. Dostoevsky on the maternal side. The surviving remains of his mother should finally find rest in the place of her former burial, not far from this temple. Monument to M.F. Dostoevskaya, who stood on her grave, has been preserved.

The remains of the Kotelnitskys, which are still in the museum basement in three boxes, should also be buried nearby. Then put up a cenotaph listing the names of all the writer's relatives whose graves were lost in this area.

At the burial site of F.F. Dostoevsky - the writer's son (Moscow Vagankovsky cemetery), which was established, it is necessary to put up a memorial sign. Fedor Fedorovich, risking his life, saves the archive of his brilliant father in 1918.

On the territory of the Moscow St. Danilov Monastery, four meters from one of the temples, the site of the lost graves of A.A. Kumanin and his wife A.F. Kumanina - the native aunt of the writer. Kumanin and his two brothers financed the construction of the Trinity Cathedral in this monastery. They also allocated funds for the reconstruction of the famous temple of All Who Sorrow at Bolshaya Ordynka. They also built hospitals and educational institutions. The graves of these generous benefactors must be restored. In the past Russia, this was a legislative duty of both the state and the church! And these days, this is often not remembered even in church circles.

At the Pavlovsky city cemetery, which is not far from St. Petersburg, a memorial sign should be placed at the established burial place of M.M. Dostoevsky. He was the older brother of the writer. He was a writer himself, as well as a playwright and publisher.

These successful searches were made by private individuals - real devotees. They are distinguished by responsiveness and sincere spirituality. But, unfortunately, they often have to see and experience open resistance from those who should protect our historical memory at the state level. Officials can quote Dostoevsky's thoughts on morality and morality and at the same time be indifferent to the preservation of the memory of his close relatives. I believe that the preparations for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of F.M. Dostoevsky, while it is still not too late, the problem of the lost graves of close relatives of our great writer and thinker will also be touched upon!

S.P. Tyulyakov,
journalist, historian

The funeral

When, after a feverish night, I woke up and, with eyes reddened from tears, entered my father's room, I found him lying on the table with his arms folded across his chest, into which the icon had just been placed. Like many nervous children, I was afraid of the dead and refused to approach them, but I had no fear of my father. It seemed that he was sleeping on his pillow, smiling softly, as if he was seeing something very good. An artist was already sitting near the dead man and drawing Dostoevsky in his eternal sleep. In the morning, the newspapers announced my father's death, and all my friends gathered to attend the first memorial service. Delegations of students from various higher educational institutions of St. Petersburg followed them. They came along with the priest attached to these institutions and accompanied his prayers with their singing. Tears rolled down their cheeks; they sobbed, looking at the lifeless face of their beloved writer. Mother wandered about like a shadow, her eyes clouded with tears. She was so poorly aware of what had happened that when the courtier appeared to inform her on behalf of Alexander II about the appointment of a state pension for her and the decision to raise her children at state expense, she joyfully jumped up to convey this pleasant news to her husband. “At that moment, I realized for the first time that my husband had died and that from now on I must live alone and that now I no longer have a friend with whom I could share joy and sorrow,” she told me later.

Ivan Ivanovich Popov:

The next day in the evening I went to the memorial service. A small apartment, probably of four rooms, on the third or fourth floor, with a small hallway, modestly furnished, with an office upholstered in oilcloth, was full of people. In the middle of the study lay Fyodor Mikhailovich, covered with a veil. Nearby stood an open oak coffin. The nun read the psalter. There were wreaths and flowers at the table, against the walls and on the cover. Grigorovich ordered.

Ekaterina Pavlovna Letkova-Sultanova:

The last time I saw Dostoevsky was in a coffin. And it was again another Dostoevsky. Nothing from a living person: yellow skin on a bony face, barely outlined lips and complete peace. The passion of his recent polemic about the speech at the Pushkin Festival, the pathos of his beliefs and hopes - and his absolutely extraordinary gift to burn people's hearts - were tightly covered with a bone mask ...

Anatoly Fedorovich Koni:

I went to pay homage to his ashes. On the semi-dark, unfriendly staircase of the house at the corner of Yamskaya and Kuznechny Lane, where the deceased lived on the third floor, there were already quite a few people heading for the door, upholstered in tattered oilcloth. Behind it, the dark anteroom and the room stand in the same meager and unpretentious furnishings that I had already seen once. Fyodor Mikhailovich was lying on a low hearse, so that everyone could see his face. What a face! He cannot be forgotten... He did not have that as if surprised, nor that petrified-calm expression that happens with the dead, who ended their lives not from their own or someone else's hand. It said - this face, it seemed spiritual and beautiful. I wanted to say to others: "Nolite flere, non est mortuus, sed dormit." Smoldering had not yet touched him, and it was not the seal of death that could be seen on him, but the dawn of another, better life, as if throwing its reflection on him ... For a long time I could not tear myself away from contemplating this face, which seemed to say with all its expression: Yes! It is so - I always said that it should be so, and now I know ... "

Near the coffin stood a girl, the daughter of the deceased, and handed out flowers and leaves from all the wreaths that arrived, and this extremely touched those who came to say goodbye to the ashes of a person who knew how to depict a child’s soul so subtly and with such “heartfelt” love.

The next day after the death of my husband, among the many people who visited us, was the famous artist I. N. Kramskoy. He voluntarily wanted to paint a life-size portrait of the deceased and performed his work with great talent. In this portrait, Fyodor Mikhailovich does not seem dead, but only asleep, almost with a smiling and enlightened face, as if he had already learned the secret of the afterlife unknown to anyone.

In addition to I. N. Kramskoy, there were several artists, photographers who painted and removed portraits from the deceased for illustrated publications. The now famous sculptor Leopold Bernshtam, then still unknown to anyone, visited us and removed the mask from my husband's face, thanks to which he later had the opportunity to make a strikingly similar bust of him.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Strakhov:

The funeral of Dostoevsky was a phenomenon that amazed everyone. Such a huge gathering of people, such numerous and zealous declarations of respect and regret, could not be expected by the most ardent admirers of the late writer. We can safely say that until that time there had never been such a funeral in Russia.

The numbers will show the matter most clearly: in the funeral procession, when the body was carried out of the apartment (Kuznechny Lane, No. 5) to the Church of the Holy Spirit, in the Nevsky Lavra, 67 wreaths were carried and 15 choirs of singers sang. 67 wreaths - this means 67 different deputations, 67 different societies and institutions that wished to honor the deceased. 15 choirs of singers - means 15 different circles and departments that had the opportunity to equip singers for this. How such a huge manifestation came about is no small mystery. Obviously, it was drawn up suddenly, without any preliminary agitation, without any preparation, persuasion and orders, because no one expected Dostoevsky's death, and the time between the unexpected news of it and the funeral (three days) was too short for any extensive preparations. Consequently, almost each of the 67 deputations has its own special history, independent of the others. The nature and meaning of the motives on which these deputations proceeded - that is what is important in the highest degree and about which it is difficult to speak with certainty, which would require more information than we have.

It is known, however, that in different places cities, in educational institutions, in churches - memorial services were served according to Dostoevsky at their own request of teachers and clergy. It is known that persons from other official departments barely had time to obtain proper permission to participate in the ceremony due to the shortness of time, and there were cases that they even did without permission. On the eve of the removal, Anna Grigoryevna was aware of 8 deputations who wanted to carry wreaths, and she thought with joy about such a great honor given to her late husband. Meanwhile, by the time of the funeral, there were 72 deputations. The main mass of those who saw them off consisted of the most diverse classes of the public, and many young people, men and women, were very noticeable. The nature of the procession itself was remarkably clear. She was somewhat disorderly, owing to the haste with which she assembled, but without any trace of excitement, without any sign of that excitement which is revealed when a crowd makes a demonstration. It was a real funeral procession. And all the burial rites and those speeches that were said in the church and at the grave had the same calm, pure, sad character.

... Around the ashes of the writer, an extraordinary movement of an educated Russian society took place, headed by the then Minister of the Interior, Count M.T. , who has lost her breadwinner, by ensuring her material existence through the appointment of a lifelong pension from state funds. Grand dukes, ministers and a host of other dignitaries came to bow to the ashes of a thinker who had suffered a lot in his life, and here, near his coffin, they mixed with a motley crowd, of course, more numerous ordinary mortal admirers of him ... The province took part in expressing condolences to the great the loss of the sending of many telegrams.

Never before has Kuznechny Lane, where the deceased's apartment was located, seen such brilliant congresses and, in general, such a crowd as these days! This apartment became public property from morning to late night did not close ... A small galaxy of our best writers made up a committee of funeral directors, headed by D. V. Grigorovich, who took upon himself all the trouble on this subject, freeing the upset widow of the deceased from them.

On January 31, The Writer's Diary was published and sold out the same day. The next day a second edition of it appeared, with a mourning frame around the first page.

All admirers of Fyodor Mikhailovich, who came to bow to his ashes, received as a keepsake pieces of medium book format, on which, in a thick mourning frame, a facsimile of the writer was reproduced in lithography: “Fyodor Dostoevsky”.

From the diary of Ilya Fedorovich Tyumenev:

At about 10 o'clock in the morning we drove up ... to the Vladimirskaya church and were forced to leave the cab: the whole Kuznechny and even part of the Vladimirskaya square were covered with people. There were already two or three dozen wreaths in orderly lines along Kuznechny, right up to the house itself, where Fyodor Mikhailovich's apartment was located.

At one wreath, high-school students were standing in a dense crowd. (D.N. Solovyov said that the students of their first gymnasium, despite the director’s prohibition, collected money for a wreath and the older ones left the gymnasium secretly to participate in the procession.) Another wreath was surrounded by students of a real school. There was also a wreath from the Bestuzhev Courses nearby, surrounded by ladies and girls. Further in the depth, towards the house, there was a wreath from the Exhibition Society, near which I. N. Kramskoy was fussing about something, Lemokh and other artists were right there. Behind them stood a wreath from the artists of the Russian opera, and next to it could be seen the long figure of V. I. Vasiliev 1st, who was talking about something with Morozov and Melnikov permission: he could catch a cold there, become hoarse, get sick and disrupt the repertoire). Behind the opera house was a wreath from a Russian drama troupe. Here we saw Brodnikov, Sazonov, Petipa, and others. Karazin was standing there with a wreath from the Artists Club, which was already breathing its last and existed almost in the person of Nikolai Nikolaevich alone, who, it seems, moved to himself all the movables of the Club for lack of funds pay Pavlova for the premises - the rest of the members dispersed "separately" ...

With noise and loud talk, the university students arrived, carrying their huge wreath, decorated with palm branches like a lyre, and stood in front of us. They graduated from the 4th ceremonial group, we started the 5th. Their manager was their favorite professor Orest Fedorovich Miller. A choir stood out from the crowd of students and took its place in the chain composed by us and the students; the choir stood behind its wreath, twenty of our singers joined it ...

Meanwhile, the audience kept coming. The clock showed a quarter past eleven. In the depths of the house, singing was heard: the coffin was taken out of the apartment. "Forward!" - voices were heard; the wreaths rose, the crowd swayed, and after two or three minutes the procession moved off.

A bell rang from the belfry of Vladimirskaya Church, and almost immediately after the first blow, a solemn “Holy God” rang out next to us: the university choir sang, supported by dozens of voices from the surrounding, moving crowd. At the first sounds of prayer, the heads of all were bared. The slow mournful sounds of “Holy God” gripped the soul so strongly that many of us had tears in our throats ...

Although the singing did not stop until the Lavra itself, it no longer produced that amazing impression. As the movement progressed and the caps began to come off more and more tightly with the new singing of “Holy God”, and in the chain itself on Nevsky they began to smoke (as if it was impossible to go to the panel for this time). Soon, the singers themselves stopped taking off their hats while singing, and, in the end, the prayer in hats, to the roar and conversation of the surrounding crowd, over which clouds of cigarette smoke hovered, turned into some kind of cold formality, which occupied only the conductor, who for some reason, it was now that he vehemently waved his arms, backing away while singing. In a word, now the impression has blurred somewhere and seems to have evaporated, but I will never forget the first moment of “Holy God” at Kuznechny. At that moment, everyone really somehow felt the breath of the Divine, both believers and non-believers, it was felt by everyone, and the feeling is sometimes subtler and more perspicacious than the very sight of the eyes.

Litiya was served at the Vladimir Church, the procession stopped for a while. At that time, I stood in a chain along with two of our other students, and all the time I walked sideways to the Lavra, holding hands with my neighbors. Around the coffin itself, a kind of chain was made up of garlands of spruce branches, which were carried on sticks, like one huge wreath, surrounding both the coffin and the mourners.

The weather was fine: 1 or 2 degrees warm; there was not the slightest wind, there was no dampness underfoot either. The day turned out to be exceptionally warm, just as ordered for seeing off Fyodor Mikhailovich. The next day the frost came again and the wind blew; there was no such heat before.

Nevsky was literally crowded with people. Crews could move only in a narrow space for two rows, the rest of the avenue was occupied by a procession and crowds of people standing like a solid wall on the sides ...

The procession stretched out for a great distance and looked like some kind of triumphal procession: the coffin had just been carried out to the Nevsky, and the first wreaths were already approaching the Banner. Sidewalks, windows, balconies were covered with spectators. On the stopped carriages of the horse-drawn tram, a uniform crush took place at the top. During the movement of the procession, it was joined by two more wreaths from Moscow from students of Moscow University and from the Katkov Lyceum.

The wreath from the Russian drama troupe was carried along with Sazonov by M. G. Savina, and this tribute to the deceased came to the heart of many. The youth behaved impeccably, quite calmly and decently (except for smoking, but both the artists and many of the public are guilty of it). A new lithium was served at the Sign.

For the duration of the litia, our singing ceased and everyone stopped; then again the shouts of “Forward!”, again “Holy God”, and the procession started off.

On Lavra Square, I left the chain and let the coffin and the whole procession through. Wreaths were carried in front of the coffin from writers and editors of various magazines. (The wreath of "Russian speech" was placed on the gonfalon, which, as they said later, was placed in the choirs of the Spiritual Church, and she bent beautifully over the crowd of worshipers.) There were wreaths from the "New Time", "Petersburg Leaflet", "World Illustration" and from some others I don't remember.

The coffin itself, together with the people accompanying it, as I have already said, was very beautifully surrounded by a green garland stretching from the wreath of the Slavic society, carried in front of the coffin itself.

Here I said goodbye to the dear dead with a bow to the ground and for a long time followed with my eyes the golden, wreathed lid of the coffin, which, high in the air, seemed to reign over the surrounding crowd ...

I turned and went home. On the corner opposite the Lavra, a writer was selling five-kopeck Wesenberg cards of the deceased for fifty dollars.

Mikhail Alexandrovich Alexandrov:

On February 1, 1881, St. Petersburg witnessed an extraordinary funeral procession with the remains of the writer - a private person, who was escorted to the last dwelling - at the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra - by more than ten thousand people of intelligent people from all walks of life. Several dozen deputations from various institutions, Petersburg and other cities, with colossal wreaths attached to poles, were placed in front of the sad motorcade; they occupied more than half a verst of the stretch. Then came the choristers and the clergy, who were to be followed by the chariot with the coffin; but the coffin with the body of Fyodor Mikhailovich did not have to be put on the chariot at all, so it rode behind, while the coffin was carried all the way on the shoulders of his admirers, who huddled around in large numbers and vied classes of society. I was also honored with this honor ... at the same time as me, among the porters, I met P.V. I saw Prince V.P. Meshchersky for a long time. The chariot was followed by many private individuals and pupils and pupils of secondary educational institutions. The procession, as usual, was closed by a line of empty carriages, so that it all stretched out for more than a mile. Ordinary people who stopped to admire this grandiose picture, of course, first of all inquired about who was being buried, and was surprised to learn that it was not a general or other big boss, not a noble nobleman, but only a writer, that is, a writer of several books. .

So he wrote some good books? - the commoner, who finally understood to himself what a writer, a writer, concluded his questions.

So, so! - concluded the explainer.

With each step of the procession towards the Lavra, the crowd that accompanied it became more crowded. In all higher and in most secondary educational institutions, lessons were stopped, and the students and pupils who had gathered for them were heading in columns to Nevsky Prospekt and adjoining the procession. Throughout the whole journey, in groups of students who joined their official deputations, harmonious singing of “Holy God” was heard ...

Meanwhile, the procession moved very slowly and only about two o'clock in the afternoon reached its destination.

Lyubov Fedorovna Dostoevskaya:

According to custom, the widow and orphans follow the coffin on foot. Since the road to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra is long and our children's strength was too small, family friends sometimes put us in a carriage and carried us along the procession. “Never forget the wonderful funeral given by Russia to your father,” they told us. When at last the coffin approached the monastery, the monks came out of the great gate and went to meet my father, who was now supposed to rest among them. Such an honor they accorded only to kings; they also gave it to the famous Russian writer, a faithful and respectful son of the Orthodox Church ...

It was too late to start the funeral and had to be postponed until the next day. The coffin was placed in the middle of the Church of the Holy Spirit; after a short service, we returned home, exhausted from fatigue and excitement. Father's friends stayed for a while to watch the crowd, who were eager to kneel at the coffin and pray. Evening came, it got dark; the crowd of admirers and friends of the father gradually dispersed, ready to reappear the next day for the funeral. But Dostoevsky was not left alone. Petersburg students did not leave him; they decided to stay awake next to the adored writer his last night on earth. What they did in the church was later told to us by the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, who lived, as is customary, in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. A few days after the burial, my mother visited him to thank him for the magnificent funeral that the monks had arranged for my father, and took us with her. The Metropolitan blessed us and told my mother about his impressions of the night duty of the students: “On Saturday evening I went to the Church of the Holy Spirit to bow to the ashes of Dostoevsky. The monks stopped me at the door and told me that the church, which I thought was empty, was full of people. Then I went upstairs to a small chapel on the second floor of a neighboring church, which overlooks the Church of the Holy Spirit. I spent part of the night there, watching the students, not visible to them. They prayed on their knees, weeping and weeping. The monks wanted to read the psalms at the tomb, but the students took the psalter from them and read the psalms in turn. Never before have I heard such a reading of the psalms! The students read them in a voice trembling with excitement, putting their soul into every word they uttered. And they also tell me that these young people are atheists and despise our church. What kind of magical power did Dostoevsky possess to turn them back to God in such a way?

On the day of the burial, Sunday, February 1, all the admirers of Dostoevsky, busy during the week, took advantage of the holiday to go to church and pray for the repose of his soul. From early morning, a huge crowd filled the peaceful Alexander Nevsky Lavra, located on the banks of the Neva and representing a small town with numerous churches, three cemeteries, gardens, a theological seminary and an academy. The poor monks, seeing how the crowd grows, how it fills gardens and cemeteries, how it climbs monuments and lattices, got scared and called the police for help, which immediately closed the gates. Those who came later stopped in a large square located in front of the monastery, and remained there until the end of the funeral, in the hope of one way or another to penetrate the fence or, at least, to hear church singing when the coffin was carried to the cemetery. At nine o'clock in the morning we drove up in a carriage to the main gate and were very surprised to find it closed. My mother stepped out of the carriage in mourning, holding our hands. A police officer blocked our way.

Miss no more! he said sternly.

How is it not missed? my mother asked in surprise. - I am the widow of Dostoevsky and they are waiting for me in the church to start the funeral.

You are Dostoyevsky's sixth widow, demanding to be let through. Enough lies! I won't miss anyone else! - the policeman replied in a rage.

We looked around in confusion and did not know what to do. Fortunately, our friends were waiting for our arrival, they rushed to us and showed us. With great difficulty we managed to get through the crowd that filled the monastery, and with even greater difficulty to enter the church, packed with people. When we finally made our way to the place reserved for us, the funeral began, which was beautiful. The metropolitan choir sang; served as archbishops.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Strakhov:

The Church of the Holy Spirit was amazingly beautiful during the funeral service. Not only was the coffin, which stood on a high hearse, covered with flowers and wreaths, but huge wreaths rose from all sides along the sides and even along the walls and gave the whole temple a special, unusually beautiful look. The tightness was great, but despite the fact, the silence was quite reverent.

Lyubov Fedorovna Dostoevskaya:

And yet, an important part of the Orthodox funeral was missed. In Russia, the coffin remains open throughout the rite; at the end of it, relatives and friends approach him and say goodbye to the deceased, kissing him. Dostoevsky's coffin remained closed. On the day of the funeral, Uncle Ivan went to the monastery early in the morning, accompanied by Pobedonostsev, who had just been appointed our guardian. They opened the coffin and found Dostoevsky greatly changed. It was already the fourth day after death; the father's friends, who had carried his coffin the day before, accelerated, due to shaking, the decomposition process, which had already begun ahead of time due to the terrible heat in the first two days in the deceased's room. Fearing that the changed face of the deceased would make a heavy impression on Dostoevsky's widow and his children, Pobedonostsev forbade the monks to open the coffin. My mother could never forgive him for this prohibition. “What if I would see him change? she said bitterly. - After all, he has always been my dear, dear husband! And he went to the grave without my farewell kiss, without my blessing!”

Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya:

After the funeral, the coffin of Fyodor Mikhailovich was raised and carried out of the church by admirers of talent, among whom the young philosopher Vl. S. Solovyov.

The entire Tikhvin Cemetery was crowded with the public, people climbed the monuments, sat in the trees, clung to the bars, and the procession moved slowly, passing under the wreaths of various deputations leaning on both sides. After the burial, speeches began to be made over the open grave. The former Petrashevite A. I. Palm spoke first. Then they said: Or. F. Miller, prof. K. N. Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Vl. Solovyov, P. A. Gaideburov and many others. Many poems dedicated to the memory of the deceased were also spoken over the open grave. The audience covered the coffin with brought wreaths almost to the top of the crypt. The rest of the wreaths were torn to pieces, and those present took away leaves and flowers as a keepsake. Only by four o'clock the grave was closed up, and I went home with the children, weakened from tears and hunger. The crowd did not disperse for a long time.

Ivan Ivanovich Popov:

They dispersed from the grave 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. Literary commemoration of Dostoevsky continued until March 1, which cut off these memories of him.