The necropolis at the Donskoy Monastery was formed in the 17th century. N. Karamzin calls it in the “History of the Russian State” the main burial place of outstanding people of that time.

Dolgorukiye and Vyazemsky, Golitsyns and Cherkassky — the names of these families are inscribed on the pedestals of the necropolis. The graves of A. Sumarokova, P. Chaadayeva, V. Odoevsky. Relatives of Turgenev and Pushkin, the creative and cultural elite of the country, rest here.

At the beginning of the 20th century, burials went beyond the fence of the monastery, receiving the name of the new Donskoy cemetery. Buried on it: singer M. Kristalinskaya, writer A. Solzhenitsyn, General A. Denikin and his wife, etc.

The Soviet authorities blasphemously disposed of the church of St. Seraphim of Sarov, located on the territory of the cemetery, converting it into a crematorium.

Currently, services have been resumed.