75 years of S.U.E. "Ritual" in Moscow
On the 4th March 2013 the Moscow's State Unitary Enterprise of specialized services for the population "Ritual" celebrated its 75th anniversary.
S.U.E. "Ritual" is the largest enterprise in the funeral industry in Russia. Over the years the staff of the company has gained unique experience while performing tasks of various complexity. Among the employees there are thousands of highly skilled professionals; most of them come from workers dynasties. SUE "Ritual" was and remains the industry’s leader in developing and mastering modern forms and methods of providing funeral services to the people.
By decree of the Presidium of the Moscow Council of RK and KD of 4th March 1938 "On reorganization of the funeral business" it was decided to combine all the funeral business in Moscow in one city Trust of funeral services. This trust unites all the cemeteries, the crematorium, workshops for making items for funeral rituals and funeral supplies sales shops. The company grew along with the growth of Moscow in 1949, 1960 and 2012.
In 1927 the second crematorium in Russia was built, but it was the first one in Moscow – the Donskoy Crematorium. For a long time it was the only functioning crematorium in the country. This is where many figures of the Communist Party were cremated for a subsequent burial in a columbarium built on the grounds of the Donskoy monastery, or in the Kremlin wall.
Today S.U.E. "Ritual" operates on 72 cemeteries with the total area of over 1,800 hectares, and from the 1st July 2012 it carries out burials on 62 cemeteries of the New Moscow.
The enterprise encompasses 7 territorial complexes of funeral services, 3 municipal crematoria: Mitinskiy, Khovanskiy and St. Nicholas Archangel – with 17 functioning furnaces and 16 farewell halls, a motor company, a woodworking shop, a central dispatching service and other units.
The company's employees are involved in emergency response tasks, including of man-made and natural disasters. A real test of strength for the company's employees was in July-August 2010, when the death rate because of the heat and smog has tripled. Performing their duties around the clock, at the limit of their physical and moral strength, workers of SUE "Ritual" did not allow the situation to go out of control.
A special unit of S.U.E. "Ritual" conducts the burial of the first persons of the state. Over the past years they have buried the first president of Russia Boris Yeltsin, Prime Ministers Viktor Chernomyrdin and Yegor Gaidar, the first lady of the first and the last president of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev - Raisa Gorbacheva, the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya couple, etc.
Every year in Moscow approximately 110,000 people die. In 2012 S.U.E. "Ritual" carried out 82,445 burials on the territory of Moscow cemeteries, including: casket burials - 48726, urn burial in the ground or placement in a niche - 33 719. The number of cremations for the year 2012 amounted to 50250.
For 75 years, the main task of S.U.E. "Ritual" was to meet the needs of people in funeral services, ensuring their affordability for all residents of the city, guaranteeing the quality and safety. Website: www.mosritual.ru