Russians Dream of Yesteryear at Bolshevik Rally

Denouncing Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and his reforms, more than 20,000 angry, nostalgic Muscovites marked the 75th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution on Saturday in one of the strongest popular showings yet by Yeltsin’s hard-line opposition.

Massed outside the Kremlin in a forest of flapping red flags and portraits of Bolshevik founder V.I. Lenin, the protesters braved subfreezing winds to hear the old Soviet anthem and calls for Yeltsin’s resignation.

“I’m so happy that so many people showed up,” said Tatiana Mironova, 52, an unemployed engineer in a cheap cloth coat. “More and more and more people come to these things. This is a sign of protest against Yeltsin’s policy. The people chose him, and he betrayed our trust.”

Organizers had obtained permission for up to 100,000 protesters but were nonetheless buoyed by the turnout, which appeared even stronger than police estimates of 20,000. Other Communist rallies across Russia on Saturday drew fewer than 10,000 people.

This year’s Revolution Day march lacked the climax of past decades--the walk across Red Square itself. The vast cobblestoned square was torn up and blocked off by hundreds of police, its worn surface under repair by Yeltsin’s allies in the Moscow mayor’s office.

The anniversary came at an awkward time for Yeltsin as he scrambled to put together a new coalition that would allow him to get through the looming Dec. 1 session of the Congress of People’s Deputies with minimum damage.

He has spent recent days strategizing with his advisers and holding powwows with lawmakers from the moderately conservative Civic Union to discuss demands and compromises concerning Cabinet posts and his economic reform program.

If he fails to woo a majority to his side, the Congress could prove a disaster for Yeltsin. As the country’s highest lawmaking body, it could deprive him of the extra decree-making powers it gave him last year and force his Cabinet of reformers--although not the president himself--to resign.

Yeltsin appeared to be fighting hard, announcing Friday that he would not let “revanchists” bring down his government and complaining publicly that Civic Union’s “appetites” for Cabinet spots are excessive.

The Russian president has also dropped hints that he could violate the Russian constitution and institute some form of autocratic rule if his parliamentary opposition proves too vicious.

Former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev advised Yeltsin in a newspaper article published Saturday to stop being so stubborn and create a true “coalition government.”

“The president shouldn’t be obsessed with any one ideology. He should be the president of the entire nation,” Gorbachev told Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

But the speakers at the rally on Moscow’s Manezh Square on Saturday were too hostile to be partners in any coalition of Yeltsin’s. They called for the restoration of the Soviet Union, for a return to communism and for an end to reforms that they said benefit only thieves and speculators.

Neo-Communist Victor Anpilov advised army officers not to swear allegiance to Yeltsin and said Russian Defense Minister Pavel S. Grachev should be shot for insubordination because he disobeyed former Soviet Defense Minister Dmitri T. Yazov during the 1991 coup attempt.

He invited the 12,000 police who he said were overseeing the demonstration to “unite with the people, and together we’ll rid our holy land of all parasites.”

In the crowd, protesters said they marched to show their discontent with Yeltsin’s government but also simply to recapture the feeling of festivities they had known all their lives.

“To me, this is still a holiday,” said Valentina, a bright-eyed woman who refused to give her last name because she works in a secret Defense Ministry plant. “This is still the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Under the red banner, our grandfathers and fathers fought. Under the red banner, we defended Moscow and soldiers died.”

Yeltsin’s reforms, she said, “have turned us into manure.”

Mironova, the engineer, had simple personal reasons for her resentment of Yeltsin’s reforms. After two years of unemployment, she said, she and her teen-age son can afford meat only once a month.

“I’m afraid of tomorrow,” she said, “and I never used to be.”

Revolution Day was the premier holiday of the year during decades of Communist rule. Soviet leaders traditionally stood atop Lenin’s mausoleum on Red Square, waving to crowds of tens of thousands of marchers who passed by cheering, “Hurrah!”

Now, Nov. 7 remains a holiday--workers will get Monday off in commemoration--but all of the state-run festivities are gone.

A group of several hundred anti-Communists who held their own solemn march in Moscow on Saturday even said the day should be one of mourning for all the victims of Bolshevism.