MOSCOW – Former President Boris Yeltsin, putting an end to Soviet practices in death as he did in life, was buried Wednesday with Russian Orthodox rites. The service marked the first time in more than a century that Russia bid a religious farewell to a deceased head of state.
The last time Russia held a religious funeral service for a national leader was when Czar Alexander III died in 1894.
Former U.S. Presidents Bush and Clinton were among the dignitaries who gathered for a memorial at central Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, which was followed by burial at Novodevichy cemetery.
During the procession to the cemetery, Yeltsin’s coffin was carried on a gun carriage pulled by an armored vehicle and followed by his family, Russian President Vladimir Putin and dozens of dignitaries. Carnations were strewn on the pavement, while soldiers stood at attention along each side of the road.
At the graveside, Naina Yeltsin stood in silence for a long time, caressing her husband’s hair, apparently unable to say the last farewell. She placed a gift in the coffin, kissed him and pulled a silk shroud over his face.
The coffin’s lid was closed, and the former president’s body was lowered into the ground. A three-gun salvo was fired, followed by the playing of the Russian national anthem.
Putin later praised the man who elevated him to power as having “sincerely tried to do everything possible to make the lives of millions of Russians better.”
The memorial looked like a reunion of some of the world’s most prominent figures of the 1990s. Former British Prime Minister John Major and former Polish President Lech Walesa were among those present.
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, to whom Yeltsin was first an ally and then a rival, offered condolences to the widow. Communist Party leaders, however, boycotted the service.
Yeltsin, who died Monday of heart disease at the age of 76, led Russia from 1991 to 1999. His years in power were marked by economic turmoil that caused millions of Russians to fall into poverty. But he played a key role in bringing a measure of democracy to the country.
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