Disillusioned by the fruits of democracy, Russia's government and people mostly ignored the anniversary of the defeat, 10 years ago yesterday of a Communist coup that signalled the demise of the Soviet Union.
On August 19th, 1991, 50,000 people rushed to defend Moscow's parliament building when Communist hardliners tried to unseat Russia's first elected government. Yesterday, scarcely 100 people gathered to remember the event.
The coup broke out when the eight hardline members of the Communist regime and the KGB sent tanks onto the streets. But the tank unit sent to surround the parliament changed sides, joining the protestors, and the coup collapsed within two days.
The then president of Russia, Mr Boris Yeltsin, climbed onto a tank to proclaim that democracy was here to stay. The Soviet president, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, who was put under house arrest by the coup plotters, was set free, but lost his job when the Soviet Union was dissolved four months later.
"The authorities have ignored this celebration," said the man who commanded the tanks, a former major, Mr Sergei Yevdokimov. "It should be a state holiday."
"People are terribly disappointed by the results of this democracy," said Ms Elena Egereva, a Moscow journalist. "Now we hate demonstrating. We hate to go onto the squares to support somebody. We don't believe in this any more."
President Vladimir Putin made no statement on the anniversary yesterday, opting instead to leave Moscow for his summer holiday. There was silence also from Mr Yeltsin, who has been disgraced in the eyes of most Russians.
State television news mentioned the commemoration only briefly half-way through its regular programmes.
Mr Gorbachev, credited with ushering the changes that brought the Soviet state crashing down, denounced the coup attempt. "It was self interest, no more," he said, referring to the coup plotters. "It was an attempt to replace a healthy head with a sick one."
The plotters themselves have been rehabilitated, and several have been honoured guests of Mr Putin.
"Our country was in total chaos," said Mr Gennady Yanayev, a former Soviet vice president and key member of the plotters. "There was a struggle for power between the forces that wanted to keep the country's political and social structure together and those who wanted the collapse of a great state."
The biggest celebration in Moscow yesterday was not to remember the triumph of democracy, but the glorification of the organisation which for decades opposed it: the 20th annniversary party of the FSB's elite commando unit, Vympel, held in a Moscow theatre.
The concert drew 2,000 bull-necked Vympel members and former members to drink, eat and be serenaded by a singer in shimmering silver dress.
Vympel took no part in the 1991 coup attempt, but after refusing to block another attempted coup by Communists in 1993, it was demoted by Mr Yeltsin and placed under the control of the Interior Ministry.
But with the arrival of Mr Putin, Vympel is back in the FSB with a cash injection.
"We had some bad times in the 1990s," said Mr Pavel Buzin, vice president of the gala's organising committee. "The arrival of Putin has been good for the military. Now we have respect again."