Shots Fired in Red Square During Soviet Parade

A marcher fired shots in Red Square not far from President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and other Soviet leaders during today’s Revolution Day parade, and thousands of angry citizens held the first protests ever sanctioned in Moscow on the major Soviet holiday.

The shooting was the most violent incident in a tumultuous day as clashes were reported in some areas between authorities and anti-Communist protesters, and thousands of Communists openly criticized Gorbachev.

The Soviets also displayed one of their deadliest missiles and other military equipment.

During the traditional parade, a man fired two shots into the air about 80 yards from the Lenin Mausoleum, where Gorbachev and other leaders were watching.

No one appeared to have been hit, and police quickly grabbed the unidentified man, said Tass correspondent Sergei Vozianov, who witnessed the incident. Vozianov said it was not clear if the man was aiming at anyone.

The Tass news wire quoted KGB officials as saying the man fired into the air with a sawed-off shotgun. It said the gunman was from Leningrad but gave no further details.

Moscow KGB spokesman Andrei Oligov said the 38-year-old suspect fired a double-barreled hunting rifle that was shortened to be more easily concealed.

Anti-Communist protests were held around the nation to coincide with traditional Revolution Day events to mark the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

Gorbachev took the traditional Soviet leader’s position atop the Lenin Mausoleum in flag-draped Red Square today and opened the official celebration with a sober assessment of the state of the nation.

“It’s not the fault of previous generations that the goals they dreamed of were not fulfilled,” he said, referring to what he called “distortions of socialist ideas.”

Gorbachev also acknowledged that shortages of goods, a breakdown of law and order and ethnic strife have worsened in recent years.

A few blocks away, at least 2,000 people gathered near Communist Party headquarters for a counterdemonstration.

“Genocide Is the Gift of the Leninist Leaders to the People,” read one banner. “Countrymen, how long will we endure hypocrisy, lies, demagoguery, violence and theft from the Mafia-Communist Party?” read another.

Gorbachev spoke for 15 minutes, flanked by critical and supportive leaders, including Russian republic President Boris N. Yeltsin and Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov.

Red flags hung from street lamps and fluttered on buses across a capital covered by a thin layer of the season’s first snow.

After Gorbachev spoke, the Soviet armed forces showed off their might, including waves of marching soldiers, tanks, armored personnel carriers and the SS-25, a mobile intercontinental ballistic missile that entered service in 1985.