Famed Cellist Strong Yeltsin Backer

Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, a strong supporter of President Boris N. Yeltsin and his pro-market reforms, blasted communism as he voted in Sunday’s referendum.

“I voted because I’ve had communism up to here,” he told Russian Television, drawing his hand across his throat, after casting his ballot for the president in Moscow.

Rostropovich, who received a “Defender of Free Russia” medal from Yeltsin earlier this month for helping to defeat a 1991 coup attempt by Kremlin hard-liners, lives in the United States.

“I consider this a fateful day for Russia, and I could not stay away from my homeland,” he said.

“I am Russian and live far away from my motherland. I see how they live (abroad); let us follow that way more or less,” he said.

The bespectacled cellist looked disappointed when polling station officials told him he could not vote on behalf of his wife, singer Galina Vishnevskaya, in the referendum on Yeltsin’s rule and his policies.

Rostropovich left the Soviet Union in 1974, saying that Kremlin authorities were stifling his career. He was later stripped of his Soviet citizenship.