CIS: BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION ANNIVERSARY ROUNDUP.

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, Lenin and Stalin, Soviet flags, and slogans for the restoration of socialist economics and the unity of former Soviet republics. Militant rhetoric prevailed, but the turnout in most countries was apparently lower than last year’s. Attendance at the November 7 demonstrations has in recent years served as a barometer of Communist and, more generally, leftist political strength in the newly independent countries.

Baltic States: