Moscow Mutes Anti-West Propaganda : Millions March in May Day Rites

Ignoring a chilly spring rain, Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his newly expanded Politburo turned out in Red Square today to honor the workers of the world at a boisterous May Day parade.

Millions of workers marched in parades worldwide to mark the May Day labor holiday. Two people were killed in a bombing in Belgium linked to the observance.

Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa was turned back by riot police as he attempted to join an official parade in his hometown of Gdansk, but several hundred other Solidarity activists stormed the procession and were scattered by police. (Story on Page 1.)

In Moscow, all 11 Moscow-based members of the ruling 13-man Politburo presided from the reviewing stand atop the Lenin mausoleum. The two members from outside Moscow usually attend ceremonies in their own cities.

Among the thousands of spectators at the 90-minute parade was Ronald Prescott Reagan, son of the President, who is on a weeklong tourist trip in the Soviet Union.

Thousands of workers swept across Red Square’s rain-slicked cobblestones, waving red flags and flowers and escorting floats touting achievements at factories and farms.

Few Anti-West Slogans

Some anti-imperialism slogans were on their placards and banners, but the Kremlin seemed less intent than in the past on using the parade to rail at its Western adversaries.

The marchers shouted “Hurrah!” in response to party-approved slogans that blared from loudspeakers between selections of recorded parade music.

The younger Reagan, clad in a rain parka, watched and occasionally snapped pictures from a viewing area reserved for foreign diplomats.

Gorbachev smiled and waved as he led the 10 other Politburo members onto the parade reviewing stand atop the Lenin mausoleum to watch the river of red flags, flowers and floats sweep past in the steady rain.

There were no speeches, in keeping with recent practice at the nationally televised parade.

Marchers carried large portraits of the Politburo members. But in contrast to tradition, there were few individual portraits of Gorbachev. The 54-year-old party chief has favored a low profile since his rise to power March 11 after the death of Konstantin U. Chernenko.

Leftist terrorists in Brussels claimed responsibility for a bombing that killed two firemen and wounded 12 people, saying the attack was in “solidarity with workers on Labor Day.”

More than a million Cubans marched through Havana and provincial capitals in parades marking International Labor Day.