In this story:

• Liberal groups urged to unite
• A 'great tragedy for the people'
• A hallowed resting place
• Related stories and sites

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (CNN) -- Braving freezing temperatures, thousands of ordinary Russians and dignitaries gathered Tuesday to say farewell to a slain lawmaker.

About 10,000 people paid their final respects to Galina Starovoitova. The line was so long that her funeral was delayed so every mourner could have a chance to pass by her casket.

The liberal member of parliament was shot to death last Friday as she walked up the stairs to her apartment. The feisty 52-year-old grandmother had planned to run for president in 2000.

Hundreds of people, including prominent politicians, packed the Marble Hall of St. Petersburg's Ethnography Museum for a memorial service.

"Forgive us, Galina Vasiliyevna, that we who have the power entrusted to us, we who were your colleagues, could not protect and defend you," said Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko, the only woman in a top government post.

The shooting has brought forth calls to end the violence and lawlessness that has plagued post-Soviet Russian society. Russia media has widely described her death as the first politically motivated murder since the Soviet Union's collapse. The victims of previous killings have been mostly males with business interests.

The shooting also has widened the divide between Russia's left and right.

"To stop us, they want to scare us. They will never succeed," former Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Chubais said. "We will fulfill the goals she sacrificed her life for."

Former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin urged Russia's quarrelsome pro-democratic reform groups to unite in the wake of Starovoitova's death.

"These shots were fire at all of us ... if people start talking to politicians in the language of bullets, then we can imagine where that will get us," he said.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who has said he will personally oversee the investigation into Starovoitova's killing, was in a Moscow hospital recovering from pneumonia.

"The shooting in St. Petersburg is a grim lesson for the whole of Russia," said Yuri Yarov, Yeltsin's first deputy chief of staff, who spoke at the memorial service. "Irrespective of real motives for that murder, a crime of this magnitude is a political act, and society should know all the truth about it."

The large turnout by ordinary Russians to her funeral seems to contradict the claims of her political foes that the people have lost interest in liberal reforms.

"It's a huge loss and a great tragedy for the people," said Larisa Makarova, 57, an office worker who took the day off with a colleague to pay her respects. "Our hearts brought us here."

"Ordinary people should honor her memory, and make sure this never happens again," said Vadim Olshevsky, manager of a construction company. But, he added bitterly, "There's little hope of that in our country."

In another tribute, people across Russia's dimmed their lights in her memory for a few minutes at 8 p.m. Moscow time (1700 GMT), at the urging of her political party, Russia's Democratic Choice.

After the memorial service, a private funeral was held in a church at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in central St. Petersburg. Then, as the Russian national anthem was played, Starovoitova's coffin was lowered into its grave in the monastery's cemetery.

The cemetery is one of Russia's most hallowed resting places and is the burial site of composers Peter Tchaikovsky and Modest Mussorgsky and the author Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Meanwhile, the investigation into her death continues. The case will be solved, said Igor Kozhevnikov, head of investigations for the Interior Ministry. The Interfax news agency quoted Kozhevnikov as saying investigators have tips to work on.

An aide to Starovoitova, 27-year-old Ruslan Linkov, who was critically wounded in the shooting has spoken to investigators about the incident. Interfax reported that he was moved out of intensive care Tuesday.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.