In the fall of 1993, a political crisis erupted in Russia, which ended with two-day tank fire at the parliament building, the Ostankino assault and armed clashes on Moscow streets. In fact, it was a coup threatening to escalate into a civil war. The conflict went down in history as the "shooting of the White House" or the "black October."
How it all started
Historians agree that the beginning of the October 1993 conflict was laid back in 1990 by Mikhail Gorbachev and Anatoly Lukyanov. At that time, the Supreme Council of the RSFSR was elected, headed by Boris Yeltsin, who then had rather high ratings. To weaken its influence on the masses, Gorbachev and Lukyanov tried to divide the country. They hastily prepared a law on the creation of a number of union republics: the Ingush, Tuva, Chechen, Tatar, North Ossetian, etc. This was necessary so that there was no single leader in the country.
However, Yeltsin managed to persuade parliament to introduce the post of President and arrange a referendum. July 10, 1991 he became the first president of Russia. However, this went against the old Constitution of the RSFSR, according to which the country then lived. Until the collapse of the Union, all issues were decided by the Supreme Council, and after 1990, it continued to have great power and authority.
Yeltsin planned to conduct phased privatization in the country in order to destroy monopoly, create competition and thereby lower prices. However, the Supreme Council decided to immediately let prices go free. As a result, many people lost their jobs and all their savings. This hit Yeltsin’s rating badly. At the end of 1992, he decided to dissolve the old parliament in any way. He managed to do this only after 9 months.
The conflict consisted in the fact that Yeltsin and the Supreme Council completely differently represented the further political and socio-economic life of the country. So, serious disagreements were about economic reforms, and neither side was going to compromise.
Two weeks before Black October
September 21, 1993 the conflict escalated. Yeltsin televised constitutional reform. According to it, the Supreme Council should be abolished. His decision was supported by the then mayor of the capital Yuri Luzhkov and the Council of Ministers under the leadership of Viktor Chernomyrdin. However, according to the current Soviet Constitution, Yeltsin did not have such powers. The Constitutional Court convicted him and the ministers of violating a number of articles.
The Supreme Council, chaired by Ruslan Khasbulatov, removed them from their work and appointed Alexander Rutsky to act as president. Yeltsin’s actions were regarded as a coup d'etat. Since September 24, he almost every night tried to storm the White House, but it constantly broke down.
In the following days, the conflict only escalated. Members of the Supreme Council and deputies were blocked in the White House. They disconnected communications, electricity and water. The parliament building was surrounded by police and military personnel, as well as volunteers who were given weapons.
