March 1, 2024
Updated 8 hours ago
On the followingnoon of March 1, Alexei Navalny was buried in Moscow. This happened two weeks following he died in a colony in Kharp in the Arctic Circle. Farewell to Navalny took place in a church in the Moscow residential area of Maryino, and the funeral itself took place at the nearby Borisovskoye cemetery. Thousands of people came to say goodbye to him, despite the warnings of the authorities. The BBC tells how it happened.
Farewell to Alexei Navalny in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Quench My Sorrows” in Maryino was scheduled for 14:00 Moscow time.
But long before this, hundreds of people began to gather at the temple to say goodbye to the oppositionist. Already on the morning of working Friday, people with flowers began to emerge from the Maryino metro station, not far from where Navalny himself lived for many years, under the watchful supervision of the police. By the time the funeral service began, there was a line of several thousand people at the temple: it stretched for one and a half kilometers.
Those wishing to say goodbye to Navalny came to the temple despite the explicit warnings of the authorities. Since yesterday evening, metal barriers began to be delivered to the nearest metro station. They eventually cordoned off the area near the church.
image copyrightEPA
The day before, increased police patrols appeared at the Borisovsky cemetery: on the morning of March 1, dozens of security forces were already on duty in the area. CCTV cameras were hung on lampposts. Moscow universities threatened with expulsion for participating in farewell to Navalny.
In addition, the organization of the funeral itself was difficult for the politician’s relatives. Navalny died in colony No. 3 in the village of Kharp in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. His mother Lyudmila arrived there the very next day. It took her more than a week to get her son’s body released. According to her, security forces demanded that the family agree to a secret funeral and threatened to do something with her son’s body. Navalny’s relatives did not agree to these demands. As a result, they had difficulties finding a hall for a civil funeral service (this was never done), and even finding a hearse to transport the politician’s body.
On the morning of March 1, the Kremlin also hinted at the undesirability of participating in Navalny’s funeral. Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said he had “no comments” for the opposition leader’s relatives. And he added: “We probably have a reminder that there is a law, it must be followed. Any unauthorized gatherings will be in violation of the law, and accordingly those who participate in them will be held accountable.”
Photo copyright: Reuters
In the end, mass arrests did not happen in Moscow, despite the increased presence of security forces. Instead, the authorities seriously limited communications in Maryino. The so-called “shutdown” was recorded by IT specialist Mikhail Klimarev. According to him, the authorities have switched the operation of communication towers in the funeral area to an “outdated standard”: “It seems to work (probably), but has a much lower capacity for simultaneous connections. As a result, the effect is that the network is overloaded and the Internet does not work.”
Because of this, broadcasts from the scene of events worked with great interruptions. And yet, photographs and videos from the scene appeared in the media and social networks. It was clear from them that by two o’clock in the followingnoon, thousands of people had gathered near the temple, despite threats from the authorities.
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Most of Navalny’s closest associates were unable to attend the farewell ceremony. Many of them were forced to leave Russia amid massive repressions and criminal prosecution, which affected almost everyone who openly collaborated with the politician’s team. Because of this, his wife Yulia was not present at the farewell.
At the same time, several foreign diplomats were noticed near the temple, including US Ambassador Lynn Tracy, German Ambassador Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, and French Ambassador Pierre Levy. Those waiting in line at the temple took pictures with the former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Roizman (Russian authorities included him in the register of “foreign agents”). “There’s a gigantic queue, people keep coming and coming. I will say on my own behalf – Alexey was my comrade. He is a strong, truly honest Russian guy,” the oppositionist said in a comment to Novaya Gazeta.
Politician Boris Nadezhdin, who was recently barred from the Russian presidential elections, also came to say goodbye to Navalny. Journalist Ekaterina Duntsova was also waiting in line – she also tried to take part in the March elections and, like Nadezhdin, was not allowed to participate.
Photo copyright: Reuters
Photo caption,
US Ambassador to Russia Lynn Tracy, along with other representatives of diplomatic missions, came to say goodbye to Alexei Navalny
Many noticed that Grigory Yavlinsky, the head of the Yabloko party, of which Navalny himself was once a member, did not come to the politician’s funeral. Instead, he went to the farewell ceremony for former USSR Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov, which was also held in Moscow on March 1.
People waited mostly in silence for Navalny’s body. Several people already in line began to sing a church funeral service for the politician.
How was the farewell?
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Around two o’clock in the followingnoon in Moscow, videos appeared on social networks that showed that a hearse with Navalny’s body (his family was released to the morgue later than promised) had arrived at the church. A crowd of thousands, previously silent, began applauding and chanting “Navalny!” and “Alexey” when the ritual service staff carried the coffin into the temple. After this, the chants did not stop.
A few minutes later, Navalny’s parents and other relatives were brought in. Of the crowd gathered at the temple, only a small number of people were able to get inside. Soon, photos and videos appeared on social networks in which Navalny’s body was first filmed. He lay in a coffin in a dark suit under an armful of red and white flowers.
Photo copyright: Reuters
The funeral service did not last even half an hour. On Navalny’s channel, his colleague Leonid Volkov (included by the Russian authorities in the register of “foreign agents”) stated, citing religious scholar Sergei Chapnin, that the patriarchate demanded that the rector of the temple perform the ceremony as quickly as possible.
A video of the last minutes of the funeral service was published by RusNews. It shows how people shouted “Let us say goodbye!” The ritual service employees hastily close the lid of Navalny’s coffin and begin to take him out of the temple.
All this time, the crowd outside chanted without interruption: “You were not afraid – and we are not afraid!”, “Love is stronger than fear!”, “Russia will be free!”, “Freedom for political prisoners!”, “One for all – and all for one !” (Alexey Navalny himself was very fond of the last slogan). When the coffin with his body appeared once more on the steps of the temple, the crowd once more exploded with shouts: “Navalny!” While four strong men, accompanied by the ringing of bells, once more loaded the coffin into the hearse, the crowd threw flowers at the car.
Navalny’s mother Lyudmila soon appeared at the exit of their church. The crowd surrounded her and began to hug her. “Thank you, thank you for your son,” they said. As soon as the hearse pulled away from the church, the crowd literally broke through the metal barriers.
Photo copyright: Reuters
People headed to the Borisov cemetery, where the politician’s funeral took place. It takes regarding 25 minutes to walk from the temple to the cemetery. The funeral procession crossing the Borisov overpass stretched for several kilometers. People walked with flowers raised in the air and did not stop chanting. Not only slogans were heard dedicated to Navalny and political prisoners, but also the anti-war slogan “No to war!”
Navalny’s associates said that because of the security forces, a traffic jam had formed at the entrance to the cemetery, which is only a few minutes from the church by car. Because of this, the hearse arrived there earlier than the service employees who carried out the coffin. But closer to four in the evening it became clear that the funeral had begun.
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The last farewell to Navalny took place to an instrumental version of the song My Way by Frank Sinatra. After the politician’s relatives said goodbye for the last time, the coffin began to be lowered into the grave to the music from the second part of “The Terminator” – in the film, with this theme, the main character is lowered into boiling lava. These two compositions were chosen by Navalny’s relatives, the politician’s ally Ivan Zhdanov (on the register of “foreign agents”) told the BBC.
“Alexey was a simple man. He has said many times that he considers Terminator 2 the greatest film of all time. Many people laughed and joked regarding him because of this. But this topic, as it turned out, is more suitable than ever for saying goodbye to him. He leaves on his own. Unbroken, unlost and undefeated,” Leonid Volkov commented in a broadcast on the Navalny Live channel.
At the moment when Alexei Navalny’s body was lowered into the ground, the tail of the crowd of people wishing to say goodbye to him was still standing at the church in Maryino. In the resulting traffic jam, people shouted: “Let me say goodbye” and “Heroes don’t die!”
Photo copyright: Reuters
The Borisov cemetery closed as scheduled, at 17:00 Moscow time, following which, as journalists on the spot reported, the police began to push the crowd away from the fence.
Spontaneous memorials appeared in the courtyards near the cemetery and on the way to it. People left flowers at the nearby Borisovo metro station, and several bouquets were left in the snow at the entrance to the house in Maryino, where the Navalny family lived.
“Now there will be a short pause. The grave will be completely buried. They will lay wreaths. And everyone will be able to come up,” explained Ivan Zhdanov.
The laying of flowers following the break actually continued until late in the evening, under the control of police officers and people in plain clothes.
Photo copyright: Reuters
Detentions and memorials in the regions
Author of the photo, @paperpaper_ru
Photo caption,
An unknown person takes flowers from the monument to victims of political repression in St. Petersburg
There were no mass arrests in Moscow; detainees were often released following rewriting their data. According to the human rights portal OVD-Info (included in the register of “foreign agents”), at least 17 people were detained in the capital.
However, in many regions, police detained those who came to spontaneous memorials, including those organized at monuments to victims of political repression.
According to the human rights portal OVD-Info, in total, at least 129 people were detained in 19 cities on the day of Alexei Navalny’s funeral. Of these, more than 30 are in Novosibirsk, and just under 20 are in Yekaterinburg.
In addition, in some cities, unknown persons removed flowers brought by residents in memory of Navalny. Thus, dozens of St. Petersburg residents with flowers came to another monument to the victims of political repression in St. Petersburg – on Voskresenskaya embankment, opposite the former Kresty prison. However, as the Rotunda publication reported, both the police and men were on duty there, throwing out flowers.
The police asked people to make way for the “FSW employees,” following which the men, without any identification marks, grabbed the flowers they brought into a bag and took them away. However, following that people continued to leave bouquets there.
In Voronezh, security forces stopped a car in which the coordinator of Boris Nadezhdin’s headquarters and several other people were traveling to a funeral in Moscow. A few hours later they were released without a protocol or explanation.
In Moscow in the evening, a journalist covering the funeral, Vasily Polonsky, was briefly detained. He said that the police forced him to show his phone.
According to him, an employee of Center “E” tried to recruit him and suggested that he send the videos he had filmed to the security forces.
“They are apparently trying to find Navalny Live’s camera, because they were interested in who I was streaming for,” he said.
Navalny’s associates actually showed a broadcast from the funeral on his YouTube channel; regarding 250 thousand people watched it simultaneously. Including the broadcast of the Dozhd TV channel (declared a “foreign agent” and an undesirable organization in Russia), more than half a million people watched the funeral.
Federal channels, at the same time, completely ignored the funeral of the Russian oppositionist. Russian media, operating under conditions of censorship, limited themselves to short news items.
“There were two options – either not to write regarding it at all, or to release the news that Navalny was buried (listing his criminal cases and terms) and emphasize that there were foreign ambassadors at the funeral, without focusing on the turnout of people,” he said Meduza (declared a “foreign agent” and undesirable organization in Russia) source in a major Russian media outlet.
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