- Kremlin says his death a great loss
- Russia remembers ex-leader
The lying-in-state ceremony for the first and only President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday, will take place on Saturday, September 3, in the House of the Unions in Moscow, between 10:00 and 14:00 Moscow time.
Gorbachev Foundation spokesman, Vladimir Polyakov disclosed this to TASS on Wednesday, adding that access to the ceremony will be free for everyone.
“Pillar Hall [at House of the Unions], September 3, between 10:00 and 14:00. Free access. Funeral [to take place] the same day at Novodevichye cemetery,” he said.
Gorbachev occupied the top office for six years. He declared the new course almost immediately after his appointment as Communist Party Secretary General in 1985.
Later, he headed the Supreme Soviet (Council) of the USSR. He proposed to establish the office of the president and to cancel the constitutional article regarding the leading role of the Communist Party.
During that period, many languages of the world adopted Russian words “perestroika” and “glasnost.” He resigned on December 25, 1991, simultaneously with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Reacting on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, says that Gorbachev was controversial person, but he’s part of history.
However, he said the death of the first Soviet president is “of course, a great loss for our country.”
He said Mikhail Gorbachev, the first Soviet president whose death was reported on August 30, was a complex and often controversial person, but he is part of history.
“He’s a very complex, very multifaceted and often very contradictory personality, the personality of Gorbachev. And it still causes very tough debates in our society sometimes. But it’s part of our history that will go down in the ages,” he said.
Peskov said the death of the first Soviet president is “of course, a great loss for our country.”
“This man left a very deep mark, he influenced the fate of our Motherland,” the spokesman said.
He said that Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier sent a telegram of condolences to the family and friends of Gorbachev.
When asked why Gorbachev was unable to leave a definite impression of himself, Peskov said, “Because the course of history is sometimes stronger.”
The spokesman also quoted Putin as saying, “You don’t have a heart if you don’t regret the collapse of the Soviet Union, but you don’t have the brains if you want it to be restored.”
“So let’s not speak in the subjunctive mood, let it be the bread of the relevant experts,” he said.
Press review: Russia remembers Gorbachev
The former Soviet President was a politician whose name will be forever linked with the end of the Cold War era.
Politicians and experts say he was an important figure for Russia whose name will remain in history. Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his deep condolences over the passing of the ex-USSR president.
“Gorbachev was, undoubtedly, the most striking politician of his time. Yet, for everyone born in the Soviet Union he remains a complex and contradictory historical figure,” LDPR leader and Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky said.
“Speaking as a Christian, it’s a loss, much like it was a loss of that great country with the processes of its collapse beginning precisely during the era of ‘perestroika’ and the ‘new thinking,’ abetting those who aspired to wipe the USSR off the political world map,” he added.
Head of the Ad Hoc Commission on Protecting State Sovereignty and Preventing Interference in the Domestic Affairs of the Russian Federation Council Andrey Klimov said that Gorbachev happened to be on the dividing line of different eras in Russia. “It is difficult to provide an assessment since a lot of things have happened since then. Yet he tried, as much as he could, to maneuver between those forces and circumstances our state found itself in at the time,” he said.
Russian News Agency TASS
