Russia as a country is described by many as a dictatorship these days. Some people claim that Russia is a country that never had democracy in its history. I believe that it’s not true. Russia did have democracy after the collapse of the USSR, but not for a very long time. Everything changed during the events known as “Black October” of 1993 in Moscow. Russia was in a constitutional crisis caused by a divide between president Boris Yeltsin and the parliament. The conflict got so hectic that president Yeltsin basically committed a coup, sending tanks to fire at the parliament building in Moscow. After this Yeltsin changed Russia’s governmental system, essentially giving the president unlimited power and setting up everything that is happening in modern Russia. Let’s talk about Russia’s 1992-1993 constitutional crisis and the day Russian democracy died. Smash like and sub for more xoxo
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the 4th of october 1993, is the day when russian democracy, has officially, died, yes contrary to popular belief, and what reddit commenting experts, might say russia is not a country, that never had democracy, in its entire history, it dead although not for a very long time and the effects of how this democracy, was crushed can still be felt, to this day if you’ve ever had, any interest in russia or the, history of post-soviet, countries you might have seen this footage, tanks, in the middle of moscow, shooting at the house of the parliaments people running around starting clashes, the parliament building burning, if you’re a westerner you’d probably say oh yeah this is when the ussr, was falling apart right the august coup of 1991, when the communist party hardliners, tried to overthrow the last soviet leader mikhail gorbachev, that was when the future first presidents of russia boris yeltsin, climbed the tank in front of the parliament and gave a speech, well you’re actually wrong you, see this was actually a completely.
different coup in 1993, which was perpetrated, by the first russian president boris yeltsin in 1993, russia is a country was in a constitutional, crisis, the parliament, was at war with yeltsin and they, both tried to kick each other, out that is correct people in, 1993, the political power in russia was actually split between different governmental, branches and did not just belong, to one person sounds exciting, and like a good basis to build, a new country on only if yeltsin, was not so hungry for power that, he didn’t illegally, try to fire the entirety of the parliament, and when the parliament members locked themselves in a governmental, building he didn’t send tanks, to shoot at them essentially, committing a violent coup the, events known as black october, of 1993, in russia did not just shock, the average citizen but also, led to chaos and clashes on the, streets, and loss of human life but worst of all casualties, one thing that truly died on that day was russian democracy, what is up everybody my name.
is roman your favorite neighborhood, russian and in today’s video, guys we’re going to be talking, about the 1993, events in moscow the russian constitutional, crisis and how it shaped the russia, of today, also a quick shout out to the, russian channel poster i see, uh took some of the footage for, this video from his video on, the topic and yeah it’s a great, channel if you know russian and, i’ll link it down in the description, to really get into this topic, we have to go back to the last, few years of the soviet union, and it’s the solution, in a larger sense the events that led to the constitutional, crisis in russia actually started, before russia was even a sovereign, nation in the mid-80s, the last leader of the soviet union mikhail garbachov kickstarted, a series of societal and economic reforms, in the soviet union known as pedestroica, the point of perestroika, was to get the ussr, out of brezhnev’s, stagnation era switched so more of a market economy, introduced free speech and reduced censorship and political persecution.
gorbachev’s reforms ended up being extremely controversial, being semi-successful, as far as free speech goes but, utterly failing in regards to, the economy i have a full separate, video on gorbachev, and his legacy if you want to watch it but long story short the ussr’s, economy was flushed down the toilets in six years of the perestroika, the soviet ruble crashed more than 140, times in its value going from 0.64,
[I] (of prices, a business, shares, etc. 价格、公司、股票等) to lose value or fail suddenly and quickly （突然）贬值，倒闭，失败；暴跌
Share prices crashed to an all-time low yesterday.
昨天股票价格暴跌到了历史最低。
The company crashed with debts of £50 million.
那家公司由于负债 5 000 万英镑而告破产。
rubles for a dollar to 90 rubles for a dollar the soviet economic growth in 1991, was at minus 11, and the ussr’s foreign debts basically quadrupled, it turns out that switching a huge country with a population, in the hundreds of millions from a planned communist, economy to a market capitalist, economy is quite difficult especially when every single governmental, system beat welfare education, medicine, food the industrial military sector etc, is built around this planned economy unsurprisingly, this transition from communism to capitalism, actually was far from over even, after the fall of the soviet.
union after the august coup of, 1991, the signing of the beloved accords and the official dissolution of the ussr, the newly elected first president of russia boris yeltsin, and his government had an excruciating, task to perform not only did they have to lay the groundwork, for a new sovereign democratic, nation but also to finish the transition from communism to capitalism, and did they lay that groundwork, but before we get into the battle between presidency, elson and the parliament that ended up in the coup that killed democracy, in russia i would like to try, to paint a picture of what russia, was like in those first few years, to put it short it was vastly, different, modern russia is often described as a super presidential,
relating to, belonging to, or done by a president:
“Art and the Community” was the theme of her presidential address to the annual meeting.
a presidential candidate
republic, where all the branches of governments are technically independent, from each other on paper but in reality, follow the directions, of the president, the president decides who gets to be in the parliaments the constitutional, courts and so on and all the, branches of governments have.
no real power against the president, that was not the case in 1993, the president’s power was limited quite a lot by the parliament, which at that time was called the supreme, soviet of russia the parliament, itself was a bit of a reminder, of the soviet era because it, was established, to be similar structure to the supreme soviet of the ussr, it consisted of democratically elected so-called people’s deputies, and it was the highest organ, of power in russia
organ: (formal) an official organization that is part of a larger organization and has a special purpose （官方的）机构，机关
the organs of government
政府机关
that had the, ability to veto or pass laws, fire and appoint governmental, officials, and even impeach the presidents so the governmental, system was way more democratic, than what we have today the way the system was established, is that in russia there will, never be a person who will be, able to observe all the power, and basically do whatever he, wants without any part of the, government being able to object, it i’m sure that would never, happen anyway the government, system was quite outdated though, because at the time russia did, not even have its own constitution.
yet and the country technically functioned according to the soviet constitution, of 1977, written in the times of briershnief however a new constitutional, project was in the works and, the government seemed to be taking, decent steps towards true democracy, what a great start for a new, country i’m sure they will not, screw this up anyway the society, itself was also obviously way, more free than it is in modern, russia the majority of the media, for example tv channels at the, time were not owned by the government, and the media could not just, criticize, but openly mock the presidents and the governments with no repercussions, freedom of speech was at an all-time high and political persecution, was at an all-time low and don’t, get me wrong i absolutely do, not idolize the 90s in russia, it was a time of poverty, decay, civil war and insane, gang violence and overall even though the government was built on democratic, principles, it was still not good however there was a place for real debates, and real discussion.
in the public sphere and that, is just something we could only, dream of today the economy was, still awful though and the empty, shelves and grocery stores that, became a symbol of gorbachev’s, later years in power were still, very much a thing the industry, was in a terrible state and there, was a real lack of supply of, essential goods and food products, in russia such as bread and potatoes, the government knew that they had to enact massive economic reforms, in order to fully embrace the, new market economy and also get, things in order russia decided, to undertake a sort of shock, therapy for the economy this, shock therapy consisted of two, reforms, and the first one was the so-called, liberalization, of prices, in the soviet union and in the first years of russia the prices for the majority, of goods and services were dictated by the government, this led to a so-called economic imbalance in 1991, when the amount of money in circulation, in russia was three times higher than the total price of all purchasable, goods on the market.
and people were not rich either, by the way so essentially people, were not only quite poor but, they also could buy barely any, food or necessities, with the little money that they had because there was no food available, the demand was there but the supply was not the liberalization, of prices meant that now prices for the majority, of goods and services, will no longer be controlled and restricted by the governments, salaries also got liberalized, and the government gave freedom to retailers, on paper this reform was meant, to kick-start the market economy, in russia and to increase the, supply of goods in the markets, the government was sure that the prices will not see massive inflation, and therefore russia would reach a decent economic balance, it all went horribly wrong though, here’s the cold hard facts even, though the amount of goose has, increased, the price has skyrocketed, making a lot of basic necessities unaffordable for the average person, mr, foreign, the lack of a monetary reform alongside the liberalization.
actually led to the majority of the companies in russia going bankrupt, the government basically started, printing money and given out, huge loans to the agricultural, and the industrial sector which led to hyperinflation, of 2 600, in the year 1992 that is absolutely insane, [Music], people’s savings and salaries, turn to dust in the blink of an eye poverty and unemployment, went through the roof and the economy, only continued to tank there, are many different opinions on, why this went wrong but most, russian people and also the parliament, blamed igor gaidar, the russian minister of economy at the time and one of yeltsin’s, closest allies he was the author of the price liberalization, project, this unsuccessful, reform was hated by the parliament, and it’s basically what started, driving a wedge between yeltsin, and the parliament, which got only worse with time the second economic reform was the privatization, of soviet governmental property in companies, including companies controlling russia’s vast natural resources.
the privatization, was mainly led by natoli chubais, the minister of russia’s state, property at the time and it was, supposed to go kind of similar, to the privatization, that actually happened in the czech republic, where basically every citizen had a chance of owning shares and ex-governmental, companies privatization, in russia is a huge and convoluted, topic but long story short it also fails while most russian citizens, lost their savings in only a few weeks a few rich people with connections, to the governments, rapidly became billionaires by arbitraging, the vast difference between the old domestic prices for russian commodities, versus the prices prevailing in the world market, basically the rich not just got richer but they also acquired, all of the soviet governmental, companies and the average russian, joe got nothing this is pretty, much where russian oligarchy, was born by the way obviously, people were not happy with this, and due to chewbais being a close, associate of yeltsin as well, this only drove a wedge between.
the presidents, and the parliaments, even further yeltsin and his ministers demanded more money from the parliaments, to fund these reforms, and the supreme soviets, did not budge in general the parliament was mostly composed of ex-members, of the ussr, supreme soviets and these people were not huge fans of yeltsin and his policies, this created a real conflict, inside the governments president, yeltsin was essentially claiming, that the parliament, is full of communists, that don’t want to help him usher, russia into a new era while the, parliaments opposed a lot of, yeltsin’s reforms, and put roadblocks, in their way the full-on war between president yeltsin and the parliament, started in december, 1992.igor gaidar the creator of the price liberalization, reform and many other economic reforms, was fired from his position of deputy prime minister of russia by the parliament, this infuriated, yeltsin during this month the parliaments, also decided that russia should conduct a public referendum, in april of 1993.
regarding the new constitution, yeltsin however single-handedly, decided that that is not going to happen on march 20th of 1993, the president appeared with a, public address to the people, on russian tv in which he stated, that the current constitution, is no longer relevant and has no legal power and that he is introducing, a new special order of rule in the country, whatever that means however it, turned out a few days later that, yeltsin did not actually sign, any decree like that and three, days after his tv address the, constitutional, courts of russia deemed yeltsin’s actions unconstitutional, stating that there are grounds for yeltsin to be impeached, i know guys it’s crazy this was russia in the 90s maybe all these raiders, are wrong and russia is not destined to be a country worldwide stars, on the 28th of march 1993, the parliament gathered to vote for yeltsin’s impeachments, but not enough votes in favor of it were cast and yeltsin remained president.
after the impeachment failed the head of the parliament ruslan hezbollah, proposed that russia should conduct a nationwide referendum in april 1993, in which the people could voice, their real opinion and show who, they trust and who they side, with more the presidents, or the parliaments, the referendum was also supposed, to decide whether russia is going, to conduct an early presidential, election an early parliamentary, election or nothing at all yeltsin and his administration, agreed, the thing is the referendum, was basically useless the citizens were asked to answer, four yes or no questions, question one do you trust the presidents of the russian federation, boris yeltsin 58.7, percent voted yes question two, do you approve of the social, and economic policies, enacted by the president of russia and the governments of russia since 1992.53, voted yes question three do you think conducting, an early election of the president of the russian federation, is necessary.
fifty point five percent voted yes question four do you think conducting, an early election of the people’s deputies of the russian federation, is necessary, 67.2, percent voted yes and also at the time every single pro yeltsin advertisement, and motto advertise, that the people should vote yes yes no yes which became a sort of a meme, [Music], so the majority of the citizens, actually did cast their votes like that then it would be a win for yeltsin, because then there would be a new parliamentary, election and essentially the parliament would be replaced, and technically the majority of russians, actually did vote yes yes no, yes not only that but elections, back then in russia were actually, pretty trustworthy, and this particular referendum, was considered pretty legitimate, by most experts because there, was no signs of voter fraud again, something that is very different, in modern russia so i guess this, is it right the referendum, fixed the constitutional, crisis, and the country continued on fine well.
no you see according to the rules set by the constitutional, courts of russia for the results, and for the answers to any of, the questions to be considered, and to be constitutionally, significant, they had to be voted for by the majority, of the electorate, so basically the majority, of all the citizens that can vote in russia not just the majority of the voters, and neither of the questions, basically ended up being voted, for by the majority of the electorate, only by the majority of the people, who actually showed up to vote, so to put in shots it was not, decided whether there will be, a parliamentary, or presidential election the referendum, basically did nothing and the, heated conflict inside the russian, government continued, so yeah not only is this video a story of how the russian democracy, died but i guess it’s also a story of how the ordinary, russian citizens have pretty, much never had a say in what, is going on in the country even, if the voting process itself, was honest and transparent, so yes please tell me once again.
that every single russian citizen, including me is responsible for, what is going on in ukraine because, we all voted for putin yeah sure, we did one thing that the referendum, did though was point out the, genuine feelings of the russian, people at the time the country, seemed to be basically split, in half with half of russia back, in the parliaments, and another back in yeltsin, even after all the unsuccessful, economic reforms of the time boris yeltsin truly was a very popular politician, in his first years of presidency, who actually, had a lot of support from the, russian people a lot of whom, were genuinely excited to enter, a new era of democracy, freedom and openness, the only problem is that yeltsin betrayed everybody’s hopes, a lot of people in russia described, the events that followed as a, mini civil war and in a lot of, ways it was one on may the 1st, 1993, a soviet workers day holiday a huge crowd of anti-yeltsin, people largely composed of communist, parties and their members took, to the streets with a protest.
the crowd wanted to march to, the kremlin and demanded for, yeltsin to be removed from power, the police blocked off the roads, and when the crowd arrived at, the barricades, massive clashes started with, the police using fire trucks, and sending in riot police with, shields and bannons to disperse, the crowds the protesters, also turned to violence throwing rocks using flagpoles, as weapons and even hijacking, trucks one of which ran over a policeman, killing him this process is remembered, as one of the most violence ever, in russia’s history, and even though the revolt was crushed, the stakes, and the intensity of the crisis, were only going up the last exams, of yeltsin in the supreme soviets, reconcile, happened in june 1993, when both sides agreed to join each other for a constitutional, hearing in which they would discuss the future constitution, and what it should be yeltsin, proposed an entirely new project, of a russian constitution, while the parliament’s leader hazbolatov, proposed the constitution.
mostly based on the soviet one unfortunately, the hearing was a complete failure, and the size did not come to, any sort of agreement, this was the final straw yeltsin finally decided to strike at the parliaments, on september 1st 1993, when he announced that he’s firing the vice president of russia alexander, rutzkoy, who was a prominent ex-member of the supreme soviets accusing him of corruption, and stats in the criminal case, against him there were multiple, problems with this first of all, not only did it turn out later, that the corruption, accusations against ruskoy were completely, false and fabricated, but also according to the active constitution, and the law the presidents of russia had no rights to fire the vice presidents, only the parliaments had the, right to do so the parliament, filed to the constitutional, courts of russia basically to, try get the elton impeached once, again for breaking the law and, breaking the constitution, rules again however before yeltsin got to be impeached on the 21st of september.
he went on live tv with an address, to the nation yet again this, time telling the people that, he just signed a presidential, decree, according to which he’s not only, firing the entirety of the supreme, soviet of russia and all the, parliament members but also states, in that such a governmental, organ as the supreme soviet of russia now ceases to exist, [ __ ] cheeky, [ __ ] all you john this [ __ ], that’s how i’m coming of course, according to the law yeltsin, had no right to do this so not, only did he basically break the, rules of the constitution, but he also literally did a coup, you guys know how during the, trump presidency in america a, lot of people were saying that, trump is going to try to do a, coup and basically is going to, turn america into a dictatorship, and trump was impeached as well, although he did finish his term, i mean come on a lot of people, already compared trump and yeltsin, because of their like wacky personality, and antics but this is a bit too much also just how insane, is this just imagine if trump.
came out with a speech on tv, while in office in which he said, that he just signed an executive, order to fire the entirety of, the us congress in the u.s supreme, court and also these, organs are now they now cease to exist by the way it’s absolutely unimaginable, but that is literally what yeltsin, did in russia immediately after, yeltsin’s address the supreme, soviet also came out with their, own statement, saying that yeltsin’s actions are unconstitutional, and that he is no longer servant, as the president of russia and, they announced that the vice, president rutskoy, the guy that yeltsin tries to fire, is now acting as president the, supreme soviet gathered inside, the house of the parliaments, citizens that supported the parliament, started gathering near the building protesting against yeltsin, and building barricades, while the military, encircled, the building the events basically, turned into a siege of swords, when the pro-parliamentary, citizens, were god in the parliament building and having fights with the military.
and other citizens, it was complete chaos for two, weeks trades and during those, two weeks russia technically, had two governments, with both of the governments claiming that the other is fraudulent, people held their meetings signed decrees and statements, while the people on the streets were brawling with the police, organizing militias, and camping outside of the parliament building yeltsin, also turned off electricity, and water in the parliament’s, building just to drive the supreme, soviet members out the last two, days of this constitutional, crisis were the most memorable though on the 3rd of october the pro-parliament, protesters, broke through the police cordon, around the parliament building, as well as driving the police, out of the nearby moscow city, council building by the way according, to ruskoy, and other present pro parliament protesters, they were being shot at by snipers, from the city council building, funnily enough bolton bankrupt, told me about this as well he, actually was in moscow in october, 1993.
and he went to the parliament, building to see what’s up when, his hotel staff explicitly, asked him not to go there sounds, like a boulder bankrupt thing, to do you know anyway me and, him were discussing this a while, ago and he also told me that, down there in the crowd next, to the parliament building you, could hear like sniper shots, in the air and stuff so yeah, the environment was obviously, quite heated the protesters, that broke through the police cordon were given instructions by rutskoy, telling them that it would be a good idea to also break into the astankina, tv center which is where russia’s, main tv channels are based the, idea was to take control of the, censor, go live on several tv channels and spread the parliament’s message, [Applause], the clashes near the astanka, center continued for the better, part of the day with multiple, casualties, the protesters, rammed the truck inside the tv, sensor and tried to answer it, but they did not manage to take, control of any tv channel’s signal, the police actually opened fire.
on the protesters, which also led to multiple casualties, meanwhile pro yeltsin protesters, were also gathering near different governmental, buildings in moscow, set to defend the buildings from the poor parliament protesters, if needed, [Music], and again this is quite ironic a tail is all this time once again politicians, are just using regular normal people in their own interests, promising them a future of freedom and democracy, when in fact those same politicians, were actually about to take those freedoms and democracies, away and this footage is yet again proof that yeltsin, was a very popular politician, and a lot of people actually, did support him and a lot of, people did want to strive for, freedom and democracy, and the fact that this was actually a real movement, makes what happened next even more ironic, and tragic, in the meantime yeltsin, still had his power and as you, might be able to tell he had, the police and the military on, his side throughout this entire, thing which is basically what, solidified.
his victory the attempt to storm, the tv center was the last straw, and yeltsin declared a state, of emergency, in russia in the morning of october 4th 1993, boris yeltsin sent tanks into the city center of moscow, and commanded the tanks to shoot, at the parliament building which, not only still had the supreme, soviet members inside, but also had a ton of citizens, and police hanging around putting, them in potential danger too, yeltsin didn’t seem to care however, some people claimed that the, rounds fight but the tanks were, blank but nevertheless, this was a wild image nobody could even imagine that the entire crisis, could lead up to this point, the shots of the parliament building, in moscow burning after being, shotted by tanks have become, deeply ingrained, in the collective memory of every russian, the soldiers then stormed the building arresting, every single parliament member, in size the entire storm was, just as chaotic as the previous, events the military’s, actions were not very synchronized.
or well planned with some of the military, even turning on yeltsin and joining the protesters, side opening friendly fire coupled with the fact that the civilians, still showed a lot of resistance, it got very messy according to the official data 124, people died and 348, people were wounded or injured during the storm absolutely, terrible but also among all this devastating, tragedy one thing that truly died on that day october 4th 1993, is russian democracy, the mini civil war was essentially, over and yeltsin won not only, did he manage to avoid being, impeached for breaking the law, in the rules of the constitution, twice, but he also managed to eliminate all of his naysayers, and everybody who’s ever dared to criticize, him or the policies of his administration, the political system in russia, changed completely with the adoption, of a new constitution, in december of 1993, which largely limited the power of the parliaments, and increased the power of the presidents, the supreme soviet of russia was abolished.
and the parliament was remade from the ground up now consisting, of two main organs the federation, council, and the state zuma which both still exist and operate today yeltsin, made sure that the new system and the new constitution, will never let something like, this crisis happen again the, parliament now could do barely, anything to the president and, yeltsin finally felt like he, had a firm grip on power in russia, this of course did not make russia, an authoritarian, country immediately, even though yeltsin now had way more political, power the freedom of speech was still there and media and tv were not repressed, for criticism, of the governments or the presidents, that of course changed later, some people actually argued that what yeltsin did was quite necessary, stating that the supreme soviet of russia was basically full of old communist, bureaucrats, that didn’t want to see country reform and prosper, and if yeltsin didn’t do what, he did then russia would immediately, go back to being the soviet union.
i personally really don’t agree, and i think that yeltsin killed, russian democracy, we had the potential to be a country in which the presidents, would not have all the political, power in which the presidents, could be challenged by the parliament, and a country in which the people, might have more of a say in what’s, going on and yes this system, did create a conflict but in, general the parliamentary, republic is one of the most popular and well-performed, political systems in the civilized, world which makes sure that the, system is set up in such a way, that one leader cannot subvert, it and turn the country into authoritarianism, or dictatorship, unfortunately, yeltsin made a mistake because, he created a system in which, one person with bad intentions, could basically, get all the power to himself, and do whatever he wants and be king yeltsin’s hunger for power, created, pudding the governmental, system that we have in russia, right now started at this very, moment with tanks shooting at, the parliament building in the, middle of moscow.
as a result of a violent coup i also think 1993, being the end of russian democracy was pretty obvious even in the 90s the 1996, russian presidential election is actually a pretty good example in 1996, yeltsin was running for his second, term and he was already very, unpopular in the country first, of all because of the chechen, war and second of all is because, he turned from a charismatic, leader to a drunk old sick caricature of himself, jensen’s main rival in the election was gennady zuganath, the leader of the russian communist, party this guy’s still alive, and kicking by the way in 1996, there were still millions of communist sympathizers, in russia and those who wanted the ussr, back and the overall disdain, of the people for yeltsin made this election actually very close the oligarchs, the media magnus, and everybody alike to work their, hardest to promote yeltsin in, this election and that effort, pretty much saved yeltsin’s position, in power check out this what, the oil tycoon kadarkovsky, one of the most.
influential people in the country at that time said in an interview, alternatively, [Music], so yeah and yeltsin did end up winning the 1996, election a lot of people were pissed and the communist leaders uganda, actually had the potential, and the power to actually take, people into the streets to process, but he did not do it crisis was, averted, and essentially, russia just stayed in this sort of status quo until yeltsin’s retirements, in 1999.however i honestly think that yeltsin, and his inner circle that were, grabbing and fighting for power, so hard that if yeltsin lost, that election we might have seen, the repeat of 1993, all over again with a state of emergency, being declared and tanks on the, streets of moscow once again, the events of october 1993, show that yeltsin would not shy away from brute force and violence, just to stay in power and i think, this is the precise moments in, modern russian history when the, rule of law was completely, thrown out and forgotten about i mean look if the president.
can break the law and the rules of the constitution, so openly and get away with it what can your average policeman, or a governmental, clerk or a soldier get away with pretty much anything, russia has never been the same ever since and we still see the, ripple effects of those black october events, till this very day this is precisely why i think that russian democracy, died on october 4th 1993.thank you guys for making it, all the way to the end of this, video i hope you guys did enjoy, it if you guys did slap the like, on this video as well guys if, you want to support me additionally, go down to the link in description, become a member of my youtube channel it’s basically like youtube’s on patreon, it said that it’s easier for, me to get paid so if you want, to donate to me you’ll support, the channel that’s one way to, do it then yeah thank you guys, for watching this video hopefully, this is some decent food for, thought and i will see you guys, in the next one, peace.
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