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Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, will be laid to rest on Saturday in a relatively low-key ceremony in the Russian capital.
No foreign leaders are expected to attend the funeral amid Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine and the resulting political isolation of Moscow.
Even Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be in attendance, ostensibly due to scheduling issues, although many view this as a snub to the man who brought the Cold War to an end but failed to prevent the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his two potential successors Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are banned from entering Russia.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he had not received an invitation, and his predecessor, Angela Merkel, has declined due to a knee injury.
Ambassadors of countries like France and the US will be present. Germany's ambassador, Géza Andreas von Geyr, has tested positive for COVID-19 and will be represented by his deputy.
The Kremlin said the ceremony will only have "elements" of a state funeral such as an honor guard.
There will be no customary national day of mourning, as is typical for former Soviet and Russian leaders.
Gorbachev will lay in state at the Hall of Columns inside a historic building in central Moscow, traditionally used for the funerals of high officials, including Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in 1953.
He will be buried at Moscow's prestigious Novodevichy Cemetery next to his wife Raisa, who died of cancer in 1999.
The ceremony will be a much more low-key affair than that accorded to Boris Yeltsin, who became the first president of modern Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. When Yeltsin died in 2007, he was honored with a state funeral.
Ever since reunification, Germans lovingly called Mikhail Gorbachev "Gorbi." The monument "Fathers of Unity" in front of the Springer publishing house in Berlin was unveiled on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of German reunification. Aside from Gorbachev it also honors US President George Bush and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
In March 1985, then-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl visited Moscow to attend the funeral of Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev soon took over the post. The meeting between Kohl and Gorbachev marked the beginning of the historic friendship between the two politicians that was to determine the fate of all of Europe.
After Gorbachev took over as leader of the Communist Party, former German Chancellor Willy Brandt visited Moscow. During his tenure from 1969 to 1974, the Social Democrat became the architect of a new Ostpolitik designed to normalize relations with the USSR, the GDR and other Eastern European neighbors. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his efforts. Gorbachev won the prize in 1990.
June 13, 1989: Gorbachev visited West Germany's then capital, Bonn. The Berlin Wall still stands, and an end to Germany's division is not in sight. Yet Germans already hailed the Soviet leader as a bringer of peace. Among Christian Democratic (CDU) voters, Gorbachev was much more popular than CDU Chancellor Helmut Kohl at the time.
Gorbachev's "perestroika" (restructuring) and "glasnost" (openness) served as a template for Leipzig's Monday demonstrations. East Germany's ruling SED party felt his new teachings were so dangerous that the Stasi secret police withdrew from circulation Soviet magazines with articles on Gorbachev.
Working out the modalities of German unity: Outdoors and clad in thick sweaters, Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Mikhail Gorbachev spun the wheel of history on July 15, 1990. Moscow was not going to stand in the way of a united Germany.
Two years later, Gorbachev was no longer Soviet leader, but he and his wife Raissa won people's hearts once again on a visit to Germany on March 6, 1992. Here, the popular couple lifted a stein at Munich's Hofbräuhaus.
Thousands of Germans wrote letters to Gorbachev, and felt as if they were writing to a good friend. "[He] was alive compared to other Soviet officials who came across as stiff as mummies," wrote Michael from Lüneburg. On September 5, 1994, Gorbachev visited Goethe's residence in Weimar.
Both German rock legend Udo Lindenberg (left) and Gorbachev were no longer at the height of their careers as the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall rolled around in 1999. Yet the Russian leader with the human touch was still immensely popular in Germany.
The USSR collapsed at the end of 1991 and marked the end of Gorbachev's presidency. As early as 1992, the Gorbachev Foundation began to investigate the history of perestroika. During this new period of his life, Gorbachev regularly traveled to Germany. In 1996, the Gorbachev couple were guests of Thomas Gottschalk on the legendary German television show "Wetten, dass ...."
Author: Iveta Ondruskova / Volker Wagener
Gorbachev, one of the most influential political figures of the 20th century, died Tuesday at the age of 91 after a "serious and long illness," said the hospital where he had been treated.
Gorbachev was in power from 1985 to 1991, and sought to reform and modernize the Soviet Union. But many in Russia blame him for triggering the demise of the union and damaging the country's position on the international stage. Putin has described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the 20th century.
The last Soviet leader, however, enjoyed popularity in the West as the man who ended the Cold War and lifted the Iron Curtain. He is remembered for allowing countries in Eastern Europe to free themselves from Soviet rule and for signing a landmark nuclear arms reduction pact with the United States.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
tg/sri (dpa, AFP)
