MOSCOW : Russia Rocks On

As they did last August, soldiers will be marching in Moscow’s streets this week--but this time, it will be part of a celebration, not an attempted coup.

Wednesday marks the anniversary of last year’s abortive effort by top-level Communist leaders to turn the clock back on reforms--an effort that ironically led to the total collapse of the old Soviet Union.

Victorious democrats have big plans to mark the occasion, though many of those plans depend on finding outside financing that may or may not come in time. Saturday is to be a day for street celebrations, with a march by military bands down Moscow’s main shopping thoroughfare. Crowds are to pack Red Square to hear a concert of folk and classical music, while outside the Russian White House, the government building where Yeltsin and his supporters made their stand, pop musicians are supposed to invite Russians to “rock on the barricades.”