MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/. The lying-in-state ceremony for the first and only President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, who died aged 92 Tuesday, will take place on Saturday, September 3, in the House of the Unions in Moscow, between 10:00 and 14:00 Moscow time, Gorbachev Foundation spokesman Vladimir Polyakov told TASS Wednesday, adding that access to the ceremony will be free for everyone.

"Pillar Hall [at House of the Unions], September 3, between 10:00 and 14:00. Free access. Funeral [to take place] the same day at Novodevichye cemetery," he said.

Gorbachev occupied the top office for six years. He declared the new course almost immediately after his appointment as Communist Party Secretary General in 1985. Later, he headed the Supreme Soviet (Council) of the USSR. He proposed to establish the office of the president and to cancel the constitutional article regarding the leading role of the Communist Party. During that period, many languages of the world adopted Russian words "perestroika" and "glasnost." Gorbachev resigned on December 25, 1991, simultaneously with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.