Posted on 10/28/2004 10:07:02 PM PDT by Destro
Russia heralds the end for red October
Agencies in Moscow
Friday October 29, 2004
The Guardian
It was the day that changed Russia's history, a date that has given its name to streets, squares, factories, metro stations, hotels and entire regions. But now Moscow is about to do away with the public holiday commemorating the 1917 Bolshevik October revolution, a festive season once marked with full military pomp but now graced only by a few rallies attended mostly by veterans, elderly nostalgics and neo-leftists.
A bill currently before parliament would expunge the last vestiges of the "great October" from the calendar and shorten from two days to one the May Day holiday.
The legislation would also throw out the December 12 holiday instituted by the former president Boris Yeltsin in 1993 to mark the introduction of a new constitution.
The net bonus will be that Russians enjoy a longer Christmas and New Year holiday, when much of the country shuts down for a fortnight anyway.
The October holiday has suffered an identity crisis not just as a result of the passing of the Communist era.
Because of the shift from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, it falls on November 7. It was rebranded the Day of Accord and Reconciliation eight years ago.
The change, which will almost certainly pass into law during a first reading directly after this year's November 7 holiday, has broad backing and was only opposed by the Communist party.
It marks the considerable redrafting of Russia's national image and history under Vladimir Putin, a vision that glorifies the rule of the tsars: the bill would also create a new holiday of National Unity on November 4, marking the day in 1612 when Moscow was freed from Polish occupation.
One of the bill's proponents, Oleg Shenin, said that pro-Kremlin deputies "openly say that we now have a new government which needs new attributes, including new public holidays".
I suppose this year they could parade the iraqi weapons they moved instead.
News Analysis by TWD's Editor, Shane Cory.
Missing Weapons? Blame the Russians
October 28, 2004 09:43 AM
The Washington Times dropped to the bottom of the integrity scale by leading with a story that definitively blamed the loss of hundreds of tons of high explosives (HE) on the Russian military. Their story was based mainly on the views of one controversial Pentagon staffer, John A. "Jack" Shaw.
Earlier this year Shaw was reportedly involved in a controversy involving the former Iraqi golden boy and now criminal, Ahmed Chalabi. The scandal involved the awarding of cell phone contracts to three companies with close ties to Chalibi. According to the L.A. Times, he was put under investigation by the FBI.
From reports of Shaw, it would seem that this government employee runs fast and loose. When investigating a contracting matter, he allegedly was refused entry into Iraq and then dressed up as a Halliburton employee in order to gain entry into the country.
Around 77 percent of 1,500 respondents said they opposed the proposal made by the Russian Inter-religious Council for moving Day of Concord and Reconciliation from November 7 to November 4.
According to the pollsters, their opposition was rooted in the decades-long habit of the Russians to mark Day of Concord and Reconciliation on November 7. From the 1920s to 1991, November 7 was the date of a national holiday that marked the anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution; Russia’s first president Boris Yeltsin changed the official name of the holiday to Concord and Reconciliation Day, but decreed that it be marked on the same old date – November 7.
I don't think Putin cares that the old timers don't want change per Itar/Tass' poll.
Leftists prepare to mark October Socialist Revolution anniversary - MOSCOW, November 7 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian leftist parties promise to gather up to 50,000 people in the Moscow streets on Sunday. A leaflet posted on the official site of the Russian Communist Party reads, “Comrade! Do not give away your great Soviet holiday!” The authors of the leaflet do not rule out that they will have to mark secretly the next anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution.
The State Duma will consider the law to put off the state holiday from November 7 to November 4 next week. The leftists took it as an offensive of the anti-people regime on their final position. They forgot about disagreements, and practically all leftists from Viktor Anpilov to Eduard Limonov will join the rally of the Communist Party. The VKPB makes the only exception that according to some reports intends to uphold revolutionary traditions at their separate rally.
The columns under red banners will gather as usual on the Kaluzhskaya Square near the last Moscow monument to Lenin and will march to the Teatralnaya Square to hold a rally near the monument to Marx. Successors of the then powerful Communist Party of the Soviet Union march this way since 1991 when first Russian president Boris Yeltsin cancelled demonstrations on the Red Square on November 7. However, this year the Communist Party intends to hold rallies and marches in all Moscow administrative districts including in residential areas before the march in the Moscow central streets. The decision to reach out was taken at the recent plenum of the Communist Party central committee at which Zyuganov’s supporters had to admit that the party had lost popularity.
Meanwhile, they have many supporters to leave November 7 the day off. According to the latest opinion polls of the sociologist centre ROMIR-Monitoring up to 77 percent of Russians do not support the idea to cancel the holiday on November 7 that is called Day of Reconciliation and Accord since 1996.
Russia marks Soviet red banner day amid security alert - 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.
....
"This day was and will be a landmark event, and its celebration cannot be abolished," Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. "People suffered for this holiday, and no one has the right to trample on our history."
Criticism of President Vladimir Putin's government, changes to social benefits and complaints about inequality dominated the speeches. But some also chanted, "America, hands off Lukashenko!" a show of support for the authoritarian leader of neighbouring Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, who has resurrected Soviet-era symbols and institutions and has honoured now-disgraced Soviet-era officials. - AP
"The Russian people were the first to suffer under an atheistic and godless government," said the Rev. Victor Potapov, head pastor of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Northwest. "We don't celebrate that day. We mourn it."
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