Determined supporters of democracy braved heavy rains over the weekend to keep alive the memory of their resistance on the barricades round the White House during the August coup three years ago.


Hundreds gathered in a celebratory mood on Friday evening by the former parliament building, embracing old friends from the units that formed a ring round the parliament and kept the tanks at bay. They danced and sang and toasted each other with champagne.


"We want to be among friends and celebrate. These are very good friends. We lived very intensely during those days," said Andrei, a painter, wearing the same jacket, scrawled with messages, that he wore throughout the coup.


Father Kipryan, a priest, said he came to be with friends. "These are people who love Russia and believe in her and who struggled for her salvation. They are not into politics, they are not fanatics, they are without intrigue. They are the future of Russia," he said.


Many of the same people attended a procession Saturday night to lay wreaths at the spot where three people died during the coup, crushed by tanks in the underpass where Novy Arbat crosses the Garden Ring.


Shielding candles against the wind and rain, their mood was one of dogged optimism in the face of public apathy toward the anniversary of the defeat of the hardline coup attempt.


Russia's leaders appeared meanwhile to be distancing themselves from events which are now seen as heralding the collapse of the Soviet Union and the onset of deep economic crisis.


Unlike previous years Yeltsin did not attend the anniversary celebrations in person, but sent a wreath and a message of support announcing a new decree making Aug. 22 a public day of the Russian tricolor flag.


It will not be a public holiday but the white, blue and red flag, a symbol of the democratic victory over the 1991 coup attempt, will fly from every government building in Russia.


The decree was welcomed by democratic campaigners who have been pushing for recognition of the anniversary, at a time when the coup plotters, their confidence boosted by the recent acquittal of General Valentin Varennikov for his involvement, are attempting a political comeback.


Hardliners marked the anniversary with statements giving their own version of events, describing the coup as a patriotic attempt to prevent the anti-constitutional break-up of the Soviet Union. "If I had another opportunity, there would be no naive steps on the part of the state emergency committee," Varennikov told a press conference on Friday.


The decree does not represent any change in the government's position, however, according to a presidential press service spokesman. Asked if there was a risk for the president in playing down the importance of the anniversary, Vadim Alexandrov said, "There is no direct link between the Russian flag and the fall of the Soviet Union."


Some democrats said at the weekend they were appalled by Varennikov's acquittal. "It was shameful behavior on the part of our prosecutor and the courts. It was a spit in the face for democracy and a spit in the face for Russia," said Vladislav Tilnov, leader of the Moscow branch of the People's Party of Russia.


Yeltsin, in a message to a conference of democrats from all parties on Saturday, seemed to agree. "No one can dismiss the deep contempt that the people of Russia showed for the plotters. We should acknowledge that the whole truth has not been told since the putsch."


He urged democratic forces to unite for the sake of Russia's future. "This is not a time for despondency and despair. Today everything depends on us," his message told the conference, which was attended by presidential aide Sergei Filatov, St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak and human rights activist Yelena Bonner.


Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev called on Sunday for a new democratic movement to prevent revanchists and fundamentalists from returning to power. "Today the only people who are organized are those who want to turn the clock back," he told the current affairs program Itogi.


Democratic supporters agreed they no longer had the upper hand. Tilnov, who led the 8A unit in defense of the White House in 1991, admitted, "If we do not show optimism, who is going to keep going?"


The thousand people who processed in silence up the broad street from the White House on Saturday night showed little sign of self-doubt.


The mood in the crowd was solemn but defiant. "I was there on the barricades," said one lone man accompanied by his dog. "I would do it again today if necessary."