A public viewing to pay last respects to the late Yegor Gaidar, one of the leading architects of free market reforms in post-Soviet Russia, may be prolonged due to the number of people wishing to say good-bye.

The viewing began at 12:00 pm in Moscow [GMT 09:00] and was scheduled for two hours. However the number of people who arrived at the public ceremony at the Central Clinical Hospital to pay their last respects has grown to nearly one thousand with a line into the hall stretching approximately 1 kilometer (a little over a half mile).

The organizers said the ceremony may be prolonged.

Naina Yeltsin, the widow of late Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, and his daughter, paid their respects to Gaidar, along with many other people who respected Gaidar. In 1991, Boris Yeltsin appointed Gaidar acting head of the government, after which Gaidar began reforms toward a market economy after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Several well-known Russian politicians were also at the ceremony, including Anatoly Chubais, Boris Nemtsov, Sergei Dubinin, Georgy Melikyan, Mikhail Shvydkov, Mikhail Kasyanov, Sergei Stepashin, Artur Chilingarov, Arkady Dvorkovich, and Viktor Chernomyrdin.

After the viewing ceremony, Gaidar will be cremated according to his own wishes, Maria Gaidar, the politician's daughter, said.

Maria said the funeral would be held in a close family circle.

Gaidar reportedly died when a blood clot became dislodged on Wednesday. He was 53.

Gaidar was one of the young reformers, including Anatoly Chubais and Boris Nemtsov, who Yeltsin surrounded himself with in the early 1990s and was acting prime minister during the second half of 1992.

Gaidar is survived by his wife, three sons and daughter.

MOSCOW, December 19 (RIA Novosti)