Bolshevik revolution marked by marchers

MOSCOW -- Criticizing stronger ties with the United States, demonstrators rallied across Russia on Wednesday to commemorate the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and speak out against an alliance unthinkable during the Cold War.

Beneath blankets of red flags, thousands of demonstrators marched in cities from Vladivostok on the Pacific Coast to Moscow, also lamenting the economic hardships that have marred the decade since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

But their most pointed criticism was aimed at President Vladimir Putin and his unflagging show of support for the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism. "Putin's soul has been sold to Bush," demonstrators at a Communist rally in Moscow shouted.

Another group at the same rally waved banners adorned with the Soviet hammer and sickle and chanted "Taliban, Taliban" in solidarity with Afghanistan's ruling Islamic militia, under attack by a U.S.-led coalition for harboring terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden.

Most Russians oppose the Taliban, but many believe the campaign is giving the United States too much influence too close to Russia. For some fervent communists who blame the United States for the Soviet collapse, virtually any U.S. foe is a friend.

Many Russians who do oppose the Taliban fear violence in Afghanistan could spread to neighboring former Soviet republics.

Nov. 7 was one of the most important holidays on the Soviet calendar, but most former Soviet republics no longer take the day off. In Russia, Boris Yeltsin renamed the holiday the Day of Accord and Reconciliation, but most citizens still think of it as Revolution Day -- and it is celebrated mainly by mostly elderly people who lament the Soviet collapse.