Churches of the Smolensk cemetery of St. Petersburg in 1917-1940

One of the important spiritual centers of St. Petersburg since the XIX century was the Smolensk cemetery, which was especially pronounced in the Soviet period. By 1917, there were three churches in the cemetery and a chapel over the grave of Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, especially revered by believers. After the beginning of the Renovationist schism, since 1922, for about five years, there was a stubborn struggle for them against the schismatics, until, with the direct support of the Soviet authorities, the latter seized all the churches. During the anti-religious persecution in the early 1930s, the Resurrection and Trinity churches were closed. The remaining Smolensk Church and the chapel of Xenia the Blessed were closed among the last in the city - in September 1940, on the eve of the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, but already in 1946 the Soviet authorities were forced to allow their opening and return to the faithful. The article is prepared on the basis of a significant set of archival documents not previously introduced into scholarly discourse.