"A meter at most from the wall to the grave." Two residential buildings were located within the boundaries of a village cemetery.

People from two houses village of Yurasovo, Nizhny Novgorod region Officially became residents of the cemetery. This happened after the authorities formalized the cemetery's cadastral boundaries. 

"Here's the entrance to the cemetery, and between them, it's barely a meter from the wall to the grave. Now our two houses are in the security zone—50 meters. They won't let us rebuild or build anything now. They'll probably force us to demolish the houses, I don't know."- perplexed the owner of the house closest to the cemetery Roman Benedik. 

The residents of the houses located in the cemetery are the family of a former priest who served in the now-destroyed church. For a long time, the cemetery had not been legally registered, and the authorities decided to bring the cemetery's paperwork into order. 

To prevent residential buildings from falling within the protected area, villagers proposed that local authorities close off 50 meters of the old cemetery and "impose" this protected area on them. This would prevent the residential areas from being subject to the restrictions. Instead of a peaceful resolution, officials sent the residents of the "cemetery houses" to court. 

Rural cemeteries still remain "gray zones" on cadastral maps: registering them is a time-consuming and expensive process. For example, in the village of Kumino, Vladimir region the places in the old cemetery have run out, but it is impossible to expand it — it is not legalized. At the same time, there is almost no space left for new cemeteries in rural areas, and the authorities are trying arrange them tightly to residential buildings. 

Video: a report from the program "By the Way"