The Last Refuge 1966

On May 5, 1966, Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova passed away.

During her lifetime, she said that her place was next to Blok. But it didn’t work out... She also mentioned Pavlovsk and Komarovo. The resort village of Komarovo is not far from Saint Petersburg. On one side there is a railway, on the other – Lake Shchuchye. Around it, pine forest, moss, mushrooms. In the middle, a tiny cemetery. The earliest burials date back to 1910. But today they have not been preserved. The oldest grave today is considered to be that of the famous composer Savinsky, who was buried in 1915. Residents of the village are buried here. And since 1950, celebrated figures of science, scholars, public leaders, and representatives of the Petersburg intelligentsia have been buried here. Over the years, burial in the Komarovo necropolis became prestigious. Dmitry Likhachev is buried here. Here in Komarovo is also the grave of Anna Akhmatova. This was her last will, so in March 1966, the coffin with her body was flown from Barvikha near Moscow to Leningrad. As she had requested, the funeral service was held at the Nikolsky Cathedral. Someone later estimated that more than five thousand people attended the memorial service.

Anna Andreyevna’s friend Zinaida Tomashevskaya recalls:

"I decided to turn to the only person who could and would want to help – Igor Ivanovich Fomin. He is the Deputy Chief Architect of the city, knows every stone, every inch of land. A person who understands everything – both the true place of Anna Andreyevna and all the difficulties. Being non-partisan, he holds a very high position. However, to bury someone at the Literatorskie Mostki or in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, permission from the authorities is needed: the city party committee. Here, the non-partisan Fomin could not help. I asked about Pavlovsk. But there was no official basis for burial in Pavlovsk: Akhmatova neither died nor was born there. Fomin advised Komarovo. Everything could be done there. Her grave would become the center of the cemetery. Everyone would strive to come there. The cemetery would become Akhmatova’s."

He called the architect of the Resort Zone with a plan of the cemetery. He drew a development plan and marked the place for the grave. The grave had to be located exactly in the center of the longitudinal alley. He took a word from me that everything would be as agreed, that I myself would take care of it. Two hours later, permission was obtained. Iosif and I went to Komarovo. We found the place. We made arrangements with the gravediggers. The next day he went without me. They were digging the grave with him... In Sestroretsk, at the cemetery, we picked up the cross, ordered by someone somewhere. It was very cold and snowy. I hardly remember anything else about the cemetery. A short memorial service was conducted by Levin, a spiritual father from Gatchina. I don’t remember the speeches either. Only faces — Tarkovsky, Brodsky, Rein, Naiman, Luknitsky, Kopelev, Igor Ershov, Misha Ardov. Makogonenko and Mikhalkov appeared... We left the cemetery almost in the dark. There was a wake at the "Budka." We returned home by train."

Then came the saga with the monument. Lev Nikolaevich knew about Fomin’s condition and was ready to follow it, although he despised Fomin himself, like any nomenklatura. But his condition was to erect a chapel. This would have fully corresponded to Fomin’s idea, but in 1966 it was completely impossible. I made a monument project. It was a three-tiered platform made of forged granite with small arches for drainage ditches running along the alleys. The grave was marked only by a polished slab with a classical inscription: "Here lies Anna Akhmatova" (Anna Andreyevna always admired the inscription on Suvorov’s grave. It was composed by Derzhavin.) Behind the grave was a flower bed with a very tall thin bronze cross.

But Lev Nikolaevich insisted and said he would look for a bolder architect. And he found the Pskov architect Seva Smirnov, who boldly, following the then-fashion to do everything askew, i.e., necessarily asymmetrically and wordily, built the currently existing tombstone. For this, he had to move the grave, i.e., its upper part, and erect a wall that made it impossible to develop the cemetery as Fomin had envisioned. The chapel was replaced, apparently, by a dove on the cross. But it was stolen. And we walk on the grave. And the cross is strange, more suitable for the non-existent grave of Gumilev. However, in taste and style, it is unsuitable even for that. Both Gumilev and Akhmatova were people of Pushkin’s culture, i.e., adherents of classicism, strictness, and by no means verbosity and flamboyance. The most beautiful part of the monument is the sculptural portrait of Akhmatova by the remarkable Petersburg sculptor Alexander Ignatiev. The portrait was made much earlier. With the wall arrangement that Smirnov implemented, such development of the cemetery, where Akhmatova’s grave would become its center, turned out to be impossible. But still, this grave attracts everyone who comes there. After Akhmatova was buried there, the cemetery acquired a very special significance, becoming a "branch" of the Literatorskie Mostki. Many expressed a desire to lie there after death, where Akhmatova lies. Zhirmunsky said: "We will converse with Anna Andreyevna." Altman lies nearby, Gitovich."

Sources:

https://topspb.tv/news/2018/03/5/moya-budka-dacha-anny-ahmatovoj-v-komarove/

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komarovo_settlement_cemetery

https://dracena-08.livejournal.com/131213.html

Petersburg of Akhmatova: family chronicles. Zoya Borisovna Tomashevskaya tells. Nevsky Dialect, St. Petersburg, 2000