The elaborate Cathedral of Christ the Savior echoed with priests' chanting and the a capella choir singing the funeral liturgy during the 85-minute ceremony. It was a placid finale for one of the most dramatic and controversial figures of modern political history.

Yeltsin was a key engineer of the end of the Soviet Union and led the country into often-chaotic attempts to become pluralistic and thriving after decades of Communist repression and economic deterioration. He was widely admired for valor in opposing the 1990 hard-line coup attempt and for his joie de vivre. But he was widely derided for his heavy drinking and despised for allowing the sell-off of Russia's industrial gems to insiders while millions of his countrymen plunged into poverty.

"The whole dramatic history of the 20th century was reflected in the fate of Boris Nikolayevich," a letter from Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II said, using Yeltsin's patronymic. "Being a strong individual, he took upon himself responsibility the fate of the country at a difficult and dangerous time of radical change."

The letter was read at the funeral by Metropolitan Yuvenaly, who led the service — televised live on Russia's two main state-run channels and others. The church said Alexy was unable to attend because he was undergoing medical treatment.

Before the funeral, more than 20,000 people had filed through the gold-domed cathedral, which is the site of the Russian Orthodox Church's most important services, to view the body of Yeltsin, who died Monday at age 76. After the viewing ended, dignitaries including former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush arrived and offered condolences to Yeltsin's black-clad widow Naina.

The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, also attended. Gorbachev's reform attempts set in motion a wave of open dissatisfaction with the Soviet system. Yeltsin, once a Gorbachev ally, became an adversary as the Soviet Union disintegrated.

Many of the mourners said they admired Yeltsin for breaking the grip of monolithic Communism and moving the country to pluralism — and said they fear his successor Putin is reversing the progress.

"I came here to pay respect to Boris Nikolayevich for everything he has given us: freedom and the opportunity to realize ourselves," said 73-year-old Svetlana Zamishlayeva. But now, she said, "there is a certain retreat from freedom of the press, from fair elections, from all kinds of freedom."

Other mourners agreed.

"The policy course that he set is being dismantled today," said Nikita Belykh, leader of the liberal Union of Right Forces party that has become increasingly marginalized during Putin's seven years in office.

He suggested that Yeltsin may have expected Putin to continue his policies when he resigned and turned over the presidency to Putin on New Year's Eve 1999. "We all make mistakes," Belykh said outside the church.

Communist lawmakers meanwhile expressed resentment of Yeltsin's role in bringing an end to the Soviet Union. They refused to stand for a moment of silence called in Yeltsin's memory at the opening of the Wednesday session of the lower house of parliament, news agencies reported.

"We will never give honor to the destroyer of fatherland," Communist deputy Viktor Ilyukhin was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti news agency.

Yeltsin was to be buried later in the day in Novodevichy Cemetery, arguably Russia's most prestigious burial ground. It holds the graves of an array of Russia's artistic elite, including those of Dmitry Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev and Anton Chekhov.

Many countries sent lower-ranked retired politicians and diplomats to the funeral — a reflection of the funeral's quick timing but also perhaps of Yeltsin's uncertain legacy as unsteady democrat, Communist scourge and incomplete reformer.

The Soviet Union was an atheist state, so it seemed fitting Russia's first post-Soviet president was accorded religious rites. Though he made appearances at church services, Yeltsin was not regarded as an overtly pious man, but the Russian Orthodox Church was grateful for his support.

"By his strength, he helped the restoration of the proper role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the life of the country and its people," church spokesman Metropolitan Kirill said in a statement.

Yeltsin is widely remembered for his bold and principled stand against the 1990 hardline Communist coup attempt against Gorbachev and for launching Russia on the path to political pluralism.

"He gave us a choice — not just a choice between cheese and ham, but the possibility to think for ourselves," said mourner Alla Gerber, the head of Russia's Holocaust Foundation. "He took us out of the claws of that terrible regime."