Cemetery of Ixelles

Here in the cemetery of Ixelles lies Ivan Denovian who died in 1936. His grave is easy to find because it has a Russian Orthodox cross. Ivan Denovian was involved in a famous assassination attempt that would never happen. Namely, that on Lenin, when he was in Brussels in 1903 for the 2nd communist congress.
Ivan Denovian was once the beloved of Marija Ulyanova, who studied natural sciences here in Brussels at the ULB (1899). She was the sister of Lenin. Ivan Denovian was a Belgian of Russian-Armenian descent. Ivan De Neuve is his Belgian name.

When Marija withdrew to Russia, the relationship ended.

Some time later, on November 15, 1902, an Italian anarchist, Genaro Rubbino, shot at the carriage of King Leopold II, but missed. There was a theory from Belgian state security that a group of Russians were behind it, led by Lenin.

Meanwhile, Ivan Denovian had become an agent of the Belgian state security.

In 1903, the communist party of Lenin held a 2nd congress in Brussels, because communists were banned in Russia. The Belgian state security wanted to eliminate Lenin in retaliation for the assassination attempt in 1902. State security sent an agent who spoke good Russian: Ivan Denovian. And there the lovers crossed paths again, because Lenin's sister, Marija Ulyanova, was also part of the party. What exactly happened is not known. The fact is that the communist congress quickly packed its bags in Brussels and moved to London. An assassination attempt on Lenin did not happen. And it is suspected that the two lovers may have had something to do with it.

Ivan Denovian died years later in 1936, one year before his beloved Marija. He was buried here in the cemetery of Ixelles.

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