Staro-Avtozavodskoye Cemetery is a historic necropolis in the Avtozavodsky District of Nizhny Novgorod, located at 1A Paryshevskaya Street, Paryshevo settlement. Founded in 1940, it is also known as Molochnoye ("Dairy") and Molochka ("Little Dairy"). In the 2020s it holds the status of a closed memorial complex.[1]
History and Military Burials
The cemetery was in active use during the Great Patriotic War: Soviet soldiers killed in combat or who died in Nizhny Novgorod hospitals were buried here. A mass grave holds 171 people; the obelisk above it was erected in 1975, for the 30th anniversary of Victory. Registration card at the Military Memorial Center: No. 52-106.[1]
The cemetery also contains a mass grave of workers of the Gorky Automobile Plant who were killed at their workplaces during the air raids of 1941–1943; the obelisk over this grave was erected in 1969.[1]
In the early 2000s, a memorial was opened and a chapel built at the cemetery in memory of eight Nizhny Novgorod residents killed in the conflicts in the North Caucasus between 1995 and 2004.[1]
Notable Burials
Buried at Staro-Avtozavodskoye Cemetery are honorary residents of the Avtozavodsky District, athletes, and mechanical engineers. Among those interred are 12 Heroes of the Soviet Union, 13 Heroes of Socialist Labor, and three full cavaliers of the Order of Glory.[1][2] They include: Hero of Socialist Labor Alexey Ivanovich Zelentsov (1928–2017), a fitter-assembler at GAZ; Hero of Socialist Labor Nikolay Mikhailovich Shatalin; Stalin Prize laureate Alexander Dmitrievich Prosvirnin, a GAZ process engineer; the metallurgist Mikhail Pavlovich Lukovnikov, a 1951 Stalin Prize laureate; the designer Vladimir Mikhailovich Churaev, a 1996 laureate of the Russian Government Prize; and Nikolay Alexandrovich Yushmanov, a production veteran and "Honored Avtozavodets" (Honored Auto Plant Worker).
Current Condition
The cemetery operates as a closed memorial complex: no new burials are carried out, although interment in family and relatives' graves is permitted, as is the burial of urns with ashes with permission from the Nizhny Novgorod administration.[1] Opening hours: from May to September, daily from 9:00 to 19:00; from October to April, from 9:00 to 17:00; burials are held daily from 10:00 to 17:00. The cemetery is closed on January 1 and on Easter Day.[1] It can be reached by tram No. 8 from the GAZ House of Culture to the "Hospital No. 13" stop.[1]
Sources
- pomnim.online — Old Avtozavodskoye Cemetery, located in: Nizhny Novgorod Region, Nizhny Novgorod District (archive)
- nn.danila-master.ru — Old Avtozavodskoye Cemetery, Nizhny Novgorod — address, how to get there — Gravestones