Thursday 19 April 2007

Philby's grave


This is Kim Philby's grave in the military part of the cemetery at Kuntsevo, in the western suburbs of Moscow. Though it is in the suburbs today, a long way from the edge of town, it is five miles further out than Stalin's "Nearby" dacha, which was also at Kuntsevo, and built in 1934 in the countryside. Though intact, that cannot be visited--sadly.

The graves in the cemetery are arranged in date order of burial, so Philby is next to generals and admirals who died in the last years of the Soviet Union. They almost all have flabby-looking, uninteresting faces, unlike the older communists who were often lean and lively-looking. Philby stands out in this company as very much an individual amongst rows and rows of very similar-looking men (though, in fairness, that is partly due to the habit of stylised posing for something as formal as a photograph which would later be etched onto the gravestone).