MOSCOW (AFP) - Police took control of central Moscow as government sanctioned soldiers marched across Red Square while Communists held up separate rallies under red banners, against a backdrop of fear of attacks from rebels in separatist Chechnya.
Underground walkways leading to the Kremlin were sealed off and police cars patrolled most central Moscow roads. Traffic was limited across major thoroughfares as hundreds of police officers took control of the streets, heightening tensions.
November 7 marks the Bolshevik revolution celebrated in the Soviet era and which still keeps the left, under red banners but in dwindling numbers, coming out on the streets.
But the day has been recently renamed into one celebrating reconciliation among various political forces in Russia, under pressure from the administration of President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin, fearing further political unrest, has proposed that November 7 no longer be named a national holiday that has people take a day off work, and offered the day be moved to November 4 -- one marking victory in a war against Poland.
Adding to the confusion, state television reported Sunday that November 7 was now marking the day Soviet soldiers paraded off the Red Square in 1941 to protect Moscow from invading German troops holed up just west of the capital.
The Moscow mayor did not seem to be of much help.
"For all of us, this marks that unforgettable day marking the parade off the Red Square in 1941," Mayor Yury Luzhkov was quoted as saying by Interfax while attending one of the rallies on a street leading to the Kremlin.
"But this is also a holiday celebrating the great socialist October revolution" of the Bolsheviks in 1917, he added.
Meanwhile state television flashed pictures of soldiers marching through the Red Square while the Communist rally gathered in southern Moscow at the bottom of the main statue still left standing of Lenin.
"Nobody has the right to eliminate the great October revolution," Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov shouted while marching toward the Kremlin's walls ahead of red banners.
"We must re-establish the great Soviet Union," he said.
Communist officials claimed up to 40,000 people attended the rallies, although police said the figure was closer to 10,000.
Tens of thousands of protesters who supported the communist cause also showed up at rallies in Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg and the Far Eastern port of Vladivostok, while others were also reported to march in the Pacific Coast regions of Kamchatsk and Khabarovsk.
Most marched under the Communist banners.
"Personally, I am supporting the spirit of the (Bolshevik) revolution. We should not be shoving our history in the dustbin," said pensioner Boris Vladimirov.
"I regret the passing of the Soviet Union. We never had problems with jobs in those days, or such confusion."
The demonstrations came against the backdrop of heightened security, with rebels from separatist Chechnya previously striking Russian targets on national holidays and other major events.
There were no reports of attacks in the southern Russian republic Sunday.
11/07/2004 - 22:13 GMT - AFP