Hundreds of World War II veterans marched on Red Square, including what Russian media said were 130 who were retracing steps they took in a 1941 parade, when they marched straight from the shadow of the Kremlin walls to trains bound for the front.

"That parade was really a historic event, because it was an indicator of the will of the people to defend their country," Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said, addressing those assembled for Friday's parade, which also included cadets and soldiers.

Thousands of Communist Party backers followed their tradition on what was once the most sacred Soviet holiday, meeting at a square that used to be named after Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin and marching across Moscow. Many carried red hammer-and-sickle flags and criticized President Vladimir Putin's government. Police estimated the crowd at about 15,000.

"We're against the authorities ... nobody needs us, we're hungry and we have no voice," said a 65-year-old woman named Antonina, who wore red clothes and a sandwich board bearing Lenin's portrait. She refused to give her last name.

Near the Kremlin, atop the massive building of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, an unidentified man briefly replaced the Russian tricolor with a Soviet flag. He was detained, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.

Leaders of United Russia, the main pro-Kremlin party, laid flowers at a Red Square monument honoring a civilian militia credited with liberating Moscow from Polish invaders in 1612, state-run Rossiya television reported.

The party planned a concert with performances by Russian pop stars to celebrate the Day of Accord and Reconciliation, as Revolution Day was renamed eight years ago under former President Boris Yeltsin, who was locked in a political struggle with the Communists.

In another square downtown, Russia's two main liberal parties, Yabloko and the Union of Rights Forces, rallied together despite disputes about whether they should join forces for the Dec. 7 elections. The parties are hoping to increase the number of seats they hold in the Duma, which is dominated by pro-Kremlin centrists and Commmunists.

Police said there were 300 to 500 people at the rally. Several participants wore shirts bearing the words "our freedom and yours" under the name of Yukos, the giant oil company whose former chief, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is jailed on tax evasion and fraud charges.

Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky said democracy is struggling in Russia.

"Eighty-six years ago, our country tore down democracy," he told the crowd. "Today, on the 7th of November, we call for a Russia of democracy and freedom."

In Ukraine, some 1,500 mostly elderly supporters of the Communists and other leftist parties rallied in Kiev, waving red flags and holding posters hailing the revolution and proclaiming, "Down with the anti-national regime."

Leaning against a crutch, 80-year-old World War II veteran Ruslan Borovskyi lamented the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, which splintered into 15 countries including Ukraine.

"We had free education, free medicine, a loaf of bread cost 16 kopecks. Now the government has betrayed its ideas and people," he said. "It's like day and night."

Associated Press, November 7, 2003