Novodevichy Convent

Novodevichy was a favourite winter destination for Leo Tolstoy who lived in the neighbourhood and liked to go ice skating on the pond outside the convent walls. In Anna Karenina Konstantin Levin meets his future wife Kitty ice skating here.
By the end of the 17th century the convent was a major landowner possessing 36 villages and more than 10, 000 serfs. In1922 the convent was closed but the nuns wrre invited back in 1994
The Novodevichy Cemetery was used in soviet times for eminent people considered unsuitable for burial in the Kremlin. Krushchev and Yeltsin are buried here.
A beautiful historic site with today's devout orthodox Russians visiting the churches, lighting candles and kissing the numerous icons. No doubt this is where thesr two Russian women have been.