Russian communists pay tribute to Lenin on eve of former holiday marking revolution

Hundreds of Russians laid red carnations at Lenin's tomb on Sunday, the eve of a former holiday marking the Bolshevik Revolution _ which will be an official working day for the first time in decades.

About 2,000 people, led by Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov, streamed across Red Square to pay tribute to the Bolshevik leader V.I. Lenin, whose embalmed body is still kept on display in a stone mausoleum just outside the Kremlin.

President Vladimir Putin's government has ended the Nov. 7 holiday that used to commemorate the 1917 revolution. Beginning this year it has been replaced with a Nov. 4 celebration of the end of Polish intervention in 1612.

Polls indicate the change has left most Russians displeased or indifferent, and Communists are planning more marches and rallies Monday _ predicting that abandonment of the Nov. 7 holiday will bring more people out into the streets than came out in previous years, AP reported. V.A.