LAST UPDATE | 31 Aug 2022

THE FUNERAL OF the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev — who has died at the age of 91 — will take place in Moscow on Saturday, Russian news agencies reported citing Gorbachev’s daughter and his foundation.

The ceremony will be held on September 3 in the Moscow Hall of Columns, historically used for funeral services of high officials, including Joseph Stalin in 1953, the Interfax news agency reported.

The press service of the Gorbachev Foundation told Interfax that the ceremony will take place between 10:00 and 14:00 Moscow time (7am and 11am Irish time) and will be open to all.

The same day, Gorbachev will be buried at the prestigious Novodevichy cemetery, his daughter Irina added.

A source close to the Gorbachev family had earlier told news agency TASS that he would be buried next to his wife Raisa.

Officials were yet to announce whether Gorbachev would have a state funeral or if President Vladimir Putin would be in attendance.

Tributes

Putin has said that Mikhail Gorbachev made a “huge impact” on world history.

“Mikhail Gorbachev was a politician and statesman who had a huge impact on the course of world history,” Putin said in a statement from the Kremlin, expressing his “deepest condolences” to Gorbachev’s friends and family.

“He led our country during a period of complex, dramatic changes, large-scale foreign policy, economic and social challenges,” Putin added.

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

Gorbachev was in power between 1985 and 1991, triggering the demise of the Soviet Union during his time in office.

Putin, who famously called the Soviet collapse the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century, has spent much of his more than 20 year rule trying to reverse parts of Gorbachev’s legacy.

Gorbachev was also credited with bringing US-Soviet ties out of a deep-freeze following the Cold War era.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Gorbachev “wanted to believe” that the Cold War would end and “there would be an eternal romantic period” between the Soviet Union and the West.

“This romanticism did not materialise… The bloodthirst of our opponents has shown itself,” Peskov said in televised remarks.

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny also praised Gorbachev for “peacefully” departing from power.

“He stepped down peacefully and voluntarily, respecting the will of his constituents. This alone is a great feat by the standards of the former USSR,” he said on Twitter.

Navalny also said that Gorbachev “remained one of the very few who did not use power and opportunities for personal gain and enrichment”.

The Russian dissident also added that it was under Gorbachev’s tenure that “the last political prisoners were released in the USSR”.

‘Rare leader’

World leaders have paid tribute to Gorbachev, describing his death as the loss of a rare leader who changed the world and, for a time, boosted hopes for peace between the superpowers.

US President Joe Biden said Gorbachev embraced democratic reforms “after decades of brutal political repression”.

“He believed in glasnost and perestroika – openness and restructuring – not as mere slogans, but as the path forward for the people of the Soviet Union after so many years of isolation and deprivation,” he said.

“These were the acts of a rare leader – one with the imagination to see that a different future was possible and the courage to risk his entire career to achieve it. The result was a safer world and greater freedom for millions of people.”

President Michael D Higgins said that among the expressions of sadness at Gorbachev’s passing, “most painful perhaps will be those who, living in conditions of Cold War, saw his ‘perestroika’ and ‘glasnost’ as instruments of hope”.

“Concerned citizens all over the world who saw hope in the agreements he pursued with others on the reduction, rather than the production and dissemination, of the instruments of war when so many global problems of hunger and poverty prevailed.

“For them, he seemed to recognise the power of diplomacy, with its capacity to show even powerful governments the capacity to approach, even resolve, ideological differences, and to bring these to the centre of the places of discourse with discussions based on mutual respect.”

President Higgins said Gorbachev’s own “deep distress, as given in rare interviews late in life, was that he had underestimated the power and influence of institutional forces raised against this, including military-industrial complexes without borders.”

He spoke of how he had trusted where he should have recognised that there was no basis of trust. There were internal and external forces who would never allow the radical reforms to come to be.

“He was a man of good instinct who offered hope and who will be rightly remembered by so many for that most human of instincts.”

Lord Mayor of Dublin Caroline Conroy also expressed her condolences to Gorbachev’s family and friends. Gorbachev was given the Freedom of Dublin City in 2002. 

“For people of a certain age Mikhail Gorbachev was a huge figure in their lifetime,” the Lord Mayor said.

“Who can ever forget his promises of glasnost and perestroika? He embodied the concept of what it means to be a true leader, and took risks to bring greater freedom and safety to millions. I think Mr Gorbachev will be remembered with fondness by many people.”

Conroy also announced that the Dublin City flag on top of the Mansion House will be flown at half-mast in remembrance of Gorbachev. 

‘One-of-a-kind’

French President Emmanuel Macron described Gorbachev as “a man of peace whose choices opened up a path of liberty for Russians. His commitment to peace in Europe changed our shared history”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called him “a one-of-a kind statesman who changed the course of history” and “did more than any other individual to bring about the peaceful end of the Cold War”.

“The world has lost a towering global leader, committed multilateralist, and tireless advocate for peace,” he said.

Guterres quoted Gorbachev’s observation in his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize speech that “peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity”.

“He put this vital insight into practice by pursuing the path of negotiation, reform, transparency and disarmament,” the UN chief said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he “always admired the courage and integrity” Gorbachev showed to help end the Cold War.

In a time of Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, his tireless commitment to opening up Soviet society remains an example to us all.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed a “trusted and respected leader” who “opened the way for a free Europe”.

His “crucial role” in bringing down the Iron Curtain and ending the Cold War left a legacy “we will not forget.”

Nato Secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said Gorbachev’s “vision of a better world remains an example” and paid tribute to his “historic reforms… (which) opened the possibility of a partnership between Russia and Nato”.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Gorbachev was awarded the Peace Prize in 1990 for his “leading role in the process which led to the peaceful ending of the Cold War… including important arms control and international trust-building initiatives.”

The committee praised him for bringing “greater openness in Soviet society and allowing the people of Eastern Europe to regain their freedom.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hailed Gorbachev’s role in reuniting Germany but lamented he “died at a time in which democracy has failed in Russia”.

Angela Merkel, the former chancellor who grew up in East Germany, said Gorbachev had “fundamentally changed my life” and showed how “one single statesman can change the world for the better”.

- © AFP 2022 with reporting from Jame Moore and Stephen McDermott.