Starovoitova Honored by New Monument
By Galina Stolyarova
Staff Writer
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Sergey Grachev / The St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg residents in a somber mood at the Nikolskoye cemetery on Saturday.
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State Duma deputy Galina Staro voi to va, who was gunned down two years ago by unknown assassins, was honored with a monument unveiled at her grave in Nikolskoye cemetery last Saturday. The unveiling ceremony drew hundreds of supporters of the former Du ma deputy, who was one of Russia's most visible and outspoken female politicians. American ambassador in Mos cow James Collins and Sergei Stan kevich, former aide to President Boris Yelt sin, attended the ceremony. The granite monument - designed by St. Petersburg artist Anatoly Bel kin - juxtaposes a Russian flag, a fragment of a city street, and a piece of lattice work in the style found on the Griboye dov Canal, where Starovoitova lived. "When making this monument we met with so much compassion. The artisans refused even to talk about money," said Olga Starovoitova, the late Duma deputy's sister. "Though these may sound like minor details, they show the people's attitude, and this is what's important." "The more time that passes since the tragic death of my mother, the deeper and more sensible the loss gets," said Sta rovoitova's son Platon. "She paid with her life for the people's right to live, think and act freely. She didn't just give me life, she gave me its sense and meaning." He said the flag on the monument was a very apt symbolic touch. "Everyone who comes here will sense what she lived and sacrificed her life for," he said. Starovoitova was murdered in the stairwell of her building on Nov. 20, 1998. Her aide, Ruslan Linkov, who was with her at the time, suffered head injuries but survived. Her murder remains unsolved, and though few at the monument's unveiling spoke about this fact out loud, there was a palpable mood of anger and bitterness over the authorities' complete failure to make any progress in the investigation. As at Starovoitiva's funeral, many people spoke out about the unification of democratic parties that Starovoitova had worked for in the Duma. The parties remain fragmented. Declaring Galina Starovoitova the conscience of Russian democracy, Stankevich said, "Even though God knows what is happening under the slogans of Russian democracy, we all have Galina as a standard to verify our feelings and steps. And we have this place to come and think about what we do in our lives." "For me, Galina Starovoitova is an example of a true people's deputy, taking other's sorrows as her own," said Yabloko Duma Deputy Alexander Shishlov. "She was a lighthouse showing the way. ... I see my duty as a deputy to serve the unification of democrats, of those to whom liberty and human life are the most precious values."
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