Solzhenitsyn farewelled at Moscow funeral
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The body Alexander Solzhenitsyn is lowered into the ground. (AFP: Mikhail Klimentyev)
Russia buried Soviet-era dissident and author Alexander Solzhenitsyn at a 16th century monastery on Wednesday after a religious ceremony attended by President Dmitry Medvedev which bore all the hallmarks of a state funeral.
Hundreds of elderly Russians came to bid farewell to the deeply religious Nobel Literature Prize laureate whose body lay wrapped in cloths and red roses for several hours in an open coffin in the Russian Orthodox ceremony in Moscow.
Solzhenitsyn was buried in the Donskoi monastery grounds after the service, which was broadcast live on state television and featured a military band.
Mr Medvedev, who cut short his vacation to attend the service, looked solemn as he gazed at Solzhenitsyn's ashen face before offering condolences to his widow, Natalia, at the church - its high red ceilings decorated with paintings of Russian saints.
As priests chanted prayers and hymns, Natalia, her three sons and grandchildren silently wept and crossed themselves at the foot of Solzhenitsyn's coffin.
Mr Medvedev's eyes welled up with tears when the coffin was lowered into the grave.
Rifles were fired in salute and a tribute was played by a military band.
Solzhenitsyn, a prominent critic of the tyranny of Soviet rule and Josef Stalin's labour camps, died of heart failure in his house near Moscow on Sunday. He was 89.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, leader of the banned National Bolsheviks party Eduard Limonov, diplomats, several members of the Russian literary elite and ordinary Russians held thin gold candles and chanted prayers during the service.
"He had a passionate personality. He picked Russia up from the dirt of the Communist hole," writer Ekaterina Markova, who was friends with Solzhenitsyn and his family, said.
- Reuters
