Unlike former Soviet leaders who were buried on Red Square, Yeltsin was laid to rest in the Novodevichy cemetery alongside Russian and Soviet writers, composers, scientists and politicians. The funeral was preceded by a church ceremony, the first for a former head of state since before the Bolshevik revolution.
The coffin was taken to the cemetery on a caisson in a funeral procession followed by President Vladimir Putin, two former U.S. presidents, Bill Clinton and George Bush, Sr., former British Premier John Major, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, representing the British royal family, and other foreign guests.
Thousands of Russians lined the cortege route which started at the grand Christ the Savior Cathedral, where the body had laid from Tuesday till Wednesday noon so people could pay their last respects.
The widow, Naina Yeltsin, two daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren bid their last farewells, a church hierarch offered his prayers for the late leader and the coffin was closed. The Kremlin regiment fired a volley and the national anthem was played.
Yeltsin, praised by many for pioneering democratic reforms and criticized by others for impoverishing millions during his tenure in the 1990s, died Monday of heart failure at the age of 76.
