A rare opportunity to protest
Thousands of Russians on Saturday stood for several hours in snaking lines amid a heavy police presence to pay their respects to Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, who died on Tuesday.
Many Russians blame and revile Mr. 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 Mr. 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 V. Putin and as a result of the almost complete dismantling of Mr. Gorbachev’s legacy, culminating with the six-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 on Saturday: Mr. Putin. Citing a busy schedule, he did not attend the funeral. Instead, Mr. Putin paid his last respects to Mr. Gorbachev on Thursday, taking a bouquet of flowers to the hospital in Moscow where he died.
Mr. 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 Mr. Putin is now largely trying to undo.
The funeral was a rare opportunity for like-minded Russians to gather in one place, though, at a time when protest and dissent have been effectively criminalized.
In an authoritarian system you do the best you can…