Burials in the
Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow began in November 1917, when 240
pro-Bolshevik victims of the
October Revolution were buried in
mass graves at
Red Square. It is centered on both sides of
Lenin's Mausoleum, initially built in wood in 1924 and rebuilt in
granite in 1929–1930. After the last mass burial made in 1921, funerals on Red Square were usually conducted as
state ceremonies and reserved as the last honor for notable politicians, military leaders, cosmonauts, and scientists. In 1925–1927 burials in the ground were stopped; funerals were now conducted as burials of
cremated ash in the Kremlin wall itself. Burials in the ground only resumed with
Mikhail Kalinin's funeral in 1946. The practice of burying dignitaries at Red Square ended with the funeral of
Konstantin Chernenko in March 1985. The Kremlin Wall Necropolis was designated a protected landmark in 1974.