The Russian government under President Vladimir Putin has disgraced itself by not according a state funeral to the last leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev whose low-key funeral took place September 3. Hundreds of people turned up at the ceremony with flowers in hand in Moscow’s Hall of Columns where state funerals of former Soviet leaders such as Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin had been held.
Putin’s decision to stay away from the public farewell to Gorbachev, who had transformed the history of Russia as well as the world, amply made it clear the current regime’s antipathy towards him. Unable to dump him into the dustbin of history by branding him as a traitor as many pro-Putin supporters have done moments after his death, the Russian government gave him a back-handed compliment by grudgingly allowing elements of state funeral, whatever that means. Putin seemed to be aware of the low opinion the rest of the world would have had about him, had he completely ignored the man who ended the Cold War and introduced epoch-making reforms in the former Soviet Union that are regarded as nothing short of a revolution. That is why he laid a bouquet of roses by the open coffin of Gorbachev in Central Clinical Hospital, observed a few seconds of silence, bowed, made the sign of the cross and touched the casket.
Analysts have noted how a state funeral was accorded to Boris Yeltsin, the immediate successor of Gorbachev who turned out to be Putin’s mentor. While only a guard of honour was given to Gorbachev with the state assisting in the ceremony, a lavish state funeral had been reserved for Russia’s first post-Soviet leader Yeltsin in 2007. The latter had anointed Putin as his preferred successor and set the stage for him to win the presidency by stepping down. Incidentally, Yeltsin had benefitted the most from Gorbachev’s reforms but later turned out to be his biggest detractor. Declaring a state funeral for Gorbachev would have made it obligatory for Putin to attend the ceremony apart from extending invitations to foreign leaders. Moscow is apparently in no mood to send out such diplomatic courtesy amid soaring tensions with the West after ordering invasion of Ukraine.
It is doubtful whether, under normal circumstances, Putin would have shown the honour to Gorbachev even in the form of ‘elements of state funeral’. He now finds himself somewhat cornered by the West for the unprovoked attack on Ukraine, though he is using his gas muscle to counter sanctions. Once he had lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” Such an appraisal is nothing but an indictment of Gorbachev’s reforms of perestroika (economic restructuring) and glasnost (free speech).
Putin today exemplifies the harsh ‘ruler’ mentality that seems to have permeated across continents into most so-called democratically elected heads of states. From Bolsonaro, Orban, Trump to some others that we all know, the desire to retain power, with the ensuing glory and benefits, has submerged the ideas of greater good for the people that were primarily the reasons for the birth of democracy. Admittedly, the times are always changing.
Today we witness democracy in all its frailties and absurdities. These changing times, however dark they may seem now, may churn out a more evolved form of democracy where the citizens’ action and involvement is not limited to voting alone but also participating in creating a better and equitable society on a continuous basis. When times change, the likes of Putin who are trying to alter the past will themselves go unsung and get erased from history.