The Donskoy Monastery was founded in 1591 in honor of the defeat of the troops of the Crimean Khan Kazy- Giray. After the revolution the monastery was closed. In the 30s fragments of destroyed Moscow churches were brought here. Today in the monastery one can see the amazing high reliefs of the blown up Cathedral of Christ the Savior. A monumental eight-tiered carved iconostasis with icons of “Fryazhsky style" (style of Russian icon-painting with western influence) survived in the Great Cathedral of the Donskoy Monastery of the XVII century.
The necropolis of the Donskoy Monastery is also interesting. It is the only one in Moscow that survived during the Soviet years with virtually no losses. The writers Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Ivan Shmelyev, General Denikin, the closest relatives of Pushkin, as well as representatives of the princely families Dolgorukov, Vyazemsky and Naryshkin are buried here.