One of the most famous cemeteries in the United States is located in the suburbs of Washington, where the military has been buried since the war between the North and the South. Arlington National Cemetery occupies 3 sq. km. It is still in effect today, about 20-30 people awarded this honor are buried a day. The cemetery is expected to be filled and closed for burials by 2025.
The cemetery was founded in 1865 to bury soldiers who died in the Civil War. As before, mainly military men are buried here, but there are exceptions to every rule - people with special medals and services to the state can be buried here. For example, here is the grave of the famous jazz musician Glenn Miller, although his body was never found. Two presidents, senators, judges, astronauts, actors found peace in Arlington. There is even a polar explorer and a cardiac surgeon. You have to be a truly outstanding citizen to get a seat here. The main contingent is the military (active or retired), as well as their families. In 2001, the U.S. Congress introduced a rule prohibiting the burial of people who committed crimes in Arlington Cemetery. serious crimes which are punishable by life imprisonment or death penalty. This happened after it turned out that US military veteran Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for committing a terrible terrorist attack, has the right to be buried in this cemetery.
Over most of the burials, the same tombstones are installed, the only exceptions are the graves of especially important personalities and old burials. According to the rules established by the administration of the cemetery, relatives have the right to indicate the symbol of the deceased's religion on the marble slab. IN currently 47 such symbols are officially approved, including the pentacle, which is the main sign of the neo-pagan religion of Wicca. The tombstones are arranged in such a way that from any vantage point they form clear, straight lines.
Two US presidents, William Taft and John F. Kennedy, are buried at Arlington Cemetery. Usually presidents are buried in places that are memorable for them. But after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, his widow decided that he should be buried in a place where he could be visited by the citizens of the country who loved their president with all their hearts. His wife Jacqueline Kennedy and brothers Bob and Ted Kennedy rested next to the president. An eternal flame burns on the grave.
Nearby are signs calling for respect for the deceased family, so everyone approaches the president's grave in silence, humbly bowing their heads. Only the sounds of camera shutters do not stop.
Despite the huge number of tourists, the cemetery is quite quiet. Sometimes rifle volleys are heard, which indicate the burial of the deceased statesman.
often on reverse side gravestones write the name of the buried person.
In the very first photo, a beautiful building with columns can be seen on top of the hill. This is Arlington House, an estate formerly owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his wife. During the Civil War, the land was confiscated and set aside for a cemetery. However, after the Civil War, the Supreme Court returned the mansion to the owners, but who wants to live in a cemetery? General Lee sold it for $150,000 to the administration. If you go up to the mansion, you can admire beautiful view to Washington. Now Arlington House has been renovated and turned into a memorial to General Lee. You can go inside, see the rooms and memorabilia.
In the old part of the cemetery, you can see old monuments that are very different from more modern identical tombstones made of light marble.
Comes to the cemetery very a large number of tourists, but they scatter around the territory and behave quite quietly.
Despite the hilly and rather winding terrain, all burials are carried out in straight lines.
On the territory of the cemetery there is the Memorial Amphitheater made of white marble, where memorial services are held on the Days of Veterans and Remembrance with the participation of the President of the United States.
On the south side of the Amphitheater adjoins the tomb of the unknown soldier. The main tombstone is an unknown soldier from the First World War, three plates in front of him are soldiers of the Second World War, Vietnam and Korean Wars. Near the grave carries a sentry post, in summer period once an hour there is a rather curious shifting ceremony. The military, who took up the post, takes 21 steps every 21 seconds for the entire hour. This is a symbolic number for military people, because it is 21 rifle volleys that is the highest honor at the burial ceremony of a serviceman. The soldiers going out to the grave take off their shoulder straps so as not to offend the memory of unknown soldiers, whose military ranks cannot be installed.
The cemetery has a huge number of monuments and memorials. And for the convenience of visitors, signs are everywhere to the two most popular places to visit - Kennedy's grave and the grave of the unknown soldier.
Although the graves are quite close to each other, the territory of the cemetery seems to be quite free.
A sign is placed on a fresh burial. A marble tombstone will appear after the deadline set for shrinkage of the soil.
There is a tradition of planting commemorative trees in honor of individual military units or ships of the Navy. These memorial plaques are placed near the trees.
And this is how the delivery of the coffin with the body of the deceased to the burial place looks like.
The cemetery is located in Virginia, but getting there from Washington is very simple: from the Lincoln Memorial you need to cross the Potomac River along the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which is also called the North-South Reconciliation Bridge. You can also use public transport - there is a station of the blue line of the Washington subway "Arlington Cemetery" nearby. Convenient parking is provided for motorists. Entrance to the cemetery is free, but for a fee you can book a tour or use open bus, which runs throughout the territory.
Arlington Cemetery: a symbol of military prowess and reconciliation
Every country that has survived internal conflicts, revolutions and wars, there are memorable mournful places where the victims of such conflicts are buried. Here people's memory and history meet, here descendants remember their dead ancestors. IN THE USA, great country With difficult history there are also similar places. Perhaps the most important of them is known not only in America Arlington National Cemetery.
Arlington Cemetery - Born of the Civil War
Arlington Cemetery is located in the state of Virginia, but only the Potomac River separates it from Washington, the capital of the United States. You can come here, even sitting on the metropolitan subway, or you can come on foot from the Lincoln Memorial, along the so-called "reconciliation bridge". Tens of thousands of Americans, tourists from all over the world come to this unusual cemetery every year, and even the leaders of the country regularly visit its territory.
The history of the cemetery begins in XIX century, when the Civil War of the South and the North broke out in America, the war to abolish slavery. She left the deepest imprint on the development of the country, gave her history to many outstanding personalities. One of them was General Robert Lee, who did not share the "slaveholding" views of the Southerners, who at first served in the army of the North, but did not want to fight against his native Virginia. As a result, the general ended up in the ranks of the Confederate army (southerners), and soon even led it.
The northerners considered the general a traitor, worthy of all punishment. In particular, it was decided to seize his estate in Arlington, not far from Washington. And so that the disgraced Lee would never want to live here again, the northerners on his land began to en masse bury soldiers who fell in battle. The calculation was simple: even if the estate somehow returned to Robert Lee, he would no longer dare to spend his days here.
Decisions made during wars and revolutions are rarely approved by the letter of the law. That's what happened this time as well. At the end of the war, the general, with the help of the Supreme Court, returned the estate and lands to himself, but by that time there were already the graves of thousands of soldiers. And Robert Lee sold his newfound estate to the federal authorities. So Arlington Cemetery became one of the national treasures of the United States.
From Unknown Soldier to President
Modern Arlington Cemetery covers an area of almost 3 km². Since the first burials in 1865, about 400 thousand people have already been buried here. The cemetery is called military, that's how it began. Until now, here, indeed, mainly military people, or their close relatives, are buried.
However, the list of "residents" of the cemetery expanded slightly over time. Now it is allowed to bury in this place former presidents and chairmen of the Supreme Court, as well as persons awarded some important state awards(strict list of awards approved).
The area given over to burials is quite hilly. However, the graves are arranged in such a way that from any point in the cemetery they look strict. straight lines. The tombstones are almost all the same, they are small stones made of white marble with a minimum of information. The exceptions are the burials of the Civil War, when various monuments were erected on the graves.
On one of the green hills of the cemetery there is a beautiful building with white columns. This is the mansion of Robert Lee himself, beautifully preserved. Inside the house there is now a small museum and a memorial to the general, where you can come on a tour.
But the most famous building on the territory of the cemetery is the white marble Memorial in the form of a huge amphitheater. Here, on the Day of Veterans, memorial services are held, in which the current President of the country takes part. There are always a lot of tourists at the Memorial, as well as throughout the cemetery. Surprisingly, they are quiet, even the school bands are unusually silent.
The tombstones of the graves of the Unknown Soldier adjoin the amphitheater of the Memorial from the south. There are four of them: two world wars, as well as the Korean and Vietnam campaigns. Near the graves of the Unknown Soldier there is always a sentry.
Attractions Arlington Cemetery
In addition to the General Lee mansion and the Unknown Soldier Memorial, tourists who come here usually visit the tomb of President Kennedy, on which the Eternal flame. His wife, Jacqueline, and two of his brothers are buried next to him. In addition to Robert Kennedy, another one rests in the Arlington hills. american president, William Taft .
Tourists also visit the graves of several astronauts from the space shuttles Challenger and Collabria. The last resting places of the famous polar explorer Robert Pirrie, musician Glenn Miller and boxer Joe Louis are not deprived of attention. It is noteworthy that in fact, the grave of Glenn Miller is symbolic, because he allegedly died during a combat mission in 1944 over the English Channel, and the body was not found. Nevertheless, grateful Americans "buried" their idol in such a glorious place, as a sign of infinite respect.
Small electric cars drive along the wide paths of Arlington Cemetery, they can be used to move around its rather large territory. Burials are still going on here, two to three dozen a day. The burial ceremony is quite magnificent, six horses carry the deceased in a beautiful carriage.
Completely buried here different people. Sometimes they were worst enemies V real life sometimes adored each other. These people were sometimes absolutely different things. But all of them, without exception, did a lot to strengthen their country and its glory. Perhaps that is why visitors come here to better understand: everyone can see the ways of development of their country in different ways, and serve it in different ways. But everyone should love America as the people who lay under the white marble on the green hills of Arlington loved her.
US National Cemetery
On November 22, 1963, shots were fired in Dallas, Texas, which mortally wounded John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States of America. Half an hour after the shots were fired, the president died, and a shocked America plunged into deep mourning. The body of John F. Kennedy was transported to Washington, and then the coffin was placed on the same gun carriage, on which in 1945 he made his last way Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and was transported from the White House to the Capitol to the harsh beat of drums. Day and night, through Rotunda Hall, an endless stream of people came here - congressmen and farmers, workers and housewives, students and employees ... At the coffin, draped with a star flag, the wife of the late president with her son and daughter, relatives and new president United States - Lyndon Johnson.
John Kennedy's funeral took place three days later. At the head of the funeral procession walked a platoon of Marines, six horses carrying a carriage with a coffin, followed by Jacqueline Kennedy, the brothers of the late President and high-ranking representatives from different countries. The bells rang dully, and hundreds of thousands of people bowed their heads in mournful silence.
The last refuge of John F. Kennedy was Arlington Cemetery, located in Washington on the other side of the Potomac River. The President was buried on a hillside - right in front of the massive cemetery gates, and an Eternal Flame was lit over his grave.
The history of Arlington Cemetery goes back to the days before the American Civil War. The land on which it is now located was bought in 1778 by John Park Custis, the adopted son of George Washington, the future first president of the United States. On his 1,100-acre plantation, he built a house with six heavy columns, called it Arlington House, and set up a memorial in it, in which he placed the world's largest collection of artifacts related to George Washington. Three years later, John Park Custis died, and George Washington adopted the youngest of his four children: a son and a daughter.
The boy was named George Washington Parke Custis. From him, Mary Ann Randolph Custis was born, who later turned out to be the heiress of the Arlington House estate. She married General Robert Lee and lived with him on the estate for over 30 years. When the threat civil war became imminent, the Li family left the estate. Union American states captured Arlington House, since, bordering Washington, he had a strategically advantageous position. Brigadier General Montgomery Meigs, commander of the Unionist troops in the Arlington area, had big tooth on the southerners, besides, he hastily needed a place to bury his dead soldiers. He persuaded the federal government to set aside 200 acres of the Lee estate for a cemetery, and soon the estate began to bury the wounded who were dying in a nearby military hospital. A Confederate soldier is said to have been buried first in Arlington Cemetery in 1864. In the same year, the federal government confiscated the land and officially transferred it to the military as a cemetery, and General Montgomery Meigs ordered that burials be made near the house itself so that the former owners could not return here after the war.
A very curious reason was found for the confiscation of land: during the Civil War, a law was invented according to which the owners of estates in the territories of the rebellious states occupied by the northerners had to appear in person to pay taxes. Washington-Lee did not appear and did not pay taxes. It is not known how widely this law was applied at all, but in this case the decision to confiscate Arlington House was taken at the initiative of the Secretary of Defense.
After the war, General Robert Lee, who commanded the army of the southerners in the Civil War, with his wife and seven children found himself without a livelihood and accepted the presidency of the College of Washington in Lexington. Hypothetical rights to the Custis estate passed to his eldest son George Washington Custis Lee, who also participated in the Civil War on the side of the South. He accused the federal government of illegally trespassing on his land and won a case in the Supreme Court. After that, in 1883, he agreed to sell the national military cemetery home country for $150,000 and abandoned the idea of settling in Arlington House.
If, after the Civil War, only the poor and unknown persons were buried at Arlington Cemetery, now it has become a place of honor for the burial of veterans and their families. While neither the oldest nor the largest, it is nevertheless the most famous memorial complex USA. 230,000 American veterans and their families are buried here on 612 acres of land. From George Washington's aide-de-camp Pierre Lanfant to the soldiers who died during Operation Desert Storm, Arlington Memorial Cemetery holds the remains of veterans of every military conflict in which the United States has taken part.
Only those who died in combat, have 20 years of military experience or certain military awards, as well as their spouses and family members, can be buried at the US National Cemetery. The guard of honor carries the coffin, covered with the state flag, and during the burial, a salute is fired from guns and a bugler trumpets the end.
However for a long time Americans did not bury their black heroes in Arlington Cemetery. Only 80 years after the First World War, the command of the American army nevertheless decided to pay tribute to the black soldier who, with his heroism, earned a place in the country's national cemetery.
The 369th Infantry Regiment, which consisted of black soldiers, was transferred by the Americans, who considered that the "Hell Warriors from Harlem" were a disgrace to the American army, into submission to the French command. In May 1918, Sergeant Henry Johnson repelled an attack by 24 German soldiers who attacked a forward observation post. He had only grenades, a rifle and a homemade machete, but he saved his comrade N. Roberts, who was attacked by three Germans, and forced the rest of the enemy soldiers to retreat.
For his bravery, Henry Johnson was awarded the French Military Cross for bravery, but in the United States, due to the color of his skin, he was never presented for an award. The American nation did not recognize the feat of Sergeant G. Johnson, and in 1929 he died in poverty. Even now, the army command does not want to award him with the highest distinction - the Congressional Medal of Honor. When it turned out that Henry Johnson was buried in Arlington Cemetery, American politicians (including Senator Hillary Clinton) launched a campaign to ensure that the brave sergeant was at least posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. But the Pentagon agreed to award him only the Distinguished Service Cross.
Numerous veteran and civic organizations and groups hold memorial services in the cemetery's marble amphitheater. From time to time, new monuments are erected in the cemetery in memory of special categories of military personnel and veterans buried here. However memorial monuments erected at Arlington Cemetery not only in honor of the soldiers who participated in the hostilities. On February 1, 2003, an American reusable rocket crashed while entering the Earth's atmosphere. spaceship"Colombia". All seven crew members died, and although the investigation of this tragedy is still far from complete, America has already decided to perpetuate the memory of its heroes. NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe said: "The memorial in our nation's capital will serve as a reminder of the Columbia crew's ideals of honesty, courage and pioneering spirit."
A memorial in their honor was erected near the monument, dedicated to memory the crew of the space shuttle Challenger. This disaster, which occurred in 1986, claimed the lives of seven American astronauts.
About four million people a year visit Arlington memorial cemetery, where at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier a guard is constantly on duty, changing every hour. The foundation ceremony for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was held in 1921 by President Harding. The stone tomb containing the body of an unidentified World War I soldier buried on Veterans Day in 1921 is only the visible part of the memorial. And under the slabs adjacent to the tomb, there are burials of unknown American soldiers who died during World War II, Korean and Vietnam Wars. Twice a year, on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, a wreath is laid at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from the President of the United States.
Let me make a few remarks to the very excellent answer of my colleague Yana Levchenko.
To begin with, it is necessary to distinguish between two types of cemeteries - a city cemetery and a rural churchyard.
In the first case, fences appeared, of course, already in the 19th century. In a wonderful time of romanticization and glorification of death. European architectural motifs (including in the field of memorial sculpture), as Yan Levchenko described, were quickly adopted by representatives of the Russian nobility. Therefore, on the visual sources of this time (paintings of artists - for example, Savitsky K. "Requiem service on the 9th day" 1885, Golovanov "Gogol's Grave" 1852, "F.A. Gaaz's Grave" Unknown artist, beginning of the 20th century) you can find the fences of the most different forms. The main trendsetter of that time was the Vvedenskoye (German) cemetery in Moscow, from where fashionable trends in the field of the culture of grief and mourning spread and were adopted.
At the same time, a completely different atmosphere reigns in rural graveyards - the only "decoration" of the grave are towels, crosses, dominoes, etc. There are practically no forged fences until the 1900s (A. Savrasov, “ rural cemetery", 1887 A. Korzukhin "Wake at the village cemetery" 1865, V. Prushkovsky "Bringing to the cemetery", 1892).
The main reason for this difference is that fences are expensive. The first such fences - fences on rural graveyards begin to appear at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and are made of wood. What the photographs of this time testify to. For example, (). As can be judged from these sources, this practice is very rare.
Fencing spread widely in the 1920s and 1930s. And this has nothing to do with the "struggle for space" and some kind of "enclosure from others." This is absolutely accurate. In order to understand this, you just need to be familiar with the peasant "culture" of this time. The cemetery is the main meeting place for numerous relatives - it is the central village symbolic point. No division and fighting around land for burials in Soviet time was not, as is not now. "Division" and "struggle for space" is a phenomenon of urban funerary culture, and then, starting from the 90s.
The explanation from "folklore optics" also seems to me not entirely consistent. It's more of a mechanism feedback- beliefs appeared because fences appeared - including the idea that it is necessary or not to close the door on the fence "so that the dead man walks." Indeed, in the 19th century there were no fences, and the "pantheon" of beliefs had already been formed. Or the fact that the fence is painted blue - the reason for the availability of paint and its theft since the 1950s. And now it is "inertia of traditions".
Rational reasons for the spread and growth of fences have not yet been found. Initially, as already mentioned, this is a status copying of the "fashion" of urban necropolises. Which, in turn, came to us from Europe through the Vvedenskoye cemetery. Which brings us much closer to this focus.
This is indirectly confirmed by the data of the respondents (though a little more late period- 50 years) with whom I worked: fences were specially cooked in the workshops of factories where, for example, the deceased worked; in the carpentry workshops of collective farms, and often even sneaked from the old burial places of the nobles. Fences were made from old beds, pieces of iron, beams, etc. Why this was done - not a single respondent ever gave any explanation. I just wanted "to have the nobles earlier and how more beautiful."
Only one moment seems paradoxical, which also casts doubt on the thesis of "enclosing space" - every decade, judging by visual sources, the fences grew in size - and this trend was noticeable back in the 19th century. That is, fencing, as a process, took place gradually - every year there are more and more fences. And why European tradition the fence stopped at a decorative level, while in our country it acquired the scale of hypertrophy - here there is already something to think about.
Finally - a fence at a cemetery in Norway, 1906.
Cemeteries will be handed over to private hands, fences will be banned, monuments will be the same for everyone - this is only part of the "innovations" that await the Russians.
This fall, at a closed (!) meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, an idea was voiced to amend the law "On Burial and Funeral Business."
All that became known to journalists: Igor Shuvalov demanded that the cemeteries be transferred to private hands on lease for 49 years.
According to the officials who came up with new law, this will bring the cemeteries into a divine form - they immediately carried out an inspection of cemeteries in the Moscow region and unexpectedly (!) Found out that 80% are in poor condition. State subsidies for the maintenance of cemeteries in the amount of 242 thousand rubles. per hectare, it is generally unknown where they go. "Only 30% of the 1.3 billion rubles allocated for the cemeteries of the Moscow region is used for its intended purpose," said Ekaterina Semyonova, Minister of Consumer Market and Services of the Moscow Region.
"Corruption has corroded the industry," says a member Public Chamber Russian Federation, co-chairman of the Union of Consumers of the Russian Federation Vladimir Slepak. - Information about the dead is sold by both ambulance and district inspectors. We need to clean up this industry."
How the transfer of cemeteries to private hands will restore order is not entirely clear. But Slepak’s answer is ready here too: “As for the transfer of cemeteries to private hands, I don’t see anything wrong here. For the most part, Russian cemeteries have always been family and family burials. Today, the state has exhausted its capabilities in this area.
But the participants in the discussion of this law on the Internet greeted Shuvalov's initiative without any optimism: "Housing and communal services were given to private hands, and what happened? Now all that remains is to give cemeteries to private hands. They want to legitimize another gold mine."
Or another comment: "Now people do not have enough money for a funeral, and even more so for a private burial."
Ordinary citizens are afraid that "all the cemeteries will be concentrated in the hands of some regular moneybags." So why won't the officials leave us alone even after death? After all, we are talking not only about the transfer of cemeteries to private hands - if there is money, then what difference does it make where to lie? Officials also plan to introduce a number of new burial requirements.
Cemeteries in Russia are dark, overgrown with trees, the fences are slanting, monuments and crosses are in great abundance. The US is another matter. There is a lawn, white monuments, all the same, like the pioneers on the line.
We must also bury our dead the way they do in America, officials say. Why?
The other day, the Minister of Consumer Market and Services of the Moscow Region, Ekaterina Semenova, said that Moscow and the region were declared a cemetery "pilot" - from here white monuments and lawns a la the United States will march all over Russia.
Burying the dead will now have to be in the lawn and without any fences there. If a Russian puts up a fence, a policeman will come and deal. The fence will be demolished, and the lover of fences will be fined, so that it would be disrespectful.
However, for the first time fences in some places, perhaps, will be left, the minister suggested. But these will be the same fences for all. And the monuments are certainly the same - their width and height will be clearly stated in the law. So, God forbid, no one gets out.
In a word, in Russia, before death, everyone will finally become equal.
And then what do we get? "You can't push through the fences," complained Ekaterina Semyonova. And in some places the monuments stand tall and the light is blocked.
It was possible, of course, to take a different path - to give plots in the cemetery at a greater distance from each other. Then pushing through the cemetery would be easier. But no, this option is not suitable for our cemetery reformers. After all, the first problem of the Moscow region is the shortage of land, the minister said.
We will make our american cemeteries- bright, clean, with a lawn, we will soon be buried in urns without exception, and whoever does not want to be cremated can be placed on top of the ground right in the coffins.
Such a trendy European burial - a semblance of a family castle is being built, coffins are placed there. True, this non-standard is worth crazy money and practice because it will be mostly elite.
And plus, a seditious thought involuntarily creeps in: aren't our officials going to use budget money for the "deceased" reform? Much money. After all, new cemeteries will be private, and the old ones will have to be modernized at the expense of budgets.
For example, the money will be spent on fencing all cemeteries. Without a fence, the management of the cemeteries imperceptibly, according to gray schemes, encloses and encloses the dead along the edges, Ekaterina Semenova explained.
So how much will a grave in a brand new private cemetery cost? Ekaterina Semenova explained that in developed countries a plot in a cemetery costs an average of $12-15 thousand, in the USA - $25-30 thousand. And only in our incomprehensible country, plots are handed out for free! This most of all revolts both the funeral business and officials.
There is only one caveat here - businessmen can sell plots for crazy money, and then leave with the money to live and die in the same USA. Lawn plots, meanwhile, will begin to overgrow with weeds, identical monuments-tablets will fall to the right, some to the left, and the state will have to come to this former private cemetery and put things in order there.
"When it is possible to buy a hectare of land for a million, then divide it into a thousand small plots, sell each plot for a million, then it is not clear (when all the cream from the cemetery will be removed) who will support it? The enterprise will safely go bankrupt, and all costs will fall by municipality," suggests Ekaterina Semenova.
So, most likely, it will be. Today for a good place at the cemetery, depending on the region, relatives pocket the cemetery management from 50,000 to 5 million rubles. This is shadow money. A stream diverging into thousands of pockets, into which one cannot get into without reform.
But with the reform, the whole country can be entangled in some kind of funeral network of private cemeteries like food retail chains. And then the money will flow like a river not into thousands of pockets, but into several. And most importantly - in the pockets you need.
