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Marchers mark Bolshevik Revolution

By Bill Doares, Workers World, 27 November 1997

On Nov. 7, workers and peasants across the former Soviet Union marked the 80th anniversary of the world's first socialist revolution with marches and rallies demanding the return of Soviet power. The Yeltsin regime admitted that demonstrations took place in nearly 500 cities in Russia alone, not including those in small towns and villages. The biggest marches took place in Ukraine and Belarus, among the former Soviet republics most devastated by the imposition of capitalism. In Vilnius, Lithuania, prolonged applause greeted Latvian Communist Party leader Anton Rubiks, just released from prison after six years. In Kazakhstan, workers took to the streets in Almaty and other cities although U.S-oil-company-backed Nazarbaev dictatorship had banned any outdoor celebrations. In Moscow, Revolution Day was marked by two demonstrations. The biggest was organized by the People's Patriotic Union, which is a political alliance led by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), Russia's biggest political party. About 100,000 people marched into Lubyanka Square to hear KPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov. A smaller march of about 10,000 people was held by the newly formed Communist Party of the Soviet Union, led by Viktor Anpilov. Anpilov's party marched separately to protest the decision of the KPRF's large parliamentary bloc to back down from a vote of no confidence in the capitalist Yeltsin regime.

Leningrad, the cradle of the Bolshevik Revolution, was the site of the biggest rally in Russia, jointly led by the Russian Communist Workers Party (RKRP) and the KPRF. Chanting, "Power to the Soviets," "Viva Cuba" and, "Lenin, homeland, socialism," at least 100,000 people poured down the Nevsky Prospekt and filled the square in front of the Winter Palace, following the route of the revolutionary armed workers of Petrograd 80 years ago. Under a sea of red banners the assembled workers vigorously sang the Internationale and the Soviet hymn and heard speeches by Viktor Tyulkin, Yuri Terentiev, Oleg Sheinin and other communist leaders.

--Bill Doares

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