Gravestone of Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin

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This monument honors Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin, born November 12, 1833, and died February 27, 1887. He was a Russian Romantic composer of Georgian descent, as well as a doctor and chemist. Borodin was one of the prominent 19th-century composers known as The Mighty Handful, a group dedicated to creating a uniquely Russian style of classical music that did not imitate earlier Western European models. Borodin is most famous for his symphonies, two string quartets, "In the Steppes of Central Asia," and his opera "Prince Igor." Music from "Prince Igor" and his string quartets was later adapted into the US musical "Kismet." Borodin was a strong advocate of women's rights and promoted education in Russia. He founded the School of Medicine for Women in St. Petersburg. The State Museum of City Sculptures was established in 1932 to study, restore, and protect city sculptures and gravestones, including many in St. Petersburg. The museum is responsible for maintaining several branches around the city, with the main ones located within the former territory of the Aleksandro-Nevsky Lavra. The Tikhvinskoe Cemetery was founded in 1823 and named after the Our Lady of Tikhvin Church, which was built between 1869 and 1873. In 1931, the church was closed, and in 1932, the cemetery became a branch of the State Museum of City Sculptures, known as the Necropolis of Masters of Culture. This necropolis is so named because many prominent figures of Russian culture have been laid to rest here, including writers Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Karamzin, and Ivan Krylov; composers Aleksandr Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, Modest Musorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky; and artists Boris Kustodiev, Ivan Kramskoy, and Ivan Shishkin.