> Mild Communist Attacks Mark Bolshevik Anniversary
======================================
> By Ron Popeski
> MOSCOW (Reuters) - Thousands of communists hoisted red banners and paraded
> in towns throughout Russia Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the 1917
> Bolshevik revolution, but issued only muted criticism of President
Vladimir
> Putin (news - web sites).
> The demonstrations were the first since Russia's first post-Soviet
> president, Boris Yeltsin, stepped down on New Year's Eve and handed power
to
> Putin, subsequently elected on a platform of establishing order and
> restoring Russia's greatness.
> Soviet-era mass demonstrations in Red Square, observed by the Communist
> Party Politburo from atop state founder Vladimir Lenin's mausoleum, have
> given way to what is now known as the ''Day of Reconciliation and
Accord.''
> It remains a holiday in Russia, but not in most ex-Soviet states.
> Putin and his allies have managed to reach an accommodation of sorts with
> the Communists in parliament, in contrast to Yeltsin's bruising
> confrontations with the leftist opposition.
> Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, a distant second to Putin in last
March's
> election, told about 5,000 marchers undeterred by chilly drizzle that the
> new Kremlin leader ought to look back to the achievements of the Soviet
era.
> ``It would be right if those who speak about a strong state paid tribute
to
> the red heroes who revived a great country and created a powerful state,''
> he said by a monument to Karl Marx.
> A smaller rival demonstration was staged in a nearby square by the
far-left
> ``Working Russia'' movement, with many of its members holding portraits of
> dictator Josef Stalin.
> But even its leader, veteran activist Viktor Anpilov, was restrained in
> criticizing authorities, shouting: ``Putin! Turn Yeltsin over to justice!
> Join Working Russia!''
> Hundreds of riot police kept them from entering Red Square, with only
minor
> scuffles.
> Students Stage Pro-Putin Rally
> At the other fringe of Red Square, by the Moscow River, about 3,000
students
> staged a rally in support of Putin, many sporting slick black and yellow
> tee-shirts and lapel buttons saying ``Young people for the president.''
> Russian media reported rallies in other cities, including 5,000 massed in
> Tula, south of Moscow, and 3,000 in Volgograd.
> Marchers staged similar commemorations in other former Soviet republics,
> though their numbers were small nine years after the collapse of communist
> rule.
> In the Ukrainian capital Kiev, several thousand mostly elderly people,
> waving red flags and singing the communist Internationale anthem, marked
the
> anniversary and denounced its abolition by parliament as a public holiday
> earlier this year.
> One member of the crowd, retired engineer Vladimir Zemchenko, said it was
> crucial that the anniversary still be marked because many Ukrainians felt
> their lives had become worse since the break-up of the Soviet Union.
> ``There may not be another revolution about to happen, but we need to
change
> those who are running this country,'' he said.
> Communists and their sympathizers were outflanked by centrists in a
struggle
> to control Ukraine's parliament earlier this year, but still command
> considerable support.
> In Minsk, capital of Belarus, whose leader Alexander Lukashenko aspires to
a
> post-Soviet union with Russia, several hundred elderly communists laid
> wreaths on a monument in the center of the city and then left. Authorities
> had not allowed any marches along the central thoroughfare.
> In ex-Soviet Moldova, where the holiday is not marked officially, local
> communists laid flowers on monuments in a remote corner of a lakeside park
> in the capital Chisinau. A communist rally attracted some 500 people last
> Sunday.
> (Additional reporting by Michael Steen in Kiev)
>
>
>
>
