MOSCOW : A Not So Red-Letter Day
Once the reddest of all the special dates on the Soviet calendar, Nov. 7 this year promises to be the most subdued holiday in all the 74 years since the Great October Revolution whose anniversary it celebrates.
In Moscow, where Red Square military parades long offered Kremlinologists the chance to speculate on the pecking order behind the lineup of Soviet leaders on Lenin’s mausoleum, city officials have reportedly forbidden demonstrations Thursday. And in St. Petersburg, the mayor announced that the only political content to the holiday--called “Viva St. Petersburg” this year--should be joy over the city’s decision this summer to change its name back from Leningrad.
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