A bright future back in the USSR?

On the anniversary of the 1993 coup, the nation's communists remembered the disasters of yesteryear, while looking forward to a brighter tomorrow.

Russia's communists, buoyed by a stunning electoral success in Volgograd on October 1, are determined to return to a centrally-controlled economy should they triumph in December's federal elections.

Under the leadership of Gennady Zyuganov, the Russian Communist Party (RCP) is favored to win a large number of seats in the December 17 poll for Russia's State Duma (Russian lower house of parliament).

Some pollsters have said they could gain a majority.

At a rally in St Petersburg last Wednesday -- two years from the day when President Boris Yeltsin dissolved the old, Communist-dominated Duma by force -- RCP leaders said they would welcome foreign credits.

But they insisted that Russia must have the right to dictate what is produced by all industrial and agrarian enterprises.

St Petersburg RCP chief Yuri Belyayev said that of the over 1 million signatures collected to endorse the party's national list for the State Duma, a quarter were collected in St Petersburg.

"We will support foreign investments, provided all parts of the production cycle take place on Russian soil -- so that investments will not lead just to pumping raw materials out of Russia."

Yuri Sevenard, a current St Petersburg RCP Duma deputy who will run for re-election in December, said his party was interested in encouraging foreign investors -- on Russian terms.

He and his party are opposed to the sale of Russian land.

Mr Sevenard said, "If a foreigner buys land how can we order him what and how he has to till there?

"Maybe he will put a US flag on his plot? So, should we allow all our land to be crammed with foreign flags?

"They [foreigners] have enough capital to simply destroy the land, because they view us as an appendage."

Mr Sevenard said the RCP is interested in attracting large foreign credits. But he was worried that foreigners would want too much say in the running of companies they bought or invested in.

"Can you imagine how hard it will be to get foreign owners to produce whatever was produced at the enterprise traditionally?

"A foreign investor might buy a factory that was making earth-moving machines and decide to start manufacturing machine guns, or tanks, or planes instead," Mr Sevenard said.

"And foreigners will not care that no earth-moving machines are being built here," he added.

Both communist leaders said that all companies with foreign investments should be under the control of either the state or of Russian residents.

On Wednesday last week several meetings took place in St Petersburg, organized by communist-oriented parties, including the RCP, the Russian Communist Worker's Party and the Union of Soviet Women to commemorate the events of October 1993.

In the events of October 3 and 4, 1993, President Boris Yeltsin dismissed the Parliament, but it refused to obey and was dissolved by force. The current official death toll in the violence stands at 123, though many have claimed that hundreds perished.

Up to 3,000 people marched from St Isaac's Square to the local TV center at Chapygina Ulitsa, carrying banners with the slogan: "Murderers are in `Our Home Russia.'"

Our Home Russia is the center-right political party led by Russian Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin.

Earlier last week, the Communists won a stunning victory in Volgograd's local parliamentary elections.

They won a stunning 22 of the 24 seats up for grabs in the poll held there on Sunday, October 1.

But despite RCP optimism, it was hard to be sure what the results meant, as less than 40% of the electorate voted.

Volgograd, (once known as Stalingrad) is a city of over one million people, situated about 900 kilometers (560 miles) south of Moscow.