Nature Weeps As A Heroine Is Buried

Neither cold weather, nor heavy rain, nor the wary eyes of police patrols could stop them. Last Tuesday, thousands of mourners trudged grimly along the kilometer-long path from the nearest bus stop to the Troyekurovskoye cemetery on the edge of Moscow. They had come to pay their respects to journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who had been assassinated three days earlier.

The political overtones were palpable. "Nature weeps when they bury an honest person," said a middle-aged woman in the crowd. The grief over a journalist murdered for her fearless coverage of war crimes in Chechnya and high-level corruption in...