MOSCOW >> Thousands of Russians on Saturday stood for several hours in snaking lines amid a heavy police presence to pay their respects to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, who died Tuesday.

Many Russians blame and revile Gorbachev for the breakup of the Soviet Union, but people of all ages, many of whom stood solemnly clutching flowers outside Moscow’s famed House of the Unions, said that they had come to thank him for something severely restricted today in Russia: freedom.

“Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev gave us 30 years of sunlight,” said Maksim, 20, a political science student, who carried a large sunflower to place before Gorbachev’s body, which was lying in state in the building’s grand hall.

“Unfortunately, this time has passed, and there is no more sun, only darkness,” Maksim said. “But I am deeply grateful to him for these 30 years.”

For many, the funeral was a vivid reminder of the rights that Russians have lost under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin and as a result of the almost complete dismantling of Gorbachev’s legacy, culminating with the 6-month-old war that Russia is prosecuting in Ukraine to take back former Soviet territory.

“For so many of us in Moscow, his death seems the death of democracy,” said Veronika, 32, an art consultant.

The New York Times is using only first names to protect the Russians in attendance from possible retaliation.

Amid the throngs, one person was conspicuously absent Saturday: Putin. Citing a busy schedule, he did not attend the funeral. Instead, Putin paid his last respects to Gorbachev on Thursday, taking a bouquet of flowers to the hospital in Moscow where he died.

Putin’s absence sent a clear message: While the Kremlin wanted to avoid any direct condemnation of a person who was once at its helm, it also wanted to distance itself from the symbol of an era whose legacy Putin is now largely trying to undo.

The funeral was a rare opportunity for like-minded Russians to gather in one place, although at a time when protest and dissent have been effectively criminalized.

“They were burying their freedom and their hopes,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace based in Moscow. “This is really such a peaceful and sad protest against what Putin was doing all these years — and against Putin himself.”

Gorbachev died at 91, after what the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow said was “a long and grave illness.” Gorbachev’s admirers credit him with ending the Cold War and achieving significant strides in nuclear disarmament. Inside Russia, he gave “the people of the Soviet Union the possibility of being independent, of building their lives independently,” his longtime interpreter, Pavel Palazhchenko, said in an interview.

On Saturday, inside the grand hall of the House of the Unions, known as the Hall of Pillars — the same place where Russians bade farewell to Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin — people filed past Gorbachev’s open coffin, which was flanked by two honor guards. A mountain of flowers left by mourners lay on a long table in front of the coffin, which was beneath a Russian flag instead of the Soviet red banner.

Gorbachev’s family members sat beside the coffin, and close friends, like Dmitry Muratov, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 (Gorbachev also received the prize, in 1990), sat nearby. In the early 1990s, Gorbachev helped found the newspaper that Muratov edits, Novaya Gazeta. The paper was forced to suspend publication in March, threatened by a new wartime censorship law, and Russian authorities now seek to revoke its license.

There were so many mourners that guards urged people not to linger in front of Gorbachev’s coffin. Many left the hall in tears.

“He gave us freedom and peace and music — everything that is most dear to us,” said Ekaterina, 75, who was crying as she exited onto the central Dmitrovka Street, which was cordoned off by law enforcement.

“Condolences to all of us because this also concerns you,” she said, referring to the West and reflecting on how Gorbachev had opened Russia up to Europe and the United States.

Since Gorbachev’s death, it was clear that the Kremlin would not accord him the pomp of the grand state ceremonies that characterized funerals of his Soviet predecessors.

And while the absence of foreign dignitaries — who lionize Gorbachev for ending the Cold War — was a sign of Russia’s current isolation, many high-profile Russian figures did attend the ceremony Saturday. Dmitry Medvedev, a former president; Sergei Stepashin, a former prime minister; and some popular culture figures, including Alla Pugacheva, a pop superstar, all paid their respects.

Also in attendance were some who have been critical of Gorbachev’s legacy, including Dmitry Kiselyov, the host of the flagship weekly news show on Russian state television.

Despite trying to distance himself from Gorbachev, Putin on Wednesday acknowledged the last Soviet leader’s legacy without praise, calling him “a politician and statesman who had a huge impact on the course of world history.”

“He deeply understood that reforms were necessary,” Putin added. “He strove to offer his own solutions to urgent problems.”

Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Endowment said that Putin’s “bunkerized” farewell to Gorbachev, a reference to the Russian president’s increasing isolation since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, was indicative of the Kremlin’s attitude toward the man Putin blames for the collapse of the Soviet Union, which he sees as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century.

“It is a bit strange that the Gorbachev funeral took this unprecedented form,” Kolesnikov said. “This is a marker of Putin’s attitude toward Gorbachev. On the one hand, he can’t be too close to his figure, but on the other hand, they can’t ignore totally the scale.”

The Kremlin said after Gorbachev’s death that there would be only “elements of a state funeral,” including an honor guard. By contrast, when Gorbachev’s successor, Boris Yeltsin, died in 2007, Putin, who succeeded him, declared a day of national mourning for his funeral. The ceremony was broadcast live on state television, and the lowering of Yeltsin’s coffin was accompanied by an artillery salute.

Yeltsin’s funeral was attended by numerous foreign dignitaries, including acting state leaders and former ones such as Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. Gorbachev’s funeral was attended by Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary. Kolesnikov said that the presence of the far-right Hungarian leader, who has maintained close ties with Putin, was “insulting” to Gorbachev’s legacy.

Although a number of foreign ambassadors paid their respects Saturday, the absence of a wider group of global representatives at Gorbachev’s ceremony highlighted Russia’s isolation as its current leader is engaged in the brutal war in Ukraine.

As Gorbachev’s rule divided Russia, so did his funeral. While thousands stood in line to pay their last respects, others called for recording every attendee.

“These are the most decisive, brave and sincere of all enemies of Russia,” Igor Girkin, a former Russian intelligence colonel who took part in the conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine when it began in 2014, wrote on his Telegram channel.

After the ceremony Saturday, Gorbachev was buried next to his wife, Raisa, at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. A few years before his death, in an interview with documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky, Gorbachev said that his love for his wife had constituted the meaning of his life.

“What can be higher than the feeling of being in love and being loved by a woman?” he asked.

Another scene in the documentary was also telling: As Gorbachev celebrated the arrival of 2020 among a small group of associates, he sang along with the Russian national anthem, which played at the stroke of midnight.

When the choir sang the line, “Be glorious, our free fatherland!” Gorbachev’s face lit up with a boyish smile.

“And who brought the freedom?” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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