Kremlin Wall Necropolis facts for kids

Tombs of Suslov, Stalin, Kalinin, Dzerzhinsky, Brezhnev in front of the Kremlin wall. Tomb of Yuri Andropov, which stands between Kalinin's and Dzerzhinsky's, is obstructed by trees. The Mausoleum is immediately to the right.

The Kremlin Wall Necropolis was the Soviet Union's National Cemetery for those who died in valor for the union from 1917 to its last burial in 1985. Burials in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow began in November 1917, when 240 pro-Bolshevik victims of the October Revolution were buried in mass graves at Red Square. The improvised burial site gradually transformed into the centerpiece of military and civilian honor during the Second World War. It is centered on both sides of Lenin's Mausoleum, initially built in wood in 1924 and rebuilt in granite in 1929–1930. After the last mass burial made in 1921, funerals on Red Square were usually conducted as state ceremonies and reserved as the last honor for highly venerated politicians, military leaders, cosmonauts, and scientists. In 1925–1927 burials in the ground were stopped; funerals were now conducted as burials of cremated ash in the Kremlin wall itself. Burials in the ground began with Mikhail Kalinin's funeral in 1946. The Kremlin Wall was the de facto national cemetery of the Soviet Union's deceased national icons. Burial there was a status symbol among Soviet citizens. The practice of burying dignitaries at Red Square ended with the funeral of General Secretary Konstantin Chernenko in March 1985. The Kremlin Wall Necropolis was designated a protected landmark in 1974. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, citizens of the Russian Federation and other USSR satellite states continue to pay their respects to the national heroes at the Kremlin Wall.

Images for kids

• 

  As recently as 1800, the site of the Necropolis was a boggy moat spanned with stone bridges.

• 

  Red Square Mass Graves

• 

  27 July 2016. Mass grave on Red Square

• 

  Red Square Mass Grave No. 4

• 

  Red Square Mass Grave No. 5, inscriptions for Inessa Armand, John Reed, Ivan Rusakov and Semyon Pekalov

• 

  Red Square Mass Grave No. 13, inscriptions for Ivan Zhilin, Ivan Konstantinov, Valerian Abakovsky and John Freeman

• 

  The first wooden Mausoleum in 1925

• 

  Section of the Kremlin Wall with urn burials (Vladimirov, Ruthenberg, MacManus, Landler, Haywood)

• 

  A visitor (Fyodor Yurchikhin) laying flowers at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, 2010

• 

  The Kremlin Necropolis with a view of Spasskaya Tower

See also

In Spanish: Necrópolis de la Muralla del Kremlin para niños