(AP) – Hundreds of Ukrainian Communists commemorated Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution on Nov. 7, while nationalists gathered behind police barricades and shouted “Shame!”
The Communists turned Kyiv’s Independence Square into a sea of red, waving red flags as giant red balloons floated above the crowd. One protester held aloft a painting of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, while others – red ribbons tied around their arms – joined in singing the workers’ anthem, “The Internationale.”
The anniversary of the 1917 revolution is no longer an official holiday in this ex-Soviet republic.
But, “we’ve been celebrating this day since childhood and I intend to celebrate it until my death,” said Valentyna Chernova, 68.
Some Communist protesters also carried cartoon photos of President Viktor Yushchenko in American-flag stars-and-stripes underwear. Outside the president’s office, young protesters in black leather jackets, who did not identify themselves, hurled oranges over the heads of police lines and chanted “Long Live the Russian Empire.”
Last year’s Orange Revolution brought to power a pro-Western government that critics accuse of being a lackey to the West and of ruining relations with Ukraine’s giant neighbor and longtime ruler, Russia.
Also in downtown Kyiv, dozens of nationalists held a competing rally near the rebuilt St. Michael’s Cathedral, which had been destroyed by the Communists, to remember the victims of Communist repression. They held candles and sang Ukraine’s national anthem.
“I’m here because I owe it to my grandfather,” said Valentyna Polushchyna, 55, who said her grandfather was forced into exile in Kazakhstan.
The Communist legacy continues to divide Ukraine. In the Russian-speaking east, many feel nostalgia for the Soviet Union.
Ukraine’s more nationalistic west, which only fell under Soviet rule after World War II, viewed the Soviet Union as an occupying force that trampled on Ukraine’s dreams of independence.
Some of the younger nationalists rallying near St. Michael’s later marched down the hill toward Independence Square. They gathered on the opposite side of the main road that bisects the square, as hundreds of police stood behind specially erected metal barricades separating the them from the Communists.
Some 800 Kyiv police were on duty to prevent clashes and 6,000 more were on call, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency said. Last month, leftists and nationalists clashed when members of Ukraine’s insurgent army, which fought both Communists and Nazi’s during World War II, tried to march through the capital. Police were heavily criticized for not preventing violence on that occasion.
