Artists from the New Saint Cemetery

The New Saint Cemetery is one of the three largest cemeteries in Europe. Its total area is 7.5 hectares, and the bones of more than 26, Russian celebrities in various historical periods are buried. There are famous writers Pushkin, writers Nikolai Gogol, Chekhov, Mayakovski and fadeev, composer Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, drama theorist stanislavski, dancer ulanova, announcer Yuli Borisovich Levitan, aircraft designers Andrei Tupolev and Vavilov, politicians Mikhail, Podgorny, Yeltsin and so on. These great men of the century who once played a great role in promoting the development of Russian history are buried here, and everyone tells the world their different life stories through their own unique tombstones. In the hearts of Russians, the New Saint Cemetery is not a place to bid farewell to life, but a church to reinterpret life and purify the soul. The New Saint Cemetery was originally just an ordinary cemetery for burying monks, and its history can be traced back to the 16th century. It became the final destination of famous Russian intellectuals and celebrities from all walks of life in the 19th century. In 193s, some cultural celebrities who were buried in the church were also moved here. It was at this time that the tombs of the famous Russian writer Nikolai Gogol and others moved into the New Saint Cemetery. During this migration, an amazing secret that had been hidden for many years was discovered. When people opened Nikolai Gogol's coffin, they were surprised to find that his skull was missing.

Although Nikolai Gogol died at the age of 43, he wrote such literary works as Dead Soul and Imperial Envoy, which made him a great Russian language artist at that time. When Nikolai Gogol was alive, he repeatedly begged his descendants not to erect any tombstones for him, so that he could be integrated with the earth. However, his demands were not met because he was too valuable to Russia. Therefore, people gave him a grand burial and built a tombstone for him. Bakhrushin, a famous dramatist who greatly admired him, persuaded the monks guarding the cemetery to dig out Nikolai Gogol's skull and hide it at home as a treasure. When people knew the truth, Bakhrushin had to hand over Nikolai Gogol's skull, but when Nikolai Gogol's family entrusted the skull to Nikolai Gogol's favorite Italy, the client mysteriously disappeared on the way. Today, the language master buried in the New Saint Cemetery still has no head of his own. To Nikolai Gogol's slight comfort, the neighbor of his graveyard is Chekhov, a great Russian critical realist writer at the end of 19th century. Chekhov lived only one year longer than Nikolai Gogol. His two works, The Chameleon and The Man in the Trap, are exquisite and perfect art treasures in the history of Russian literature. The humorous Chekhov once advised people to cherish life and be content with Changle. He once said: If you have a thorn in your finger, you should be happy to say that it's fine, thanks to the thorn not being stuck in your eye ... If the person you love betrays you, you should be very glad that she betrayed you, not your motherland.

It is Tolstoy, Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Chekhov and other literary masters who, like candlelight, lit up the night sky under the rule of feudal Russia and ignited the flame of Russian people's longing for freedom and pursuit of ideals. People now come to the New Saint Cemetery, and every time they see their tombstones, they purify their souls. In fact, there are very few politicians buried in the New Saint Cemetery, which makes the cemetery less politically complicated and more artistically detached and elegant.

Buried under this ordinary tombstone is an immortal soul, who melts his life into his own music and gets eternal life. From July 1th, 1941 to 1943, when the Soviet Red Army broke through the siege, the Germans besieged Leningrad for three years and one month. In these 9 days, the heroic soldiers and civilians in Leningrad sacrificed 9, people, including more than 46, people who starved to death and froze to death. On August 9, 1942, the Germans thought Leningrad was at their fingertips, and even the German headquarters had distributed invitations for their officers to attend the celebration banquet at the astoria Hotel in Leningrad.

But on that day, the hotel didn't hold a German celebration dinner, instead, it was the premiere of Leningrad Symphony by Soviet composer Shostakovich. In the flames of war and smoke, although the Leningrad Radio Orchestra was at that time, only the conductor and 15 members were left. The rest were either starved to death or frozen to death, or were injured in the hospital, and then went to the front to fight, but people still took various measures to overcome the difficulties. The orchestra collected temporary musicians in the whole city, and the Air Force brought the score for the orchestra.

In order to make the performance go on normally, the Soviet Red Army first silenced the enemy guns with powerful and intensive firepower, and then this symphonic masterpiece, which showed anger and resistance, was played in the sound of war. Music flooded the whole city like a flash flood, and people gathered in front of the loudspeakers from the streets, bunkers and residences to listen to the heroic movements. Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony resounded over the cloudy city, supporting people to fight until the last moment.

In order to inspire the world's confidence in the anti-Fass war, the score of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony was shot into microfilm, flew over Iran, North Africa and South America by military aircraft, and finally arrived in the United States. The live performance of this concert was broadcast by hundreds of radio stations in the United States and South America at the same time, affecting the whole western hemisphere. From 1942 to 1943 alone, Shostakovich's symphony was performed in the United States for as many as 62 times. Now Shostakovich is lying quietly in an inconspicuous corner of the New Saint Cemetery, and the tombstone is just a few simple notes. But the music of this genius has cast the soul and backbone of several generations of Russians. A full-length statue stands in front of the grave of the singer Fiod Shalyapin. The posture of the statue is a portrait painted by the famous painter Lie Bin. Charyabin sat on the sofa with one hand on the armrest and the other hand in the waistcoat, with his head slightly raised. Look focused, as if listening to music attentively. This vivid statue not only evokes people's memories of Charyabin's singing, but also evokes the love and nostalgia of many Russian old people for him.

Charyabin, who has never received formal music education, has a natural good voice. He is called the king of bass songs in the world. His singing once moved Tolstoy, the master of world literature, to tears. His deep voice shocked the whole world. However, it is such a great singer, the pride of the Russian nation, who was persecuted by domestic radicals all his life, and had to go into exile, and even was deprived of the honorary title of being a people's actor.

It is said that Charyabin once said in anger before his death that I can't even bury my bones in this country. But 46 years after his death, the remains of this immortal artist were finally moved from Paris to the New Saint Cemetery in Moscow. Charyabin returned to her mother's arms.

In the New Notre Dame Cemetery, like Sharyabin and Shostakovich, there are many artists' cemeteries. Every tombstone is always covered with flowers, but this is not presented by the families of the deceased. Russian people who love art always come here when they are resting, cleaning the tombstones for their idols and sending flowers. In this quiet way, Russians express their respect for great men and their obsession with art.

The New Saint Cemetery has become a tourist attraction in Russia, attracting millions of tourists every year. People here are looking for the footprints of great people who have influenced Russia and even the whole world, and at the same time listening to their legendary life stories. But there are also some ordinary people buried here, but their lives are more thrilling than those of great people.