Curated playlist
Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery
- Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev spent four hours in 1956 tearing down Stalin's reputation. He had helped carry out Stalin's purges.
- Anton ChekhovAnton Chekhov's body traveled to Moscow in a railway car meant for oysters. The detail offended his friend Maxim Gorky.
- Nikolai GogolNikolai Gogol burned his manuscript for Dead Souls, part two, in 1852. He blamed the Devil and died nine days later.
- Mikhail GorbachevMikhail Gorbachev refused to declare a state of emergency during the August 1991 coup.
- Vyacheslav MolotovFinns named the Molotov cocktail after Vyacheslav Molotov, who called bombing raids food deliveries.
- Valentin GlushkoValentin Petrovich Glushko was born on the 2nd of September 1908 in Odesa, and by the age of fourteen he was thinking about flight. Novels by Jules Verne had pulled him toward aeronautics. In 1923 he wrote a letter to Konstantin…
- Dziga VertovThe term cinéma vérité was taken from Dziga Vertov's newsreel series Kino-Pravda, meaning "film truth".
- Lev KuleshovLev Kuleshov showed the same actor's face beside soup, a coffin and a woman. Audiences saw hunger, grief and desire.
- Boris YeltsinBoris Yeltsin climbed onto a tank in 1991 to defy a coup. Soldiers sent to crush the protest switched sides.
- Sergei ProkofievComposer Sergei Prokofiev died the same day as Joseph Stalin, and his coffin went through back streets.
- Andrei BelyIn Andrei Bely's novel Petersburg, a young man is assigned to kill his own father. The target is a government official.
- Eldar RyazanovEldar Ryazanov first refused to direct a comedy. He wanted to make serious films, but Carnival Night was a hit.
- Dmitri ShostakovichStalin walked out of Dmitri Shostakovich's opera in 1936, and the next day Pravda attacked it.
- Mikhail BulgakovStalin phoned banned playwright Mikhail Bulgakov in 1930 and asked if he wanted to leave.
- Peter KropotkinAnarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin refused a cabinet seat in Russia's Provisional Government.
- Vladimir MayakovskyPoet Vladimir Mayakovsky once threw tea at his audiences. He later wrote propaganda posters for the Communist Party.
- Nikolai PodgornySoviet artists erased Nikolai Podgorny from a 1977 painting of the country's leaders. He had been its head of state.
- Lev LandauPhysicist Lev Landau was jailed in 1938 over a leaflet comparing Stalinism to Nazism. A letter to Stalin freed him.
- Sergei EisensteinSergei Eisenstein reached Hollywood in May 1930 and was sent home within five months.
- Alexander ProkhorovWhile studying ruby in 1957, physicist Alexander Prokhorov realized it could serve as a laser's active medium.
- Alfred SchnittkeAlmost completely paralyzed, composer Alfred Schnittke wrote his Ninth Symphony with his left hand.
- Vladimir VernadskyVladimir Vernadsky argued that living things are a geological force. His 1926 book The Biosphere made the case.
- Valery LegasovIn August 1986, Valery Legasov stood before the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and spoke for five hours. The report he carried for the Soviet delegation ran to 388 pages. Legasov was a Soviet inorganic chemist, not a reactor…
- Sergey MikhalkovSergey Mikhalkov wrote a friendly giant policeman for children, then anthems for two countries.
- Georgy SviridovMillions of Soviet viewers heard Georgy Sviridov's music every evening without knowing his name.
- Vladimir Solovyov (philosopher)Philosopher Vladimir Solovyov, a famous historian's son, died homeless and poor. He sought to reunite divided faiths.