Lying Down On The Job: The Tombstones Of Stavropol
At some Russian cemeteries, gravestones reveal more than the names and ages of those buried there. Some monuments also show how the person lived. At this cemetery in Stavropol, southwestern Russia, many tombstones depict the profession or hobby to which a person devoted his or her life, from the aerospace industry to construction work or motorcycling racing.
Sergei Vladimirovich Kopylov is immortalized as a unit commander at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Yury Vladimirovich Shchyokin, a devoted motorbiker
Viktor Stanislavovich Kulabukhov is remembered for a career in construction.
Other people, or their loved ones, chose images of taxis, ships, bombers, and military hardware.
Aleksandr Mikhailovich Turishchev's tombstone bears this image of a jet.
The tombstone of Vladimir Nikolayevich Galunenko shows a traveler setting off on a final journey.
RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service is one of the few independent media outlets reporting in this predominantly Muslim region, one of the most repressive and arbitrary in the Russian Federation.
