Russia buries Rostropovich close to Yeltsin

MOSCOW, Apr 29 (Reuters) Cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich was buried today close to late President Boris Yeltsin. Their widows leaned on each other and wept.

Yeltsin's widow joined Rostropovich's, soprano Galina Vishnyevskaya, at Moscow's Novodevichye cemetery where the musical genius was laid to rest. He died on Friday, aged 80, four days after Yeltsin.

Among about 1,000 mourners were Rostropovich's two daughters as well as the Queen of Spain and the wife of the French president, Bernadette Chirac.

A plain wooden Orthodox cross was erected at the grave and lush wreaths placed around it before mourners applauded the musician for the last time. Some kissed his picture at the foot of the grave.

''He was ... a guiding light both as a citizen and as a musician,'' said pensioner Yelena Zubkovskaya who came to Rostropovich's funeral service at Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral earlier on Sunday. ''We will miss him.'' Zubkovskaya added she had attended every concert by Rostropovich she could, including the last one before his departure from the Soviet Union in 1974 which, she said, earned him a 10-minute standing ovation.

''Despite his great fame, he was always approachable for people,'' a Russian Orthodox priest said at the burial. A choir sang softly after he spoke.

Soldiers in smart uniforms marched slowly along the cemetery's central alley strewn with red roses before the coffin was brought in. The sun came out in cold, damp Moscow as he was buried.

''He was dear to me as a person, as a musician, as a family man,'' said Lyudmila Nuksunova, a music teacher in her 30s.

She said she had skipped work to come to the cemetery: ''I couldn't be anywhere else today.'' More than 4,500 people, RIA agency said, went to Rostropovich's funeral service at the ornate cathedral, during which his widow took Communion and a priest read a message of condolences from Russian Orthodox head, Patriarch Alexiy.

Family and friends took turns to come up to the open casket flanked by baskets of pink roses and red carnations. Bernadette Chirac stooped to kiss Rostropovich on the forehead.

FREEDOM LOVER Russian news agencies quoted a source close to the musician as saying Rostropovich had died in a Moscow hospital after a long illness.

His death was announced four days after that of Yeltsin, whom Rostropovich joined on the barricades to resist a coup by Soviet hardliners in 1991.

Rostropovich was one of Russia's best-loved cultural figures and considered among the world's greatest cellists. He also earned a reputation internationally as a champion of civil rights during Soviet rule.

While he was out of the country in 1978, the Kremlin stripped him of his citizenship for what state newspapers labelled ''unpatriotic activity''.

He spoke up in defence of dissidents Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov when they came under attack from the Soviet authorities. The Kremlin restored his citizenship in 1990 in the new spirit of openness under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Within days of the Berlin Wall coming down in 1989, Rostropovich took his cello to Berlin to play at an impromptu concert by the remains of the wall.

''It was a call of the heart,'' he said later.

REUTERS JS RAI2237