On November 6 some 2,500 mostly elderly members of Moldova's Party of Communists staged an indoors rally in Chisinau. On the 7th, the same party, and also the Bloc of Popular Patriotic Forces, which counts some 20 Socialist and Communist parliamentary deputies, staged follow-up ceremonies... MORE

Some 80,000 demonstrators took part in processions and rallies throughout Ukraine on November 7, according to official -- and possibly understated -- figures. Apart from Kyiv, the largest demonstrations were recorded in the industrial centers of eastern and southern Ukraine, with attendance figures ranging from... MORE

As a singular exception in the CIS, the celebrations in Belarus were organized by the state authorities. Some 7,000 residents demonstrated in Minsk, 4,000 in Mahilyov, 3,000 in Vitsyabsk, and 1,000 in Homiel. They carried portraits of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka interspersed with those of the... MORE

Communist parties and allied leftist movements in most CIS and Baltic countries on November 7 celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution. The celebrations everywhere took the form of processions and rallies at Lenin monuments or former sites thereof, and featured portraits of Marx,... MORE

Small groups of mostly Russian Communists demonstrated under pro-Soviet slogans in Riga and in the northeastern Estonian towns of Narva and Sillamae. Latvian Communist leader Alfreds Rubiks, 62, who has just been paroled from prison (see Monitor, October 6), announced that he is returning to... MORE

Two senior officers of the guard force at the naval ammunition depot which exploded last week in Vladivostok had stolen some key mine components, and military investigators are now investigating the possibility that the thefts might have some connection to the disaster. The two officers... MORE

Anatoly Sobchak, who lost his post as mayor of St. Petersburg in an election last year, is recovering from a heart operation in a Paris hospital. Sobchak's decision to seek treatment abroad aroused speculation, since he has been summoned by the police to testify in... MORE

Activists of no fewer than three Communist parties addressed the 2,500 demonstrators who gathered in the center of Saratov on November 7 to mark the 80th anniversary of the October Revolution. They represented the Russian Communist Party, which is far and away Russia's largest political... MORE

According to the latest issue of "Itogi" magazine, recent personnel reshuffles made in the Chechen leadership by President Aslan Maskhadov are directly linked to the flow of Caspian oil through Chechen territory. The changes include the replacement of all Chechnya's economic ministers and the reorganization... MORE

Russian and Chinese leaders reaffirmed their "strategic partnership" during talks yesterday in Beijing, but also emphasized that they are not considering a formal alliance and that ties between the two countries are not directed against any third power. The joint political declaration, which also proclaimed... MORE