By RFE/RL
August 06, 2008
Hundreds of admirers have accompanied writer, dissident, and Russian patriot Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to his final resting place in Moscow.
In accordance with his will, the devout Russian Orthodox believer was buried at the capital's 16th-century Donskoi Monastery alongside other dissidents and artists interred there.
Family members and mourners, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, crowded into the monastery's Old Cathedral for an early-morning church service.
Led by a lone soldier carrying a black and white portrait of Solzhenitsyn, who died of heart failure on August 3 at the age of 89, the funeral procession filed out of the cathedral and made its way to the monastery's intimate cemetery.
Orthodox priests adorned in white robes walked slowly in front of Solzhenitsyn's open casket, carried by an honor guard and ringed by soldiers.
Solzhenitsyn's wife, Natalia, and other family members and admirers followed behind.
A priest read out a short prayer, covered the body with a white cloth, and the casket was closed before being lowered into the ground.
A military band played as the Russian literary giant was honored with a three-volley salute.
Those in attendance stood by in silence broken only by the sound of attendants covering his grave, before final prayers were read.