1993 Russian constitutional crisis
In September and October 1993, a constitutional crisis arose in the Russian Federation from a conflict between the then Russian president Boris Yeltsin and the country's parliament. Yeltsin performed a self-coup, dissolving parliament and instituting a presidential rule by decree system. The crisis ended with Yeltsin using military force to attack Moscow's House of Soviets and arrest the lawmakers. In Russia, the events are known as the "October Coup" or "Black October". Yeltsin assumed the presidency of the Russian Federation following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991; the Soviet-era 1978 Russian constitution remained in effect. Yeltsin began assuming increasing powers, leading to a political standoff with Russia's parliament, which in 1993 was composed of the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet. After gaining popular support for his restructuring policies in an April referendum, Yeltsin called for early parliamentary elections and dissolved the legislature on 21 September in a move not authorized by the constitution. On 23 September, the parliament impeached Yeltsin, proclaimed vice president Alexander Rutskoy the acting president, and barricaded itself in the White House building. Ten days of street fighting commenced between police and demonstrators loyal to Yeltsin and the parliamentarians. On 3 October, demonstrators removed militia cordons around the parliament and, urged by their leaders, took over the mayor's offices and tried to storm the Ostankino television centre. On 4 October, the army, which had remained neutral, shelled the White House using tanks and stormed the building with special forces on Yeltsin's orders, arresting the surviving leaders of the resistance. All of those involved in the events were later granted amnesty by the State Duma in February 1994 and released from jail. At the climax of the crisis, Russia was thought by some to be "on the brink" of civil war. The 10-day conflict became the deadliest single event of street fighting in Moscow's history since the October Revolution; 147 people were killed and 437 wounded according to the official Russian government statistics. In the wake of the events, Yeltsin consolidated his position, further expanded the powers of the executive, and pushed through the adoption of the 1993 constitution of the Russian Federation.
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