Two Soviet Mayors See Nothing to Celebrate, Ask Quiet Holiday

The mayors of Moscow and Leningrad called on the government Monday to scale down observances of the anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, saying they see little to celebrate this year.

“The whole current situation--the economic crisis, difficulties with the harvest, shortages and lines--does not predispose people to any jubilation,” Gavriil Popov of Moscow and Anatoly Sobchak of Leningrad said in a statement.

They proposed that the Nov. 7 celebration be limited to a military parade through Moscow’s Red Square, and that people otherwise spend the holiday preparing for winter and a potential fuel shortage by sealing windows, insulating walls and checking heating systems.

They appealed to President Mikhail S. Gorbachev for support, but it was far from certain that Gorbachev, who is also general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, would agree to forgo the celebration.

For decades, Revolution Day, Nov. 7, has been the most important state holiday. Traditionally, cities are festooned with red bunting and huge portraits of V. I. Lenin, the Bolshevik leader and founder of the Soviet state, fill the streets. Thousands of marchers troop through Red Square and greet the Kremlin leaders with rousing cheers. Fireworks light the sky at night.

Since the Communist Party has loosened its grip on power under Gorbachev, political rituals have changed. Last Nov. 7, about 5,000 Muscovites spurned the official parade to march in a protest column, some with placards bearing slogans denouncing the revolution.