Boos Mar Soviet May Day : Thousands Protest the Ruling Elite

Tens of thousands of protesters in Red Square booed and jeered President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and other leaders today, turning the May Day workers’ march into an unprecedented attack on the ruling elite.

For the first time, unofficial demonstrators were permitted onto the square after the official march.

Some protesters unfurled dozens of yellow-red-and-green flags of secessionist Lithuania and shouted “Shame!” at the leaders, who were standing atop Lenin’s mausoleum.

Gorbachev and other officials on the reviewing stand left after enduring the unofficial demonstrations for about 20 minutes. Some protesters booed and jeered as the leaders left and shouted, “Resign!” Festive music blared through loudspeakers around the square, making the shouting only barely audible.

It was not clear whether Gorbachev and the others left because of the huge outpouring of criticism, unprecedented on Red Square even in the country’s tense political atmosphere.

During the protest, Gorbachev appeared impassive but was seen tapping his fingers on the parapet of the reviewing stand, as he often does when he is impatient.

For decades, the Red Square rally on May Day has been an orchestrated show of support for official policies.

A subway worker attending the parade as an official guest said he was stunned.

“A revolution is a revolution. What else can I say?” said the worker, who identified himself only as Yuri.

At least one marcher today carried the Soviet flag with the hammer and sickle cut out. Another sign called Soviet leaders “The Kremlin Ceausescus,” after the executed Romanian dictator. Others said, “Down with the Empire of Red Fascism” and “Today a Blockade of Lithuania, Tomorrow a Blockade of Moscow.”

The protest was not shown on state-run television, which ended its transmissions after the official march.

The wave of angry protesters continued to file through Red Square, which holds about 50,000 people at a time, for more than an hour after the leaders left. Police gradually, and apparently gently, moved them along. A few thousand trekked about a mile to a square across from Gorky Park to renew their demonstration.

Similar expressions of discontent were seen in Leningrad, the Soviet Union’s second largest city and the birthplace of the revolution. Protesters sprinkled among pro-government marchers on Palace Square carried banners that read, “Communism is a Universal Shame” and “Freedom for Lithuania,” according to Leningrad journalist Maxim Korzhov.

Some demonstrators, he said, shouted, “Gorbachev Resign!”

Soviets are upset with Gorbachev because of the deteriorating state of the economy. Consumer goods are scarce and of poor quality.

They also are critical of him for championing democratic reforms but not submitting his own leadership to a test at the polls. Gorbachev was elected by lawmakers last month to a powerfully expanded executive presidency, and critics say it puts a dangerous amount of power into the hands of a single leader.