Officially it was just another workday. But for thousands of Communists and leftist political activists, Monday was a day to take to the streets in honor of the "sacred" anniversary of the 1917 Revolution and to castigate the government of President Vladimir Putin, who scrapped the Nov. 7 holiday late last year, replacing it with the Nov. 4 People`s Unity Day. More than 10,000 demonstrators carrying Soviet flags and banners, signs ridiculing the government and oligarchs, and portraits of Vladimir Lenin and Josef Stalin marched from Triumfalnaya Ploschchad to the statue of Karl Marx across from the Bolshoi Theater in celebration of the 88th anniversary of the October Revolution on Monday afternoon, the first time in decades that the day was not an official state holiday. But the mood among the demonstrators, primarily Communist pensioners and members of leftist youth groups, was as confrontational as it was celebratory, with young and old alike hurling vitriol at Russia`s political and economic elite and scolding Putin for canceling the Nov. 7 holiday. "This was a move by a brainless government," said Maya Pulkanova, a 70-year-old pensioner who was holding a miniature Soviet hammer-and-sickle flag and muttering "Russia without Putin" to no one in particular. Valentina Metelyova-Volskaya, 75, said the government canceled the holiday in an attempt to stem pensioners` protests of social and housing reforms. "The authorities are scared of us, and that`s why they are trying to take away our sacred, eternal holiday," Metelyova-Volskaya said. At least 11,000 demonstrators took part in the march, and 3,360 policemen were assigned to crowd-control duties, police spokesman Kirill Sharov said Monday. Several law enforcement officers in plainclothes were mingling in the crowd rather conspicuously, carrying hand-held cameras, their walkie-talkies blaring from under their overcoats. The march was let by a brass band playing communist and World War II songs and a banner that almost spanned the entire width of Tverskaya Ulitsa reading "Hail the 88th Anniversary of Great October!" Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov marched with a red woolen KPRF scarf around his neck and waved a bouquet of red flowers. "There were two great events in the history of our country," Zyuganov told the crowd, Interfax reported. "Great October and the Great Patriotic War. ... Our troubles began as soon as the ideals of October were betrayed." More than 100 members of the National Bolshevik Party took part in the demonstration, carrying NBP flags and photographs of fellow party members on trial or serving time in connection with political stunts, such as seizing the reception of the presidential administration and throwing pictures of Putin out the window of the Health and Social Development Ministry. The Moscow Times