The former Soviet Union Military Cemetery is now considered a memorial with historical significance. The last burial was that of a young baby girl (the daughter of a Russian soldier stationed in Dresden) in 1987. The cemetery is located in the northern district of Albertstadt, just around the corner from the Nordfriedhof Dresden.

On this 4.2 acre (1.7 hectare) cemetery there are 2268 graves of Russian soldiers, who died during the last days of World War II or later, when the Russian Army occupied former East Germany. This includes some family members as well. The grave markers are all engraved in Russian, most of them also containing the military rank. First names are mainly given as initials. About 50 grave markers display no first name(s) at all.

Remember that with Russian names an "a" at the end of the family name usually indicates a woman. The suffix "witsch" at the end of the middle name means "son of".

The cemetery was originally created in May of 1945 (just after the end of World War II) as a permanent cemetery for members of the Russian Red Army, in particular the 1st Tank Battalion stationed in Dresden at the time.

The center piece of the cemetery is a large 48ft-obelisk, erected in 1949. Between 1998 and 2007 most individual, original grave markers were replaced with uniformed grave stones, also in the shape of an obelisk.

The cemetery is now managed by the city of Dresden, but for individual questions regarding those interred here, also in Russian, one may contact the

Dresden German-Russian Cultural Institute

Zittauer Strasse 29

01099 Dresden

GERMANY

Tel: 0351-8014160

E-Mail: drkidresden(at)drki.de