Novodevichy Cemetery

This walled burial ground beside the Novodevichy Convent is Moscow's most prestigious cemetery, holding the graves of writers, composers, scientists and generals across roughly two centuries. Chekhov, Gogol, Bulgakov, Shostakovich and Khrushchev all rest here beneath elaborately sculpted monuments that range from realist portrait busts to bold modernist forms. Visitors wander shaded avenues reading Russia's cultural and political history in stone, and many memorials are minor artworks in their own right.