Moscow
CNN
—
Russians were saying farewell to the last leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev on Saturday in a funeral that has been snubbed by President Vladimir Putin.
A public farewell ceremony for Gorbachev, who died this week at the age of 91, began at 10:00 a.m. local time (3:00 a.m. ET) and will last until the early afternoon in Moscow’s Hall of Columns, a storied venue that has hosted the state funerals of former Soviet leaders like Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin.
Hundreds of people lined up outside the building for a final look at Gorbachev, whose body lay in open casket flanked by two soldiers as his family sat off to the side in the ornate, chandelier-adorned room. Many who came to pay their respects laid roses and bouquets or took photographs.
Gorbachev will be buried next to his wife Raisa later in the day at Novodevichy Cemetery.
The Kremlin has stopped short of announcing a state funeral for Gorbachev, with its spokesperson saying it would have “elements of a state funeral,” including a guard of honor and the state assisting in the organization. No explanation has been provided on how the event would differ from previous state funerals.
While lionized in the West for ending the Cold War, Gorbachev is seen as a pariah at home for the chaos caused by his economic reforms – creating the circumstances that made a strongman like Putin attractive to many Russians. Putin blamed Gorbachev for the demise of the USSR, which he called the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century, and has set about restoring Russia’s wounded prestige.
Gorbachev grew more critical of Putin and his increasingly restrictive regime in recent years, traveling the world promoting free speech and democracy as part of his foundation. While Gorbachev himself did not comment on Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, his foundation called for peace negotiations, saying “there is nothing more precious in the world than human lives.”
The last Russian leader not to be granted a state funeral was Nikita Khrushchev, who was deposed for attempting to roll back Stalinist reforms. He died after living in seclusion in 1971 and his funeral was held in semi-secrecy.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev poses for a portrait in 2009.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbachev had humble beginnings: He was born into a peasant family in Privolnoye on March 2, 1931. Here, he’s with his parents in Privolnoye.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbachev with his maternal grandparents, Panteley and Vasilisa Gopkalo, circa 1937.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbachev, far right, poses for a photo with his classmates, circa 1947.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbachev, wearing the hat, is seen with classmates in the 1940s.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbachev, seen here in 1984, became a member of the Communist Party in 1952 and completed a law degree at Moscow University in 1955. By the end of the 1960s, he had risen to the top of the party hierarchy in the Stavropol region.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Gerald Penny/AP
Gorbachev and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher pose for a picture in London as they meet in December 1984. Thatcher once called him “a man one can do business with.”
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Boris Yurchenko/AP
Gorbachev, front center, attends an International Women’s Day Gala in Moscow in March 1985. He became a full Politburo member in 1980, and he rose to the top party spot in 1985. That effectively made him the leader of the Soviet Union.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Boris Yurchenko/AP
Gorbachev follows pallbearers carrying the casket of his predecessor as Soviet leader, Konstantin Chernenko, in Moscow’s Red Square in March 1985.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan hold a historic “fireside chat” in Geneva, Switzerland, in November 1985. The two had a series of summit talks.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbachev and Reagan attend the closing ceremony for the Geneva Summit in November 1985.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, are welcomed in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in April 1987.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
AP
Gorbachev visits Bucharest, Romania, in May 1987.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Boris Yurchenko/AP
Gorbachev waves during a parade in Moscow in November 1987.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Boris Yurchenko/AP
Gorbachev talks with Reagan at the beginning of a summit in Washington, DC, in December 1987.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbachev and Reagan sign an arms control agreement in December 1987 banning the use of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Doug Mills/AP
Gorbachev shakes hands with businessman — and future US President — Donald Trump at the US State Department in December 1987. It was before a luncheon held in Gorbachev’s honor.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbachev shows Reagan around Red Square during Reagan’s visit to Moscow in May 1988.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Boris Yurchenko/AP
Gorbachev, bottom right, and members of the Politburo vote to remove Andrei Gromyko, bottom center, as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in October 1988. Gorbachev would then succeed him in the role.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbachev visits New York with Reagan and US Vice President George H.W. Bush in December 1988.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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A Moscow woman and her cat watch Gorbachev’s New Year message in December 1988.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Julio Etchart/Panos Pictures/Redux
Gorbachev and Cuban President Fidel Castro wave during Gorbachev’s visit to Cuba in April 1989.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Boris Yurchenko/AP
Gorbachev greets East German leader Erich Honecker after arriving in East Berlin in October 1989.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
David Longstreath/AP
Gorbachev addresses a group of business executives in San Francisco in 1990.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Coretta Scott King presents Gorbachev with the Albert Einstein Award for his contribution to peace in June 1990.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbachev gives a speech after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in June 1991. He was awarded “for his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community.”
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Rick Wilking/Reuters
Gorbachev shakes hands with Bush, then president, in Moscow in July 1991.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP
Gorbachev rubs his eyes while speaking in Moscow in August 1991. He threatened to resign if the Soviet Union fell apart. That month, hard-liners in his country staged a revolt while Gorbachev was on vacation in the Crimea. Boris Yeltsin, the president of the biggest Soviet republic and a fierce critic of what he considered Gorbachev’s halfway reforms, came to Gorbachev’s rescue, facing down and defeating the coup plotters.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Robert Wallis/Panos Pictures
Gorbachev held a news conference the day after he returned from Crimea in August 1991. He had been held captive in his dacha by coup plotters attempting to remove him from power in order to stop his economic reform policies. The coup leaders had stated publicly that Gorbachev was stepping down due to ill health. Here, Gorbachev holds a crumpled note that he had hidden on his body to explain what really happened in case he was killed.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Liu Heng Shin/AP
Gorbachev closes his resignation speech after delivering it on Soviet television in December 1991. Across the Soviet Union, republics — one after another — were declaring independence. Shortly after his speech, the Soviet hammer-and-sickle flag was lowered from the Kremlin, and in its place rose the white, blue and red flag of Russia.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Bob Galbraith/AP
Gorbachev and Reagan spend time together at Reagan’s ranch in California in May 1992. Both were no longer in power.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Michal Dolezal/CTK/AP
From left, Bush, Gorbachev and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl attend a ceremony at Prague Castle in 1999. They were among six former world leaders being honored with the Order of the White Lion, the highest Czech state award.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbechev bows his head at Reagan’s funeral in June 2004.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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Gorbachev talks to Russian President Vladimir Putin before a news conference in Germany in December 2004.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
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CNN founder Ted Turner and Gorbachev answer questions during a United Nations news conference in 2005. Gorbachev was presenting Turner with the Alan Cranston Peace Award later that day.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Ann Heisenfelt/AP
Gorbachev shakes hands with a member of Green Cross International during a tour of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward in 2007. Gorbachev founded Green Cross International, an environmentalist organization.
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone/AP
Gorbachev and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon shake hands at the UN’s European headquarters in 2009. The theme that day was “resetting the nuclear disarmament agenda.”
Photos: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Ian Gavan/Getty Images
Gorbachev appears on stage during the finale of the Gorby 80 Gala in London in 2011. The concert celebrated Gorbachev’s 80th birthday.
Putin will be missing Saturday’s funeral due to his work schedule, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The Russian leader did, however, pay his respects to Gorbachev on Thursday. Footage showed Putin laying a bouquet of roses by the open coffin in Central Clinical Hospital, Putin then bowed and made the sign of the cross.
Saturday’s funeral is a marked contrast to the death of Russia’s first democratically elected president Boris Yeltsin – who had handpicked Putin to be his successor.
The Kremlin announced a day of national mourning following Yeltsin’s death in 2007, and his funeral was attended by a host of world leaders, including Putin, former US Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush, Britain’s former Prime Minister John Major and Prince Andrew, as well as former Polish president Lech Walesa.
Gorbachev’s funeral is unlikely to receive a similar roster of famous guests, as Moscow has banned hundreds of foreign officials from entering Russia in retaliation for Western sanctions. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan were among the few dignitaries spotted at the remembrance.