On what turned out to be the vilest day of early winter, with snow turning to driving sleet, only the most dedicated communists braved the streets of Moscow for the 80th anniversary of the Revolution. Most Muscovites stayed at home and those who bothered to switch on their TV sets heard President Yeltsin condemn the communist past.
Mr Yeltsin, himself a former member of the highest echelons of the Communist Party, praised the communist system for providing victory in the second World War and making the Soviet Union a superpower and a leader in the space race.
But, criticising the regime in which he was once a major player, Mr Yeltsin said: "The time has passed since we were a superpower whose people lived in poverty, when we were pioneers of the cosmos but drove on potholed roads."
The communist leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, on the other hand, reverted to old-style sloganising. He called for the "resurrection of Socialist Russia and a rebirth of the ideals of the Great October Socialist Revolution," and said that the situation in Russia had become as serious as it was in 1917. A "deep rift" had opened up between the people and the authorities, he said, and this was a recipe for a new revolution.
But despite the apparent conflict between the two leaders, behind-the-scenes moves were taking place by Mr Yeltsin's authorities to appease the communists who control the State Duma (lower house of parliament).
The sacking of Mr Boris Ber ezovsky, one of the most controversial and allegedly corrupt of Russia's new billionaires, from his post as deputy head of the Russian security council, was described by the communist speaker of the Duma, Mr Gennady Seleznyov, as a "wonderful present on the eve of the great holiday".
Mr Seleznyov was also given a personal present by Mr Yeltsin, who visited the Duma on Thursday to bestow the Russian Order of Merit on the speaker.
Mr Yegor Stroyev, the speaker of the Federation Council, parliament's upper house, has been a pragmatic supporter of Mr Yeltsin. Although he has given up his party membership, he remains a communist.
Another "communist for Yelt sin," Mr Aman Tuleyev, has given up his job as Minister for Relations with other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States to become Governor of the important industrial Kemerovo region in south-western Siberia.
In comparison to those in recent years the Moscow marches were more colourful than usual, mainly due to the atrocious weather conditions. Up to 20,000 people marched in Moscow. Flags and banners indicated support for communism, nationalism, the Russian Orthodox Church and a number of far-right organisations.
One group carried flags reminiscent of Nazi Germany but with the hammer and sickle as the central emblem rather than the Swastika. They were identified by onlookers as "National Bolsheviks," adherents of an extreme version of National Socialism.
These young fanatics and the extreme hard-line leader, Mr Viktor Anpilov, who yesterday urged his supporters on to "socialism or death", are unlikely to be impressed by Mr Yeltsin's designation of November 7th as a national day of reconciliation.
Among the plans announced by Mr Yeltsin in this regard is the construction of a monument, similar to that in Spain, for those who died on both sides in the Civil War. Russia's civil war between the communist Reds and the Tsarist Whites from 1917 to 1922 is believed to have claimed the lives of more than eight million people.
