ДВА ГОДА ДВИЖЕНИЯ

On board the imitation Aurora, the atmosphere was nostalgic, with renditions of old Soviet songs playing over the sound system.

The lower deck of the boat was illuminated by red lights, and on tables covered with red tablecloths were plates of the most traditional foods: pickled cucumbers, pickled garlic, Olivier salad and the inevitable selyodka pod shuboi, or herring under a fur coat.

Accompanied by the proletarian rock music of Eshelon and the rap of the left-wing Sixty-Nine, Ponomaryov announced the winners of an Internet competition for the best new campaign slogans.

The winners - "Putin Forward to the Past, KPRF Backward to the Future"; "We Changed Ourselves Without Changing the Motherland"; and "KPRF Internet-tional Party" - were awarded in a ceremony interrupted by applause and the playing of the Internationale.

When the boat drew close to the Kremlin walls, some 30 Komsomol members shouted slogans calling for a new revolution or for the bourgeoisie to be arrested: Burzhuyev na nary, rabochikh na Kanary, or Bourgeoisie to prison, workers to the Canary Islands.

Dmitry Borovikov, 23, who is working on a Ph.D. in economics, was one of those shouting the anti-capitalist and anti-Kremlin slogans. He said he joined the party in 2001. "I can't say that I back KPRF ideology in full, but at least it is the only party that sticks to some principles," he said.

Close to the end of the evening, 23-year-old Katya Mukhina, who joined in the singing of "The U.S.S.R. Is My Fatherland," said she will vote Communist because she does not see any other alternatives.

Mukhina, who teaches Russian language in a Moscow school, said she likes being a Komsomol activist because "I like the Komsomol crowd. We don't compete against each other like other young groups do and we don't know what careerism is."

Among the young Komsomol members on Sunday was one of the Communists' long-time backers, Alexei Kondaurov, 54, who is running on the 13th spot on the party's federal list. "Young people represent the future of the Communist Party, and the party's future plans are to work with them," he said.

A former KGB general, Kondaurov is an official aide to the president of Yukos-Moskva, a major division within the oil company. The president, Vasily Shakhnovsky, was charged last week with tax evasion, as part of the widening case against Yukos shareholders.