On the rule of law trail: Moscow cemeteries.

• Author: Keeping, Janet
• Position: Travel to Legal Landmarks

Death is part of the life cycle. Although some societies strive to avoid the inevitability of death (this is said of Canadians and especially Americans, for example), other cultures seem to handle it with greater grace. Certainly most Russians are much more accepting of aging and death than we are.

In part because of this, Russian cemeteries are places of social importance and often oases of civility, peace, and quiet. Where most public spaces in Russia remain hostile, noisy, and basically unfriendly, many cemeteries there have quite a different aura. Many are cozy places, cluttered with benches and shade trees for the comfort of visitors, so inviting they serve as meeting places and picnic spots for friends and family of the deceased. And they can teach us much of legal interest. Two in the centre of Moscow are definitely worth a visit.

The best-known Moscow cemetery is Novodyevichiy. Here you will find buried some of pre-Revolutionary Russia's, the Soviet Union's, and contemporary Russia's most famous people, including political figures who did not qualify for interment within the Kremlin walls, but still warranted a high-profile burial place. There are hundreds of spectacularly elaborate headstones honouring celebrated engineers, artists, and other public heroes. But the main political/legal attraction is Khrushchev's grave. His headstone is composed half of white stone and half of black. The sculptor (who himself served time as a political prisoner during the Khrushchev regime) wanted to show the contradictory legacy of the man--he had committed unforgivable crimes in his climb to power, but also softened the brutality of Stalinism when he finally rose to the top.

But my favourite is the cemetery adjacent to the Donskoy Monastery. The most significant political/legal figure buried here is Sergei Muromtsev who was Chair of the first Duma (Parliament). Most people outside Russia do not realize that the first Russian revolution took place years before the revolt in 1917. In 1905, the still reigning Czar was forced by continuing political turmoil to concede to constitutional limits on his powers, including guarantees for some of the traditional civil liberties such as freedom of expression. As a result, Russia's first real Parliament was formed. It collapsed after only a few years, as did subsequent attempts, culminating in the 1917 Revolution.

Had these...