Cemetery in Paris where Russians are buried. Russian cemetery in Sainte-Genevieve de Bois

Cimetière communal de Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois is located at rue Léo Lagrange in the French city of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois in the Paris region, which is why it is sometimes also called “ Russian cemetery near Paris". Previously, the station and town were called Perrey-Vaucluse (PERRAY-VAUCLUSE - Station du Perray du côté d’Epinay-sur-Orge)

The cemetery is predominantly Orthodox, although there are burials of representatives of other faiths there. It owes its existence to the Russian nursing home, founded in April 1927 by Princess V.K. Meshcherskaya. Boarders of La Maison russe, and then compatriots from Paris, began to be regularly buried here in 1927. By 1939, there were about 50 burials, by 1952 - about 2000. Among the buried emigrants were many military personnel, representatives of the clergy, writers, artists, actors - only about 15 thousand people came from Russia (5220 burials), which gives reason to call them “Russian”. For many Russians it is a place of pilgrimage.
Since 1960, local authorities have systematically raised the issue of its demolition, citing the fact that the land is needed to meet public needs. According to French law, any burial is preserved only until the expiration of the land lease. For Russian burials, this period expired in 2008, until the Russian government intervened in the situation and allocated 692 thousand euros for the maintenance and repayment of debt to France for the lease of 648 cemetery plots.
In the 2000s, the ashes of several famous figures, originally buried in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, was reburied in Russia.

What is Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois for Russian emigrants?

Andrey Dmitrievich Shmeman, long-term headman of the Znamensky parish and Chairman of the OKO.

“Every year there are more and more graves near and dear to us at the Russian Cemetery in Sainte-Genevieve des Bois. Every year, the traditional trip of members of the General Cadet Association to pray at these graves and spend a little time with those who so recently lived and worked in the Association is gaining new meaning, becomes a sad, but also pleasant need.
On this day, gathered near the temple, under the native birch trees, somehow involuntarily, before your mind’s eye, you remember the lives of departed friends and somehow look back more strictly and more demandingly on your own path in life.
The ways of the Lord are inscrutable - only He knows who we will be missing on this day. next year, but the fact that someone will not be there again, and the fact that his place will remain empty forever, gives our trip and tour of the cadet graves a real and deep meaning.
This year, all our thoughts involuntarily rushed to our dear friend, member of the Board, Shura Russakovich, who left us so suddenly and prematurely in June last year. He, like no one else, has always inspired this annual trip of ours and that’s why we missed him so much this year. It all seemed that he would come and go with us around the graves, singing Eternal Memory. It was he who first led this touching walk several years ago - we started it this year from his grave!
A few of us gathered yesterday. The late date, coinciding with Trinity, prevented many from being together on this day, as always. But those who were there experienced many sad, but also joyful moments related to the fact that somehow this year the feeling of our friendship, our cohesion, our belonging to one big and strong family, in in which all of us, and even those who have left us, remain merged into one ETERNALLY WHOLE!”
(OKO Bulletin N70 dated July 1, 1959, based on materials provided by OKO)

Military and Cossack memorials
Military unions, regimental associations of the Russian Imperial Army and the White Guard, Cossacks, cadets and other organizations abroad built their own memorials and monuments on their sites. The most famous are the following:

• Monument to the Gallipolians, the Leaders of the White Army and General Kutepov

As a result of the Great Exodus from Russia in 1920, the 1st Army Corps Gen.L. Wrangel ended up in Gallipoli. Several hundred officers, Cossacks and cadets died from previously received wounds and illnesses in this Turkish city, who were buried in a special place where the Monument was opened on July 16, 1921. After the departure of troops from Turkey, it deteriorated over time, especially after the earthquake of 1949, and by 1960 it had virtually become ruins. In memory of his military friends resting in a foreign land, and also in place of the old one destroyed by time, on the Gallipoli site this pantheon was restored according to the model of the original and solemnly consecrated in 1961.

Restoration of the Monument Consecration in 1961 view today of the Gallipoli site

Consecration of the grave of General Kutepov
Symbolic grave of General Kutepov

• Major General M. Drozdovsky and the ranks of the Drozdovsky division

One of the most legendary units of the White Guard, which was written about in A.V. Turkul’s book “Drozdovtsy on Fire.” The association has its own site where officers are buried, headed by their division commander. Gen. is also remembered here. M.G. Drozdovsky, since the place of his secret burial in Sevastopol has still not been found.

Drozdovsky uch. in the 1950s central part of the memorial service for Drozdovites
wreaths and flowers for Drozdovites
view in 1961 modern view

• General M. Alekseev and the ranks of the Alekseev division

To the Chief of Staff of the Headquarters, the founder of the “secret anti-Bolshevik” organization, which over time turned into the Volunteer Army, his white partisans and all the youth who stood up to defend the Fatherland.

Photos in the 50s Memorial to the Alekseevites modern view

• Cossack necropolis and monument to Ataman A.P. Bogaevsky

Located in the depths, after the Drozdovsky, Gallipoli and Alekseevsky sections.

There were more Don Cossacks; for a long time there were cadres of even many regiments and divisions. Association of the Life Guards of Kazakh. His Majesty's regiment in Courbevoie still exists to this day (!). In addition to the Donets, all the Cossack troops of the Russian Empire and foreign alliances are present here. Kuban, Terets, Astrakhan, Ural residents, the large village was Orenburg, led by the ataman himself. Akulinin... The main holiday - Intercession - was traditionally celebrated here. Here are the victims of “decossackization” during the Days of Cossack Sorrow. The Great Cossack tragedy in Lienz is also commemorated here...

Cossack site, necropolis... monument to the Cossacks Ataman VVD Bogaevsky Chairman of the Government V.V.D.

• and civilian pilots
• memorials and some individual burials

Place of Orthodox pilgrimage
On the days of remembrance of soldiers Russian Army, military and Cossack holidays, as well as various memorable dates (see the calendar of memorable dates), services are held at the memorials with the participation of representatives of Orthodox, military-patriotic, youth, sports and veteran organizations abroad. Fragments of history:

• 1953, July 6

Day of Cadet Sorrow - Remembrance Vel. Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich and all his brothers and comrades, Russian cadets who died on the battlefield and died in peace.
The celebration was led by Vel. Prince Gabriel Konstantinovich with his wife Irina Ioanovna. Heartfeltly, while the choir sang, Father Alexander Ergin served a memorial service at the grave of Boris Prikhodkin. After a brief speech by the oldest cadet present, General Rakitin from Tiflis, the Drozdov poet Genkin read poems dedicated to the memorable day*.

Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois

Here the cadets rest in eternal sleep...
Grave... Cross... Green grass...
Here they were in last time sung,
Cadets, farewell words.

They left... Then others will leave...
I don’t know, here at my native crosses
The memory of Russia will live forever
And about the cadets of the Russian corps.

The work is backbreaking, our shoulders are hunched,
A series of boring days drags on sadly
And I feel that all the cadet grief
I can't put it into words.

And it saddens me that, at the hour of sad funeral feast
No military salute will sound here,
As soon as the stepsons of the fatherland gather,
And “eternal memory” will be sung to the departed.

• 1957, general funeral service

On June 23rd on the traditional “Day of Cadet Sorrow”, the Union of Russian Cadet Corps in in full force, with families and friends made a trip to the cadet graves. This year, due to the large number of people who wanted to take part in the trip, we had to use auxiliary transport. At 12 o'clock after the Liturgy in the Church at the cemetery, Father Alexander Ergin celebrated a general memorial service with the proclamation of eternal memory of the murdered Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II, the Sovereign Chiefs, the August Cadets, educators, teachers and all Russian Cadets for the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland who fell on the battlefield and those who have passed away in the world. After the end of the service in the Temple, everyone who took part in the trip went with the Procession to the graves of Vel. Prince Gabriel Konstantinovich, General Alekseev and Colonel Prikhodkin, at whom short litias were served, ending with the singing of “Kol Slaven”. The Chairman of the SRKK, Colonel Shpilevsky, in a brief speech, pointed out the significance of the “Day of Cadet Mourning“. The noble initiative of the late Grand Duke, the activities of the First Chairman of the SRKK, Gen. Alekseev and his assistant Colonel Prikhodkin should be the guiding line in our work aimed at strengthening the forces of the cadet movement. The covenants of our leaders are the sacred duty of every Russian cadet and the key to fraternal unity to achieve success in the tasks we have set. At the end of the official part, a common meal was organized in the church fence. On this day of remembrance, our friendly family was blessed by the presence of the Patroness of the Yaroslavl Kad. Corps, part of the Union, Princess Irina Ioannovna and Honorary Chairman of the Union, Lieutenant General. Stogova. At 18.00 the “Day of Cadet Sorrow” was over and everyone who took part in the trip returned to Paris. (“Cadet”. Information magazine of the SRKK. Paris, 1957. Editorial archive)

• 1958 “Day of Cadet Sorrow”, in memory of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich and laying the monument

This year’s “Day of Cadet Sorrow” is set for June 15, the date of the death of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich - June 2, 1915 (old style). This year, the trip takes on special significance, because it is part of a series of planned celebrations on the centenary of the birth of the Grand Duke. The ceremonial laying of the monument to Russian Cadets and the memorial service for the late August Inspector General of Military Educational Institutions will take place at the “Cadet site”. On this significant day, all Russian Cadets must take part in the traditional trip and thereby honor the memory of the Unforgettable Father of the students of the cadet corps. (“CADET” Information magazine of the SRKK. Paris. 1958)

Cadets, necropolis... memorial plaque Monument to corps director Rimsky-Korsakov

• 2011, 90th anniversary of the formation of the Society of Gallipoli and the Great Exodus from Russia. photo…

Orthodox Church, commemoration of the “Gallipolians”
90th Anniversary of the Gallipoli Society

Requiem service at the monument Clergy led by Vladyka Michael passing near the Russian church Russian House

Assumption Church
Here is also the Orthodox Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God, founded in April 1938 and consecrated on October 14, 1939, a month and a half after the start of World War II. The Assumption Church was built according to the design of A. A. Benois in the style of the Pskov architectural school of the 15th-16th centuries. Architect Benoit and his wife Margarita also completed church frescoes. Albert Benoit is buried in this cemetery.

Assumption Church 1991, archival photo by V. Zhumenko Iconostasis and painting inside
view of the church in 2016 view from the cemetery, 2016 About Vladika Methodius

How to get there from Paris?
You can visit in the following main ways:

• By public transport: by train (RER) to the railway station, then by local bus or bus from Paris (registered on the Ile de France)

Road to the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois station from Paris
Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, railway. RER station from Paris
bus to Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois

• By excursion bus (as part of a tour operator group). The day in your program is assigned a fixed day, and the excursion itself is “group” with all its “delights”
• or minibus, individual (or small group) with a Russian guide (from the hotel)

Useful tips and personal experience of visiting, FAQ’s.

• Where to buy flowers, candles, wreaths?

Flowers are sold on the territory of the cemetery, there are big choice. Candles can also be purchased from your local church. Wreaths must be ordered in advance, but you can choose ready-made ones. Ribbons, for example, “From the administration of the city of Yekaterinodar to the Kuban Cossacks who died in a foreign land” definitely need to be ordered in advance in their homeland, and wreaths or bouquets of color combinations from your region can be purchased on the spot.

• Weather, how to dress, personal experience of visiting in bad weather

The weather in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois generally matches the weather in Paris itself. In summer, usually there are no problems. But in winter, autumn and spring there is a sharp difference in the weather in the capital and here. First of all, in spring and autumn it sometimes rains. If you leave the hotel and it is sunny, then when you find yourself in these parts you may find yourself in heavy rain or light and lingering, but extremely unpleasant. In spring and autumn, it is better to take an umbrella or raincoat with you, just in case. The raincoat-tent was seen only once, when there were veterans of the French army of Russian origin :-). Surprisingly, there can even be snow there in winter. It happens extremely rarely, but it is also better not to exclude such a possibility. For those who travel independently, this is something to keep in mind. And for those who come on a group tour by bus, too, since in the rain those who forgot their umbrella at the hotel will not be comfortable and they will certainly be limited in the amount of what they see. This is not Paris, Arabs don't sell umbrellas here. It’s better to look at the weather forecast two weeks in advance (GIS meteo and other sites)

The famous Russian cemetery of Saint-Geneviève-des-Bois is located in the village of the same name near Paris.

In fact, this is the burial place for all the inhabitants of the commune of Saint-Geneviève-des-Bois. However, starting in 1926, the first burials of Russian immigrants appeared, who lived in the nearby “Russian house”. Gradually, the cemetery turned into a burial place for all Russians, not only of the village, but of the entire Paris region, all of France and even abroad. Now the cemetery consists of more than 5,000 graves, where about 15 thousand people are buried. Here is also the Orthodox Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God, designed by Alexander Benois.

How to get to the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois cemetery?

You need to take the RER line C, direction: Saint-Martin d'Estampes (C6) or Dourdan-la-Forêt (C4). The Ste-Geneviève-des-Bois stop is in zone 5 of the RER, so be careful when choosing a train (RER may not stop at all stops).

Once you get to the train station in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, you will either need to walk to the cemetery (about half an hour) or take a bus. You need any bus, from 001 to 004, which goes past the Mare au Chanvre stop. From this stop you will also have to walk a little, but local residents they can tell you the way (Russian cemetery in French is “cimetiere russ”). Please note that buses do not operate on weekends.

Who is buried in the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery?

More than 15 thousand people lie in the cemetery. Among the most famous are Ivan Bunin, Albert Benois, Sergei Bulgakov, Alexander Galich, Andrei Tarkovsky, Zinnaida Gippius, Rudolf Nureyev, Felix Yusupov and many, many others.

Plaksina (ur. Snitko) Nadezhda Damianovna, 28-7-1899 - 1-9-1949. Sister of Mercy, Knight of the Order of St. George of three degrees

I managed to find only a few words about Nadezhda Plaksina herself. But they are worth a lot; behind them you can feel her character, faith and perseverance, which she was able to pass on to her children. Here are small excerpts from an interview with actor Gleb Plaksin, the son of Nadezhda Plaksina, one of the “returnees” of the post-war era, when many Russian people, for one reason or another, who found themselves in the West, decided to return to Soviet Russia:

-...Where did you get the American awards? After all, during the war you were a French citizen!

- Yes it is. My parents are Russian. Dad is an officer of the hussar regiment, a nobleman. He is originally from Nizhny Novgorod. And my mother grew up in St. Petersburg. She is a sister of mercy, a Knight of St. George of three degrees. By the way, my grandmother on my mother’s side is a relative of the famous Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz. Remember he received the Nobel Prize in 1905? My parents met during the First World War in a hospital in the city of Sevastopol. It just so happened that both mom and dad were undergoing treatment there after battle wounds. Later a short time got married...

During the revolution of 1917, parents were forced to emigrate to France. We settled in the city of Lyon. Do you know anything about Lyon? Yes, yes, this is the center of French silk and velvet production.

— It is known that in emigration, representatives of the Russian nobility, as a rule, worked as drivers or laborers. Did your parents suffer the same fate?

“My parents were simply lucky.” Dad received a position as an engineer at the Grand Bazar de Lyon department store. And at first my mother could not find a job in her medical specialty and sewed clothes for rich people, as they say, “haute couture.” Later she got a job in a private surgical clinic as an assistant surgeon. I remember my parents often repeated to me: “We are Russian, sooner or later we will return to Russia, and you will serve the Russian people.” It was absorbed, as they say here, with mother's milk. I sincerely wanted to serve Russia. I dreamed of touring Russian cities. After all, I am a musician, I have been performing concerts since I was four years old.

- Did you happen to visit France after you settled in the Soviet Union?

In 1976. I saw my beloved Paris again... You know, it’s hard for me to remember this. After all, on the one hand, only there, in France, did I experience the golden time of my creativity. Only in France could I freely travel around Europe and tour. So I’m telling you, and it gives me goosebumps... But on the other hand, this is how I was raised, Russia is my home. I remember, when I was still three inches from the pot, my mother often said: “You need to marry a Russian, even a peasant woman, but one of your own, a Russian.” And so it happened, however, my wife is not a peasant, but a chemical engineer. We lived with her for 47 happy years.

At one of the graves

Lossky Vladimir Nikolaevich, 8-6-1903 - 7-2-1958, philosopher, theologian
Losskaya Magdalina Isaakovna, 23-8-1905 - 15-3-1968, his wife

The famous philosopher Nikolai Lossky, the father of Vladimir Lossky, was expelled from the St. Petersburg gymnasium during tsarist times “for promoting atheism and socialism,” and under the Bolsheviks he was deprived of his university chair for his Christian views. In 1922, the Lossky family was “permanently expelled” from Russia. They left the country on the notorious “philosophical ship”, together with Berdyaev, Ilyin, Krasavin, Bulgakov and almost two hundred of the best minds in Russia. The operation took place under the personal control of Lenin; everyone deported was required to sign a document indicating that if he returned to the RSFSR, he would be immediately shot.

The Losskys lived first in Prague, then Vladimir moved to Paris to complete his education at the Sorbonne. He enters the St. Photius Brotherhood, whose members sought to unite efforts to protect Orthodoxy from possible heretical distortions. Soon, in the field of the St. Sergius Metochion and the St. Photius Brotherhood in Paris, a galaxy of remarkable Russian philosophers, theologians, and Church historians grew up - and Russian theological thought began to work fruitfully in emigration. In 1940-1944. V. Lossky participated in the French Resistance. He was engaged in research work and taught dogmatic theology and Church history at the Institute of St. Dionysius in Paris. From 1945 to 1953 dean of the institute. Through the efforts of Vladimir Lossky, the first French-speaking Orthodox parish was opened on Rue Sainte-Geneviève in Paris.

Among Orthodox theologians of his generation, Vladimir Lossky was one of those who sought to show the West that Orthodoxy is not historical form Eastern Christianity, but an enduring truth. His works are imbued with the desire to conduct a dialogue with the Christian West, while preserving the entire integrity of Orthodoxy. Lossky was closely associated with Catholic theologians and researchers,
who asked him to explain the essence of Orthodoxy specifically to Catholics,” said his son. Then the philosopher gave them a course of lectures at the Sorbonne, very high level, with the participation of famous professors, scientists and philosophers. These lectures were subsequently combined in a work entitled "Essay on the Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church." This work has now become a classic and has been translated from French into many languages, including Russian. Vladimir Lossky gives in it a systematic presentation of what theology itself and Eastern Orthodoxy were.

1-3-1876 - 27-3-1963

From the cemetery plaques you can see how the Russian language is gradually being lost among the descendants of emigrant families. Either “I” will turn into “N”, then the letter “I” will be turned upside down and not corrected, then a Russian surname suddenly turns out to be a reverse translation of the French version... This is a common problem for immigrants of all generations and all waves: the most difficult thing is not to teach children a foreign language, but to keep your own, dear. As sad as it may be, by the third generation the Russian language in an emigrant family usually dies.

8-12-1884 - 4-12-1949, submariner, writer
Merkushova Maria Ivanovna, 1887 - 28-2-1962, his wife.

A graduate of the Naval Cadet Corps, V. Merkushov begins service in the Baltic, where he is assigned to the Sig submarine “for scuba diving training.” After training, he received the rank of submarine officer, which was first introduced in the navy and awarded to 68 people. In December 1908, in Vladivostok, commanding the submarine "Mullet", V. Merkushov participated in a unique experiment - diving under the ice of the Amur Bay.

In December 1912, V. Merkushov took command of the submarine "Okun" and began the First world war, becoming one of the most famous submarine commanders of the Baltic Fleet. On May 21, 1915, while in the Baltic Sea, the “Perch” met a formation of German ships escorting destroyers. Having overcome the guards, the "Perch" attacked one of the ships, which, having discovered the boat, tried to ram it. The "Perch" managed to fire a torpedo salvo and dive, although it was heavily dented by the hull of the German ship. For this attack, which forced the enemy ships to retreat, the commander of the boat was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree, and the crew was awarded the Cross of St. George of the same degree. In June 1915, near Vindava, the Okun attacked the German cruiser Augsburg, for which Lieutenant Merkushov was awarded the Arms of St. George and the Cavalier Cross of the French Legion of Honor.

Merkushov was prevented from further service on submarines by a spinal injury sustained during the ramming of the Okun. The First World War ends for him on February 25, 1918 in the Revel fortified area, which was surrendered to the Germans on that day. After the surrender of the fortress, he himself remained in Revel, and after the conclusion of the Brest Peace, he moved to Odessa. In the fall of 1918, V. Merkushov was already in Sevastopol, as part of volunteer units, he participated in the liberation of Odessa from the Petliurists, and in 1919 he participated in the landing at the Sukhoi Estuary and the capture of Odessa by the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. In November 1920, on the ship "Kharaks" Merkushov was evacuated from Kerch Don Cossacks. In March 1921, the service of the 36-year-old captain in the Russian navy ended in Constantinople.

In November 1922, Merkushov, commanding the tug Skif, took part in the ferrying of Russian minesweepers and tugs requisitioned by the French government from Constantinople to Marseille. This is how he ends up in France. Vasily Alexandrovich spent the first years of emigration near Lyon, where he was a worker at a cable factory. Then he settled in Paris, lived, overcoming progressive illnesses; towards the end of his life he had difficulty moving and was blind in one eye.

In exile, Merkushov wrote two books - “Submariners. (Essays from the life of the Russian submarine fleet 1905 - 1914)" and "Diary of a Submariner." The scale of the work is indicated by the following fact: the typescript of the three volumes of “The Diary of a Submariner” totaled 1983 pages, not counting maps, plans, and text appendices. And there was also a third manuscript - “The Agony of Revel” (about the events of February 1918). But none of these books were published abroad. V.A. Merkushov also collaborated with the Russian naval magazine “Chasovoy”, published in Paris. It contains 41 of his lifetime publications and several materials published after his death. In addition, since 1927, Merkushov’s articles appeared in the Parisian newspapers “Vozrozhdenie” and “Russian Invalid”, and since 1947 - in “Russian Thought”.

Dubentsev Petr Andreevich, 22-9-1893 - 6-9-1944. Miner, Baltic.
Dubentseva (ur. Antonovskaya) Elizaveta Aleksandrovna, 20-10-1901 - 30-9-1983
Andro de Langeron Alexander Alesandrovich, 30-8-1893 - 14-9-1947, captain, marquis

Andro de Langeron is a well-known family in France, from which one of the founders of Odessa, Russian army general Alexander Andro de Langeron (1763-1861), came. I could not find information about who the general’s namesake captain was. But the poems on the grave are about Russia...

Eismont-Eliseeva (ur. Kozhina) Elena Petrovna, 13-4-1901 - 3-5-1953

Another grave with poems about Russia. The following inscription is carved on the slab:

I love you, Petra's creation,
I love your strict, slender appearance,
Neva sovereign current,
Its coastal granite.
____

She was from this big
cold city
Schoolgirl, orphan and
On a foreign land, an uncomplaining toiler

7-2-1889 - 27-12-1982, Kuban Cossack
, 1891 - 1972, his wife

Isidor Zakharyin was a sub-squire of the Kuban army, a full Knight of St. George. For some time he served in the Cossack division in Persia, which he described in his work “In the Service of the Persian Shah”

A brief history of the service of the Russian Cossacks in the Shah's troops is as follows. In 1879, the Persian Shah Nasser ad-Din turned to the Russian government with a request for assistance in creating a combat-ready military formation capable of actually carrying out the tasks assigned to it. Lieutenant Colonel of the Russian General Staff Domantovich, together with Cossack officers, created a Persian regular cavalry regiment modeled on the Russian Cossack regiments. The regiment soon grew to the size of a brigade. The command of His Majesty the Shah's Persian Cossack brigade was commanded by a Russian officer who reported directly to the Shah...

During the First World War, the brigade was deployed into a division, numbering more than ten thousand people, its units were located in all major cities of the country. Under the leadership of Russian officers who trained and armed the Persian Cossacks, the brigade became not only the support of the throne, but also the most combat-ready regular formation of the Persian army with modern artillery and machine-gun platoons. It was commanded by Colonel Lyakhov, who actually turned out to be the commander of the country's Armed Forces, while the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was the Shah himself.

Everything in the brigade was reminiscent of Russia: the brigade was commanded by a colonel of the Russian General Staff; the personnel were trained by Russian officer-instructors and non-commissioned officers, and treated by a Russian military doctor; The Russian papakha, boots and shirt served as everyday uniform; the military regulations were Russian; Russian language was subject to compulsory study. The Shah personally supervised the brigade that guarded the most important government agencies. Every year, in the Kasr-Kojara camp, six kilometers north of Tehran, the Persian Cossacks, in the presence of the Shah, underwent a review, which usually ended with a demonstration horse show. In terms of discipline and combat training, the Cossack brigade was completely superior to all military units in the country.

Since 1916, the Cossack Brigade was commanded by the ambitious Colonel Reza Khan. It was he who organized a military coup in February 1921, removed the Turkic Qajar dynasty from power, resisted England’s attempts to establish a protectorate over Iran and became the Iranian Shah Reza-Pahlavi...

I have not yet been able to find any materials about the emigrant life of Isidor Zakharyin. He died in the Russian House in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.

17-3-1921 - 3-01-1949

These photographs on the tombstone immediately attracted my attention with both their unusual unity and tragic separation. For a long time I could not find any mention of these people and their grave. And then, quite by accident, the name Georgy Orcel appeared on the Internet. And I saw this entry in the memoirs of Father Boris Stark, a priest at the churches of the Russian House in Sainte-Genevieve des Bois:

"A young Frenchman had a Russian girl - a bride. She studied ballet art from the famous ballerina O.O. Preobrazhenskaya... Some kind of quarrel, some kind of stubbornness... The young man took it all too close to his heart and... ended the yourself. Heartbroken the bride, reproaching herself for her frivolity, almost followed him. I had to put in a lot of effort and effort for life to move on. We prayed together at the fresh grave. Now she has been married for a long time, has three sons, sometimes comes to visit her relatives in the Soviet Union, and we meet. But the memory of Georges remained an unhealed wound."

Weeping Orthodox cross on a French grave...

4-4-1932 - 29-12-1986, film director
Tarkovskaya (ur. Egorkina) Larisa Pavlovna, 1933 - 19-2-1998, his wife

The monument at the grave of A. Tarkovsky was created by the famous sculptor Ernst Neizvestny. It symbolizes Golgotha, and the seven steps carved into the marble represent Tarkovsky’s seven films. The Orthodox cross was made according to the director’s sketches.

“Does death scare me?” Andrei Tarkovsky reflected in Donatella Balivo’s documentary film dedicated to his work. “In my opinion, death does not exist at all. There is some kind of act, painful, in the form of suffering. When I think about death, I think about physical suffering, and not about death as such. Death, in my opinion, simply does not exist. I don’t know... Once I dreamed that I died, and it seemed like the truth. I felt such liberation, such lightness incredible, that perhaps it was precisely the feeling of lightness and freedom that gave me the feeling that I had died, that is, freed from all connections with this world. In any case, I do not believe in death. There is only suffering and pain, and often a person confuses this - death and suffering. I don’t know. Maybe when I face this directly, I will become scared, and I will think differently... It’s hard to say."

- This year is the anniversary of Tarkovsky’s death. Was there any idea to transport his remains to his homeland?

I have a negative attitude towards this: since fate brought Andrei to the Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery, then it’s necessary. After all, he had already been reburied once: the first time his body was buried in the grave of Captain Grigoriev, and later the mayor of Saint-Geneviève allocated a special place for Tarkovsky’s grave. At first there was a simple wooden cross on the grave, which I personally liked. And then, without telling me anything about her plans, Andrei’s widow created a project for the monument. The inscription on it is incorrect from the point of view of the Russian language: “Andrei Tarkovsky. To the man who saw the angel." It seems to me that such an inscription is simply unacceptable on a monument (and the priest told me about this). You can't write such things. Even if he saw him...

Unknown

Fortunately, there are few such graves in the cemetery (much less than can be seen in old cemeteries in Russia), but they still exist...

On a winter Saturday, there are almost no people in the cemetery. A few of our tourists, a couple of Frenchmen, a couple of Japanese (and where are they not?) ... Nevertheless, candles are lit at many graves, and the cemetery attendant is actively scurrying back and forth, removing garbage or placing flowers on the graves. Apparently, someone pays for the care of the graves, and then these burials are “looked after”, giving the impression that someone has recently visited.

There's a candle burning here. And so on many graves

The “Drozdovites,” soldiers of the Volunteer Army, wore a monogram on crimson shoulder straps and, to the tune of the march of the Siberian Riflemen (well known to us from the song “Across the Valleys and Along the Hills”), sang their own, the Drozdovsky march:

From Romania by hike
The glorious Drozdovsky regiment was marching,
To save the people
He bore a heroic, difficult duty.

Colonel of the General Staff Mikhail Gordeevich Drozdovsky (1881-1919) in December 1917 in Romania began to form a volunteer detachment from the Russians who fought on the Romanian front. In March 1918, a detachment called the 1st separate brigade of Russian volunteers set out from Yassy to the Don. “There is only the unknown of a long journey ahead. But a glorious death is better than a shameful refusal to fight for the liberation of Russia!” - Drozdovsky admonished his fighters. The Drozdovites made a 1,200-verst march, fought to occupy Novocherkassk and Rostov, and in June 1918 joined the Volunteer Army of General A.I. Denikin, which had just emerged from the Ice Campaign. Colonel M.G. Drozdovsky took command of the 3rd division, the basis of which was his detachment.

In November 1918, in a battle near Stavropol, Drozdovsky was wounded and on January 14, 1919, he died of blood poisoning in a Rostov hospital. His body was transported to Yekaterinodar and buried in the Military Cathedral. In memory of M.G. Drozdovsky, who was promoted to major general before his death, his patronage was given to the rifle and cavalry regiments. In March 1920, a detachment of Drozdovites burst into Yekaterinodar, already occupied by the Red troops, and took away the coffin of the major general, so that the unheard-of outrage that was committed in April 1918 in the same Yekaterinodar over the ashes of General L.G. Kornilov would not be repeated. The coffin with the body of General M.G. Drozdovsky was taken by sea from Novorossiysk to Sevastopol and buried there in a secret place. Where - now no one knows...

The Drozdovsky units were among the most combat-ready. During the three years of the civil war, the Drozdovites fought 650 battles. Their element was special attacks - without shots, at full height, with commanders in front. More than fifteen thousand Drozdovites remained lying on the battlefields of the fratricidal war, which became a tragedy in Russia. The last Drozdov units ended their existence in Bulgaria, where they ended up after the evacuation of the Gallipoli camp. And at the site of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, called “Drozdovsky”, buried next to each other were those who survived the civilian “drozdy”, as they called themselves, and who remained loyal to their regimental brotherhood in a foreign land.

Lieutenant Golitsyn, here are your birches,
Cornet Obolensky, here is your epaulette...

Assumption Church

At the very beginning of the 20s, when the first wave of Russian emigration arrived in Paris, a problem arose: what to do with the elderly, the older generation who had left Bolshevik Russia. The Russian emigrant committee decided to create a shelter for elderly compatriots. And so on April 7, 1927, in the town of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, a shelter house was opened with a beautiful park adjacent to it - the “Russian House”. Nearby there was a communal cemetery, where over time they began to bury not only the inhabitants of the Russian House, but also other Russians, first mainly living in Paris, and then from other cities. Shortly before World War II, through the efforts of Princess Meshcherskaya, a small plot was purchased near the cemetery, where, according to the design of Albert Benoit, a church was built in the Novgorod style of the 15th-16th centuries. The temple was painted by A. Benois himself and his wife Margarita. The church was consecrated on October 14, 1939. Since then, many of our compatriots, whose names have gone down in history, have been buried there.

Assumption Church after construction (photo from the archive of Father B. Stark)

Under the nave, in the crypt, the ashes of Metropolitans Evlogii and Vladimir, Archbishop George and other clergy are buried. The architect A. Benois himself and his wife Margarita Alexandrovna also rest there. The archangels Gabriel and Michael with an icon are depicted on the arched gate at the entrance to the cemetery. Immediately outside the gate, on both sides of a well-groomed alley, there are birch trees and benches, and on the sides of the steps leading to the temple and around the temple there are fir trees and bushes. In the greenery of trees and bushes to the right of the temple there is a belfry with a small dome over two arches. They say that this is the only ensemble in Western Europe created in the Pskov-Novgorod style.

Inside the temple there is a strict two-tiered iconostasis, painted by artists and parishioners Lvova and Fedorov. On the wall to the left of the entrance are depicted themes from the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the opposite wall - scenes from the life of Christ. Like the paintings above the apses, this is the work of Albert Benois. The western (entrance) wall was painted by the icon painter Morozov. There are many icons in the temple - on the walls, on lecterns, and in icon cases. Almost all of them were donated by Russian emigrants.

“Whether our ashes will rest in our native land or in a foreign land, I don’t know, but let our children remember that wherever our graves are, these will be Russian graves and they will call them to love and loyalty to Russia.”
Prince S.E. Trubetskoy

In addition to the sources indicated in the text, the following literature was used:

1. Grezine I. Inventaire nominatif des sépultures russes du cimetière du Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois. - Paris, 1995.

2. Nosik B. M. On the churchyard of the 20th century. - St. Petersburg: Golden Age; Diamond, 2000.

3. Unforgotten graves. Russian abroad: obituaries 1917-1997 in six volumes. Compiled by V.N. Chuvakov. - M.: Russian State Library, 1999-2007.

Paris - St. Petersburg, 2009-2010

In the suburbs of Paris there is the suburb of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, which is often called Russian. The almshouse in this place was built in the 20s of the twentieth century, at that time Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, which had not yet turned from a small village into a small cozy town, was already associated with Russian emigration, most of which were the nobility who managed flee Russia during the revolution.

The construction of the almshouse was carried out according to the idea and personal funds of the Russian princess V.K. Meshcherskaya, this building soon became a shelter for elderly lonely Russian nobles who had neither family nor financial savings; for such citizens the almshouse became the only place, where the elderly could receive care and food. In 1927, the first Russian cemetery appeared in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois; its history began with the allocation of a plot of land for the burial of the permanent inhabitants of the almshouse, who found their last refuge in it. Very little time passed, and Russian nobles from Paris and other cities of France began to be buried in the cemetery in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.

And for the funeral of the dead, a small Orthodox church was built in the Russian Baroque style, with a small blue dome decorated with a gilded cross. Under one of the naves lie the ashes of Orthodox clergy, including Archbishop George, as well as Metropolitans Vladimir and Evlogii. The architect, according to whose design the temple was built, and his wife Margarita Alexandrovna, known as an artist during her lifetime, were buried next to them. And next to the church, a small house was subsequently built, dedicated to the memory of the architect, in which visitors to the temple and the Russian cemetery can relax and drink a cup of hot and aromatic tea.

The entrance to the cemetery passes through a beautiful gate made in the form of an arch, and its main decoration is the image of two archangels - Michael and Gabriel, holding an icon in their hands. Next there is a wide alley, along which you can see Russian birch trees, reminding emigrants of their homeland, many cozy benches, on which you can sit and relax at any time. You can climb into the temple via comfortable steps, and around them you can see trimmed bushes and well-groomed low spruce trees, and then, behind the church, birch trees alternate with poplars. It has been suggested among architects that the cemetery, church and almshouse in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, built in the Pskov-Novgorod style, are the only architectural ensemble of this kind in the entire Western European territory. The entrance to the Orthodox church, named after the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is decorated with an unusual fresco depicting the Mother of God. And at some distance from the temple you can see the belfry, as if lost among the already tall trees, it is decorated with two simple arcades, and a small dome is erected at the top, with its crown pointing to the sky; on Orthodox holidays, the ringing of the six bells of the belfry can be heard from afar.

The cruciform Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is decorated with a dome on top, which in color seems to merge with the heavens, and on the dome you can see an eight-pointed cross. The interior of the church is quite restrained; its main component is the iconostasis, made in two tiers; it was painted not only by recognized Russian artists, but also by talented parishioners. Inside the church is decorated with frescoes, some of them depict events from the life of Jesus Christ, on others you can see the Blessed Virgin Mary, these frescoes were painted famous painter Albert Benoit. The western part of the temple was painted by another artist - Morozov. The walls, icon cases and lecterns of the church are decorated with numerous icons, all of which were left to the temple by parishioners as a priceless gift.

The almshouse became the center of Russian emigration, and a small village was formed around it within a short time. Russian emigrants from Paris sought to purchase land here for construction own home, some built dachas intended for relaxation from the hustle and bustle of Paris, while others moved into newly built houses and stayed here forever. And the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, consecrated in 1939 by Metropolitan Evlogii, was built at the expense of Russian settlers, and the architect Albert Nikolaevich Benois worked on the drama project. This outstanding person they knew both as an architect and as an artist, as an illustrator, graphic artist and book designer, and as a theatergoer, and as a subtle connoisseur of music and dance, and as a theater and art critic. According to contemporaries, Benoit possessed a considerable amount of artistry; he was called the “singer of Versailles and Louis” for his unusual series of works in watercolors depicting the Parisian palace court. The outstanding architect left this mortal coil in 1960 in Paris, and his body was brought for funeral service and subsequent burial in the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built by him, in the village of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.

The grave of Andrei Tarkovsky at the cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-BoisBut the Russian cemetery of emigration differs from similar burials in Russia. It combines the splendor characteristic only of Russians, and Western cleanliness, and the rule according to which all graves are subordinated to a single idea, all graves, alleys and cemetery areas are well-groomed; here you will not see any wild grass as tall as a person, or garbage. Near the gravestone Orthodox crosses, as well as in special niches of many monuments and tombstones, the lights of the lamps constantly flicker; they do not go out, and a kind of “eternal flame” is maintained by the cemetery servants. The graves are also decorated with icons made on an enamel coating, all of them small. The flower of the Russian intelligentsia also rests in the cemetery in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois; many writers are buried here, including Zinaida Gippius and Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Alexey Remizov and Ivan Shmelev, Nadezhda Teffi and Nikolai Evreinov, Boris Zaitsev, the famous writer Ivan Bunin and his faithful wife Vera Nikolaevna. The Russian cemetery is also the burial place of heroes of the French resistance, including Kirill Radishchev and Vika Obolenskaya, as well as Zinovy ​​Peshkov, the adopted son of the famous writer Alexei Peshkov, working under the pseudonym Maxim Gorky. The ashes of artists and ballerinas such as Olga Preobrazhenskaya, Vera Trefilova, Matilda Kshesinskaya, Ivan Mozzhukhin, Maria Krzhizhanovskaya are buried in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois. Philosophers N. Lossky and S. Bulgakov, artists K. Korovin and Z. Serebryakova and K. Somov are buried here, and relatively recently the graves where A. Tarkovsky, A. Galich and V. Nekrasov found their final refuge appeared.

However, the Russian emigration in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois has many problems, and the preservation of the village and the cemetery itself is under threat. The land allocated for the cemetery does not belong to the Russian community, but to the local municipality, and the site itself was allocated for burials only for a certain period. In the 70s of the twentieth century, it was forbidden to bury all Russian emigrants and their descendants here; the only exceptions were citizens who bought a place in the cemetery long before the relevant order of the authorities, as well as persons whose affiliation with the village of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois in general , and the Russian cemetery in particular, has been proven. In order to bury the famous director Andrei Tarkovsky in this cemetery, even the country's Minister of Culture had to intervene. And soon a small chapel appeared on the territory of the cemetery, built as a tomb for the remains reburied from old graves whose lease had long expired. Amazingly, many emigrants spent their whole lives cherishing the dream of returning to their homeland, from which they once had to flee. Some nobles did not even bury their dead relatives, storing their ashes in zinc coffins, so that such a coffin could be transported to Russia and buried on Russian soil.

Today, in the Russian cemetery in Sainte-Genevieve des Bois, there are also abandoned graves, which currently have no one to rent. The city authorities, by law, have the right to sell all burials that do not have a legal owner, and many French people have already been buried on the site of Russian graves. There is only one way to preserve the Russian cemetery safe and sound, giving it the status of a memorial. But such a decision has not been made and is unlikely to be made in the coming years. The preservation of the cemetery is so far based on intergovernmental agreements that were verbally decided during the trips of the President of Russia, Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, and subsequently Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin to France, and in particular to the cemetery of Russian emigration in Sainte-Genevieve des Bois.

The grave of the Russian writer Ivan Bunin this moment the costs of maintaining the Orthodox part of the cemetery are shared among the relatives of deceased emigrants, parishioners of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the local municipality. Saint-Genevieve des Bois is growing as a city, and space is needed to expand, so the cemetery is constantly under threat. The Russian government offered the French authorities plots of land in Russia in exchange for the territory of the cemetery, and projects were also put forward to rebury the remains of Russian nobles and intelligentsia from the cemetery in Saint-Genevieve des Bois to other places, or to various Orthodox churches. But the Russian emigration and their descendants simply do not have the funds for such large-scale projects. And only the ashes of the writer Ivan Bunin are not in danger - the rent of the land plot on which his ashes rest has been paid for indefinitely at the expense of the Nobel Committee. And the further fate of all other graves has not been decided.

Zinaida Gippius and Dmitry Merezhkovsky

Ivan Bunin

He died in his sleep at two o'clock in the morning from November 7 to 8, 1953 in Paris. According to eyewitnesses, on the writer’s bed lay a volume of L.N. Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection.” He was buried in the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois cemetery in France.

... Dynkel 20:29:05

­ Meshcherskaya, Vera Kirillovna (1876-1949) - founder of the Russian House in Sainte-Genevieve des Bois in 1927. He spent his youth in Japan, where his father Kirill (Karl) Vasilyevich Struve was Resident Minister (1874-1876) and Envoy (1876-1882). Married to the aide-de-camp, Colonel Prince P.N. Meshchersky HOW THE KOSSONRI ESTATE BECAME A RUSSIAN HOUSE The estate where the Russian House is now located was previously called the Kossonri estate. The central building was originally a country mansion, built by topographer L. Feng, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte's personal secretary, then it was built on, changed owners, but the entire 19th century continued to remain summer country house Parisian nobility. Since 1927, the fate of the estate has been inextricably linked with the Russian emigration that poured into France after the 1917 revolution. Princess Vera Kirillovna Meshcherskaya, daughter of last ambassador Russian Empire in Japan. Miraculously saved from the Bolsheviks by the family's cook, she settled in Paris and opened a culinary school for noble maidens, among whom Marina Grecheskaya, the future Duchess of Kent, studied. However, the main role in the founding of the Russian House was played by another student of Meshcherskaya - Miss Dorothy Paget, a wealthy Englishwoman, who, as a sign of gratitude and friendly feelings, offered Vera Kirillovna Kossonri as a gift. The princess rejected this personal offer and gave the estate to a shelter for Russian refugees. Thus, on April 7, 1927, the Kossonri estate became the Russian House, together with a large park adjacent to it, at the end of which there was a small communal cemetery. The refuge of the last old generation of Russian intelligentsia, aristocracy, industrialists, and military men. Dorothy Paget maintained the Russian House until the Second World War, when the French state took custody of it. Princess Meshcherskaya died on December 17, 1949. Now her daughter-in-law Antonina Meshcherskaya is engaged in this good cause. Among the guests of the Russian House were the Bakunin family, the first wife of Admiral Kolchak, and the wife of Minister Stolypin. In the lists of the Russian House one can also find such glorious names as Golitsyn, Vasilchikov, Nerot, Tolstoy, Doctor Popov, an obstetrician under the last Russian empress. Three years ago, Princess Zinaida Shakhovskaya died in this house; she was 94 years old. Among the frequent visitors to the Russian House is A. Solzhenitsyn, who in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois obtained a lot of interesting materials for his works, primarily for “August the Fourteenth.” The Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois owes its existence to the proximity of the Russian House. It became the last abode of those whom Princess Meshcherskaya gave the opportunity to live until the end of their days in the Orthodox faith, surrounded by books and native objects that to some extent recreated a piece of a way of life lost forever, a distant homeland. From the very first steps of its existence, the Russian House became the custodian of amazing relics of pre-revolutionary Russia. When France finally recognized the Soviet Union, the Ambassador of the Provisional Government Maklakov in Paris had to give up the embassy building on the street. Grenelle to the new owners. But he managed to transport portraits of Russian emperors, antique furniture and even the royal throne to the Russian House. They were kept secretly here for over 60 years. Their existence was publicly announced only in 1998 at the request of the Russian Ambassador - the items were temporarily transferred to an exhibition dedicated to the centenary of the Pont Alexandre III in Paris.

Anna Feliksovna Voronko and Eduard (Victor) Goldberg-Voronko

A Nna Feliksovna Voronko was not a participant in the French Resistance movement. She did not become famous either in the world of science, or in music, or in art. Her name was also not included in the annals of literature. She was known primarily to those who were fond of antiques.

Jewels also passed through Anna Feliksovna’s hands, but she was adorned not with them, but with good deeds. Anna Voronko did good, she did it silently, with all her soul, under the cover of her heart. Inconsolable grief - the death of her only son - overtook her at the age of fifty.

With her personal funds, a monument-chapel was built at the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois cemetery near Paris on a large plot of land she acquired, and around there were mass graves in which she reburied her son Edik and several dozen who died in the ranks of the French army and the Russian Resistance soldier.

Anna Feliksovna looked for the mortal remains of the “boy soldiers”, sometimes digging them up with her own hands, putting them in coffins and transporting them to their eternal rest at the monument-chapel.

Having passed into eternal life in December 1971 and presented herself before the Savior, she - may the Lord God forgive me for the audacity to think so, much less write - silently and humbly bowed her head before Him. She was silent. Her mother's heartbroken heart and the dead soldiers testified for her.

When visitors to the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois approach the monument-chapel of her sons-soldiers, no matter how strange it may sound, they feel the unquenchable flame of a mother’s heart, the flame of love and care of a mother’s unclosed eyes.

I will ask Father Archpriest Boris (Stark)2 to tell about her, a man who not only knew her well, but also shared with her participation in good deeds to fulfill his duty to the memory of the dead.

Archpriest Boris Stark:

“...Every year on February 19, the day of the death of my son Seryozha, our great friend and one of the most spiritually close persons to us, Archimandrite Nikon (Greve) came to us, first in Villemoisson, and then in St. Genevieve de Bois to serve the funeral liturgy and then memorial services at the grave of the deceased boy, and usually he always brought someone with him to get to know us...

And he always brought someone with a fresh wound, who had recently lost someone. ...One time, I think it was in 1942, he came to us in Villemoisson for service and brought with him a lady in deep mourning... It was Anna Feliksovna Voronko.

My acquaintance with her began a new type of pastoral activity for me. She was from Vilna, and in her youth, apparently, she was very beautiful, because even by this time, despite many experiences, her facial features were very attractive. She worked as an antique dealer.

She was married three times, but divorced all her husbands and lived with her son in Paris. He was the only son from his first husband. When Lithuania joined the Soviet Union before the World War, it did not take an emigrant passport, but took a Soviet one. She had many contacts with antique dealers in different countries, and she could be considered a wealthy woman by our emigrant standards.

The war found her in Finland, where she went on business with her antiques. When she returned to Paris, she learned that her only son had volunteered for the front. It is possible that later he would have been called up anyway, but the heroically minded young man himself went to meet his fate. During the German offensive on the Ardennes, her Edik was killed in the town of Misery in the courtyard of a large castle, where a regiment of volunteers was surrounded.

Since my wife’s brother was also a volunteer in the same regiment, we later received some information about this battle. But so far the mother knew nothing about the fate of her son. She spoke German well, and when the military commandant’s office appeared after the Germans occupied Paris, she went there to find out something about the fate of the regiment. All her appeals to the French authorities were without result. Nobody could say anything. There was no information. At the German commandant’s office, after looking through many thick books, she was told not only the day of her son’s death3, but also where his grave was located in the park of this castle.

The war was still going on, but with her irrepressible energy, German language and, perhaps, feminine charm, she obtained permission to travel to Misery, found her son’s grave and transferred his ashes to the local cemetery, where his comrades in the voluntary regiment already lay. Tearing up the grave, she thought that she would immediately die of grief, but... she had more strength than she thought. While digging the grave, we found some of his things, notebook, something else. Once she felt really bad because a large bone was pulled out of the grave. She already thought that it was her son’s bone, but... it turned out that it was a cow bone from some older burial.

Seeing that death did not come to her, she decided to devote herself to serving the soldiers, especially the killed ones. And she partially attracted me to this.

We toured military cemeteries and battlefields, looked for Russian names on crosses, looked for the relatives of these soldiers and then, with their permission, began to transport them to the Russian cemetery of St. Genevieve, where she bought a large place in the center of the cemetery.

In the center, according to the design of A. N. Benois, a chapel was built in the old Russian style, and around there were mass graves, where we began to take coffins with soldiers, and on their headboards we placed small boards with names and, if possible, photographs. At the same time, wandering around the village, she exchanged some food with the peasants, which she shared with those in need in Paris.

For the screen, she also traded with German officers, for whom she obtained gold and other items of interest to them, and in return received permission to travel to the war zone, gasoline for transporting coffins...

I think that she had other connections that she kept silent about, since immediately after the end of the war she often began to visit the Soviet embassy. Later, she decided to move her son to our cemetery, but not to a common grave, but to a separate one, where she later bequeathed to bury herself.

But after I left France, she once again buried her son in a common grave near the chapel, correctly judging that after her death the chapel and mass graves would remain, and the private grave of her and her son would sooner or later perish.

Now she too is dead and lies surrounded by her soldiers in the shadow of the chapel she built.

She and I made several of these rather long trips across the battlefields, collecting our “boys.”

I especially remember the first trip... It was in March 1947. The war was already over, but its consequences were visible at every step.

The cities of north-eastern France were heavily destroyed, as there were still defensive battles that were getting smaller and smaller as they approached Paris, which was declared an open city.

On that trip we brought 10 coffins, traveling for 6 days (the entire first week of Lent) along the roads of the Somme, Champagne, Alsace, Lorraine, Ardennes...

On Saturday early in the morning we were in Paris and brought the coffins to the cathedral on the street. I give where the funeral service took place. After which I took the coffins with the inveterate soldiers to our Russian cemetery.

All ceremonies were attended by a delegation of the French army with colors, headed by a colonel who made a speech.

There were also representatives of local military associations at the cemetery, and four flags hung over the chapel: French, American, English and... Soviet, much to the embarrassment of many of our old ladies and former generals.

I also said a word in French, noting our struggle against the common enemy - fascism and paying tribute to the youth who died for the common victory...

Although the war is over, but National economy has not yet fully settled into its groove. For this trip we were promised a large truck that had three seats next to the driver and a covered bed in the back. Another lady was supposed to go with us - the wife of the murdered Vladimir Stanislavsky. When we were ready to leave on Monday morning, we... were given a car with one seat near the driver and only a canvas top in the back.

I gave up my seat next to the driver to the ladies, who sat on each other’s laps the whole way, and I climbed into the back, where 10 empty coffins were already lying. On top of my cassock I was wearing only a military cape, my father’s, made from good cloth according to a naval uniform...

When we left Paris, it was warm and dry like spring, but when we climbed into the mountains of the Vosges and Alsace, we were greeted by deep snow, frosts down to -15°, and I began to feel very cold under my tarpaulin. We ended up having to climb into the empty coffin and cover ourselves with the lid to keep from freezing. So I drove on, moving from one coffin to another as they filled up.

Still, I caught a bad cold and, arriving in Strasbourg in the evening, I was even afraid that I would not be able to continue my journey, but would be forced to take the train and return to Paris. But Anna Feliksovna gave me some pills, and after the night I moved on...

Among the 10 killed that we had to dig up, 6 were from 1940, i.e. from the very first months of the war, and 4 were relatively recent, killed in 1944 and 1945, i.e. 2-3 years ago. By the way, among them was one Yuri Gagarin.

We were greeted differently locally... In some cities or villages, gravediggers were waiting for us, who did everything and transferred the remains into our new coffins; There were also those where there was no one except the village watchman, and then we had to dig and shift ourselves.

Moreover, if the corpses of 7 years ago no longer presented any difficulties, then those buried relatively recently were in in perfect condition decomposition, and it was not easy work. Arriving in one city, we found a military detachment waiting for us with music to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers. Arriving at another village, they found no one. Then the mayor of the village trudged in and also couldn’t do anything...

Finally, some boy ran to the nearest houses, brought shovels, chopped up fir branches somewhere to put inside the coffin...

When we ourselves, with the help of the boy, did everything that was required, I said to the mayor: “You know, Mr. Mayor, when the next municipal elections take place, I will invite your fellow countrymen to vote not for you, but for this boy. He’s more useful than you!” We left, leaving him completely bewildered.

...All expenses associated with this trip were borne by Anna Feliksovna. She did this in memory of her Edik. Then she and I made such trips several more times, but in more comfortable conditions, since the war was moving further and further away.

But we buried the next ones right here in the Assumption Church in the cemetery. There were also individual soldiers who were transported through the efforts of their parents. Some of them lay down in mass grave near the chapel, others - in separately prepared graves...

In gratitude for these “military” expeditions of mine, the mothers and wives of the dead soldiers, of course, on the initiative of Anna Feliksovna, gave me a gilded pectoral cross-monstrance, which I often used, often wore, and now gave to my eldest son, a priest.

Anna Feliksovna repeatedly came to the Soviet Union, where in Moscow I managed to find her sister, to whom she came.

Once she visited us, in Yaroslavl, and spent Good Friday and Saturday with us, Holy Easter night and the first day of Easter.

While continuing to work with antique dealers, she was in contact with many artists and collectors and convinced many of them to bequeath their valuables to Russia. She brought many valuable exhibits for our museums. Paintings, porcelain - all this was donated to Russia by emigrants...

But in my time we were busy searching for Russian soldiers who died on the French front. In total, 280 such graves or information about the dead were found, but, of course, only a small part of them were transported to our Russian cemetery...

I also remember Anna Feliksovna’s story about how she was once walking on the Paris metro and in the corridor of one transfer station she saw a German soldier with a bandaged head, who was clearly lost and did not know where to go. For her, every soldier, even an enemy one, and a wounded one at that, was a soldier like her Edik, and she was in excellent German asked what he needed. Having received the answer to the necessary question and instructions on where to go, he asked Anna Feliksovna if she was German.

And when he found out that she was Russian, he flew away as if from a poisonous snake... In response to her perplexed question about what was the matter, he said that while in occupied Russia, he and his unit occupied a hut and settled down for the night. In the hut, only a decrepit old woman was lying on the stove.

When they started eating, the old woman threw a cast-iron pot over his head, and broke his head so badly that he spent two months in the hospital, and now he was transferred to the “rear” unit in France.

“Since that day I have been afraid of every Russian woman, from a girl to an ancient old woman.” Anna Feliksovna did a lot for the soldiers, and I am offended that the French command, with whom she had a lot of dealings, did not find it necessary to somehow note her works ... "

In 1879, Olga Preobrazhenskaya began studying ballet under the direction of Nikolai Legat and Enrico Cecchetti at the Vaganova School. After ten years of study, she was accepted into the Mariinsky Theater, where her main rival was Matilda Kshesinskaya. Since 1895, she toured Europe and South America, and successfully performed at La Scala. In 1900 she became a prima ballerina, and twenty years later, in 1920, she left the stage.

In 1914 she began her teaching career, from 1917 to 1921 she taught a plastic class at the opera troupe. Mariinsky Theater, taught at the Petrograd Choreographic School, at the A.L. Volynsky School of Russian Ballet.

In 1921 she emigrated to Paris, where she opened a ballet studio and continued giving lessons. She also taught in Milan, London, Buenos Aires, and Berlin. She left teaching in 1960. Among her students were Tamara Tumanova, Irina Baronova, Tatyana Ryabushinskaya, Nina Vyrubova, Margot Fonteyn, Igor Yushkevich, Serge Golovin and others.

Olga Iosifovna died in 1962 and was buried in the Cemetery of Saint-Genevieve des Bois.

Secreteva (ur. Filippovskaya-KardasEvich) Irina Petrovna, 10-5-1877 – 8-4-1958.
Sister of mercy of the Russian Red Cross, widow of a military doctor of the Volyn regiment;

SECRETEV (Secretov) Anatoly Petrovich (1908 - August 23, 1974, Paris, treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-BouA). Poet, public figure. In exile in France. Member of the Association of Russian Students in Paris, in 1934 he was elected a member of the audit commission of the Association. He published two collections of poems in Paris: “ Purple clouds"(1940), "Mirage" (1972).
Son of I.P.Sekreteva

ALEXANDER (Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky Alexander Dmitrievich) (October 7, 1890, St. Petersburg – May 16, 1979, Paris, burial in the Holy Assumption Church on the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Bishop. Brother N.D. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, accelerated courses from the Corps of Pages. Participant in the World and Civil Wars. In 1920 he emigrated to Berlin, in France since 1925. He graduated from the Theological Institute in Paris (1942). Ordained in 1943. Teacher of the law and rector of the church at an orphanage for boys in Verrieres-le-Buisson (near Paris) (1944–1947). Rector of the Church of the Resurrection in Rose-en-Brie (near Paris) (from 1951), then of the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Paris (1955–1957). In 1951 he was awarded a golden pectoral cross, and in 1955 the rank of archpriest. Since 1958, rector of the Church of Our Lady of the Sign in Paris. Archimandrite (1966). Chairman of the canonical commission and spiritual court of the Western European Russian Archdiocese (1967–1979). In 1971 he was consecrated bishop. Bishop of Zilon. Member of the editorial board of the Church Bulletin of the Western European Diocese. Since 1948, spiritual mentor of the Knights. Gave lectures at instructor schools National organization Russian Scouts (NORS) and the National Organization of Knights (NOV), at the Courses for training educators for summer camps, taught the Law of God at the Thursday school at the Church of the Sign of the Mother of God, etc. Member of the Committee of the Foundation for the construction of an icon in memory of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich and young volunteers White Army, fallen on the battlefields (1955). March 13, 1966 at the memorial service for A.A. Akhmatova said a word in memory of her in St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Chairman of the First Congress of Western European Orthodox Youth in 1971 in Annecy (department of Haute-Savoie). Member of the ecumenical movement. Author of the books "O. John of Kronstadt" (New York, 1955), "The Ways of Christ" (Paris, 1970), etc. Compiled together with I.F. Meyendorff Orthodox Catechism in French (1957). Collaborated in the “Bulletin of the RSHD”, “Bulletin of Religious and Pedagogical Work”.

Alekseev Nikolai Nikolaevich (03/25/1875-09/15/1955) - Lieutenant General of the General Staff

03/25/1875 - 09/15/1955, Paris (France) Orthodox. Married, 1 daughter (before 1911-after 1914). Participated in the First World War 1914-18, in the Civil War. Education: Polotsk Cadet Corps (1892), Mikhailovsky Artillery School (1895, 3rd Artillery Brigade in the Life Guards), Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff (1902, 1st rank). Rank: entered service (08/31/1892), Second Lieutenant of the Guard (Vys. Ave. 08/12/1895), Lieutenant of the Guard (Art. 08/12/1899), Staff Captain of the Guard (Art. 05.28.1902), renamed Captain of the General Staff (Art. 05/28/1902), Lieutenant Colonel (Art. . 04/22/1907), colonel "for distinction in service" from Art. 04/10/1911 (1911), major general (12/6/1916), lieutenant general (04/18/1920) Service: studied at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School (08/31/1892-08/12/1895), in the Life Guards 3- 1st artillery brigade (1895-?), studied at the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff (1899-1902), company commander in the 5th Finnish Rifle Regiment, which counted for the 2-year qualification for commanding a company (11/1/1902-04/30/1904), senior adjutant of the headquarters of the 51st Infantry Division (06/09/1904-01/23/1905), etc. Chief of Staff of the General Staff (23.01.-25.06.1905), etc. head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff (06/25/1905-05/1/1906), assistant clerk of the Main Directorate of the General Staff (05/1/1906-10/12/1909), seconded to the Vladimir Military School to teach military sciences (10/12/1909-10/8/1911), staff officer, head of students at the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff (10/8/1911-1914), chief of staff of the 56th Infantry Division (1914), commander of the 97th Livland Infantry Regiment (05/20/1915-07/16/1916), arrived in the regiment (05/31/1915), surrendered the post of regiment commander (07/24/1916), chief of staff of the 52nd Infantry Division (07/16/18/09/1916), quartermaster general of the headquarters of the 4th Army (09/18/1916-05/5/1917), commander of the 3rd Turkestan Rifle Division (5.05.-22.09.1917), chief of staff of the 5th Army (22.09.-22.09.1917). Awards: C3 (1906), A3 (6.12.1909), C2 (6.12.1912 ), B3m (12/1/1915), A2 “for excellent and diligent service and labor incurred during hostilities” (1915), swords to A3 (01/30/1917). Other information: participant of the White movement in southern Russia. Commanded the 8th Don Army Corps. In exile, Chairman of the Union of Russian Cadet Corps. He was buried in the Sainte-Geneviève da Bois cemetery in Paris.

ALEXINSKY Grigory Alekseevich (September 16, 1879, Dagestan region - October 4, 1967, Chelle, near Paris, treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Politician, writer, publicist. Husband. T.I. Aleksinskaya, father G.G. Aleksinsky. Graduated from the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University. Participant revolutionary movement. He joined the Bolsheviks, but later broke with them. Member of the Second State Duma. He was a member of Plekhanov’s Unity group. From 1907 he lived abroad. Member of the editorial board of the Parisian magazine "Call". He published a number of books on Russian history in Paris. In 1917 he returned to Russia. Since 1919 in exile. Lived in Prague (for some time) and Paris. Member of the Interim Executive Committee abroad. In 1925 he spoke at the Club of Young Writers at an anniversary evening on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of K. Balmont. He collaborated in the newspaper “Common Cause”, the magazine “Illustrated Russia”, edited the Prague newspaper “Lights” (1924), the newspaper and magazine “ Motherland"(1925–1928), the newspaper "Our Business" (1939–1940). Published works in Paris: “Du communisme. La Révolution russe" (1923) and "The Testament of President Doumer" (1932). He gave public presentations to Russian organizations in Paris and its suburbs. Published in French magazines “Mercure de France”, “La Grande Revue”, etc. He translated Russian writers into French. In 1960, by decree of the President of France, he was awarded the Order of the Black Star; his books on the history of Russia were awarded the subscription of the Paris Municipal Council for school libraries and are recommended for higher education institutions in France. In 1963 for the aggregate literary works in French was awarded the Grand Prize of the French Academy. He donated materials on the history of the revolutionary movement in Russia to the Bakhmetyev Archive of Columbia University (USA). In recent years he worked at the Center for Scientific Research

Aleksinskaya_Etikhina Tatyana Ivanovna 13.10. 1886 - 10/20/1968

The wife of Grigory Alekseevich Aleksinsky, Tatyana Ivanovna, was herself an active Social Democrat. In 1917, she joined Plekhanov’s “Unity” group, which is described in detail in her “records” (“1917”: “I go to rallies, speak under the name of Ivanova, Petrova, Denisova...”).

AMETHISTOV Tikhon Aleksandrovich (October 27, 1884, St. Petersburg - December 28, 1941, Paris, buried in the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Colonel of the General Staff, church leader. He graduated from the Nikolaev Cavalry School and two classes of the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff. Graduated from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Participant in the World and Civil Wars. Knight of St. George. He was the head of the intelligence department of the Crimean-Azov Volunteer Army. Secretary of the Higher Church Administration in the south of Russia. He emigrated through Constantinople to Yugoslavia, then in 1921 he moved to France. He lectured on patrolology at the Higher Orthodox Theological Courses from the moment of their foundation (1921). Head of the chancellery, secretary of the Diocesan Administration under Metropolitan Evlogy (Georgievsky) (1922–1941). Member of the Committee for raising funds for the acquisition of the Sergievsky metochion, member of the Founding Committee of the Theological Institute in Paris. One of the founders of the Candle Factory at the Sergievsky Compound (1927), he was an assistant manager of the factory. Participant of the 1st diocesan meeting of Western European Russian Churches (Paris, 1927). In 1936, at a solemn meeting in Paris in memory of Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), he gave a speech. Author of the work “The Canonical Position of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad” (Paris, 1927). Member of the Society of General Staff Officers. During World War II he spent several months in the Compiegne camp (near Paris).

ANDOLENKO Sergei Pavlovich (June 26, 1907, Volochisk, Podolsk province - August 27, 1973, Vin-Saint, near Paris, deposited in the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Brigadier General of the French Army, military historian. Graduated from Saint-Cyr military school. Entered the Foreign Legion (1926), fought in Morocco (1930–1932), served in Algeria (1944–1947). He held various staff positions in the French army. He was awarded the Military Cross of the highest degree (1930s), the Order of the Legion of Honor (1945), and the Officer's Cross of the Legion of Honor (1958). Made up a story Foreign Legion, wrote the history of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment. He created a department at the Museum of Invalids dedicated to the Russian Imperial Army. Worked at the Center for Higher Military Sciences (1960–1962). Military attaché in Vienna (1961–1963). Long-term employee of the newspaper “Russian Thought”, employee of the magazine “Military Story”. Published in the magazines "Renaissance", "Revue Militaire d" Information". He published in Paris in French the books "Breastplates of the Russian Army" (1966), "History of the Russian Army" (1967), etc. For scientific works was awarded the Order of the Academic Palm. Honorary member of the Union of Officers of Former Combatants of the French Army á titre etranger, member of the board of the Society of Devotees of Russian Military Antiquity. Member of the Union of Russian Nobles. Editor of the Military Historical Bulletin (1971–1973).

ANDREEVSKY (Andrievsky) Vladimir Mikhailovich (October 30, 1858 - May 16, 1943, Paris, treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Actual State Councilor, public political figure. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. Leader of the nobility. Zemstvo figure of the Tambov province. Member of the State Council (1906–1917). He served on the Tariff Rates Council under the Minister of Finance and on the Railway Affairs Council under the Minister of Transport for the agricultural, mining and maritime industries. In 1920 he emigrated through Finland to France and lived in Paris. In 1921 he was elected to the board of the Union for the Liberation and Revival of Russia. Participant in the Meeting of a group of patriotic figures in Paris (1925). In recent years he lived in the Russian House in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois. He left his memoirs “How we fled from Petrograd” (they were not published during his lifetime; published in the collection “Problems of the History of Russian Abroad”, issue 2, Moscow, 2008).

ANDREENKO (Andreenko-Nechitailo) Mikhail Fedorovich (December 29, 1894, Kherson - November 12, 1982, Paris, treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Artist, writer. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University and studied at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. Participated in an exhibition in favor of the Infirmary of Artists in St. Petersburg. He worked as a decorator at the theater of the Literary and Artistic Society, then at the Chamber Theater in Odessa. He emigrated in 1920. Worked in Romania and Czechoslovakia. From 1923 he lived in Paris. He designed the performances of the theater F.F. Komissarzhevsky, performed the scenery for the ballet “The Firebird” by I.F. Stravinsky based on sketches by N.S. Goncharova for the Russian Ballet S.P. Diaghilev. In 1925 he participated in an exhibition of Russian artists at the La Rotonde cafe and in the decoration of the hall of the Russian Literary and Artistic Circle. He made sets and costumes for the films “Casanova” (1926) and “Scheherazade” (1928) by A. Volkov, “Money” (1927), etc. Participated in the Autumn, Independent and Super-Independent salons, Parisian exhibitions of Russian artists and sculptors, organized by the Committee “France-USSR” (1945), Union of Soviet Patriots (USP) (1945–1947), Meudon Salon (1948), “Russian Artists of the Paris School” (1961), “Russians Again” (1975). He held personal exhibitions in Paris at the galleries F. Houston-Brawn (1964) and J. Shalom (1972). Published in the magazines “Vozrozhdenie” and “New Journal”. In 1979, a book of his stories “Crossroads” was published in Paris.

ANTSYFEROV(Antsiferov) Alexey Nikolaevich (September 10/22, 1867, Voronezh - March 18, 1943, Paris, treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Economist, teacher, co-operator, musician. Doctor of Political Economy and Statistics. Husband E.P. Antsyferova. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. Defended his master's thesis “Cooperation in agriculture in Germany and France” (1907). Taught at Kharkov University and Kharkov Institute of Technology. Professor. In 1917 he defended his doctoral dissertation “Central banks of cooperative credit.” In 1920 he emigrated to London, then moved to Paris. Fellow chairman, since 1922 chairman of the Russian Academic Group in Paris. Participated in the organization of the Russian People's University (1921). One of the founders and leaders of the Russian Institute of Law and Economics at the University of Paris. Delegate to the Russian Foreign Congress 1926 in Paris from France. Went to Prague for teaching work. In 1927 he founded and headed together with M.A. Bunatyan Economic seminar in Paris. Professor at the Institute of Slavic Studies. He lectured at the Faculty of Law of the Sorbonne, headed a department at the Russian Higher Technical Institute (RVTI), and led an economic seminar at the Institute of Slavic Studies. The organizer of the Society of Russian Students for the Study and Strengthening of Slavic Culture (ORSIUSK), directed the student choir at the society. In 1928 he was elected a member of the parish council of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris. Editor of the RVTI Bulletin (1932–1933). Member of the board, then fellow chairman of the Society of Former Students of Moscow University (since 1931). Chairman of the Circle “Towards Knowledge of Russia”. In 1931 he was elected to the Franco-Belgian Association of Professors of Economics. He headed the Council of Russian Higher Educational Institutions in France. Member of the Central Pushkin Committee in Paris (1935–1937). In 1937 participant

Kustodiev B.M. Portrait of the collector Prince Vladimir Nikolaevich Argutinsky-Dolgorukov (1874-1941). 1910. State Russian Museum

Argutinsky - Dolgorukov Vladimir Nikolaevich, prince (March 24, 1874, Tiflis - December 11 (9), 1941, Paris, depository of the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Diplomat, artist, philanthropist. Brother B.N. Argutinsky-Dolgorukov. Studied at universities in St. Petersburg and Cambridge. He served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was secretary at the Russian embassy in Paris. Participated in the organization of Russian seasons of S.P. Diaghilev in Paris. He worked as a curator at the Hermitage. From 1921 he lived in France. Founding member of the Society of Friends of the Russian Museum (1930). Member of the Central Pushkin Committee in Paris (1935–1937). In 1937 he provided materials for the Paris exhibition “Pushkin and His Epoch”. Collector and connoisseur of drawings. In 1934 he donated drawings by the artist Guillermo (17th century) to the Louvre Museum.

Astafiev Alexander Nikolaevich (1897 - March 16, 1984, France, treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Captain of the Drozdovsky regiment, artist. Participant Civil War. In exile in France. In 1965, he copied icons from the icons of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral for the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Nice, built on a private estate.

Archimandrite Afanasy (Nechaev Anatoly Ivanovich) (1886 - 1943)

Born in 1886 in Penza district into a peasant family. He graduated from a theological school in Penza and then a seminary. After the revolution he served for some time as a missionary for the Salvation Army. In 1923 he emigrated to Finland. Took monastic vows Valaam Monastery. In 1926 he arrived in Paris and entered the St. Sergius Theological Institute. While studying at the institute, he accepted the priesthood and in 1928 was appointed temporarily performing pastoral duties at the monastery "Unexpected Joy" in the area. Gargan-Livry (suburb of Paris). Rector of the Orthodox parish in Tours and the assigned community in Angers (France). Subsequently accepted the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. Rector of the Three Saints Metochion in Paris (1933-1943). The first spiritual mentor of the future Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh. During the Second World War, he was a member of the Resistance movement. He sheltered people persecuted by the Gestapo. Died on December 14, 1943 in Paris. He was buried in the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois cemetery near Paris.

Bilant Vladimir Iosifovich (January 17, 1900 – October 29, 1969, Marseille, depository of the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Volunteer of the Alekseevsky Cavalry Regiment. Participant of the Civil War, 1st Kuban Campaign. In exile in France. In 1920–1945 he served in the Foreign Legion. Knight of the Legion of Honor.

BOBRICOVNikolai Nikolaevich (August 2, 1882, Krasnoye Selo, St. Petersburg province - February 2, 1956, Paris, depository of the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Colonel of the Life Guards Horse Regiment.

Bogaevsky Januariy Petrovich (1884, Kamenskaya station, Don region - February 20, 1970, Paris, depository of the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Esaul of the All-Great Don Army, writer. Brother A.P. Bogaevsky. Participant in the World and Civil Wars. In 1920 he was evacuated to Turkey and worked in the transport of the British occupation corps. Then he lived in Bulgaria and moved to France. He worked as a rural worker and laborer. Ataman of the Donskoy farm in Drancy, near Paris. Organizer of the church (together with V.N. Bukanovsky) in Gagny-Chelles (near Paris). Author of stories and essays. Published in the magazine “Rodimy Krai” (1960s). I was interested in drawing.

Boyko Thaddeus Antonovich (August 21, 1894, Sevastopol - June 1, 1984, Paris, depository of the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Captain of the Drozdovsky artillery division, public figure, entrepreneur. He graduated from the Sergiev Artillery School in Odessa. Participant in the World and Civil Wars. He was evacuated through Constantinople and Bulgaria to France. He worked as a painter, then organized a construction company. Participated in the restoration of the Luxembourg Palace and two Catholic churches. He was a member of the parent committee of the Russian Gymnasium in Paris. He was involved in charity work, arranged for children to free education. He was the treasurer of the Drozdovsky association and the Society for Aid to Children of Russian Emigrants in France. IN summer period worked at the House of Drozdovites in Le Mesnil-Saint-Denis, near Paris (1960s). He participated in the work of the Circle of Zealots at the Assumption Church and in the equipment of the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery. For gratuitous work on the restoration of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, he received a diploma from Metropolitan Vladimir (Tikhonitsky) in 1950.

Petrov Semyon Safonovich
Born 1895. Captain of the Drozdov artillery brigade. He died in the Tolstoy Foundation nursing home on November 12, 1969 in Rouen (department of Seine-Maritime, France). He was buried on November 15, 1969 at the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery.

BOREISHAPyotr Isidorovich (1885 - July 17, 1953, Paris, depository of the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Proofreader, football player. Studied at the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute. Member of the Victoria sports club. He played as a goalkeeper in the Russian football championship and was a member of the national team. In 1911-1913

In 1911-1913, he played three matches for the national team of the Russian Empire that were not later included in the RFU register. Was declared for Olympic Games 1912, but did not take to the field.

He worked as a proofreader at Birzhevye Vedomosti. In exile he lived in Paris. He worked as a proofreader in the newspapers “Last News” (from the early 1920s) and “Russian News” (from 1945). He corrected books by Russian writers who lived in France. Founded the Russian Sports Society (RSS) in France.

Botkin Sergei Dmitrievich (June 17/29, 1869, Moscow - April 22, 1945, Paris, treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Acting State Councilor, diplomat, public figure. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. Served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1912–1914, first secretary at the Russian Embassy in Berlin, then worked in Darmstadt. During the World War he headed the department for prisoners of war. In exile from 1918, he lived in Berlin and Paris. Since 1919 he represented the government of A.V. in Berlin. Kolchak, Russian Red Cross Society (ROSC), Conference of Russian Ambassadors. He worked on problems of protection and assistance to refugees. In 1922–1923 he was in charge of providing assistance to Russian refugees in Germany. After 1925 he visited Berlin on short visits. In 1937 in Paris he was present at the consecration of the new Church of the Sign of the Mother of God. Member of the Society of Zealots of the Memory of Emperor Nicholas II.

Boyarintsev Mitrofan Ivanovich (November 29, 1894, Kursk province - September 17, 1971, Chelle, near Paris, deposited in the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Colonel of the Kornilov Regiment, public figure. Graduated from the Kiev Military School. A participant in the World and Civil Wars, he fought in the ranks of the Kornilov Regiment. In 1920 he was evacuated to Gallipoli and lived in exile in France. Member of the temporary, then permanent Committee of the Russian National Union in Paris (1952). In 1940–1941 he collaborated on the Committee for organizing the representation of Russian national emigration in France. Chairman of the Association of the Kornilov Regiment. Collaborated in the magazine "Military True".

Bukovsky Alexander Petrovich (1867-1944) - Major General. He graduated from the Orenburg Neplyuevsky Cadet Corps, the 2nd Konstantinovsky Military School and the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff (1893). After graduating from college, he graduated from the Life Guards with the 2nd Rifle Battalion (in 1910, deployed to a regiment), in which he served until 1910. After completing the course at the General Staff Academy, he was assigned to his unit and did not serve on the General Staff. In 1910 - colonel and commander of the 145th Novocherkassk Infantry Regiment. In 1913, he was promoted to major general and appointed commander of the Life Guards Jaeger Regiment, with which he went to the front in 1914. Knight of St. George - for the battles in Galicia in December 1914. In February 1916, he was appointed brigade commander of the 3rd Guards Infantry Division. In August 1916, he was appointed temporary commander of the 1st Turkestan Rifle Division, and in October - commander of the 3rd Guards Infantry Division. In January 1917 - head of the 38th Infantry Division. On June 19, 1917, “due to present circumstances,” he was transferred to the reserve of ranks at the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District. On December 30, 1917, by order of the Petrograd Military District, he was dismissed from service. In 1918, he made his way from Petrograd through Kyiv to Odessa, where in January 1919 he accepted the post of Inspector General of Infantry at the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of Volunteer Forces in Odessa, General Sannikov. In March 1919, after the evacuation of Odessa by the French command, he arrived in Yekaterinodar, where he was enlisted in the reserve ranks of the Commander-in-Chief of the AFSR. He carried out various assignments from the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Southern Russia and was a member of the commission for the revision of the charters. In exile he lived in Serbia, and then in Paris, where he headed the Association of the Life Guards of the Jaeger Regiment. Died in 1944 in Paris. He was buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve des Bois.

Bulgakov Nikolai Afanasyevich (August 20/September 1, 1898, Kyiv - June 10, 1966, Clamart, near Paris, buried in the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Ensign, doctor of medicine, bacteriologist. Brother I.A. Bulgakov and writer M.A. Bulgakov. He studied at the Alekseevsky Engineering and Sergievsky Artillery Schools. Participant in the Civil War. He emigrated to Gallipoli and continued his studies at the Sergiev Artillery School. In 1921 he moved to Yugoslavia. Graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Zagreb. He made his living by playing in a student balalaika orchestra. In 1929 he moved to Paris, worked in the laboratory of bacteriophages of Professor D'Herrel. In 1931 he was elected to the board of the Mechnikov Society of Russian Doctors. Member of the board of the Association of Russian Doctors Abroad (1935–1936). Member of the Society of Russian Doctors Participants Great War, in 1938 elected to the board of the Society. Organizer of charity evenings and medical meetings and reports. Member of the Circle of Russian Artists and Singers, performed in opera performances (1930s). In 1936 he was sent to Mexico to teach bacteriology and organized a bacteriological laboratory there. Gave lectures at the Association of Sisters of Charity Russian society Red Cross (ROKK), Russian People's University (1936–1940). He was M.A.'s confidant. Bulgakov on copyright issues of his publications abroad. During World War II, he was arrested and placed in the Compiegne camp, where he worked as a camp doctor. Member of the Resistance in Yugoslavia. He was awarded the Yugoslav Order. After the war, he continued to work on bacteriophages at the Pasteur Institute. He collaborated with the Russian Academic Group (1953–1964), and was elected as a member of its board. In 1960, at a meeting of the Union of Russian Engineers, he made a report on M.A. Bulgakov. Participated in the work of the Circle of Admirers of I.S. Shmeleva. Awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.

Bulgakov Sergius (Sergei Nikolaevich) (June 16/28, 1871, Livny, Oryol province - July 13, 1944, Paris, depository of the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Archpriest, philosopher, theologian, economist. Husband E.I. Bulgakova, father M.S. Scepurzhinskaya, S.S. Bulgakov. Graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University. Deputy of the Second State Duma. One of the founders of the magazine “New Way”, edited the magazine “Questions of Life”, participant in the collection “Milestones” (1909). Ph.D. Professor at Moscow University. Member of the All-Russian Council of the Orthodox Church. In 1918 he accepted the priesthood. In December 1922 he was expelled from Soviet Russia to Constantinople. In 1923–1925, professor of church law and theology at the Russian Faculty of Law in Prague. In 1924, one of the founders of the Brotherhood of St. Sophia was its chairman. One of the organizers and leaders of the Russian Student Christian Movement (RSCM). In 1924 he participated in the 1st Congress of the RSHD in France. In 1925 he moved to Paris. One of the founders and dean (since 1940) of the Theological Institute in Paris, he was a professor at the institute and taught a course in dogmatics (1925–1944). Assistant to the governor of the Church of the Sergius Metochion in Paris (1925–1944). He lectured at the Religious and Philosophical Academy. Since 1928, vice-chairman of the Commonwealth of Martyrs of Albania and Rev. Sergius. Collaborated in the Orthodox Cause Association (1935–1940). Mitred Archpriest (1943). Activist of the ecumenical movement. Author of the books published in Paris: “The Burning Bush” (1927), “Jacob’s Ladder” (1929), “Icon and Icon Veneration” (1931), “Lamb of God” (1933), etc. Published in the magazines “Put”, “Vestnik” RSHD".

Bulgakov(nee Tokmakova) Elena Ivanovna (February 26/March 9, 1868 – January 28, 1945, Paris, memorial to the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Church leader. Wife of S.N. Bulgakova, mother of M.S. Scepurzhinskaya and S.S. Bulgakov. Collaborated in “Questions of Life” (St. Petersburg). She emigrated in 1923, lived in Prague, and from 1925 in Paris. Assistant to the church warden of the Sergievsky metochion (1930s). Author of the historical story “Princess Sophia” (Paris, 1930).

Bundas Vladimir Nikolaevich (August 16, 1883, Saratov - February 25, 1967, Chelle, near Paris, depository of the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Captain II rank, engineer. Husband O.P. Bundas. Graduated from the Marine Corps, St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute. He was a permanent member of the commission to monitor the construction of ships of the Black Sea Fleet. Participant of the Civil War in the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. In exile in Constantinople, then in France. He worked at a plant in Paris on the technological side. Member of the Maritime Assembly in Paris. Recently he lived in the Russian House in Shell.

BUNINA(nee Muromtseva) Vera Nikolaevna (October 1, 1881, Moscow - April 3, 1961, Paris, honorary invoice. Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Translator, memoirist. I.A.'s wife Bunina (second). She graduated from the Natural Sciences Faculty of the Higher Women's Courses in Moscow. In exile since 1920. Member of the Committee for Assistance to Russian Writers and Scientists in France, participated in its charitable work. Member of the board of the Moscow Community (1930s). One of the founders of the “Amaur” (“Amis auteurs russes”) circle, created in the late 1930s with the aim of providing financial assistance to Russian writers. Member of the board of the Quick Help Society (1940s). In 1954 and 1955, with the participation of Russian cultural figures, she held evenings in memory of I.A. in her apartment. Bunina. In 1959 she donated it to the Institute of Russian Literature of the USSR Academy of Sciences rare photographs. Translated by G. Flaubert. Author of the book “The Life of Bunin” (Paris, 1958) and the book of memoirs “The Life of Bunin. Conversations with Memory" (published in Moscow in 1989). She has been published in the magazines “Vozrozhdenie”, “New Journal” and “Grani”.

BURTSEV Vladimir Lvovich (November 17/29, 1862, Fort Perovsky, Ufa province - August 21, 1942, Paris, depository of the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Historian, journalist, editor, publisher. He studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kazan University and the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University. From 1907 he was in exile in Paris. In 1909–1910 he published the newspaper “Common Cause,” then the newspaper “Future” (1911–1914). In 1914 he returned to Russia. In 1918 he emigrated to Finland (Helsingfors), then settled in Paris. He resumed publication of the newspaper “Common Deal” (1918–1922, 1928–1934). Founder (1919) and director of the Russian Telegraph Agency in Paris. Member of the Committee for Assistance to Russian Writers and Scientists in France. In 1921 one of the organizers, then a member of the presidium of the Russian National Committee in Paris. Vice-Chairman of the Administrative Council of the Financial, Industrial and Commerce Chamber. He edited and published the collection “The Future” (1922), co-editor of the magazine “Struggle for Russia” (1926–1931), editor of the collection “Byloe” (1933). Published in the magazine “Illustrated Russia”, newspapers “Vozrozhdenie”, “Last News”, “Evening Time”, etc. Author of a number of books and brochures dedicated to the fight against Bolshevism. Collaborated in French periodicals. In 1932, the Russian National Committee organized in Paris the celebration of the 70th anniversary of his birth and the 50th anniversary of his literary and political activity. Member of the Central Pushkin Committee in Paris (1935–1937). Member of the temporary Committee for the organization of the Russian Literary Archive in the Turgenev Library (1938).

The national committee organized a celebration in Paris of the 70th anniversary of his birth and the 50th anniversary of his literary and political activity. Member of the Central Pushkin Committee in Paris (1935–1937). Member of the temporary Committee for the organization of the Russian Literary Archive in the Turgenev Library (1938).

Alexander Ivanovich Varnek 1858–1930
hydrographer lieutenant general (1912) Arctic explorer studied at the K. May gymnasium in 1866–1868. Alexander Varnek was born on June 27 (June 15, old style) 1858 in St. Petersburg in the family of a prominent architect of the city, academician of architecture Ivan Aleksandrovich Varnek (1819–1877). It should be noted that his grandfather was the famous portrait artist Alexander Grigorievich Varnek (1782–1843), whose ashes rest in the Necropolis of Masters of Arts of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The architect's family, which in addition to Alexander included one more son and two daughters, lived on Vasilievsky Island: in the 1850s in a wooden house on the corner of Maly Prospekt and the 15th line; in the 1860s - in house No. 15 on Bolshoy Prospekt ; in later years - in house No. 14 on Maly Prospekt, built according to his own design by Alexander’s father. There is no information about where Alexander studied before and after studying at the gymnasium. But it is well known that in 1874 the father assigned a 15-year-old boy to be educated at the Naval School, undertaking to take his son if he turned out to be incapable of naval service, as well as in the event of his bad teaching or behavior. It is very possible that Alexander’s choice of profession as a sailor was influenced by the book “A Voyage Around the World” by the famous navigator, Captain O.E. Kotzebue (1787–1846), whose portrait for this book was painted by the young man’s grandfather back in 1818, and there is every reason to believe that the artist’s grandson also read it. One way or another, Alexander fell in love with the sea and long voyages, studied successfully, and his father did not have to take him out of school. In 1878, he graduated from the Naval School, was promoted to midshipman and set off on his first overseas voyage on the frigate “Prince Pozharsky”, upon returning from which he was admitted to the Nikolaev Naval Academy with the rank of midshipman. Having graduated with first class in 1882, A.I. Warnek was seconded to the Hydrographic Department and began to specialize further in hydrography, the science of ensuring the safety of navigation. In subsequent years, Alexander Ivanovich participated in foreign voyages three more times, including a round-the-world voyage (1883–1886) on the Oprichnik clipper under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Ivashintsov. And in total during his life he participated in exactly 20 voyages and was awarded twelve orders and medals for his work, including the silver medal of the Russian Geographical Society for his great contribution to geographical science, which he received in 1894. In 1895, A.I. Varnek began collaborating with the Main Physical Observatory and increasingly began to engage in scientific research in his field of activity. Meanwhile, the Main Hydrographic Directorate was hatching serious plans for the development of the Northern Sea Route, and therefore in 1898 the Hydrographic Expedition of the Arctic Ocean was organized. Colonel A.I. Vilkitsky (1858 - 1913) was appointed its head, and Captain 2nd Rank A.I. was appointed as his assistant. Varnek, who simultaneously became the commander of the hydrographic vessel Pakhtusov, purchased in England specifically for this expedition. In 1902 A.I. Varnek was appointed head of the expedition, and one of his two assistants was Admiralty Lieutenant G. Y. Sedov (1877–1914). Alexander Ivanovich highly valued the young researcher - knowledgeable, courageous, but cautious. Every summer, after the seas of the Arctic Ocean were freed from ice, the expedition vessels departed from Arkhangelsk to the planned research areas located in the White and Kara Seas, in particular, near Vaygach Island. The objectives of the expedition included studying the depths of the seas, bottom topography, currents, coastline, ice conditions and identifying zones suitable for navigation. In 1903 A.I. Warnek moves away from direct participation in Arctic research and begins to engage in pedagogical, organizational and research work. Over the years, he was an inspector of classes at the Alexander Lyceum, a member of commissions dealing with the organization of hydrographic research and the creation of ship designs for the Arctic, a member of the Maritime Academy and the Scientific Council on Hydrography. In 1904 he was promoted to captain 1st rank, and in 1909 to major general in the admiralty. In 1912 A.I. Warnek left military service with the rank of Lieutenant General in the Admiralty and went to work at the Northern Shipping Company, in 1914–1916. worked in the central department of the Maritime Ministry. Since 1908, Alexander Ivanovich began to own the Moskalevka estate on the Black Sea coast near Tuapse. He and his family usually stayed here in the summer months after his resignation, and returned to St. Petersburg for the winter. He returned here in the fall of 1917, but it soon became clear to him that staying here was dangerous. Therefore, the family moved back to the estate. When the civil war began, it became dangerous for the former tsarist general to be here. First, he and his family moved to Tuapse, then to Crimean peninsula, and in the fall of 1920 with his wife and eldest daughter A.I. Varnek was forced to emigrate abroad (the general’s two sons then left Russia along with the Naval Corps, in which they were studying at that time). In exile A.I. Warnek initially spent six months in Constantinople and three years in Sicily, then moved to France, where he lived in Lyon and Grenoble, and the last two years of his life near Paris. Here he died on June 10, 1930 and was buried in the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois. Name A.I. Varnek is a bay on the southwestern coast of Vaygach Island and a cape on the northwestern tip of Novaya Zemlya, which was named in honor of his mentor by G.Ya. in 1913. Sedov. And back in 1934, the settlement (village) Varnek appeared on the island of Vaygach, which in the book by S.M. Uspensky "Living Arctic" is called the island capital. The small steamer Varnek also sails in the northern seas, delivering food and vital goods to the population of the northern islands.

VOLKOV Nikolai Konstantinovich (November 25, 1875, Vologda - January 30, 1950, Paris, treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Agronomist, politician, business executive. Husband E.A. Volkova.

VOLKOV Nikolai Konstantinovich (November 25, 1875, Vologda - January 30, 1950, Paris, treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Agronomist, politician, business executive. Husband E.A. Volkova. Graduated from the Moscow Agricultural Institute. Member of the People's Freedom Party. Deputy of the III and IV State Dumas. Comrade of the Chairman of the Central Military-Industrial Committee, comrade of the Minister of Agriculture during the revolution. He was a representative of General A.I. Denikin in Siberia. Headed the Economic Council under Admiral A.V. Kolchak. In 1920 he emigrated through Japan to Paris. He was a member of the temporary board of the Siberian Community in Paris. Member of the Bureau of the Russian Committee in France for Famine Relief in Russia (1921). Closest assistant P.N. Milyukova (since 1921), secretary of the Paris Democratic Group of Cadets. One of the founders of the Republican-Democratic Association. Since 1923, he was in charge of the economic department of the Latest News newspaper and was the managing director of the publishing house of the same name. Member of the Society of Friends of the Russian People's University. During the occupation of Paris by the Nazis, he saved the property of the newspaper, which he transferred after the war. former employees. He advocated cooperation between emigration and the USSR. Member of the Union of Russian Writers and Journalists in Paris. Member of the Presidium of the Anniversary Committee for Honoring P.N. Miliukov on the occasion of his 80th birthday. He headed the enterprise “Russian Publishing in Paris”.

VORONTSOV-VELYAMINOV Georgy Mikhailovich (May 12, 1912, Bobruisk, Minsk province - December 20, 1982, Paris, treasure trove of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Engineer, collector. Great-great-grandson A.S. Pushkin. Son M.P. Vorontsova-Velyaminova

VORONTSOV-VELYAMINOV Georgy Mikhailovich (May 12, 1912, Bobruisk, Minsk province - December 20, 1982, Paris, treasure trove of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Engineer, collector. Great-great-grandson A.S. Pushkin. Son M.P. Vorontsova-Velyaminov. In exile since 1918. Lived in France. Graduated from the School of Public Works. In 1925 he was elected chairman of the Labor Union in France. Participated in Paris in the 1930s in the Young Russian Party movement. He made reports at its meetings. A participant in World War II, he fought as part of an artillery regiment of the French army. I was in a concentration camp. After the war he worked as a civil engineer. As a specialist in bridge structures and concrete, he advised construction companies. Member of the administrative council of the Orthodox Cause Association, served as treasurer. Member and secretary of the parish council in Vanves (near Paris). He collected a collection related to A.S. Pushkin. Published a number of articles about Pushkin relics. He donated N.N.’s signet to the Pushkin Museum in St. Petersburg. Pushkina. In 1960 he came to the USSR and visited Pushkin’s places.

VYRUBOV Vasily Vasilyevich (February 8, 1879, Tiflis - July 28, 1963, Paris, treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Cornet, industrialist, public figure, freemason.

VYRUBOV Vasily Vasilyevich (February 8, 1879, Tiflis - July 28, 1963, Paris, treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Cornet, industrialist, public figure, freemason. Father N.V. Vyrubova. Graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University. He served in the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment. During the World War, he was the head of the committee of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union on the North-Western Front, then he was in charge of zemstvo affairs on the Western Front at the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief. In 1918 he was sent abroad by Admiral Kolchak to conduct negotiations in Washington, London, and Paris. Settled in Paris. Manager of the affairs of the Russian Special Conference during the peace conference in Paris. One of the leaders of the Association of Zemstvo and City Leaders Abroad and the Russian Zemstvo and City Committee for Assistance to Refugees (Zemgor). In 1921 he participated in the Paris Meeting of Chairmen of Zemstvo and City Organizations. Member of the Committee for Assistance to Russian Writers and Scientists in France. In 1930–1935, member of the council of the Russian Trade, Industrial and Financial Union. He was engaged in banking and was an industrialist. For a number of years he was the commercial director of the ballet enterprise N.P. Efimova. In 1945 he was a member of the board of the Association of Russian Emigrants for rapprochement with Soviet Russia. One of the initiators of the creation of the “Golden Book of Russian Emigration” (1950s). Member of the board of the Society for the Preservation of Russian Cultural Treasures (since 1961). Represented the Lotus Lodge in the Council of the Association of Russian Lodges. Chairman of the United Russian Lodges of the Scottish Rite. He made presentations at lodge meetings.

VYRUBOVA Nina Vladimirovna (June 4, 1921, Gurzuf, Crimea - June 25, 2007, Paris, memorial to the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Ballerina, teacher. Wife (in first marriage) V.V. Ignatova, mother of Yu.A. Knyazeva (from his second marriage).

VYRUBOVA Nina Vladimirovna (June 4, 1921, Gurzuf, Crimea - June 25, 2007, Paris, memorial to the treasure of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Ballerina, teacher. Wife (in first marriage) V.V. Ignatova, mother of Yu.A. Knyazeva (from his second marriage). In 1924 she was taken by her mother to Paris. Studied at private school in Meudon. She studied ballet art from O.O. Preobrazhenskaya, V.A. Trefilova, I.L. Vyrubova. Since 1934 she took part in concerts and charity evenings. In 1940 she performed at the theater Bat"and the Russian Ballet in Paris (director E.N. Artsyuk), in 1942 in the Ballet of Boris Knyazev. Since 1944 she danced at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. In 1949 she signed a contract with the Paris Opera (1949–1956). In 1950, she performed the main role for the first time in A. Adam’s ballet “Giselle”. In 1957–1960 she danced with the Marquis de Cuevas Ballet. Participated in “illustrations” at lectures by S.M. Lifar, in the work of the Choreographic Institute and the Dance and Culture Society. She performed at the International Dance Festivals in Aix-les-Bains (dept. Savoie) (1957, 1959). She starred in the films by D. Deluche “Le Spectre de la danse” (“The Vision of the Dance”, 1960), “Adagio” (1964) and “The Found Notebooks of Nina Vyrubova” (1996). Made a tour as a leader with ballet troupe on the Far East and Australia (1965). In 1966, she began teaching and opened a ballet school in the Salle Pleyel in Paris. Professor of Quadrilles at the Paris Opera Ballet (1968–1970). She directed the choreographic department at the Conservatory of the 7th Parisian district. She was awarded the Anna Pavlova Prize from the Institute of Choreography for “Giselle” (1957), and the first prize for her participation in the film “Vision of Dance” (1964). She was awarded the Order of Merit (1976), the Order of Arts and Letters, the Marius Petipa Prize, etc.
"The Forgotten Diaries of Nina Vyrubova"
Dir.: Dominique Deluche (95 minutes, 1996, France)
Nina Vyrubova was born in Russia in 1921 and went abroad with her family in 1927, forever becoming a “Frenchwoman of Russian origin.” The film about her is a story about a middle-aged ballerina, a former ballet star, her memories, her rehearsals with her students, her famous partners. The film uses interviews with Vyrubova, as well as surviving film and photography of her performances

GLOTOV Efim Alexandrovich (February 15, 1891), Kursk - November 7, 1979, Paris, ex. for treasure Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois). Colonel of the Kornilov artillery division. Participant in the Civil War. Pioneer. In exile he lived in France. Member of the board (1933), deputy chairman (1934–1939), then chairman of the Union of Participants of the 1st Kuban Campaign, member of the Association of the Kornilov Artillery Division, the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS). Organized a meeting in Paris in memory of A.I. Denikin (1948). Chairman of the Union of Russian Cadet Corps. Participated in the Days of Cadet Mourning.

Articles about Paris

“Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois. Faces and symbols" (part one)

Much has been written about the “Russian churchyard” in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois. Photos of many graves can be seen online, since the cemetery has become a place of pilgrimage for Russians coming to France from various regions, cities and villages. For example, photographs of the burials of our most famous compatriots are shown. I would like to show the cemetery from a slightly different side: through the faces and parts of the destinies of the people buried here, through noticeable and not so noticeable details. So, it seems to me, we can better sense our past, the connection with what was once Russia, but did not become the Soviet Union.

23-3-1890 – 31-3-1960, captain of the Ural Army

Illarion Yaganov comes from the Cossacks of Art. Budarinskaya Ural Cossack Army. He fought in the white troops of the Eastern Front in the Ural Separate Army. In 1919 he became a podesaul. He was close to the ataman of the Ural Cossacks V.S. Tolstov. Participant in the last disastrous campaign of the Ural Army, when, after the capture of Guryev by the Red Army in January 1920, the Cossacks, led by Ataman Tolstov, headed to join Denikin’s troops. The winter campaign in a deserted icy desert at thirty degrees below zero ended sadly: out of a detachment of 15 thousand, only two thousand frostbitten, starved people came to Fort Aleksandrovsky. They covered 1,200 kilometers, but by this time the campaign had already lost any meaning, since the White movement was defeated in the south of Russia. About six hundred Ural residents who remained standing went to Persia, from where they were later scattered all over the world.

In the fall of 1925, as part of the Terek-Astrakhan Cossack Regiment, I. Yaganov ended up in Bulgaria, and then emigrated to France, where he lived until his death.

Kudryavtsev Vasily Vasilievich, 1890-1968.
Kudryavtsev Nikolay Vasilievich, 1888-1963.
Volunteers of the Russian Northern Army from the city of Opochka, Pskov province.

I was unable to find anything about the Kudryavtsev brothers, but I think they were ordinary people who made their own choice in the Civil War. Their grave is a symbol of the Russia that we do not know at all.

Obolenskaya (ur. Makarova) Vera Appolonovna (Vicky), 24-6-1911 – 4-8-1944, princess

Princess, fashion model, member of the Resistance, poetess, lieutenant of the French Army, holder of the Legion of Honor and the Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree... She came to France as a nine-year-old girl, moved in the circles of the “golden” youth in 1917, became Princess Obolenskaya in 1926 and a member of the French Resistance in 1940.
She was known underground as "Vicky". She was a member of the "Civil and Military Organization" (OCM), which was engaged in intelligence activities, as well as organizing escapes of British prisoners of war. Obolenskaya, who had a phenomenal memory, was the general secretary of the OSM; she was in charge of communications with other underground groups and the De-Gaulle command in London. Since 1943, OSM began working with Soviet prisoners of war. Vika’s husband, Prince Nikolai Obolensky (nickname “Niki”), was in charge of this.

At the end of December 1943, the Gestapo arrested Vera Obolenskaya. In prison, she managed to mislead investigators for a long time, and then she refused to give any testimony at all, receiving the nickname “Princessin ich weiss nicht” (“Princess I Know Nothing”). After the Allied landings in Normandy, Obolenskaya was transported to Berlin. On August 4, 1944, she was beheaded in Plötzensee prison, and her body was destroyed after execution.

You can read more about Vera Obolenskaya here: New Historical Bulletin
Elena Arsenyeva. Princess I-Don't-Know-Nothing

Memorial plaque in memory of Vera Obolenskaya at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois cemetery. This place is considered her grave.

Vicki's memorial plaque is part of those killed during the Second World War.

Vika's husband, Prince Nikolai Obolensky, miraculously survived. He was arrested by the Germans in the summer of 1944 and placed in the Buchenwald extermination camp. Of their batch of prisoners, only one in ten returned to France. Obolensky, brought to the limit of exhaustion, still survived. On April 11, 1945, American troops entered the camp, freeing the remaining prisoners. For a long time he looked for his wife among the living, knowing nothing about her tragic death. When he learned about Vera’s death, he decided to become a priest.

Obolensky made a lot of efforts to ensure that the memory of Vicky would not be erased or distorted over the years. In the 50s, with his modest funds, he published at his own expense a small book in French, “Viki - 1911-1944: Memories and Testimonies.” It included excerpts from the memoirs of surviving leaders and members of the OSM and the text of speeches delivered at the consecration of the monument, which is shown in the photograph above.

Nikolai Obolensky was rector of the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky in Paris, rector Orthodox schools in Biarizza and Montereux. He died in 1979 and was buried here, in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, on the site of the Foreign Legion, in the same grave with General Zinoviy Peshkov, the son of Maxim Gorky. Before his death, Nicholas bequeathed that the name of his beloved wife be engraved on his tombstone. This wish was fulfilled: the first lines on the common slab of N. Obolensky, Z. Peshkov and B. Egiazarov-de-Nork were carved in memory of Vera Obolenskaya.

Obolensky Nikolay Alexandrovich, 4-1-1900 – 5-6-1979, prince, clergyman
Peshkov Zinoviy Alekseevich, 16-10-1884 – 27-11-1966, general of the French army
Egiazarov-de-Nork, Bogdan Vasilievich, 15-1-1994 – 25-1-1977, Chairman of the Union of Veterans of the French Army

Zinovy ​​Sverdlov, the elder brother of the future chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Yakov Sverdlov, became Zinovy ​​Peshkov in 1902, when he was adopted by Maxim Gorky. But Zinovy ​​quickly moved away from Gorky’s revolutionary circle. With the outbreak of the First World War, he joined the French Foreign Legion, and on May 9, 1915 he was seriously wounded. The orderlies, considering him hopeless, did not want to evacuate him from the battlefield, but a then unknown lieutenant named Charles de Gaulle insisted on evacuation. Zinovy ​​survived, losing his right hand, and they struck up a friendship with de Gaulle.
During the Civil War in Russia, Peshkov was part of the French diplomatic mission. At the beginning of 1919, Zinovy ​​sent the following telegram to his brother Yakov: “Yashka, when we take Moscow, we will hang Lenin first, and you second, for what you did to Russia!”

During World War II, Peshkov refused to recognize the surrender of France. For this he was captured and sentenced to death by a military tribunal. While awaiting execution, he managed to negotiate with the guard and exchange the gold watch given by Gorky for a grenade. Taking the commander hostage, he fled in a hijacked plane to Gibraltar to de Gaulle. Later, he also brought his longtime friend, Vika Obolenskaya, to de Gaulle.

For his services to France, Zinoviy Peshkov received many awards and honors and became a brigadier general in the French army. When Zinovy ​​Peshkov died, his friend Nikolai Obolensky performed his funeral service in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Zinovy ​​was buried in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois as national hero, with a huge crowd of people. He wanted to be buried at the foot of the grave of Princess Obolenskaya and, although Vika does not have a grave, Zinovy ​​lies under the slab with her name. According to his will, only three words about him are carved on his tombstone: “Zinovy ​​Peshkov, legionnaire.”

Order of St. Andrew the First-Called is the first and highest order of the Russian Empire, both military and civilian. It was established by Peter I in 1698 and was issued only in rare, exceptional cases.

But in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, St. Andrew's stars can be seen on many graves. The fact is that the insignia of the highest order became part of military symbols in pre-revolutionary Russia. St. Andrew's star was a unique symbol of the guard in military paraphernalia and adorned guards' headdresses, bags for cartridges and even saddle cloths - cloth mats under the saddle.

Kluki von Klugenau Alexander Alexandrovich, 19-10-1881 – 22-2-1967. Colonel of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment
Kluki von Klugenau (ur. Countess Tolstaya) Olga Mikhailovna, 12-2-1890 – 4-8-1965

The Kluecks von Klugenau were a noble family originating from Bohemia. Franz Karlovich Kluki von Klugenau (1791-1851), the first of his family to switch to Russian military service, rose to the rank of lieutenant general, fought in the Caucasus. Alexander Alexandrovich Kluki von Klugenau is the last officer from this family known from documents. He served in the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment and had the rank of colonel. Since January 1919, the Horse Guards, together with other guards cuirassiers, became part of the mounted reconnaissance team of the Consolidated Guards Infantry Regiment of the Volunteer Army. In March 1919, the Consolidated Regiment of the Guards Cuirassier Division was formed, in which the Horse Guards made up the 2nd squadron. In the battles in the summer and autumn of 1920, the squadron lost a significant part of its strength, and from the survivors a platoon was formed, which General Wrangel turned into his personal convoy.

Semennikova (Semenkova-Volodarskaya) Tamara Stefanovna, 24-3-1914 – 15-10-1936, ballerina

Tamara Semennikova graduated from the Belgrade ballet school of Elena Polyakova, the famous soloist of the Diaghilev troupe who conquered Paris in 1910. After the revolution, Polyakova performed in Constantinople, Thessaloniki, Skopje, and Ljubljana. Her accompanist was Sergei Prokofiev. After her triumphant performance, she was invited to stay in Belgrade. Polyakova became a prima ballerina, choreographer, director at the People's Theater and a classical ballet teacher at an acting and ballet school founded in 1921.

After Belgrade, Tamara Semennikova took lessons from another famous Russian ballerina - Olga Preobrazhenskaya, who shone on the stages of the Mariinsky Theater and La Scala, taught in Milan, London, Buenos Aires, Berlin, and since 1923 - in Paris. Semennikova also studied with her in Paris. But in the fall of 1936, Tamara had an attack of appendicitis. She was operated on, and everything seemed to go well, but... after a while (during the dance?) the stitches on the wound came apart. Tamara Semennikova died in the Saint-Antoine hospital at the age of 22...

1882 – 1930, general, military leader

The idol of the young Sasha Kutepov was the hero of Shipka and Plevna, General Skobelev. After military school, Kutepov went into the active army for the Russian-Japanese War and served in intelligence. Three orders are an assessment of his merits at that time. But the main reward was a transfer to the famous Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment, where by 1911 he became a staff captain. He is entrusted with the education of young non-commissioned officers of the regiment, which he does brilliantly. During the First World War, Kutepov was already a guard colonel, commander of the Preobrazhensky battalion, and then the entire regiment. In battles he was wounded three times and received several awards. According to contemporaries, “the name Kutepov has become a household name. It means fidelity to duty, calm determination, intense sacrificial impulse, cold, sometimes cruel will and... clean hands - and all this brought and given to serve the Motherland.”

In December 1917, Colonel Kutepov, by his own order, disbanded the Preobrazhensky Regiment, not considering it possible to serve under the Bolsheviks. With a group of officers he leaves for the Don. An active participant in the Volunteer Army from the very beginning of its formation, he took part in the Ice March of 1918 and commanded the Kornilov Regiment. After the capture of Novorossiysk by the White Army, Kutepov was promoted to major general and appointed governor-general of the Black Sea. In 1919, he was a corps commander in the army of A.I. Denikin, then led the Volunteer Army, then commanded the 1st Army under P.N. Wrangel.

In 1920, with the remnants of Wrangel’s army, Kutepov was evacuated from Crimea to Gallipoli (Türkiye). The Gallipoli camp was a narrow strip of land between the strait and the low mountains, allocated for Russian troops by the Turkish government. Gloomy people in greatcoats walked around the camp, collecting wood chips for fires and selling personal belongings at the local bazaar. Honor was no longer given, a few more days, and not a trace would remain of the army... It seemed that everything was already lost. Kutepov was the only one who could change something. He ordered the camp to be built according to the regulations of the Russian Imperial Army. Again he kept his spirits up and behaved as if behind him was not a corps of emigrants, but his native Preobrazhensky regiment. Regimental tents were erected, churches were built, a library, a theater, a bathhouse and an infirmary, warehouses and workshops, a gymnasium and a kindergarten, sports and technical clubs, photography and a lithographic magazine appeared. The units gradually rallied into a kind of White Order, and a general desire for purification was visible.

In 1924, General Wrangel formed the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS), which united the entire Russian military emigration into one organization. Kutepov moved to Paris and headed the work of sending volunteers for underground sabotage activities in “red” Russia. But failure awaited him here. On the “invisible front” the GPU turned out to be more cunning and stronger. The EMRO was entangled in a network of Bolshevik agents who actually manipulated it (operations "Trust", "Syndicate-2"). An assassination attempt was being prepared on Kutepov himself. On January 26, 1930, he was kidnapped in Paris by Soviet intelligence agents. According to some versions, he died “of a heart attack” on a Soviet ship on the way from Marseille to Novorossiysk; according to others, he died in Paris, having entered into a fight with the kidnappers.

In the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery there is a symbolic (empty) grave of General Kutepov, but where he is actually buried is still unknown. The grave is part of the Gallipoli Memorial. This is not a mass grave - an organization of former military personnel bought the site where they installed common monument heroes of the White movement, and around it, under the same type of tombstones, officers who served in different units, sometimes also their relatives, are buried. There are several such memorials in the cemetery.

U symbolic grave of Kutepov on the Gallipoli site.

Gallipoli Obelisk

In 1920, almost 150 thousand Russians on 126 ships left their homeland. Most of them were soldiers of the Russian Army under General P.N. Wrangel. They were allowed to go to the Turkish coast. The most numerous 1st Army Corps was located in the area of ​​​​the town of Gallipoli. The army found itself in a very difficult situation, being housed in old, dilapidated barracks and even just tents, which were supposed to serve as shelter in winter time. Mass diseases and deaths began... Russian exiles began to be buried on the site of the old Armenian cemetery, where, according to legend, captured Zaporozhye Cossacks and Russian soldiers of the Crimean War were buried. This is where the Russian Military Cemetery was formed.

The Gallipoli residents decided to perpetuate the memory of their compatriots who died in a foreign land. To build the monument, by order of General Kutepov, everyone had to bring at least one stone. And an “endless line of people, bent under their voluntary burden, including gray-haired old men and small children, came to the cemetery with quiet and serious faces,” recalled Second Lieutenant Nikolai Akatiev, the author of the project. 24 thousand stones were brought. The monument was consecrated on July 16, 1921; it resembled both an ancient mound and Monomakh’s hat, crowned with a cross. On the marble plaque under the double-headed eagle was written: “O Lord, rest the souls of the departed. The 1st Corps of the Russian Army to its brother warriors, who, in the struggle for the honor of their homeland, found eternal peace in a foreign land in 1920-21 and 1854-55, and to the memory of their Cossack ancestors who died in Turkish captivity.”

Before Russian troops left Gallipoli, General Kutepov transferred the monument in the “Russian cemetery” to the local authorities. The monument stood until 1949, when it was seriously damaged during an earthquake. For a long time the monument remained in a dilapidated state, and then was finally dismantled.

On the fortieth anniversary of the creation of the Gallipoli obelisk, a smaller copy of it was erected in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois as a tribute to the memory of all participants in the White movement. Money for this was collected in emigrant circles, and the design of the monument and the entire memorial was created by the Benois spouses. A new inscription was made on the marble plaque under the double-headed eagle: “In memory of our leaders and comrades-in-arms.” Along the base of the monument there are dedications to General Kornilov and all the soldiers of the Kornilov units, Admiral Kolchak and the Russian sailors, General Markov and the Markovites, Cossacks, General Drozdovsky and the Drozdovites, General Denikin and the first volunteers, General Alekseev and the Alekseevites, General Wrangel and the ranks of the cavalry and horse artillery . None of the leaders of the White movement, whose name is carved on the monument, found their last refuge here. The majority died in Russia and remained there without graves or crosses.

Lichinko Maxim Nikolaevich, 28-4-1893 – 2-3-1960, lieutenant of the Alekseevsky infantry regiment.
Lichinko (ur. Dekhtyareva) Natalia Ivanovna, 11-8-1896 – 9-5-1965, sister of mercy, wife of M.N. Lichinko
Bricard (Lichinko) Olga Maksimovna, 10/15/1918 – 1/15/2000, daughter of M.N. and N.I. Lichinko

Gazdanov Gaito Ivanovich, 6-12-1903 – 5-12-1971, writer

Gaito Gazdanov was born in St. Petersburg, in the family of a forester. Numerous moves were associated with my father's profession. The first four years of the future writer’s life were spent in St. Petersburg, then the family lived in Siberia and Ukraine. In 1919, at less than 16 years old, Gazdanov joined the Volunteer Movement to “find out what war is.” Together with the retreating White army, he finds himself in Crimea, then in Constantinople, where his first story was written (“Hotel of the Future,” 1922).

In 1923 he moved to Paris, where he would live most of his life. He works as a loader, a locomotive cleaner, and a worker at the Citroen plant. Despite all the hardship of emigrant life, he manages to graduate from the Faculty of History and Philology of the Sorbonne. In 1929, his first novel, An Evening at Claire's, was published, which immediately brought recognition to the author. In 1932, writer and critic Mikhail Osorgin introduced Gazdanov to the North Star Masonic Lodge, in which Gazdanov held a number of positions, and in 1961 became its Master. Despite his high literary reputation (criticism recognizes him as the most talented, along with V. Nabokov, writer of the younger generation), he is regularly published in “Modern Notes” - the most authoritative magazine of emigration, and the novel “The Ghost of Alexander Wolf” (1945-48) was, immediately upon release, translated into major European languages), Gazdanov was forced to work as a night taxi driver for many years. Many years of acquaintance with the Parisian bottom was reflected in the novel “Night Roads” (1941).

During the war, Gazdanov remained in occupied Paris. He takes part in the Resistance movement and edits an underground magazine. From 1953 until the end of his life, Gazdanov worked as a journalist and editor at Radio Liberty, where he broadcast programs dedicated to Russian literature.

1890-1968, lieutenant.

B.V. Generozov graduated from the Forestry Institute in St. Petersburg, then from the Konstantinovsky Military School. Participant in the First World War. During the Civil War, lieutenant of the Markov artillery brigade. Gallipolitan.
Under the sign on the cross is the emblem of the Kornilovites - a sleeve badge of belonging to the Kornilov Shock Regiment. By order of Infantry General L.G. Kornilov on May 19, 1917, the 1st Shock Detachment was created from among the volunteers, which was transformed into a regiment on August 1, 1917. The sleeve badge was made of fabric blue color, and for artillerymen - black.

This is how B. Akunin writes about the French cemetery cats: "Being on Père Lachaise, you believe<в потустороннее>. Especially when a skinny Per-Lachaise cat slips between the gravestones; according to the guidebook, about a hundred of them live here. They are silent, swift and do not enter into any communication with people. Maybe only with the servants who feed them? Or do they feed themselves, eat some sparrows? Cats, unlike dogs, are creatures from the night, through the looking glass world. The cemetery is the place for them."

In Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois the cat was affectionate, sociable, HIS OWN... Someone's restless soul?

Smirnov Mikhail Nikolaevich, 5.08.1861 - 18.04.1933, Lieutenant General
, 1873 – 8-12-1935, widow of Lieutenant General M.N. Smirnov.

M.N. Smirnov comes from the famous Cossack noble family of the Don Army. He served in the Life Guards of the Ataman Division. In 1901, he was a colonel, and from 1911, a major general. Until 1917, he was the district ataman of the Cherkassy district of the Don Army. After the Cossacks abandoned Novocherkassk in February 1918, Smirnov remained in the city and was arrested by the Bolsheviks. He was kept in prison and then sentenced to death. Liberated in April 1918 by the rebel Cossacks of the village of Krivyanskaya, who drove the Bolsheviks out of Novocherkassk. After this, M.N. Smirnov joined the ranks of the Don Army. In September 1918 he was promoted to lieutenant general. He held the positions of chief of the military police of the Don Army and chairman of the commission for the fight against Bolshevism.
He died in the Russian House in Sainte-Genevieve des Bois.

One of the paths of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois

Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky, 2-8-1866 – 9-12-1941, writer, philosopher
Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius-Merezhkovskaya, 8-11-1869 – 9-9-1945, poetess, critic

The history of literature and thought does not know, perhaps, the second such case when two people were so much one. Both Merezhkovsky and his wife, Zinaida Gippius, admitted that they did not know where his thoughts ended and where hers began. They lived together, as she writes in her memoirs, for 52 years, without being separated for a single day. And therefore his works and hers are, perhaps, also something united. Contemporaries argued that the family union of Zinaida Gippius and Dmitry Merezhkovsky was primarily a spiritual union, and was never truly marital. Both denied the physical side of marriage. At the same time, both had hobbies and loves, but they only strengthened the family. Zinaida Nikolaevna liked to charm men and liked to be charmed. But it never went beyond kisses; for her, the most important thing was always equality and union of souls - but not bodies.

Zinaida Gippius was a famous critic. She usually wrote under male pseudonyms, but everyone knew who was hiding behind these masks. Insightful, daring, and in an ironic and aphoristic tone, Gippius wrote about everything that deserved even the slightest attention. They were afraid of her sharp tongue, many hated her, but everyone listened to her opinion. The poems, which she always signed with her name, were written mainly from male face. There was a share of shocking in this, and a manifestation of her truly somewhat masculine nature (it was not without reason that they said that in their family Gippius is the husband, and Merezhkovsky is the wife; she impregnates him, and he bears her ideas), and the game. Zinaida Nikolaevna was unshakably confident in her own exclusivity and significance, and tried in every possible way to emphasize this. She allowed herself everything that was forbidden to others, wore men's outfits - they effectively emphasized her undeniable femininity.

Portrait of Zinaida Gippius by L. Bakst

In 1901, the Merezhkovsky couple initiated the famous Religious and Philosophical Meetings, which became a meeting place for the secular intelligentsia and the clergy. The topics of the meetings are the role of Christianity in society, the tasks of Christianity, religion and culture, the possibility of further evolution of Christianity, etc. - determined the direction of religious quests at the beginning of the century. According to Merezhkovsky himself, it was about the “unity of two abyss” - the “abyss of the spirit” and the “abyss of the flesh”: the flesh is as sacred as the spirit. In his historical trilogy “Christ and Antichrist” Merezhkovsky tried to substantiate precisely this idea, showing that in history human culture Attempts have already been made to synthesize the “earthly” and “heavenly” truths, but they were not successful due to the immaturity of human society. Merezhkovsky wrote the trilogy for ten years. This was a presentation of his ideological credo in the fictional form of historical novels.

The October Revolution caused a furious protest from the Merezhkovskys, and at the first opportunity they left Russia. At the end of 1920 they moved to Paris, where they lived until their death. In their apartment every Sunday (until 1940) the literary and philosophical circle “Green Lamp” met (the first meeting took place on February 5, 1927), thanks to which many gifted youth appeared around the Merezhkovskys.

In the 30s, Merezhkovsky studied the ideas of fascism as an antagonism to communism. He was ready to cooperate with anyone who could actually resist the Bolsheviks. True, the views of Gippius and Merezhkovsky here, perhaps for the first time, diverged. If for Gippius Hitler was always “an idiot with a mouse under his nose,” then Merezhkovsky considered him a successful “weapon” in the fight against Bolshevism, against the “Kingdom of the Antichrist.” This is exactly how we must explain the fact that shortly before his death, in the summer of 1941, Merezhkovsky said scandalously famous speech, in which he spoke about “the feat undertaken by Germany in the Holy Crusade against Bolshevism.” Gippius, having learned about this radio speech, was not only upset, but even frightened - her first reaction was the words: “this is the end.” She was not mistaken - the attitude towards them on the part of the emigration sharply changed for the worse, they were subjected to real ostracism.

Meanwhile, few people heard or read the speech itself. Objectively, only the words quoted above were pro-Hitler in it, but the rest of the text of the speech was devoted to criticism of Bolshevism, and the speech ended with Gippius’ fiery verses about Russia:

She will not die - know this!
She will not die, Russia,
They will sprout - believe me!
Its fields are golden!
And we will not die - believe me.
But what is our salvation to us?
Russia will be saved - know this!
And her Sunday is coming!

The only thing was that the figure of Hitler, unlike, say, Mussolini, was absolutely unacceptable for the Russian emigration because of his attack on the USSR: the emigration was put in a situation of a tough choice - Hitler or Stalin. Merezhkovsky chose Hitler, the majority (including Berdyaev and Denikin) chose Stalin, hoping that the threat to national independence would change the nature of Soviet politics.

Until the end of his days, the theme of Russia was central in Merezhkovsky’s life. N. Berberova describes the scene of a typical conversation with his wife:

Zina, what is more valuable to you: Russia without freedom or freedom without Russia?
She thought for a minute.
“Freedom without Russia,” she answered, “and that’s why I’m here and not there.”
- I am also here, and not there, because Russia without freedom is impossible for me. But... - and he thought, without looking at anyone, - why do I actually need freedom if there is no Russia? What should I do with this freedom without Russia?”

Merezhkovsky left behind more than 20 volumes of works: poems, poems, translations from all European languages, translations of ancient tragedians; short stories in the spirit of the Renaissance, historical novels, philosophical essays. Much was translated into other European languages, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize, he played the role of one of the “spiritual fathers” of the Russian religious Renaissance at the beginning of the century, the pioneer of symbolism in Russian literature.
Understanding the size of his figure came over the years. Then, in 1941, only a few people were present at Merezhkovsky’s funeral, and grave monument, shown in the photo above, was produced with money from French publishers. On its reverse side there is an inscription: “This monument was erected through the efforts of French publishers to the works of the great Russian writer Dmitry Merezhkovsky.” It took great courage from the French to write such a thing at a time when their country was occupied by the Germans.

Zinaida Gippius survived her husband by 4 years. At the height of the war, apparently there was no time for tombstones, and her slab, quite modest, is not even attached to the grave: sometimes it lies, and sometimes it stands leaning against the curb of her husband’s grave...

Used sources:
O.Volkogonov. Religious anarchism of D. Merezhkovsky
W.Wulf. Decadent Madonna

Simply NATALIA (photo by Mikhail Zagranichny)

Ivanov Konstantin Vasilievich, 3-6-1894 – 15-2-1977, Colonel of the Life Guards.

K.V. Ivanov is an officer of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment, a participant in the First World War and the Civil War. Since the summer of 1919 in the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. Commander of an officer company, then an officer battalion in the Kornilov shock regiment, colonel of the Volunteer Army. Gallipolitan. In exile, battalion commander of the Kornilov Military School. In France, he is the head of the NORR (National Organization of Russian Scouts), an emigrant children's and youth patriotic organization, an alternative to scouts.

The tombstone of K.V. Ivanov attracted my attention, firstly, by its surname - probably the most Russian of all Russians, and secondly, by the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, made in the form of an enamel medallion. There are quite a few similar medallions with reproductions of Orthodox symbols on the tombstones of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, although here you can also see icons traditional for Orthodox burials, which are more often found in Russia.

04/24/1913 – 01/21/1986, gypsy artist, singer, musician

11-5-1905 – 20-10-1983, gypsy singer

The graves of Alyosha and Valya are located at different ends of the cemetery, but they are one family and have performed on stage together almost their entire lives.

The Dmitrievichs emigrated from Russia in 1919. Vertinsky recalls the first appearance of the family in Paris: “The Dimitrievich camp came to France from Spain. They arrived in a huge van, equipped with the latest technology, with automobile traction. They received the van from the director of some traveling circus in payment of a debt, so how the circus went bankrupt, and the director did not pay their salaries for almost a whole year. There were about thirty of them. The father, the head of the whole family, a man of about sixty, an old samovar tinker, was, so to speak, a monarch. He took all the money the family earned ". The family consisted of his four sons with their wives and children and four young daughters. They first came to the Hermitage, where I worked. Immediately sensing a “gypsyophile” in me, the Dimitrievichs became very friendly with me. From the Hermitage they came to Montparnasse , where they finally established themselves in the zucchini" gold fish". We are talking here about the late 20s and early 30s. In those years, Alyosha performed a lot, but not yet as a singer. He was an outstanding dancer and acrobat, he was more than once invited to circus troupes, and his signature number was a double somersault.

During the German occupation, new emigration occurred. Now the path lay in South America. The Dimitrievich ensemble performs on the stage of theaters in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. Five years later, Alyosha separates from his family, he changes professions, travels a lot, dances in the famous cabaret "Tabaris" in Buenos Aires. In 1960, his father, sister Marusya and brother Ivan died. These days, news came from Paris from sister Valya, she suffered from loneliness and called Alyosha to her. He arrived in Paris in 1961 and soon began singing. He was about fifty. It is a rare occurrence for a singer to be born at that age. But Alyosha explained it simply. "Singing is a gift." The gift that woke up in him late, but developed rapidly and brightly.

From an article by A. Verein: In Paris, “The Dimitrievichs performed in restaurants, but their work was in no way tavern. They created excellent conditions, they had appropriate lighting, attentive, enchanted listeners, frozen in reverent reverence, and no one served food on the table during the performance of romances, and no one chewed... Therefore, the Dimitrievichs were never restaurant, tavern singers in the usual (and bad) way for us sense. Only an inexperienced and unprepared listener can discern something vulgar and unworthy in their work. In fact, the art of the Dimitrievichs was distinguished by amazing purity and sincerity. Sincerity was generally their distinguishing feature.

The Dimitrievichs lived a family, clan life, instilling in their children some of their own artistic gypsy values. I remember how, captivated by the singing of Valya’s very beautiful daughter Teresa, who was already very “French”, even speaking Russian with an accent, a rich Englishman handed her a very significant bill, and with such a regal gesture she handed this piece of paper to the orchestra... This caused , of course, already the most perfect ecstasy, this is such a St. Petersburg-gypsy gesture, which was sung by Blok, but which, I think, not many saw in the West and in Russia..."

Almost until their death, Alyosha and Valya sang in “Rasputin”. Alyosha had a huge number of friends, among whom were Mikhail Shemyakin and Joseph Kessel, Marina Vladi and Vladimir Vysotsky, Yul Brynner and Omar Sherif. Alyosha and Vladimir Vysotsky wanted to record a joint record, but Vysotsky’s death prevented this...
There are several discs with recordings of performances by Valya and Alyosha Dimitrievich, both together and separately. Some of their songs can be found online.

Zhukovsky Nikolay Vasilievich, 12/25/1881 – 7/21/1964, sea captain of the Black Sea Fleet, lieutenant in the Admiralty
Zhukovskaya V.I., 1876 - 1969

The waving St. Andrew's flag is the badge of the sailors of the Russian Imperial Navy who found themselves in exile. This sign can be seen on the graves of many sailors buried in the cemetery.

Propeller – traditional symbol at the pilots' grave. At the top is the shoulder-length emblem of Russian aviation units from the First World War.

This modest monument is the central slab on a line of five graves, where Russian aviators who ended their lives in France, about twenty in total, are buried nearby. Let's focus only on three destinies.

Polyakov-Baydarov Vladimir Vasilievich, 19-01-1890 – 4-4-1952. A volunteer pilot, he came to France during the First World War with the Russian expeditionary force. Subsequently - a pilot of the French Foreign Legion. After the war he sang at the Russian Opera and was a famous performer of romances. Polyakov-Baydarov was a passionate chess player; he loved chess, seeing in it a reflection of the tactical and strategic plans of the opposing sides. During World War II, he fought in General de Gaulle's army against the Nazis, and during quiet hours he played chess, trying to relieve tension.

Polyakov-Baidarov's wife, Militsa, was a ballerina. The family had four daughters, three of whom became actresses, and the fourth became a director. Once the Polyakov sisters played together for a whole season in a play based on Chekhov's play "Three Sisters". In the theater, Tatiana performed under the pseudonym Odile Versoix, Militsa as Hélène Vallier, and the youngest, Marina, became known as Marina Vladi. For Russian people, she is, of course, not just an actress, but the wife of Vladimir Vysotsky.

Nikolsky Sergey Nikolaevich, 1885 – 20-8-1963. Captain of the Guard, one of the first Russian military pilots, author of the front-line memoirs “On an Airship. From the Diary of the War of 1914-17.”

S.N. Nikolsky graduated from the Gatchina Aviation School in 1914 and was appointed assistant commander of the Airship "Ilya Muromets". In 1916 he became the commander of the ship, and in June 1917 - the commander of the 1st Combat Detachment of Airships. He was wounded three times, after being seriously wounded he returned to the squadron and was elected to the Council of Soldiers' and Workers' Deputies of Vinnitsa. He tried to organize the evacuation of the squadron, but due to the lack of transport, he ordered the remaining planes to be burned so that they would not fall to the Germans. April 5, 1918 S.N. Nikolskoy demobilized and returned to Crimea. During the Civil War he served as commandant of the Yalta port.

After the fall of Crimea, he was evacuated to Constantinople, then to Athens. In 1923 he settled in the south of France, where he worked as a driver. During World War II, having completely lost his sight, he moved with his family to Paris.

Nizhevsky Robert Lvovich, 2-5-1885 – 17-1-1968. Colonel, military pilot.

Pole by nationality, son of a Russian army general, brother of a famous military aeronaut, participant in the Russo-Japanese War. After graduating from the Officers' Aeronautical School, he flew balloons and airships. Commander of the first Russian airship. Having become disillusioned with lighter-than-air craft, in 1915 he transferred to serve in the Ilya Muromets Airship Squadron of I. Sikorsky and soon became the commander of one of the best crews - the 9th. Commanded a detachment in the Squadron. Cavalier of the St. George's Arms. He fought in the White Air Force and emigrated after the fall of Crimea. He was the leader of the Russian aviation emigration in France, honorary chairman of the Union of Aviators. The monument to Russian aviators was created through his efforts.

Aviators Memorial (photo by G. Kobakhidze)

More about the aviators buried in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois: E.V. Rudnev, V.A. Lebedev, D.P. Ryabushinsky.

3-10-1959
Sister of Mercy. Knight of St. George.

11-2-1911 – 18-11-1987, scientist, philosopher.

Dmitry Panin came from noble family, and this made him an outcast in home country. To get the opportunity to study at the institute, he became a worker at a cement plant. Then there was graduate school, but he was not allowed to defend his dissertation: instead, denunciation, interrogations, prison and a camp followed. After five years of imprisonment, another ten are added to him for “organizing an armed uprising.” Then “eternal settlement”, work in the Marfinskaya “sharashka”, where he ends up together with A. Solzhenitsyn. In Solzhenitsyn's novel "In the First Circle" Panin is depicted as Dmitry Sologdin...
Rehabilitation followed in 1956, Panin returned to Moscow and worked as the chief designer of the project at one of the research institutes until his retirement. He actively participated in human rights activities and was in constant scientific, philosophical and religious quest. He tried to convert to Catholicism, but, disappointed, returned to Orthodoxy. In 1972, he emigrated to France, where he continued his work, gave lectures, wrote articles, and philosophical works. Panin wrote an autobiographical book about his fate, “Lubyanka - Ekibastuz,” which was published in the West in 1973, and in Russia in 1990. In the memoirs of his contemporaries, Panin appears as a man with a real Russian character, courageous, noble, kind, full of naive courage, reliable in friendship and... a little eccentric.

Father Vasily Konoshenko and L.V. Ovtrakht are buried in the same grave. This is what their common tombstone looks like:

Konoshenko Vasily Trofimovich, 1-1-1892 – 4-9-1973, protodeacon of the Church of the Mother of God of the Sign. Father Vasily was born in Poltava. Graduated from the Tashkent paramedic school. After the revolution - in exile in France. After the end of World War II, he served in the Church of Our Lady of the Sign on Boulevard Exelmann in Paris.

Ovtracht (ur. von Olderogge) Lyudmila Viktorovna, ?-1901 – 17-7-1977.
Active participant of the Russian Student Christian Movement (RSCM). The Parisian publishing house YMCA-Press was closely associated with the movement, publishing many books that played a significant role in spiritual formation Russian abroad and modern Russia. I remember that in Soviet times, it was “categorically not recommended” for our people to even go to the YMCA-Press bookstore in Paris on Rue Montagne-Sainte-Geneviève.