As the rally began, protesters calling themselves members of the Union of Eurasian Youth began a brawl with other demonstrators, a mix of participants in the 1991 events and supporters of the liberal Union of Right Forces party, or SPS, RIA-Novosti reported.
The protesters barked through megaphones, "Give us the GKChP," referring to the State Committee for a State of Emergency, which consisted of a dozen hard-line communists who sought to seize power in the August coup.
About 10 young people started pushing and hitting one another. OMON riot police officers escorted participants of the fight away from the rally, RIA-Novosti said.
"Those so-called democratic freedoms were won at the price of the collapse of our great government," Artur Patalak, the leader of the Union of Eurasian Youth's Kiev branch and one of those involved in the struggle, said in a statement released by the group. According to the statement, five of the organization's members were detained.
At the rally, SPS leader Nikita Belykh struck a different tone. "We believe that our country is a strong state made up of strong, free people. Our task is to preserve this liberty for posterity," he said.
As part of the rally, participants raised a tricolor flag to the accompaniment of the national anthem followed by the pre-Soviet anthem, Interfax reported. Ralliers also carried a 100-meter-long flag from the Gorbaty Bridge by the White House to the monument To the Defenders of a Free Russia on the intersection of Novy Arbat and Novinsky Bulvar.
SPS activists wore white T-shirts with a "no left turn" road sign on the back.
The monument was erected as a tribute to three people who died trying to halt tanks during the coup attempt. The monument's inscription reads, "Here died in August 1991 the defenders of democracy in Russia: Dmitry Komar, Ilya Krichevsky, Vladimir Usov."
Peter the Great is considered the father of the national flag. In 1705, he ordered that a white, blue and red flag fly above arbitration courts. However, the flag was not officially adopted until 1896, only to be replaced in 1918 with the red Soviet flag. The tricolor was readopted on Aug. 22, 1993, and Flag Day became a holiday.
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