The last day was bright and active. The Sun was out and I had fully recovered from the fatigue accumulated over the last few days. So, I packed my belongings in my Lehman rucksack (a highly coveted souvenir now!) and headed out early.
My first stop was the Novodevichy Cathedral near Sportivnaya. To be honest, I had almost overlooked this one. But when Sergey said that it is definitely worth a visit, I read up my Lonely Planet on it and realised that if for nothing else, I was going to go there to see a particular person.
Some Russian women like Catherine, the Great and Valentina Tereshkova are famous of their own accord. But most - as in other cultures - are famous because of the men they were with. And I was interested in precisely such a person. The Novodevichy grounds are the final resting place of Nadyezhda Alliluyeva, Stalin’s second wife!
I walked everywhere within the walls of the Cathedral. My Lonely Planet had a picture of her tomb so I would have recognised her immediately. But even after 30 minutes of an unsuccessful safari, I hadn’t found her. My time at the Cathedral had started to eat into the rest of my itinerary so I finally decided to open my dictionary to find the Russian word for ‘tomb’ and ask the information desk where she was. (I did bump into some very interesting people though. One Olga Mikhailovna Marinskaya had a witty sense of humour. Her tombstone, read, “Uvidimsya tam!” i.e. “See you there!”)
The lady at the desk told me that I needed to go to the Novodevichy Cemetery, which was next door. I took out my Lonely Planet to protest that she must be there at the Cathedral grounds itself and that’s when I realised that it did in fact say, “Cemetery”! Suddenly the words, “Attention to detail!” echoed in my head from the two years I had spent in investment-banking. I hate making mistakes and when I do, I can be unreasonably it-is-the-end-of-the-world hyper-critical of myself!
The Novodevichy Cemetery was just stunning! Never in my life have I seen such exquisitely beautiful tombstones! Everyone’s tombstone there silently demanded a few seconds of admiration and I felt so guilty for rushing through the cemetery to get to Mrs. Stalin! I followed the map and walked to one end of the cemetery. Even before I got to her, I recognised her. Not that her tombstone was the most beautiful but the glass case around hers, probably to protect the underlying stone from Russia’s unfriendly climate, immediately gave away her VIP status!
The Sun peeked through the canopy on to her white granite face that emerged from a plain column, on which the inscription read, “Nadyezhda Sergeivna Alliluyeva Stalina; 1901-1932”. Her right hand emerged inconspicuously and rested under her chin, apparently a tombstone paradigm to indicate that the person had committed suicide.
As I left the cemetery, I saw many people taking photos near the entrance against a stone that was painstakingly done to look like the Russian flag, swollen in some places as if laden with the wind. I walked to it and clicked a couple of photos myself. And then suddenly, I saw the inscription across it, “Boris Nikolaivich Yelstin; 1931-2007”. This is where the first Russian President lay buried! The Russian flag was the perfect posthumous garb for him. My Lonely Planet had obviously not prepared me for him as it was the 2006 edition but I felt lucky to have bumped into the ex-President!
Walking out of Novodevichy, a peculiar feeling overcame me. During the Second World War, many dead in Stalingrad, Leningrad and hundreds of other cities were dumped as one giant mass of rotting bodies into huge cavities dug overnight in the ground. This was because during the War there was no space in cemeteries to carry out deserved burials. And here was Novodevichy, an elite burial ground with tombstones carved to perfection and adorned with various motifs and plaques…
I wonder if Marx and Lenin have organised a revolution to overthrow this bourgeoisie on the other side of life as well!
No comments:
Post a Comment