Yelstin Denounces Communist Party

President Boris Yeltsin implored Russian voters Friday to reject the Communist Party when they go to the polls Sunday, saying it would be a “tragic mistake” to “bring the country back into the past.”

In a nationally televised address, his first major public appearance since being hospitalized Oct. 26 for a heart ailment, Yeltsin heaped scorn on the Communist Party, which polls show is in a commanding lead position in the balloting for the 450-seat lower house of parliament, the State Duma.