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Bolshevik Revolution turns 80, shows its age
But for many, Soviet nostalgia runs deep
In this story:November 7, 1997
- Communism ailing but still alive
- Rallies throughout former Soviet Union
- Yeltsin: Soviet gains came at a high price
- Related stories and sites
Web posted at: 1:15 p.m. EST (1815 GMT)MOSCOW (CNN) -- While Communist hard-liners and other opponents of President Boris Yeltsin marched Friday to mark the 80th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, Yeltsin called on fellow Russians to remember the victims of the conflict and forgive the revolutionaries who started it.
The revolution led to the Communists coming to power, and gave birth to the Soviet Union in 1922 after a bloody civil war. Some, mainly elderly, people regard it as a triumph and still revere revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin. Other Russians see the revolution as marking the start of years of repression in which millions of people were killed.
"Today, we are simply obliged to remember all those who perished in the civil strife. We also must understand and forgive those who made the fatal mistake of putting an utopian idea above human lives," Yeltsin said in a nationwide TV address.
See the march 714/10 sec./240x180
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QuickTime movieCNN's Jill Dougherty reviews the state of communism in Russia today.
Communism ailing but still alive
Shortly after he spoke, at least 100,000 hard-liners, perhaps the largest crowd in years, marched in central Moscow under red Soviet flags, crushing wet snow to the tunes of old Soviet songs blasting from loudspeakers.
The old Soviet Union once marked anniversaries of the 1917 October Revolution -- which falls on November 7 according to the Western calendar now in use -- with large-scale marches and Red Square military parades that attracted worldwide attention.
Now, Communists are battling to keep the tradition alive in a country that is increasingly indifferent to the once sacred date.
Friday's marchers carried portraits of Lenin and dictator Josef Stalin along with placards denouncing the Yeltsin government. "The ideals of the October Revolution shall triumph," Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov told reporters.
"Long live the 80th anniversary of the Great October Revolution," Moscow Communist leader Alexander Bugayev told a hard-line rally on Lubyanka Square, in front of the former KGB headquarters. "Let there be a new revolution!"
And maverick retired Gen. Lev Rokhlin, a lawmaker who heads a pro-military movement, called on the gathering to "overthrow the hated regime -- the sooner the better."
Rallies throughout the former Soviet Union
Rallies were held in Moscow, St. Petersburg and elsewhere, but these were dominated by elderly marchers nostalgic for their youth. Many younger people celebrated the holiday only as a day off from work or school.
A Communist demonstration attracted some 50,000 people in St. Petersburg -- which was called Leningrad and "the cradle of the revolution" in Soviet times -- the Russian NTV network reported.
Communist rallies also were held in the Far Eastern towns of Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, the Siberian coal region of Kemerovo and Kazan in central Russia.
Yeltsin: Soviet gains came at a high price
Yeltsin -- a former Communist who played a pivotal role in dismantling Communist rule and the Soviet Union -- noted in his address that much was good in the former Soviet Union but he combined his praise by noting the cost. "I believe the time has passed when we were a superpower with a poverty-stricken people, and space trail-blazers who drove along rutty roads."
"The main thing is that we have convinced ourselves we can make Russia a prosperous state on the basis of values by which the entire world lives."
Yeltsin wants to close Lenin's Red Square mausoleum and bury the founder of the Soviet state. Last year, as part of his efforts to jettison Russia's Communist past, the president even changed the name of the holiday to the Day of National Accord and Reconciliation.
In his address Friday, Yeltsin said some wanted to abolish the holiday altogether, but he justified it as part of an "historic lesson" for Russia -- a reminder of both Soviet achievements and the bloodshed of the civil war that followed the revolution.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Yeltsin admits Moscow has impeded former Soviet republics - October 23, 1997
- Leaders of former Soviet republics gather for summit - October 22, 1997
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