ABSTRACT
The infrastructural problem of ownerless objects is a central issue for funeral arrangements in contemporary Russia too. At the moment of the USSR collapse, municipalities in new Russia had inherited thousands of illegal cemeteries, access roads to cemeteries, and so on. For municipalities, it means that they have to legalize them and find the money for their maintenance. It is generally unknown how many cemeteries are in the Russian Federation. It is also unclear which of these cemeteries are open and which are closed for burial. The majority of cemeteries in Russia today do not have an owner. Very few churchyards have survived in Russia. Burials are not carried out on them, and the Soviet government destroyed most of the gravestones as well as churches. The law permits the creation of a confessional cemetery, and many religious communities take this opportunity. The Federal Military Memorial Cemetery in Borisovka, Moscow Region, is a modern national necropolis.
