Thousands of rain-soaked Muscovites celebrated Saturday at a victory concert on the spot where they helped Russian republic President Boris Yeltsin fend off tanks sent by leaders of a hard-line coup.
Titled "Rock on the Barricades," the televised charity concert was organized by city officials as part of an annual citywide festival and attracted more than 5,000 mostly youthful Muscovites.But timing of the concert - so soon after the Aug. 18-21 coup - and the locale, the steps of the Russian parliament building where Yeltsin led the resistance, made it a celebration of the hard-liners' defeat.
"It's a great holiday; we have won a big battle," reformist Moscow Mayor Gavriil Popov said in an opening speech.
Praising those who opposed the coup, Popov said: "The entire burden of the destiny of Russia, the destiny of other nations, fell on your shoulders. And you bore it. Thank you, my dear ones."
Elsewhere during the citywide celebrations, Soviet President Mik-hail Gorbachev made a rare appearance on the streets of Moscow, joining thousands of people in a festive march to Manezh Square beside the Kremlin. Tass, reporting on the appearance, did not say whether he spoke to the crowd.
Above him a banner read, "Democracy" even though it was not a pro-democracy protest as such. Gorbachev was well guarded, as he has been since the coup. On Man-ezh Square, Muscovites wandered about, eating ice cream and enjoying the festive mood.
At the Russian republic building, meanwhile, the vice president of Russia, Alexander Rutskoi, told the throng: "You have freed yourself from the 70-year dictatorship of the Communist Party."
Children climbed trees and trucks to get a better view of the stage at the top of a long stone staircase leading from the building down to the Moscow River. Soviet rock stars pranced up and down the steps, lip-synching pop songs and playing to the TV cameras.