Protesting Russians Vent Frustrations

Workers marched for back wages, Communists for an end to Boris N. Yeltsin’s presidency and ultranationalists for a return to Russia’s Soviet-era might as hundreds of thousands took to the streets Thursday nationwide.

In rallies from Moscow to Vladivostok, Russians expressed their dissatisfaction with life in their post-Communist country.

But, since there is no government at the moment, it was for the demonstrators to know whom to blame for what.

It’s been 15 days since Yeltsin dismissed Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin and his Cabinet. Parliament has balked at confirming Yeltsin’s choice for premier, Sergei V. Kiriyenko, 35, a former oil company manager and energy minister.

So the marches, planned long before the government crisis, were firing verbal bullets at a moving target. “First, we have no pay. Now we don’t even have leaders to blame. They leave us with nothing,” said Olga Borisova, a nurse from Tver.

The Interior Ministry estimated that the crowd in Moscow numbered 15,000, according to the Itar-Tass news agency, but many journalists and other observers believed that the number was closer to a few thousand.

Russian public television estimated that about 1 million took part in Thursday’s protests, far fewer than organizers had predicted.

The government shake-up seemed to take passion out of the protests.

“Kiriyenko has given us hope. He is prepared to find a way to pay off wages,” said Alexei Surikov, a union official and protest organizer.