Soviet-era dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn was buried in a 16th-century Moscow monastery today during an elaborate religious ceremony attended by President Dmitry Medvedev.
Hundreds of mourners 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.
Solzhenitsyn, author of
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,
Cancer Wardand
Gulag Archipelago, was buried on the Donskoy monastery's grounds after the service which was broadcast live on state television, featured a military band and had all the hallmarks of a state funeral.
Mr Medvedev 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.
Rifles were fired in salute after the coffin was lowered into the grave.
Solzhenitsyn, a prominent critic of the tyranny of Soviet rule and Josef Stalin's labour camps, died in his house near Moscow of heart failure on Sunday aged 89.
After the funeral, Mr Medvedev signed a decree asking Moscow's authorities to rename one of the capital's streets after Solzhenitsyn.
The graveyard of the Donskoy monastery is the last resting place of monks, poets and philosophers. Some victims of Joseph Stalin's secret police are also buried there.