Dead leader bidden farewell

Press, 14 March 1985, Page 6

Dead leader bidden farewell

NZPA-AP Moscow The Soviet Union bade a ceremonial farewell last evening (New Zealand time) to the last of a generation of Kremlin leaders bom before the 1917 revolution with an elaborate Red Square funeral for Konstantin Chernenko. Dozens of world leaders travelled to Moscow to pay respects to the late Soviet President and to try to meet Mikhail Gorbachev, who could lead the Soviet Union into the twenty-first century.

Mr Chernenko died on Monday of lung, heart, and liver complaints. He was 73. He was buried with other

Soviet leaders between the Kremlin Wall and the mausoleum housing the embalmed body of Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet State.

Gun salutes were fired in Moscow and in cities across the land, and factory sirens wailed to mark the passing of the last Soviet leader born before the Communists took power in the Bolshevik Revolution.

The United States VicePresident, Mr George Bush, the British Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, and the West German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, were among those hoping to talk to Mr Gorbachev.

The Soviets, following a ritual that has grown familiar in the last three years, mourned Mr Chernenko with solemn pomp and circumstance. Red-and-black flags fluttered from Moscow buildings and television and radio broadcast classical music. Thousands filed into the House of Union' to view his body on a flower-decked bier.

But traditional expressions of grief were overshadowed by the swiftness and vigour of the transition to Mr Gorbachev’s leadership.

The official mourning period was set at just 48 hours. It had been four days

for Mr Chernenko’s predecessors, Yuri Andropov and Leonid Brezhnev. Even the Communist Party daily, “Pravda,” did not use the traditional black borders on page one yesterday to mourn a dead leader, giving emphasis instead to Mr Gorbachev's selection.

Muscovites interviewed on downtown streets reflected the prominence given Mr Gorbachev, saying little about Mr Chernenko’s tenure of just under 13 months and pinning their hopes on the new leader.

“It’s the right thing that they chose Gorbachev,” said a bearded man in his 30s.