150 thousand euros for four square meters - this is the price of a grave in one of the central cemeteries of Moscow. In terms of investment efficiency, business is dying ahead of investments in deluxe housing. Five years ago, prices for elite burials were at least five times lower. The New Times understood the peculiarities of the funeral boom
A close relative dies of a far from poor businessman. It is necessary to bury “humanly” - that is, in a cemetery with a well-known name and within the Moscow Ring Road. A person mobilizes business connections and goes in search. In two days, he travels around the Vagankovskoye, Troekurovskoye, Donskoy, Danilovskoye, Vostryakovskoye, Kalitnikovskoye cemeteries ... It turned out that it was impossible to legally rest a neighbor anywhere: all 69 metropolitan graveyards are considered "closed". However, the businessman was not refused anywhere either. The difference is only in the price of the issue.
Grave Price List
In one case, they agreed to "get into position" for €150 thousand, in another - for $140 thousand, in the third - for 80 thousand, in the fourth - "only" for 65 thousand USD. At the same time, the installation of a tombstone, the manufacture of a monument are paid separately and cost from $50,000 to $250,000 (in the latter case, a well-known sculptor is involved).
When asked why ritual services are so expensive, the cemetery attendants simply answer: the demand is great. There are more than a hundred official billionaires in Moscow, millionaires - many thousands. And okay, if only private individuals competed in who would pay the most. In the last decade, the price level has been held up and rising thanks to corporate money (what organization doesn't fork out for their favorite boss?) and the resources of the "fellowship". The funeral of bandits and authorities is paid, as a rule, by the “common fund”. That is why the best places in the cemeteries are occupied by memorials to the "heroes" of criminal battles. A bandit of even medium caliber needs by no means a standard plot of 3x2.6 meters, but at least the size of a one-room apartment. They say that the price of such graves goes off scale for half a million dollars. And it is even higher if the deceased bequeathed to bury himself in an ethnic (for example, Armenian) cemetery or in a confessional (say, Muslim) cemetery, of which there are only a few in a metropolis of 12 million. As early as 1995, special services (for example, carrying a coffin in one's hands to a burial place in a Muslim cemetery) cost $2–5,000. Now the prices are even higher.
Is there a chance to reduce the price and enter the elite realm of the dead for less money? Theoretically, there is. If you look for offers from individuals and take certain risks.
All for sale
Over the past month, the Yandex search engine has satisfied 21,000 requests for the purchase and sale of places in cemeteries. Among the leaders is the Novosel.ru portal with a cheerful slogan “For those who build, sell, buy and live!”
In the section “plots in cemeteries”, a certain Nina Vladimirovna “will sell a grave (spelling of the original. - The New Times) on the Central Alley of the Donskoy Cemetery”, some Sergey offers as many as three options for burials in the most eminent graveyards, from Novodevichy to Kalitnikovsky, and Elena Nikolaevna - a grave ten meters from the columbarium of the Vagankovsky cemetery ... But the most surprising thing: the prices of "private traders" turned out to be several times lower than the informal proposals of the cemetery administrations. For a plot on Vagankovo (almost next to Vysotsky) they ask for only €20,000. And you can go there even tomorrow. Options with a “delayed settlement”, for example, from 2012, are even cheaper 1 .
In conversations with The New Times correspondent, the owners and "realtors" of the cemetery real estate each time emphasize the "legality of the transaction", the presence of "correctly executed documents". Say, why be afraid if the grave is the same commodity as a country house, a garage or a privatized apartment?! However, an elementary clarification shows that the sellers are cunning. “There was and is no privatization of Moscow graves, cemeteries or plots on them,” explained The New Times in the department for working with the population of the Ritual State Unitary Enterprise. 2 . “The sale of plots (burial sites) in city cemeteries is illegal.”
The inflexibility of the general rule is exacerbated by the special attitude of the authorities towards eminent cemeteries. There are quite official warnings on the official websites of undertakers, for example, this one: “Be careful! Sale of places and plots at the Vagankovsky cemetery, by definition, is impossible! This is the most common scam. All sections of the Vagankovsky cemetery and lists are included in the general cadastre and are registered with the municipality.
Perhaps this is so. After all, there were no free, reserve and other "thieves" areas in the Moscow graveyards. They say that in order to bury the famous artist Alexander Abdulov on Vagankovsky, they had to cut down a tree and move a pillar. But in addition to celebrities, according to the Department of the Consumer Market of Moscow, an average of 1500-1600 people are buried annually in the long-"closed" cemeteries of the capital. How do they get there?
Gaps in the fences
An analysis of the legislation on burials shows that there are shining gaps in the fences of "closed" cemeteries.
From the decree of the Moscow government: “Permission to bury the coffin in the ground at the Novodevichy and Vagankovsky cemeteries, as well as urns with ashes in the columbarium at Novodevichy (except for related burials) must be personally approved by the mayor of Moscow. The issue of burials in other cemeteries is decided by the consumer market department. Priority right is given to veterans, servicemen and combatants, citizens who have been awarded state awards and have services to Russia and Moscow, as well as members of their families.
A lawyer for one of the funeral companies, Alexander, says that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people fall under the above categories. The posthumous fate of the majority is decided by city officials at their own discretion. Not to mention that the department does not have the ability to quickly verify the legitimacy of the awards and titles of the dead, and even more so to determine the degree of "merits" to the Motherland.
Left graveyards
The second flow of applicants for elite churchyards comes at the initiative from below. The administration of the cemetery often draws up "left" burials as "relatives". At the same time, in some cases, the graves turn into fraternal "communal apartments", where people completely unfamiliar during their lifetime coexist, in others, ownerless graves are first dug up, and the remains are transported to the Perepechinskoye cemetery near Moscow - the only graveyard where unidentified and unclaimed dead are buried. There are also particularly enterprising individuals who have the status of "responsible for the grave." Some agree to "settle" someone else's dead person with their loved ones (and, therefore, to falsify documents), others are ready to dig up the bones of their ancestors and move them to hell, if only to profitably sell the grave. Should burials be privatized in Moscow, an epidemic of grave-digging would overwhelm the city.
Passport for the deceased
In February 2008, the Moscow government supported the idea of Vladimir Malyshkov, head of the consumer market and services department, to create a central control room for ritual services and introduce an electronic burial passport at all cemeteries. This means that each dead person and grave will have its own identification number - like a passport, like a living person.
However, no numbers solve the shortage of places in the capital's graveyards.
Everyone is in the area!
Moscow is perhaps the only one of the world's capitals, in the general plan of which there is no construction of new cemeteries. A familiar foreign journalist remarks: “Probably Moscow is the city of the immortals?” No, everything is much simpler. The land is needed for commercial housing. And after death, he will have to rest in the neighboring subject of the Federation - the Moscow Region. Now in the Odintsovo district, near the village of Yastrebki, a new Holy Assumption cemetery is being built for 250,000 burials, while 100-120,000 people die in Moscow every year. It is not difficult to imagine that its legal capabilities will last for a few years. True, unlike eminent graveyards within the city, it is already possible to reserve a plot - at least for yourself, at least for the whole family - in the regional tomb. Far-sighted citizens believe that the cost of a grave from 10 to 80 thousand rubles in five to ten years will seem ridiculous 3 . And they will be right.
An example of a civilized solution to the problem can be the experience of the London cemetery in Manorpark. Three years ago, they proposed to use the old graves again. But unlike the Moscow churchyards, the "old" burials there are not 13.5, but 150 years old. At the same time, we are talking only about deep, more than 3 meters graves, so that during the new “settlement” not to disturb the old remains, which in itself is considered sinful. The price of "historical" graves for new tenants (for example, Moscow!) is not a sum with many zeros, but 3 thousand pounds (about 6 thousand dollars) for renting a site for 50 years.
_____________ 1 According to Russian rules, it is possible to bury relatives in one grave 13.5 years after the previous burial. Therefore, some brokers sell the "goods" with a delay. 2 You can get an official opinion on any type of "cemetery" transactions in the legal service or from the inspector for work with the population of the State Unitary Enterprise "Ritual" by phone 157-43-83 or in person at the address: st. Peschanaya, 3, building 9 (passage to Sokol metro station, last car from the center), from 9.00 to 18.00.
3 The price of a plot in a new cemetery depends on the proximity to the main thoroughfares, the chapel and the level of amenities (granite pedestals and wrought iron fences are provided on the most expensive ones).
