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Bolshevik
Revolution Anniversary Is Marked By Tim
Vickery, Associated Press via the Guardian
Pomp
mixed with politics as Hundreds
of World War II veterans marched on "That
parade was really a historic event, because it was an indicator of the
will of the people to defend their country,'' Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov
said, addressing those assembled for Friday's parade, which also included
cadets and soldiers. Thousands
of Communist Party backers followed their tradition on what was once the
most sacred Soviet holiday, meeting at a square that used to be named
after Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin and marching across ``We're
against the authorities ... nobody needs us, we're hungry and we have no
voice,'' said a 65-year-old woman named Antonina, who wore red clothes and
a sandwich board bearing Lenin's portrait. She refused to give her last
name. Near
the Kremlin, atop the massive building of the State Duma, the lower house
of parliament, an unidentified man briefly replaced the Russian tricolor
with a Soviet flag. He was detained, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported. Leaders
of United Russia, the main pro-Kremlin party, laid flowers at a The
party planned a concert with performances by Russian pop stars to
celebrate the Day of Accord and Reconciliation, as Revolution Day was
renamed eight years ago under former President Boris Yeltsin, who was
locked in a political struggle with the Communists. In
another square downtown, Police
said there were 300 to 500 people at the rally. Several participants wore
shirts bearing the words ``our freedom and yours'' under the name of Yukos,
the giant oil company whose former chief, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is jailed
on tax evasion and fraud charges. Yabloko
leader Grigory Yavlinsky said democracy is struggling in ``Eighty-six
years ago, our country tore down democracy,'' he told the crowd. ``Today,
on the 7th of November, we call for a In
Ukraine, some 1,500 mostly elderly supporters of the Communists and other
leftist parties rallied in Kiev, waving red flags and holding posters
hailing the revolution and proclaiming, ``Down with the anti-national
regime.'' Leaning
against a crutch, 80-year-old World War II veteran Ruslan Borovskyi
lamented the 1991 collapse of the Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |