European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 14, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Magazine  grave if among strolling through history i Moscow cemetery by Susan j. Smith associated Pressa stroll through Moscow s Novod Vichy cemetery is an evocative trip through the pages of russian and soviet history. A resize statues of soviet heroes stand r among the elaborate grave Sites of writers and nobility from czarist times. The nation s second most prestigious burial site after the Kremlin Wall the cemetery was reopened to the Public in january and has become a favorite place for muscovites soviet visitors and foreign tourists. Russian czars and soviet leaders Are buried in the Kremlin s churches and Walls and soviet founder Vladimir i. Lenin has his own mausoleum on red Square. But at Novod Vichy thousands of russian and soviet writers musicians scientists and statesmen Are burled in the graveyard next to the Gold domed Convent of the same name or entombed in its surrounding red Brick Walls. In the 17th Century Peter the great locked up his sister Sophia in Novod Vichy Convent and she and other nuns of Noble birth were buried there. Two Hundred years later when the Convent s graveyard became overcrowded Novod Vichy cemetery was established. Buried in Novod Vichy now is Nikita s. Khrushchev the first wife of Josef Stalin Stalin s ally Vyacheslav Molotov and some of the victims of his political purges. Also buried in the cemetery Are the writers Anton Chekhov who died in 1904, and Nikolai Gogol 1852pianist Nikolai Rubinstein 1894 and Many of the generals who fought the nazis in world War ii. They Are buried in Small plots planted with fir Trees and meticulously tended by relatives and admirers. Since the graveyard was reopened to the Public the admirers and tourists outnumber the relatives. I have wanted to come Here for years said an elderly woman standing at the grave of Stalin s wife Nadezhda Allilu Yeva who killed herself in 1932 at the age of 31. She was a better communist than he was the woman said gesturing at the grave from which a sculpture of Nadezhda Allilu Yeva smiles serenely at onlookers. Russian cemeteries Are Replete with such sculptures As Well As photographs of those buried there. Less grim than those in the West the cemeteries often Are places where relatives go for picnics at the grave Sites of Lovlid ones. Many have Small benches and tables set up for the visitors. The size and elaborate Ness of the headstones at Novod Vichy create an appearance of life Frozen in motion. Sculpted professors sit behind desks writers clutch their pens academics scratch their Heads and musicians cup their hands to their ears As if still trying to hear the notes. Granite generals give Battle orders Over Field telephones and Stone cosmonauts in space suits look ready to go into orbit once More. At one end stands the Marble bust of Khrushchev which muscovites say was the reason the Gates of the cemetery were closed More than a decade ago to All but relatives with special passes. When Khrushchev died in 1971, Saven years after being ousted As the soviet Leader his family asked the prominent russian sculptor Ernst Neizvestny to carve his Gravestone. The Stone was put in place in 1974 and people flocked to see the Marble work. People came from All Over to see Khrushchev s grave. It was like a  a 40-year-old muscovite recalled. We heard they were going to close it so we went. And two weeks later it was  the closing to casual visits by the general Public was reportedly ordered by Khrushchev s successor Leonid i. Brezhnev because he was so angered by the outpouring. With the reopening crowds again gather at the graveside now adorned with Evergreen wreaths and Flowers. Another popular spot in the cemetery is the grave of Stalin s first wife near the Convent Wall. Historians say Stalin refused to visit her grave believing she had turned against him by killing herself. Nearby is buried one of her closer friends Polina Zhe Chuzhina whom Stalin had arrested and exiled to Kazakhstan in 1949. Her husband former Premier and foreign minister Molotov was buried beside her this past november after his death at age 96. Most of the cemetery gravestones Are dedicated to men. Wives Are usually honoured with a Small photograph attached to the base of the Gravestone. With the Molotov the honors appear reversed perhaps due to the changing political sensitivities during the 16 years that elapsed Between their deaths. The wife died in 1970 and an elaborate Gold embossed a photo Tombstone was erected in her memory. Molotov is honoured Only with a White Stone Tablet and photograph propped up at the base of his wive s grave. Don t worry hell get a big Stone too a bystander said when asked about the disparity. Writers seem to have their own Section of the cemetery. Stalin s regime left its imprint there too with a 1951 inscription honouring Gogol although he died a Century Belore. In another Section soldiers sailors and pilots Are commemorated with rows of Granite guns and ship anchors and headstones carrying the inscription hero of the soviet  nearby is the grave of the air plane builder Sergei Ilyushin with two air planes carved onto his Gravestone and a memorial to the six airmen who died in the crash of the soviet supersonic Jet during a demonstration flight at the Paris air show in 1973. Along one Wall of the cemetery Are memorials to the victims of two major air catastrophes in an Airship and an air plane. The plaques commemorating the victims Are set beneath a massive Granite Relief of the machines that killed them. The reopening of the cemetery in january was proceeded by a press Campaign with the newspaper Sovie Skaya Kultur complaining that people should have Access to what has become Ahart and history museum and a repository of some of the Best russian sculpture. Novod Vichy was the Only closed cemetery in the world the newspaper complained. Throwing open the Iron Gates to the graveyard fits in with soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev s glasnost a policy generally described As openness. But Many also View it As another overture by Gorbachev to members of the country s intelligentsia who appreciate the cemetery As a cultural treasure. The stars and stripes Page 13