MOSCOW : What Revolution?

Political opponents of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and his reform policies get a red-letter opportunity on Saturday--the 75th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution--to take their message to an increasingly exasperated populace.

Even though the Communist Party is outlawed, the country’s new leaders don’t want to aggravate people by depriving them of a holiday. So Russians will enjoy a three-day weekend.

For Russia’s neo-Communists, Revolution Day will be a historical showcase for their slogans about social justice, the threat of foreign capital and the crying need to reforge the Soviet Union. A march is planned across Red Square by “Working Russia” and other opposition groups, but--purely by coincidence, they claim--Moscow authorities have thrown up barriers on the cobbled expanse while workers tear up the stones for repairs.