Dmitriy from Saint Petersburg

About me Your friend and humble narrator has lived in St Petersburg pretty much ever since it was given its old name back. I was born in Leningrad though, and I think that the city has changed quite a bit since the 1980s. My neighbourhood, Polyustrovo, is located in the northeast, across the river from the city centre. It is pretty quiet, reasonably well connected to the rest of...

Oct 4, 2025

Bogoslovskoye Cemetery Saint Petersburg

Rock star pantheon

""Bogoslovskoye" Cemetery Saint Petersburg is an interesting place to find yourself amongst the gravestones of Russia's biggest rock stars and icons..."

A tombstone tourist will find plenty to get fascinated about in St Petersburg. Historical Tikhvin Cemetery and Volkovo Cemetery's "Writers' footways" were turned into museums.

Bogoslovskoye Cemetery's more remote, and more obscure, but pretty interesting nonetheless. Its main attraction are the graves of some of Russia's biggest rock stars. New-wave band Kino's singer Viktor Tsoi's car-crash death in 1990 was mourned by millions of fans, many of whom camped at his gravesite in Bratskaya path for years. I was a bit scared of the area when I was a kid, as my school was across the road.

Tsoi was later joined by Alexander "Ricochet" Aksyonov of punk band Obyekt Nasmeshek</a>; hard rocker Sergey Bogayev (Oblachny Kray</a>); and Kolibri's Natalya Pivovarova. Most recently, Mikhail Gorsheniov of punk band Korol I Shut was interned. It's largely his fans who play acoustic guitars, drink cheap booze, and warn people against doing anything disrespectful, like taking selfies, at the cemetery now.

Bogoslovskoye, like most cemeteries in the city, also features mass graves of those who died during the siege of Leningrad. Some of the non-musical celebrities include submarine captain Alexander Marinesko (who has a museum dedicated to him nearby), or film director Aleksei German (whose films are shown at the neighboring Filmofond from their original reels donated by his widow). My favorite, however, was the playwright Evgeny Schwartz - his grave is tucked away on the most obscure, impassable path, the cross turned away from passers-by, and no photo attached. Now that's modesty.

Art & culture

Relaxing

About this spot

31 pr. Mechnikova

RUB

free

Website

8125447524

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