Beloved Russian Anti-Communist Who Lead Gorbachev Reforms Dead

MOSCOW – About 200 Russians — from politicians to human rights activists — mourned the death of Alexander Yakovlev at a memorial service Friday, hailing him as the driving force behind the reforms of former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev (search).

The somber crowd lined up to place flowers near the dark brown wooden coffin of Yakovlev, who died Tuesday at the age of 81. An honor guard flanked the open casket.

"Alexander Nikolayevich was a defender — a defender of our country, of democracy, of freedom of people — of specific people — and all of us," said Andrei Illaby Swedish, Canadian and U.S. diplomats.

Yakovlev spearheaded Gorbachev's political reforms of openness and restructuring, known as "glasnost" and "perestroika," and boldly exposed Communist crimes.

"This was a great man of the 20th century, one of those who had a huge and positive influence on what happened with our country in the course of recent decades," said Yegor Gaidar, a former prime minister who conducted liberal economic reforms in the early 1990s.

"During the past 10 years, Alexander Nikolayevich (search) invested great efforts so that our country knew its own history, because it is only when we know our own history can we learn from our own mistakes," Gaidar said.

Critics have accused Putin of failing to condemn crimes and human rights abuses which took place under communism. They say that by imposing limitations on freedom of speech, civil society and the opposition, Putin was increasingly taking Russia back to Soviet times.

"The scale of the man to whom we are bidding farewell today in no way corresponds to the paltry scale of today's authorities," said opposition leader and former chess champion Garry Kasparov.

He said Russian leaders do not value what Yakovlev (search) "did for freedom and democracy in Russia, something which today's authorities are unable and unwilling to do."

Besides being the driving force behind reforming the Soviet economy and political life, Yakovlev was famed for launching a campaign to rehabilitate millions of innocent victims purged by Stalin (search) and other Communist leaders.

"He is truly a great man, a titan — he led people to combat the evil of Communism," said Yevgeny Dubeykovsky, a 72-year-old Moscow pensioner who attended. "His work on rehabilitating [the victims of political repression] gave thousands and thousands of people an opportunity to remove a stain from them and their relatives."