Remains of Denikin, Ilyin brought back to Russia

Bells were tolling as the remains of Gen. Anton Denikin and philosopher Ivan Ilyin were brought to the Donskoy Monastery, Moscow.

Archbishop Arseny, the monastery head, the brethren and over 100 Muscovites welcomed the procession and said a prayer for the dead.

The coffins of Denikin, Ilyin and their wives will stay in the monastery’s cathedral until Monday morning. Then the remains will be placed in the monastery burial vault, where the remains of Russian writer Ivan Shmelyov were brought from Paris five years ago.

Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II will deliver the burial service and bless the cornerstone of the National Reconciliation Memorial.

The remains of Gen. Anton Denikin and philosopher Ivan Ilyin were brought to Moscow by a special flight from Paris at 4:45 p.m. local time on Sunday.

Denikin’s daughter Marina Denikin-Grey, 85, who lives in Paris and recently received the Russian citizenship, initiated the re-burial of her father. The Russian Culture Fund organized the re-burial.

First World War military commander Denikin was a White Army general during the Russian Civil War. Following the White Army defeat, he took residence in France in spring 1920 and later on moved to the United States. Denikin was buried at a New Jersey cemetery in 1947, and his wife Ksenia was buried at a Russian cemetery near Paris.

Russian thinker and legal expert Ilyin was expelled from Soviet Russia in 1922 as an enemy to the Bolshevik regime. He had to flee Germany for Switzerland escaping from the Nazi. Ilyin was buried in Switzerland in 1954, Itar-Tass reports.