In honor of the parade

Moscow authorities will close a number of streets in the center for the celebration of November 7

On the very first working Monday after the Day of National Unity, which was celebrated for the first time in Russia on November 4, Moscow will face a day of national stratification. Residents of the capital, in strict accordance with the canons of the Great October Revolution, the anniversary of which was previously celebrated on November 7, will be divided according to class and property principles. Apparently, in order to spare the feelings of representatives of the older generation and supporters of left parties remembering the Aurora shots and the 1941 parade, the Moscow authorities intend to allow several commemorative events in the city center on weekdays, closing a number of streets to cars. Turning the surrounding area of ​​Red Square into a pedestrian zone during rush hour is fraught with huge traffic jams.

Moreover, the event itself on Red Square formally has nothing to do with the 1917 revolution. “November 7 remains a calendar holiday, despite the fact that it is officially a working day. For several years now we have been associating it with a historical event - the military parade of 1941,” explained Tatyana Vasilyeva, chairman of the Moscow government’s public relations committee, before the holidays. According to her, veterans had previously gathered unofficially on this day on Red Square, but now it was decided to organize the action properly. More than 400 veterans of the Great Patriotic War will take part in the memorial march (50 of them are participants in that legendary parade), as well as more than 2.5 thousand children from children's and youth public associations, military-patriotic clubs, search parties, Suvorov students, cadets, students of the Moscow Military Music School. In addition, they will be joined by military personnel from the Moscow Military District, dressed in the uniform of soldiers of the Siberian divisions who distinguished themselves near Moscow in 1941. This time the parade will be hosted not by Marshal Zhukov, but by Yuri Luzhkov.

Russian communists also cannot help but celebrate their main holiday, even if it is excluded from the official register of state celebrations. On this day they also plan to hold their own separate festive rally and procession in the center of Moscow.

Therefore, difficulties with movement can be considered guaranteed. According to the authorities, on Monday from 8.30 am until the end of the parade, travel along Vasilyevsky Spusk, Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge, Moskvoretskaya Street, Varvarka and Ilyinka will be closed, and then from 15.30 until the end of the “revolutionary” events, the traffic police will block Triumfalnaya and Teatralnaya squares, streets 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya, Tverskaya, Okhotny Ryad, Mokhovaya and Petrovka, Teatralny proezd, Strastnoy and Tverskoy boulevards.

Traffic jams in the center of Moscow will be the price to pay for the compromise that the country's authorities are trying to find between their desire to disown the communist past once and for all and the desire not to upset the most active part of the electorate, which traditionally consists of representatives of the older generation who respect the November holidays. However, not only veterans, but also a significant part of Russian society today, as opinion polls show, generally treat the Reds better than the Whites.

For example, according to a recent study by the Bashkirova and Partners company, 54.5% of Russians have a positive attitude towards Lenin, the activities of Felix Dzerzhinsky were approved by 45.8% of respondents, and Joseph Stalin has positive traits, despite all the revelations of recent years, noted by 37.3% of respondents. Of those who ultimately suffered from the revolution, only Nicholas II is often remembered with a kind word. At the same time, a significant amount of credit for the fact that 40.4% of Russian citizens speak positively about his activities belongs to the church, which recognized the last tsar as a great martyr.

Irina BELASHEVA