This image of Aleksei A. Navalny’s body in a coffin, in a church in southern Moscow, conveys many of the traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church, an institution that has been closely linked to the Kremlin but has also counted opposition figures, including Mr. Navalny, among his loyalists.
“I, to my shame, am a typical post-Soviet believer,” Mr. Navalny said in an interview in 2012. “I fast, I was baptized in church, but I go to church very rarely.”
Being an Orthodox Christian, he said, made him feel “like I’m part of something big and common.”
He added: “I like that there is a special morality and self-restraint. At the same time, it doesn’t bother me at all that I exist in a predominantly atheist environment. By the time I was 25, before my first child was born, I was such an ardent atheist that I was ready to grab any priest’s beard.”
These remarks reflected the circumstances of many Russians who came of age as the Soviet Union dissolved and the Russian Orthodox Church reemerged in public life.
Over the past two decades, the church has become closely associated with the increasingly conservative and nationalist views espoused by President Vladimir V. Putin. That has forced critics like Mr Navalny, and pockets of progressive loyalists, to try to reconcile their political differences and their faith.
Mr. Navalni’s funeral was held on Friday at the Holy Church of the Icon of the Virgin Mary. On his head lay a funeral square, usually a paper or cloth ribbon with the image of Jesus Christ, the Mother of God and John the Baptist.
This church in southern Moscow where the Liturgy was held not far from where Mr Navalny lived until 2017 and where his family had an apartment.
In the picture, Mr Navalny’s father, Anatoly, sits opposite the coffin. To his right are Mr Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, and a woman some Russian media have identified as his mother-in-law, a relative who has stayed out of the public eye.
Mr Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and his children did not appear to be present. Ms Navalnya has vowed to continue her husband’s political activities, which exposes her to arrest, and she and their children no longer live in Russia. His brother Oleg, who served a prison sentence in what was widely seen as punishment for Mr Navalny’s political activities, was also absent.
The Russian Orthodox Church has officially embraced Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which Mr Navalny has strongly denounced. Patriarch Kirill, the church’s highest official, blessed the soldiers being sent to war and said those who fight for their country will be rewarded in heaven.
However, the Orthodox Church is relatively decentralized, so even as Mr. Putin cracks down on opposition and dissent, progressive priests remain in some parishes. Priests who have voiced their opposition to the war have faced accusations, in some cases expulsion, from church authorities and even arrest.
The church where Mr Navalny’s funeral rites were held also appeared to support the war. Images shared on social media in recent weeks announced that parishioners had donated a car to soldiers fighting in what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” and organized letter-writing campaigns for the troops. It also advertised a trip by parishioners and their children to a grand Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces, which opened in 2020 and has become a symbol of the militarization of Russian society.
