Two graves of Blok - the second is Volkovo Cemetery

Surprisingly, there are two graves of Alexander Blok in Saint Petersburg. Fans of the poet visit both of them, as no one is still certain where his remains are actually buried. Initially, Blok was buried at the Smolensky Orthodox Cemetery, next to other family members. According to his will, the tombstone was made in the form of a simple wooden cross. In 1944, it was decided to move the grave to the Volkovo Cemetery, to the prestigious Literary Footpaths. Blok’s biographers never saw the point in this action, considering it unnecessary. The new burial gave rise to many discrepancies regarding where admirers of Blok’s work should make their pilgrimage. Historians claim that only the skull was moved to the Volkovo Cemetery, while the rest of the ashes remained in place. This version was confirmed by the art historian, academician Dmitry Likhachyov. Today, at the Literary Footpaths, one can see a beautiful memorial in the form of a black stele with the poet’s name and years of life. Fans love this place and willingly come to honor the memory of the outstanding Russian symbolist.

Although Alexander Blok accepted the October Revolution and wished to live and work in difficult times together with his country, the authorities treated him with distrust. This did not prevent them from overloading him with work in various committees and commissions, providing almost no moral or material support. By the summer of 1921, in the conditions of a hungry and cold revolutionary Petrograd, Alexander Blok’s physical and mental strength was almost completely exhausted, and life lost its meaning for him. Some believe that treatment in a sanatorium in Finland could have saved him, but the decision to leave with his wife was delayed for several months and was obtained practically on the day of his death.

Blok was prescribed various medicines, consultations were held, but during the summer of 1921 his condition steadily worsened, with a gradual increase in heart failure. The cause of death was named as inflammation of the heart valves. According to modern doctors, this was subacute septic endocarditis, a subtly developing disease that more often affects men aged twenty to forty. It is assumed that in Blok’s case, the endocarditis was caused by chronic tonsillitis, meaning that an operation to remove the constantly inflamed tonsils should have been performed much earlier. To this day, septic endocarditis is not always correctly diagnosed and treated, and not always successfully, even with the use of antibiotics, which only began to be widely used starting in the 1940s.

Alexander Blok died on the morning of August 7. The news that the funeral would take place on the morning of August 10 became known only the day before, so there was no time to publish an announcement in the newspapers. Only posters announcing the funeral were put up. Nevertheless, about a thousand mourners gathered, which was surprising for the depopulated Petrograd of the post-revolutionary years. For six kilometers from Dekabristov Street (formerly Officers’ Street), where Blok lived, to the cemetery, the open coffin with the body was carried by hand. There was neither music nor farewell speeches.

The funeral service was held in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, which stood on the bank of the Smolenka River, near the cemetery gates. The deceased was buried on the Ginterovskaya (now Blokovskaya) path of the Smolensky Cemetery next to the graves of his relatives. In the following years, everyone who wished to honor the poet’s memory came to the grave with the simple wooden cross and the bench standing nearby, located deep within the cemetery.

On the twentieth anniversary of Alexander Blok’s death, it was planned to reinter his remains in the Literary Footpaths section of the Volkovo Necropolis. However, this was prevented by the outbreak of war and the tragic blockade period in Leningrad’s history. During the blockade, the grave cross and the bench standing nearby disappeared, and the grave itself was almost completely leveled with the ground. Just two years later, Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky with great difficulty found this place. The reason was not so much oblivion as the hard years of life. And in 1937, instead of the cross, a standard concrete basin was installed. Lyubov Dmitrievna was still alive at that time; she managed to insist on restoring the grave to its former appearance — a mound with a cross.

During the blockade, the cross disappeared, and in its place an iron rod with the inscription “Blok” was stuck into the grave. After the blockade was lifted, it was decided to reinter the remains at the Literary Footpaths. At the end of September 1944, the remains of Alexander Blok and his relatives were exhumed from the Smolensky burial ground, transported by cart to the Literary Footpaths, and buried there on a plot formerly belonging to the Shvakhgeim family. Two years later, a simple black marble obelisk with a bas-relief portrait of the poet and a commemorative inscription was installed on the new grave. The resting place of the poet and his relatives is surrounded by a decorative metal fence.

Thus, Alexander Blok now has two places of final rest — at the Smolensky and Volkovo cemeteries in Saint Petersburg. And all those who cherish the work of the outstanding Russian symbolist poet come to honor his memory and lay flowers at both graves.

How to find Blok’s grave? The Volkovo Cemetery is located on Rasstanny Proezd. It has only one entrance. You need to go through the gates, reach the church, and find the sign “A. Blok.” The path starting from the sign leads to the burial site.

Sources:

https://spb.ritual.ru/poleznaya-informatsiya/stati/mogila-a-bloka-v-peterburge/

https://spbgorritual.ru/religiya-i-traditsii/dve-mogily-aleksandra-bloka/