Things could have turned ugly Saturday evening in the foyer of the Gorky Moscow Art Theater, where the newspaper Sovietskaya Rossia was celebrating its 50th year of "Talking with the people in the people's own voice."
During a break in the festivities, pensioners decked out in their Sunday best were aggressively jostling to get their hands on free bags of goodies that included a T-shirt, a pilotka military cap emblazoned with the newspaper's logo and a special anniversary issue.
Only articles from today's edition are available for free on our web site. For earlier stories, you will need a paying subscription to our Article Archive.