5 Cemeteries in Kiev That You Shouldn't Miss

Baikove Cemetery is a famous and historic cemetery in Holosiiv District of Kyiv. One of the oldest and most beautiful cemeteries in Kyiv. Established in 1833-34 on the Baikova Hill and named after general S. Baikov, a member of the Franco-Russian War of 1812 and the Russian-Turkish War of 1828-29. It is a National Historic Landmark of Ukraine. The cemetery is a Ukrainian pantheon; many prominent Ukrainians have been buried here, including Mykhailo Hrushevskyi (a Ukrainian academician, politician, historian, and statesman, one of the most important figures of the Ukrainian national revival of the early 20th century), Lesya Ukrainka (one of Ukraine's best-known poets and writers and the foremost woman writer in Ukrainian literature, also a political, civil, and female activist), Volodymyr Shcherbytsky (a Ukrainian and Soviet politician; a leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine [the then equivalent of the head of Soviet republic] from 1972 to 1989), Valeri Lobanovsky (a Soviet-Ukrainian football manager, the Master of Sports of USSR, the Distinguished Coach of USSR, the laureate of the UEFA Ruby Order; most famous for managing Dynamo Kyiv Football Team), Oleg Antonov (a Soviet aircraft designer, the founder of Antonov ASTC, a world-famous aircraft company in Ukraine), Mykola Amosov, MD (a Ukrainian doctor, heart surgeon, inventor and exercise enthusiast, known for his inventions of several surgical procedures for treating heart defects) and many others.There are about 20 historic crypts/mausoleums at the cemetery.

To date, Lukyanivske is the oldest Kyiv cemetery. Burials in its territory began back in 1871; all the dead buried there were the patients of the St. Cyril's hospital, located nearby. The official status of the cemetery Lukyanivske received only in 1878, after the adoption of the relevant decree by the local authorities. At first, it was used for the exclusive burials of only famous and rich people. Mass public access to the cemetery was achieved thanks to the efforts by Professor S. Solsky, who ordered to bury himself exclusively in Lukyanivka. After his death Kyiv newspapers wrote: "He died in the struggle for the cemetery."By the end of the 19th century, there was the temple of St. Catherine built in the cemetery, and the tomb-chapel was erected over the grave of Professor Solski (where they conducted the liturgy after Catherine's church was destroyed by fire and before it was restored). In 1962, it was decided to close the St. Catherine’s church, and in 1973 it was demolished. Instead, they built a war memorial dedicated to the 30th Anniversary of the Victory Day in its place. Under the obelisk, there were four graves.The territory of the cemetery was considerably expanded in 1917, but during the Soviet era its borders were greatly reduced. From 1920 to 1930, in the Lukyanivka cemetery the NKVD carried out secret burials of those shot in its prisons. The exact number of such burial is unknown until today, because those killed were buried deep in one hole, and on the top of this mass burial, they arranged places for the usual graves of the regular residents.As of 1953 the cemetery is closed for the new burials. Since 1994 Lukyanivske Cemetery has been given the status of the State Historical and Memorial Reserve. Since 2001 it was listed in the records of the Nationally Important Reserves.