Aleksej Naval'nyj's Burial
A Cultural and Historical Interpretation
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The funeral mass for Aleksej Naval’nyj and his burial on 1 March 2024 will go down in Russian cultural history. With the participation of tens of thousands of mourners, Navalny's funeral took on the character of a public demonstration. It joins the long line of Russian “public funerals”, from national poet Aleksandr Pushkin to actor and singer Vladimir Vysotskii to human rights activist Andrei Sakharov, which were not only a religious mourning ritual, but also an expression of social and political protest. Naval'nyi is the first Russian cultural hero of the 21st century.
(Osteuropa 4/2024, pp. 137–157)