MOSCOW (AFP) ndash; Thousands of Russians on Saturday queued up to pay a final farewell to the grande dame of Soviet cinema whose death this week robbed millions of one of their best-loved links to the past.
Lyudmila Gurchenko, who died on Wednesday aged 75, starred in a sequence of hit Soviet films that are watched to this day, winning hearts with her radiant voice and sweet girl-next-door looks.
In a dramatic final act to her life, thousands of Russians braved the late winter cold and long queues to file past her coffin in the Central House of Literature in Central Moscow, television pictures showed.
Meanwhile, her estranged daughter Maria, who reportedly had not spoken to her mother for years and only found out about her death from the media, made an unexpected appearance to l…