COMMUNISTS across Ukraine rallied in dozens of towns and cities yesterday to mark the 97th anniversary of the October revolution.

Demonstrations were muted and sombre in comparison with those across the border in Russia, with Ukraine’s ongoing civil war casting a shadow over events.

In Kiev, flowers were laid on an empty pedestal that is all that remains of the monument to the heroes of the October revolution, vandalised following the city’s right-wing putsch in February.

In Dnepropetrovsk, organisers told those attending to leave flags and banners behind in case they led to attacks by fascists of the Svoboda and Right Sector parties on the way to or from the demonstration.

“During the existence of Ukraine in the Soviet Union, our country became a rich and prosperous space power, in which there was no hatred based on ethnicity,” Dnepropetrovsk Communist Party first secretary Sergei Chrapov told the rally.

“And what do we see today? In only 24 years society has been filled with animal hatreds — minds with primitive myths.

“Nearly a year has passed since the beginning of Euromaidan. In this time nationalist power has managed to lose Crimea and the Donbass, unleash a bloodbath in the east and completely bring down the economy.”

But he ended by reminding listeners that “the power of the oligarchs and nationalists will not be eternal.

“We will have a lot of work to rebuild our homeland. Despite the fact that communists are not represented in the current parliament, we will continue to fight for workers’ rights.”

In Donetsk, held by anti-fascist forces under siege from the Ukrainian military, the rally began with a minute’s silence to honour all those who have died in the civil war.

Union of Left Forces of the Donbass chairman VA Bidyevka issued an emotional appeal to the “workers of Poland and the Czech Republic” to remember the anti-fascist unity of the second world war.

“European democracies are acquiescing to the atrocities of Ukrainian nazis,” he said.

“But fascism is a virus that causes an epidemic. Remember that it has no boundaries.”