Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Cemetery, specifically the one known as Cimetière de Liers, as there are two cemeteries in the city, is a Russian Orthodox

Russian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...

 cemetery

Cemetery

A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...

, located on Rue Léo Lagrange in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois

Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Essonne

Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois lies just north of junction 42 on the orbital Francilienne autoroute....

, département Essonne

Essonne

Essonne is a French department in the region of Île-de-France. It is named after the Essonne River.It was formed on 1 January 1968 when Seine-et-Oise was split into smaller departments.- History :...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

This local cemetery became Russian Orthodox in 1926 after a group of White Émigre

White Emigre

A white émigré was a Russian who emigrated from Russia in the wake of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War, and who was in opposition to the contemporary Russian political climate....

s had settled in the Château de la Cossonnerie, originally an 18th-century farm, which had been enlarged at the beginning of the 19th century. It was bought in 1927 by an English benefactress, Dorothy Paget

Dorothy Paget

Dorothy Wyndham Paget was a British racehorse owner.She was the daughter of Lord Queenborough and Pauline Payne Whitney of the United States Whitney family. She was a cousin of Jock Whitney, owner of the dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Easter Hero and latterly American Ambassador in London. She...

, who set up a retirement home for Russian émigrés there. In 1938-1939 Albert Benois

Albert Benois

Albert Nikolayevitch Benois was a talented Russian water-colorist. The Benois family produced many talented artists over several generations. Albert was the elder son of architect Nicholas Benois, brother of artist and theatrical designer Alexander Benois, uncle of the painter Zinaida...

 designed the Dormition Church which serves the cemetery.

Notable burials

The cemetery is a burial place for more than 10,000 Russian emigrants, including the Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

 winner Ivan Bunin, the authors Dmitry Merezhkovsky

Dmitry Merezhkovsky

Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky, , 1865, St Petersburg – December 9, 1941, Paris) was a Russian novelist, poet, religious thinker, and literary critic. A seminal figure of the Silver Age of Russian Poetry, regarded as a co-founder of the Symbolist movement, Merezhkovsky – with his poet wife Zinaida...

, Zinaida Gippius

Zinaida Gippius

Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius, was a Russian poet, playwright, editor, short story writer and religious thinker, regarded as a co-founder of Russian symbolism and seen as "one of the most enigmatic and intelligent women of her time in Russia"....

, Aleksey Remizov

Aleksey Remizov

Aleksei Mikhailovich Remizov was a Russian modernist writer whose creative imagination veered to the fantastic and bizarre. Apart from literary works, Remizov was an expert calligrapher who sought to revive this medieval art in Russia.-Biography:...

, Gaito Gazdanov

Gaito Gazdanov

Gaito Gazdanov was a Russian émigré writer of Ossetian extraction. His real name was Georgi Ivanovich Gazdanov .- Biography :...

, Viktor Nekrasov

Viktor Nekrasov

Viktor Platonovich Nekrasov was a Russian writer, journalist and editor.-Biography:Nekrasov was born in Kiev and graduated with a degree in architecture in 1936. Between 1937 and 1941, he was an actor and set designer with the Kiev Russian Drama Theater...

, the painters Konstantin Somov

Konstantin Somov

Konstantin Andreyevich Somov was a Russian artist associated with the Mir iskusstva. Born into a family of a major art historian and Hermitage Museum curator, he became interested in the 18th century art and music at an early age.Somov studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts under Ilya Repin from...

 and Zinaida Serebriakova

Zinaida Serebriakova

Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova was among the first female Russian painters of distinction.-Family:Zinaida Serebriakova was born on the estate of Neskuchnoye near Kharkov into one of Russia's most refined and artistic families.She belonged to the artistic Benois family...

, the dancers Rudolf Nureyev

Rudolf Nureyev

Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he...

 and Serge Lifar

Serge Lifar

Serge Lifar ; 15 December 1986) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer of Ukrainian origin, famous as one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century.-Biography:Lifar was born in Kiev, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire...

, the philosophers Sergei Bulgakov

Sergei Bulgakov

Fr. Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov was a Russian Orthodox Christian theologian, philosopher and economist. Until 1922 he worked in Russia; afterwards in Paris.-Early life:...

 and Nikolai Lossky

Nikolai Lossky

Nikolay Onufriyevich Lossky was a Russian philosopher, representative of Russian idealism, intuitionism, personalism, libertarianism, ethics, Axiology , and his philosophy he called intuitive-personalism. Born in Latvia, he spent his working life in St. Petersburg, New York and Paris...

, the filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century....

, the film actor Ivan Mozzhukhin

Ivan Mozzhukhin

Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin (Russian: Иван Ильич Мозжухин was a Russian silent film actor.-Career in Russia:Mozzhukhin was born in Penza, Russia and studied law at Moscow State University. In 1910 he left academic life to join a troupe of traveling actors...

, the photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, the singer Alexander Galich, the politicians Peter Struve

Peter Berngardovich Struve

Peter Berngardovich Struve – Пётр Бернгардович Струве was a Russian political economist, philosopher and editor. He started out as a Marxist, later became a liberal and after the Bolshevik revolution joined the White movement...

 and Georgy Lvov, the general Zinovy Peshkov

Zinovy Peshkov

Zinovy Alekseyevich Peshkov was a Russian-born French general and diplomat.-Early life:Born Yeshua Zalman Sverdlov to a Jewish engraver in Nizhny Novgorod, he was an older brother of Yakov Sverdlov...

, the courtier Felix Yusupov

Felix Yusupov

Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston , was best known for participating in the murder of Grigori Rasputin, the faith healer who was said to have influenced decisions of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna.-Biography:...

 and his wife Princess Irina of Russia

Princess Irina of Russia

Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia was the only daughter of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia...

.

Recent history

Since the 1960s, the municipal authorities have periodically attempted to close the cemetery, claiming that the grounds are needed for public services. There have been reports that some of the graves will be opened and the exhumed remains cremated.http://www.pravoslavie.ru/news/060330121526 As of 2006, the cemetery is not officially considered a landmark and has no legal protection.

As its future remains precarious, several notable Russians-—including Ivan Ilyin

Ivan Ilyin

Ivan Alexandrovich Ilyin was a Russian religious and political philosopher, White emigre publicist and an ideologue of the Russian All-Military Union.-Young years:...

 and Ivan Shmelev-—were recently exhumed and reburied in Moscow. The cemetery is closed to new burials. It was only after pressure from the central government that the burial of Nureyev was sanctioned there. His tomb is covered with mosaic decoration to represent a traditional kilim

Kilim

Kilims are flat tapestry-woven carpets or rugs produced from the Balkans to Pakistan. Kilims can be purely decorative or can function as prayer rugs. Recently-made kilims are popular floor-coverings in Western households.-Etymology:...

 blanket.

External links

The Cemetery at russie.net

• Cimetière de Sainte Genevieve Des Bois at Find A Grave
  Find A Grave
  Find a Grave is a commercial website providing free access and input to an online database of cemetery records. It was founded in 1998 as a DBA and incorporated in 2000.-History:...
  
  .
• Guide to finding Andrei Tarkovsky's grave at the cemetery