In what year was the shooting of the White House. Shoot to kill

Confrontation legislative And executive power in Russia ended in bloody events in October 1993. One of the main causes of the conflict was a fundamental divergence of views on the issue of socio-economic And political the course of Russia. The government headed by B.N. Yeltsin and E.T. Gaidar acted as a defender of radical market reforms, and the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR headed by R.I. Khasbulatov and Vice-President of Russia A.B. Rutskoi resisted reforms, opposing the market regulated economy.

In December 1992 V.S. Chernomyrdin

replaced E.T. Gaidar as head of government. But the expected change of course did not happen, only some adjustments were made to the monetary policy, which caused even more indignation of the legislators. The political situation in Russia in 1993 became more and more tense.

An important reason for the growing antagonism between the two branches of power was their lack of experience in interaction within the framework of the system of separation of powers, which Russia practically did not know.

The Russian president was the first to strike at a political opponent. In a TV appearance September 21 he announced termination of powers of the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet. At the same time, the presidential decree “On a phased constitutional reform in the Russian Federation” came into force. He actually introduced temporary presidential rule and meant a radical break in the entire existing state-political and constitutional system.

The Supreme Council, located in the White House, refused to obey the presidential decree and equated it with a coup d'état. On the night of September 21-22, the Supreme Council was sworn in as President of the Russian Federation Vice President A. Rutskoy. On September 22, the Supreme Council decided to supplement the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with an article punishing anti-constitutional activities, non-fulfilment of its and the Congress's decisions and obstruction of its activities "up to execution." On the same day, the White House security service began distributing weapons to civilians.

Within 10 days, the confrontation between the executive and legislative branches of power developed on the rise. September 27 – 28 the blockade of the White House began, surrounded by police and riot police. On the night of October 3-4, bloody skirmishes took place near the television buildings and in them, television broadcasts were interrupted, but the attacks of the Supreme Soviet detachments were repulsed. Decree B.N. Yeltsin in Moscow was introduced state of emergency, the entry of government troops into the capital began. Yeltsin declared the actions of the White House "an armed fascist-communist rebellion."

On the morning of October 4 government troops started siege And tank shelling of the White House. By the evening of the same day, he was taken, and his leadership, headed by R. Khasbulatov and A. Rutsky, was arrested.

As a result of the storming of the White House, there were casualties on both sides, and, undoubtedly, October 1993 became a tragic page in Russian history. The blame for this tragedy lies on the shoulders of Russian politicians, who clashed in the autumn of 1993 not only in fight for their political goals, but also, to a lesser extent, power struggle.

In September 1993 B.N. Yeltsin issued a Decree, according to which, for July 1994, appointed early presidential elections. In the statement of the President of the Russian Federation of October 8, i.e. already after the defeat of the opposition, it was confirmed that elections to the supreme legislative body would be held in December.

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Today is a tragic date in Russian history: the 19th anniversary of the massacre of the defenders of the White House

Tonight, three streets in the center of Moscow, adjacent to the White House, will be blocked for traffic. And for sure there will be drivers who will be, literally speaking, very unhappy with this. Again, they say, they are protesting - it would be better if they were engaged in some kind of business ...

But the reason for the mass "festivities" (by the way, very modest in size: the authorities allowed two public actions with a maximum number of 1,000 and 300 people, respectively) is still special. After all, these rallies are timed to coincide with the 19th anniversary of the events that took place in Moscow in September-October 1993. Events that, without any exaggeration, determined the entire further course of Russian history.

Meanwhile, these events remain one of the least studied pages of our history. Television and the central press annually confine themselves to reading official information and brief news stories. Most of the documents that could shed light on what really happened are still classified. Moreover, many of the documents appear to have already been destroyed. And after 19 years, we don’t even know how many lives of our fellow tribesmen that “black October” claimed.

True, relatively recently (on the 16th anniversary of those tragic events), historian Valery Shevchenko prepared, in fact, the first study that systematized disparate media publications of those years and eyewitness accounts. And from the picture that appeared in the end, the hair, as they say, stand on end. The full text of his work "The Forgotten Victims of October 1993" can be found on the Web. We will reproduce only some excerpts.

“September 21 - October 5, 1993,” writes the historian, “tragic events of recent Russian history took place: the dissolution of the Congress of People’s Deputies and the Supreme Soviet of Russia by presidential decree No. 1400, in violation of the Constitution in force at that time, an almost two-week confrontation that ended in mass execution defenders of the Supreme Council on October 3-5 near the television center in Ostankino and in the area of ​​the White House. More than 15 years have passed since those memorable days, but the main question still remains unanswered - how many human lives were claimed by the October tragedy.

The official list of the dead, announced by the General Prosecutor's Office of Russia, includes 147 people: in Ostankino - 45 civilians and 1 serviceman, in the "White House area" - 77 civilians and 24 servicemen of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs ...

The list, compiled on the basis of the materials of the parliamentary hearings in the State Duma of Russia on October 31, 1995, includes 160 names. Of the 160 people, 45 were killed in the area of ​​the Ostankino television center, 75 - in the area of ​​the White House, 12 - "citizens who died in other areas of Moscow and the Moscow region", 28 - dead military personnel and employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Moreover, the 12 “citizens who died in other areas of Moscow and the Moscow region” included Pavel Vladimirovich Alferov with the indication “burnt on the 13th floor of the House of Soviets” and Vasily Anatolyevich Tarasov, who, according to relatives, participated in the defense of the Supreme Council and went missing.

But in the list published in the collection of documents of the State Duma Commission for additional study and analysis of the events that took place in Moscow on September 21 - October 5, 1993, which worked from May 28, 1998 to December 1999, only 158 dead were named. P.V. was deleted from the list. Alferov and V.A. Tarasov. Meanwhile, the conclusion of the commission stated: "According to a rough estimate, in the events of September 21 - October 5, 1993, about 200 people were killed or died from their injuries."

The published lists, even when viewed superficially, raise a number of questions. Of the 122 civilians officially declared dead, only 17 are residents of other regions of Russia and neighboring countries, the rest, not counting a few dead citizens from far abroad, are residents of the Moscow region. It is known that quite a few people from other cities came to defend the parliament, including those from rallies at which lists of volunteers were compiled. But loners prevailed, some of them came to Moscow behind the scenes ...

Many Muscovites and residents of the Moscow region, who remained near the parliament building behind barbed wire during the days of the blockade, after its breakthrough on October 3, went home to spend the night. Outsiders had nowhere to go. The defender of parliament Vladimir Glinsky recalls: “In my detachment, which held a barricade on the Kalininsky bridge near the city hall, there were only 30 percent of Muscovites. And by the morning of October 4, there were even fewer of them, because many had gone home to spend the night.” In addition, with a breakthrough, other visitors joined the defenders of the House of Soviets. Deputy of the Supreme Council surgeon N.G. Grigoriev recorded the arrival at the parliament building at 22:15 on October 3 of a civilian column, which consisted mainly of middle-aged men ...

In order to establish the true number of those killed in the House of Soviets, - continues Valery Shevchenko, - it is necessary to know how many people were there during the assault on October 4, 1993. Some researchers claim that at that time there were a maximum of 2,500 people in the parliament building. But if it is still possible to determine the relatively exact number of people who were in the White House and around it before the blockade was broken, then difficulties arise with respect to October 4th.

Svetlana Timofeevna Sinyavskaya was engaged in the distribution of food stamps for people who were in the ring of defense of the House of Soviets. Svetlana Timofeevna testifies that before the blockade was broken, coupons were issued for 4362 people. However, the defender of the parliament from the 11th detachment, which included 25 people, told the author of these lines that their detachment did not receive coupons.

When asked how many people were in and around the White House in the early morning of October 4, only a rough answer can be given. As the defender of the parliament, who came from Tyumen, testifies, on the night of October 3-4, many people, more than a thousand, slept in the basement of the House of Soviets. According to P.Yu. Bobryashov, no more than a thousand people remained on the square, mostly around fires and tents. According to the ecologist M.R. approximately 1,500 people were dispersed in small groups around the square in front of the White House.

Thus, the following picture emerges: there were about 5,000 people inside the White House on the night of October 4, 1993, and another 1,000-1,500 on the street around the building of the Supreme Council. And then the "valiant" government troops (the order was given by the then Minister of Defense Pavel Grachev) began to storm the building and shell it with tank guns. Here is what Valery Shevchenko writes further:

“When the shelling of the square began, many people who were fleeing from the massive fire of armored personnel carriers took refuge in the basement-shelter of a two-story building located not far from the House of Soviets. According to military journalist I.V. Varfolomeev, up to 1,500 people crowded into the bunker. The same number of people gathered in the bunker is also mentioned by Marina Nikolaevna Rostovskaya. Then they went through the underground passage to the parliament building. Many people were taken to the floors. According to Moscow businessman Andrei (not his real name), some of the women and children taken out of the dungeon were taken to the fourth floor of the House of Soviets. “They began to take us up the stairs to the third, fourth, fifth floors into the corridors,” Alexander Strakhov recalled. Another eyewitness testifies that 800 people who came out of the basement were taken prisoner in the hall of the 20th entrance to the paratroopers of the 119th Naro-Fominsk Regiment and around 14:30 were “released to freedom”. A group of 300 people, which the paratroopers sent to the basement during the intensification of the shelling, left the parliament building at 15:00.

Deputies, members of the apparatus, journalists and many unarmed defenders of the parliament gathered in the hall of the Council of Nationalities. From time to time there were proposals to withdraw women, children and journalists from the building. The list of journalists to be removed from the House of Soviets consisted of 103 names. There were about 2,000 deputies, employees of the apparatus, civilians (including those who found themselves in the hall of refugees).

It remains unclear how many people during the assault were on the upper (above the seventh) floors of the White House. It should be noted that in the first hours of the assault, people were primarily afraid of the capture of the lower floors by special forces. In addition, some of them survived the attack of armored personnel carriers. Many, when the intensive shelling began, went up to the upper floors, "because it gave the impression that it was safer there." This is evidenced by Captain 3rd Rank Sergei Mozgovoy and Professor of the Russian State University of Trade and Economics Marat Mazitovich Musin (published under the pseudonym Ivan Ivanov). But it was on the upper floors that tanks were fired, which significantly reduced the chance of survival for the people who were there ...

During the day, despite the ongoing shelling, people broke into the parliament building. “And already, when there was no hope,” recalled deputy V.I. Kotelnikov, - 200 people broke through to us: men, women, girls, teenagers, actually children, schoolchildren of the eighth-tenth grades, several Suvorovites. As they ran, they were shot in the back. The dead fell, leaving bloody footprints on the pavement, the living continued to run.

Thus, Shevchenko concludes, many hundreds of mostly unarmed people ended up in the House of Soviets and in its immediate vicinity on October 4, 1993. And starting at about 6:40 in the morning, their mass destruction began.

The first casualties near the parliament appeared when the defenders' symbolic barricades broke through the armored personnel carriers, opening fire to kill. Galina N. testifies: “At 6:45 am on October 4, we were alarmed. Sleepy, we ran out into the street and immediately came under machine-gun fire... Then we lay on the ground for several hours, and armored personnel carriers were beating ten meters from us... There were about three hundred of us. Few survived. And then we ran to the fourth entrance ... I saw on the street that those who moved on the ground were shot.

“In front of our eyes, armored personnel carriers shot unarmed old women, young people who were in tents and near them,” recalled Lieutenant V.P. Shubochkin. - We saw how a group of orderlies ran to the wounded colonel, but two of them were killed. A few minutes later, the sniper finished off the colonel." Deputy R.S. Mukhamadiev saw women in white coats run out of the parliament building. They were holding white handkerchiefs in their hands. But as soon as they bend down to help the man lying in the blood, they were cut off by bullets from a heavy machine gun.

Journalist Irina Taneeva, not yet fully aware that the assault was beginning, observed the following from the window of the House of Soviets: “People were running into the bus that was abandoned the day before by riot police, climbing inside, hiding from bullets. Three BMDs hit the bus from three sides at breakneck speed and shot him. The bus burst into flames. People tried to get out of there and immediately fell dead, struck down by dense fire from the BMD. Blood. Nearby Zhiguli, full of people, were also shot and burned. Everyone died."

The execution also came from the direction of Druzhinnikovskaya Street. The People's Deputy of Russia A.M. Leontiev: “There were 6 armored personnel carriers along the lane opposite the White House, and between them and the White House behind barbed wire ... there were Cossacks from the Kuban - 100 people. They were not armed. They were just in the form of Cossacks ... No more than 5-6 people ran to the entrances of a hundred Cossacks, and the rest all died.

According to the minimum estimate, several dozen people became victims of the attack by armored vehicles. According to Yevgeny O., many of those who came to the barricades or lived in tents near the building of the Supreme Council were killed on the square. Among them were young women. One was lying with her face turned into a continuous bloody wound...

In the parliament building itself, the death toll increased several times with every hour of the assault. Deputy from Chuvashia surgeon N.G. Grigoriev at 7:45 am on October 4 went down to the first floor in the hall of the 20th entrance. “I drew attention,” he recalls, “to the fact that on the floor of the hall (and the hall was the largest in the House of Soviets) lay in rows of more than fifty wounded, possibly killed, because the first two and a half rows of lying people were covered over the head.

A few hours later, the storm of the dead increased noticeably. In the transition from the 20th to the 8th entrance, more than 20 dead were laid down. According to Andrey (not his real name), a Moscow businessman, there were about a hundred dead and seriously wounded in their sector alone.

“I left the reception room on the third floor and began to go down to the first floor,” testifies a person from A.V.’s entourage. Rutsky. - On the first floor - a terrible picture. Entirely on the floor, side by side - the dead ... There they piled mountains. Women, old men, two murdered doctors in white coats. And the blood on the floor is half a glass high: it has nowhere to drain...

According to the artist Anatoly Leonidovich Nabatov, in the hall of the 8th entrance, from 100 to 200 corpses were stacked. Anatoly Leonidovich went up to the 16th floor, saw corpses in the corridors, brains on the walls. On the 16th floor, he noticed a journalist who was coordinating fire on the building by radio, reporting on the crowd. Anatoly Leonidovich handed him over to the Cossacks.

After the events, the President of Kalmykia K.N. Ilyumzhinov said in an interview: “I saw that in the White House there were not 50 or 70 killed, but hundreds. At first, they tried to collect them in one place, then they abandoned this idea: it was dangerous to move around once again. Most of them were random people - without weapons. By our arrival, there were more than 500 dead. By the end of the day, I think that number had risen to a thousand.” R.S. In the midst of the assault, Mukhamadiev heard from his colleague, a deputy, a professional doctor elected from the Murmansk region, the following: “Already five offices are full of dead people. And the wounded are countless. More than a hundred people lie in the blood. But we don't have anything. No bandages, not even iodine…”. The President of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, told Stanislav Govorukhin on the evening of October 4 that 127 corpses had been taken out of the White House under him, but many still remained in the building.

The number of dead was significantly increased by the shelling of the House of Soviets with tank shells. From the direct organizers and leaders of the shelling, one can hear that harmless blanks were fired at the building. For example, the former Minister of Defense of Russia P.S. Grachev stated the following: “We fired at the White House with six blanks from one tank at one pre-selected window in order to force the conspirators to leave the building. We knew that there was no one outside the window.”

However, statements of this kind are completely refuted by the testimony of witnesses. According to correspondents of the Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper, around 11:30 am, shells, apparently of cumulative action, pierce the White House through and through: from the opposite side of the building, 5-10 windows and thousands of sheets of stationery fly out at the same time as the shell hits.

Here are some testimonies of eyewitnesses to the death of people in the parliament building as a result of shells hitting it. Here is what, for example, deputy V.I. Kotelnikov: “At first, when I ran through the building with some task, I was horrified by the amount of blood, corpses, torn bodies. Severed hands, heads. A shell hits, part of a person here, part - there ... And then you get used to it. You have a task to complete." “When we were fired from tanks,” recalled another eyewitness, “I was on the sixth floor. There were many civilians here. We didn't have weapons. I thought that after the shelling, the soldiers would break into the building, and I decided that I needed to find a pistol or machine gun. He opened the door to the room where the shell had recently exploded. I couldn't get in. There was a bloody mess." Former police officer Ya., who went over to the side of the parliament, saw how shells in the offices of the House of Soviets "literally tore people apart." A lot of victims turned out to be in the second entrance of the White House (one of the tank shells hit the basement) ...

In addition to the shelling of the parliament building from tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, automatic and sniper fire, which continued all day, both the direct defenders of the parliament and citizens who accidentally found themselves in the combat zone were shot both in the White House and around it. Doctor Nikolai Burns assisted the wounded in the "medical battalion" not far from the city hall ("book"). In front of his eyes, a riot policeman shot two boys aged 12-13.

According to one of the defending officers, who crossed on the morning of October 4, along with other people from the bunker to the basement of the White House, "young guys and girls were grabbed and taken around the corner into one of the niches," then "short automatic bursts were heard from there." ON THE. Bryuzgina, who helped the wounded in a makeshift "hospital" on the first floor in the 20th entrance, subsequently told O.A. Lebedev that when the bursting in soldiers began to drag the wounded into the corridor, dull sounds began to be heard from there. Nadezhda Aleksandrovna, opening the toilet door, saw that the entire floor was covered with blood. In the same place, the corpses of people who had just been shot were lying in a mountain. On the morning of October 4, engineer N. Misin hid from shooting along with other unarmed people in the basement of the House of Soviets. When the first floor of the 20th entrance was seized by the military, people were taken out of the basement and put in the lobby. The wounded were carried away on stretchers to the room of the guards on duty. After some time, Misin was released into the toilet, where he saw the following picture: “There, neatly, in a pile, were the corpses in the “civilian”. I took a closer look: from above - those whom we carried out of the basement. Blood - ankle-deep ... An hour later, the corpses began to endure "...

Captain 1st rank V.K. Kashintsev: “At about 2:30 pm, a guy from the third floor made his way to us, covered in blood, squeezed out through sobs: “They open the rooms downstairs with grenades and shoot everyone. He survived, because he was unconscious, apparently, they took him for the dead. One can only guess about the fate of most of the wounded left in the White House ...

Many people were shot or beaten to death after they left the White House. People who went out to "surrender" on the afternoon of October 4 from the 20th entrance witnessed how the attack aircraft finished off the wounded. On walking behind the deputy Yu.K. Chapkovsky, a young man in camouflage, was attacked by riot police, began to beat, trample underfoot, then shot him.

They tried to drive those who came out from the side of the embankment through the yard and the entrances of the house along Glubokoy Lane. “In the entrance, where they pushed us,” recalls I.V. Saveliev, - it was full of people. There were screams from the upper floors. They searched everyone, tore off their jackets and coats - they were looking for servicemen and policemen (those who were on the side of the defenders of the House of Soviets), they were immediately taken away somewhere ... A policeman, the defender of the House of Soviets, was wounded by a shot. Someone shouted over the riot police radio: “Do not shoot at the entrances! Who will clean up the corpses?!” The shooting didn't stop outside." Another eyewitness testifies: “We were searched and transferred to the next entrance. The riot police stood in two rows and tortured us ... In the dim corridor below, I saw half-dressed people with bruises. Swearing, screams of the beaten, fumes. There is a crunch of broken bones." Militia Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Vladimirovich Rutskoi saw how three people stripped to the waist were dragged out of the entrance and immediately shot against the wall. He also heard the screams of the raped woman.

The riot police were especially fierce in one of the entrances of this house. An eyewitness, miraculously surviving, recalls: “They take me to the front door. There is light, and on the floor - corpses, naked to the waist. For some reason naked and for some reason to the waist. As established by Yu.P. Vlasov, everyone who got into the first entrance was killed after being tortured, the women were stripped naked and raped in a crowd, after which they were shot. A group of 60-70 civilians who left the White House after 7 p.m. were led by riot police along the embankment to Nikolaeva Street and, having led them into the yards, they were brutally beaten, and then finished off with automatic bursts. Four managed to run into the entrance of one of the houses, where they hid for about a day.

And again, excerpts from the story of V.I. Kotelnikova: “We ran into the yard, a huge old yard, square. There were about 15 people in my group ... When we ran to the last entrance, there were only three of us left ... We ran to the attic - the doors there, fortunately for us, were broken. We fell among the rubbish behind some kind of pipe and froze ... We decided to lie down. A curfew was declared, everything was cordoned off by riot police, and practically we were in their camp. All night there was shooting. When it was already dawn, from half past five to half past seven we put ourselves in order ... We began to slowly descend. When I opened the door, I almost passed out. The whole yard was littered with corpses, not very often, like in a checkerboard pattern. The corpses are all in some unusual positions: some are sitting, some are on their sides, some have a leg, some have their arms raised, and all are blue and yellow. I think what is unusual in this picture? And they are all naked, all naked.”

On the morning of October 5, local residents saw many dead in the yards. A few days after the events, the correspondent of the Italian newspaper L` Unione Sarda, Vladimir Koval, examined these entrances. He found broken teeth and strands of hair, although, as he writes, "it seems to have been cleaned up, even sprinkled with sand in some places."

A tragic fate befell many of those who, on the evening of October 4, left the side of the Asmaral (Krasnaya Presnya) stadium located on the back side of the House of Soviets. On October 6, the media reported that, according to preliminary estimates, during the “voluntary surrender” during the final phase of the assault on the White House, about 1,200 people were detained, of which about 600 are at the Krasnaya Presnya stadium. Curfew violators were also reported to be among the latter.

The executions at the stadium began in the early evening of 4 October. According to the residents of the houses adjacent to it, who saw how the detainees were shot, "this bloody bacchanalia continued all night." The first group was driven to the concrete fence of the stadium by submachine gunners in spotted camouflage. An armored personnel carrier drove up and slashed the prisoners with machine-gun fire. In the same place, at dusk, they shot the second group ...

Alexander Alexandrovich Lapin, who spent three days, from the evening of October 4 to October 7, at the stadium “on death row” testifies: “After the House of Soviets fell, its defenders were taken to the wall of the stadium. They separated those who were in Cossack uniforms, in police uniforms, in camouflage, military, who had any party documents. Who had nothing, like me... leaned against a tall tree... And we saw how our comrades were shot in the back... Then we were herded into a locker room... We were kept for three days. No food, no water, most importantly, no tobacco. Twenty people...

Yu.E. Petukhov, the father of Natasha Petukhova, who was shot on the night of October 3-4 in Ostankino, testifies: “Early in the morning of October 5, it was still dark, I drove up to the burning White House from the side of the park ... I approached the cordon of very young tankers with a photograph of my Natasha, and they told me that there were many corpses in the stadium, there are still in the building and in the basement of the White House ... I returned to the stadium and went there from the side of the monument to the victims of 1905. There were a lot of people shot at the stadium. Some of them were without shoes and belts, some were crushed. I was looking for my daughter and went around all the executed and tormented heroes ... "

When the House of Soviets had not yet burned down, - continues Valery Shevchenko, - the authorities had already begun to falsify the number of those killed in the October tragedy. Late in the evening of October 4, 1993, an informational message went through the media: "Europe hopes that the number of victims will be kept to a minimum." The recommendation of the West was heard in the Kremlin.

Early in the morning of October 5, 1993, the head of the presidential administration, S.A. B.N. called Filatov. Yeltsin. The following conversation took place between them:

Sergei Alexandrovich... for your information, 146 people died during all the days of the rebellion.

It's good that you said, Boris Nikolaevich, otherwise there was a feeling that 700-1500 people died. It would be necessary to print the lists of the dead.

Agree. Organize please...

How many dead were taken to Moscow morgues on October 3-4? In the first days after the October massacre, employees of morgues and hospitals refused to answer the question about the number of dead, referring to an order from the central office. “For two days I called dozens of Moscow hospitals and mortuaries, trying to find out,” Y. Igonin testifies. - Answered openly: "We were forbidden to give out this information."

Moscow doctors claimed that as of October 12, 179 corpses of victims of the October massacre had been passed through Moscow morgues. GMUM Press Secretary I.F. On October 5, Nadezhdin, along with the official figures of 108 dead, excluding the corpses that were still in the White House, also named another figure - about 450 dead, which needed to be clarified.

However, a large part of the corpses that entered the Moscow morgues soon disappeared from there. Doctor of the MMA Rescue Center THEM. Sechenova A.V. Dalnov, who worked in the parliament building during the assault, stated some time after the events: “Traces are being swept up on the exact number of victims. All materials on 21.09-04.10.93, which are in the CEMP, are classified. Some medical histories of the wounded and the dead are being rewritten, the dates of admission to morgues and hospitals are being changed. Some of the victims, in agreement with the leadership of the State Medical University, are transported to morgues in other cities.” According to Dalnov, the death toll is underestimated by at least an order of magnitude. On October 9, I.F. contacted the coordinator of the medical team of the House of Soviets. Nadezhdin, offering to speak on television together with the doctors of the CEMP and GMUM in order to reassure the public about the number of victims. Dalnov refused to participate in falsification ...

Starting from October 5, A.V. Dalnov and his colleagues toured the hospitals and morgues of the ministries of defense, internal affairs and state security. They managed to find out that the corpses of the victims of the October tragedy, who were there, were not included in the official reports.

The same was said in the report of the Commission of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for additional study and analysis of the events that took place in Moscow on September 21 - October 5, 1993: “The secret removal and burial of the corpses of those killed in the events of September 21 - October 5, 1993, about which was repeatedly reported in some printed publications and the media, if they took place, then they were produced ... perhaps through the morgues of other cities, some departmental morgues or some other structures associated with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation "...

But in the very building of the former parliament there were many corpses that did not even get into the morgues. The doctors of Y. Kholkin’s brigade testify: “We went through the entire database up to the 7th (“basement”) floor ... But the military did not let us go above the 7th, referring to the fact that everything was on fire and you could simply be poisoned by gases, although from there There were shots and screams."

According to L.G. Proshkin, investigators from the General Prosecutor's Office were allowed into the building only on 6 October. Prior to that, according to him, internal troops and the Leningrad OMON were in charge there for several days. But in a personal conversation with I.I. Andronov, Proshkin said that the investigators were allowed into the building later than on the evening of October 6, that is, only on the morning of October 7.

In the investigation file No. 18/123669-93, which was conducted by the Prosecutor General's Office, it is indicated that no bodies of the dead were found in the White House itself. Prosecutor General V.G. Stepankov, who visited the building of the former parliament the day after the assault, stated: “The most difficult thing in the investigation of this case is the fact that on October 5 we did not find a single corpse in the White House. No one. Therefore, the investigation is deprived of the opportunity to fully establish the causes of death of each of those people who were taken away from the building before us.” A.I. Kazannik, appointed instead of Stepankov to the post of Prosecutor General, also visited the building of the former parliament, saw the destruction, drew attention to the bloodstains. According to his visual assessment, the picture inside the White House did not correspond to the rumors of "many thousands of victims"...

The Chief Military Prosecutor's Office also conducted its own investigation. Prosecutor of the city of Moscow G.S. Ponomarev, leaving the House of Soviets, said that the number of those killed there was in the hundreds.

How many people died during the storming of the House of Soviets, were shot at the stadium and in the yards, and how were their bodies taken out? On the first day, various sources gave figures from 200 to 600 who died during the assault. According to preliminary estimates by interior ministry experts, there could be up to 300 corpses in the parliament building. “In those corners of the White House where I had to visit,” one soldier claimed, “I counted 300 corpses.” Another soldier overheard "some military personnel saying there were 415 bodies in the White House."

The Nezavisimaya Gazeta correspondent learned from a confidential source that the number of victims inside the House of Soviets numbered in the hundreds. About 400 corpses from the upper floors, which were shelled from tanks, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. According to an officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, after the end of the assault on the White House, approximately 474 bodies of the dead were found there (without inspecting all the premises and sorting out the rubble). Many of them had numerous shrapnel damage. There were corpses affected by the fire. They are characterized by the “boxer” pose.

S.N. Baburin was called the number of dead - 762 people. Another source called over 750 dead. The journalists of the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper found out that for several days soldiers and officers of the internal troops were collecting the remains of almost 800 of its defenders, “charred and torn apart by tank shells,” around the building. Among the dead were found the bodies of those who choked in the flooded dungeons of the White House. According to the information of the former deputy of the Supreme Council from the Chelyabinsk region A.S. Baronenko, about 900 people died in the House of Soviets.

According to some reports, up to 160 people were shot at the stadium. Moreover, until two in the morning on October 5, they were shot in batches, having previously beaten their victims. Local residents saw that about 100 people were shot only not far from the pool. According to Baronenko, about 300 people were shot at the stadium...

How many human lives were claimed by the October tragedy? There is a list of the dead, in which 978 people are named by name (according to other sources - 981). Three different sources (in the Ministry of Defence, the MB, the Council of Ministers) informed NEG correspondents about the certificate prepared only for top Russian officials. The certificate, signed by three power ministers, indicated the number of dead - 948 people (according to other sources, 1052). According to informants, at first there was only a certificate from the MB sent by V.S. Chernomyrdin. This was followed by an instruction to make a consolidated document of all three ministries. The information was also confirmed by the former President of the USSR M.S. Gorbachev. “According to my information,” he said in an interview with NEG, “one Western television company purchased for a certain amount a certificate prepared for the government, indicating the number of victims. But until it's made public."

Radio Liberty October 7, 1993, when all the premises in the House of Soviets had not yet been examined, reported the death of 1032 people. Employees of institutions where hidden statistics were kept, called the figure of 1600 dead. Internal statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs recorded 1,700 dead. On the 15th anniversary of the execution of the parliament R.I. Khasbulatov, in an interview with MK journalist K. Novikov, said that a high-ranking police general swore and swore, calling the number of dead 1,500 people. At the same time, in an interview with the press service of the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Khasbulatov said: "As many military and police officials told me - many said - that the total number of deaths was somewhere even more than 2,000 people."

To date, it can be argued that at least 1,000 people died in the tragic events of September-October 1993 in Moscow. How many more victims there were can only be shown by a special investigation at a high state level,” concludes Valeriy Shevchenko. The authorities, however, are not going to conduct such an investigation.

But just the other day, the head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Ivanov, speaking on behalf of the highest Russian authorities at the World Russian People's Council, called for "restoring the continuity and continuity of Russian history, freeing it from myths and opportunistic assessments, embedding outstanding victories into the fabric of a single political canvas, and bitter defeats that set the country back decades.”

So what prevents us from starting with an investigation into the events of the bloody October 1993? This is what the souls of our dead brothers and sisters cry out for, who came to defend the legitimate, supreme power of Russia at that time - the Supreme Council. Here is the text of the testament of the unsurrendered defenders of the House of Soviets, which has accidentally come down to us:

“Brothers, when you read these lines, we will no longer be alive. Our bodies, shot through, will burn out in these walls. We appeal to you, who were lucky enough to get out of this bloody massacre alive.

We loved Russia. We wanted this earth to restore, finally, the order that God had determined for it. His name is catholicity; within it, every person has equal rights and duties, and no one is allowed to break the law, no matter how high his rank.

Of course, we were naive simpletons, we are punished for our gullibility, we are shot and eventually betrayed. We were just pawns in someone's well thought out game. But our spirit is not broken. Yes, dying is scary. However, something supports, someone invisible says: “You cleanse your soul with blood, and now Satan will not get it. And when you die, you will be much stronger than the living.”

In our last moments, we appeal to you, citizens of Russia. Remember these days. Don't look away when our mutilated bodies are laughingly shown on television. Remember everything and do not fall into the same traps that we fell into.

Forgive us. We also forgive those who are sent to kill us. They are not to blame... But we do not forgive, we curse the demonic gang that has sat on Russia's neck.

Don't let the great Orthodox faith be trampled on, don't let Russia be trampled on.

MOSCOW, October 4 - RIA Novosti. The October coup of 1993 was not accidental - it was being prepared for two years and, as a result, actually killed people's trust in power, says Sergey Filatov, president of the Foundation for Socio-Economic and Intellectual Programs, former head of the Yeltsin presidential administration.

Twenty years ago, on October 3-4, 1993, clashes took place in Moscow between supporters of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (1991-1999). The confrontation between the two branches of Russian power, the executive represented by Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the legislative represented by the parliament, the Supreme Council (SC) of the RSFSR, headed by Ruslan Khasbulatov, which had lasted since the collapse of the USSR, around the pace of reforms and methods of building a new state, on October 3-4, 1993, passed into an armed clash and ended with a tank shelling of the residence of the parliament - the House of Soviets (White House).

The tension was building up

“What happened on October 3-4, 1993, was not predetermined in one day. It was an event that took two years to reach. For two years, tension grew. that it was a purposeful struggle on the part of the Supreme Council against the reforms that the government was implementing," Filatov said at a multimedia round table on the topic: "The October Putsch of 1993. Twenty years later ...", held at RIA Novosti on Friday.

According to him, the two first persons of the state - Boris Yeltsin and the head of the Supreme Council (SC) of the RSFSR Ruslan Khasbulatov - failed to enter the "normal path of relations." Moreover, "absolute and deep distrust" has arisen between the two top officials, he added.

Political scientist Leonid Polyakov agreed with this opinion.

“In fact, the putsch of 1993 is a postponed GKChP of 1991. In 1991, these people, seeing hundreds of thousands of Muscovites who surrounded the White House, the leaders of the GKChP were simply, as they say, afraid. At first they themselves frightened by bringing tanks into the capital ", and then they themselves were frightened of what they had done. But the forces that were behind this, and the people who sincerely believed in what turned out to be destroyed in August 1991, they did not go away. And two years followed, the most difficult, the hardest in our history, which accounted for the collapse of the USSR and the disappearance of the state ... By October 1993, this explosive potential had accumulated, "Polyakov noted.

conclusions

Conclusions from the events of 1993, according to Filatov, can be drawn both positive and negative.

"The fact that we eliminated dual power is positive, that we adopted the Constitution is positive. And the fact that we actually killed people's trust in power and this continued for the rest of the 20 years is an obvious fact that we have to restore to this day we can't," he says.

In turn, political scientist Polyakov expressed the hope that the events of 1993 were "the last Russian revolution."

Film about the events of 1993

During the round table, a film about the events of October 1993 was presented, shot by RIA Novosti specialists in a web documentary format, which has received worldwide recognition due to the fact that the viewer has the opportunity to interact with the content and has more freedom of action than the viewer of a plot with a linear form of narration, where the course of history is predetermined by the director. This is the third RIA Novosti film in 2013 in an interactive format.

"For each of the participants in these events, it was a part of his life, a part of his inner history. And it was about these people that we wanted to tell in our film, an interactive video; to make it possible to see through their eyes, through their emotions, through their memories those difficult days. Because now it seems like some rather distant and somewhat unusual event in our country. I really hope that this will continue, because tanks firing at the White House from the embankment are an absolutely terrible sight. And, probably, for every Muscovite and any resident of Russia, it was something absolutely incredible," Ilya Lazarev, deputy editor-in-chief of RIA Novosti, shared his memories.

The film contains photographs of people who were subsequently found by RIA Novosti and who spoke about their memories of those events.

"We revived the photos and tried to bring some video episodes to our present time ... Our colleagues, directors have been working on this format for three months - this is a very difficult story. You can watch the film episodically, linearly, but the main story and task is to make sure that you immerse yourself in this atmosphere, draw your own conclusions, but rather just get to know people who have experienced this story and let it through themselves," Lazarev added.

As a result of the tragic events of October 3-4, 1993 in Moscow, the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation were liquidated. Prior to the election of the Federal Assembly and the adoption of a new Constitution, direct presidential rule was established in the Russian Federation. By the Decree of October 7, 1993 "On Legal Regulation during the Period of Gradual Constitutional Reform in the Russian Federation", the President established that before the start of the work of the Federal Assembly, issues of a budgetary and financial nature, land reform, property, civil service and social employment of the population, previously resolved by the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation are now carried out by the President of the Russian Federation. By another decree of October 7 "On the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation," the president actually abolished this body. Boris Yeltsin also issued a number of decrees terminating the activities of the representative authorities of the subjects of the Federation and local Soviets.

On December 12, 1993, a new Constitution of Russia was adopted, in which such a state authority as the Congress of People's Deputies was no longer mentioned.

What happened in Moscow 25 years ago.

25 years ago, opponents of President Boris Yeltsin took to the streets to seize the White House. This escalated into a bloody confrontation between soldiers and oppositionists, and the events of October 3-4 resulted in a new government and a new Constitution.

1. October Putsch 1993. Briefly about what happened

   On October 3-4, 1993, the October putsch took place - this is when they shot the White House, captured the Ostankino television center, and tanks drove through the streets of Moscow. All this happened because of Yeltsin's conflict with Vice President Alexander Rutskoi and Chairman of the Supreme Council Ruslan Khasbulatov. Yeltsin won, the vice-president was removed, the Supreme Soviet was dissolved.

2. In 1992, Boris Yeltsin nominated Yegor Gaidar, who by that time was actively pursuing economic reforms, for the post of Prime Minister. However, the Supreme Council severely criticized Gaidar's activities due to the high level of poverty of the population and space prices and chose Viktor Chernomyrdin as the new Chairman. In response, Yeltsin made harsh criticism of the deputies.

   Boris Yeltsin and Ruslan Khasbulatov in 1991

3. Yeltsin suspended the Constitution, although it was illegal

   On March 20, 1993, Yeltsin announced the suspension of the Constitution and the introduction of a "special procedure for governing the country." Three days later, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation recognized Yeltsin's actions as unconstitutional and grounds for removing the president from office.

   On March 28, 617 deputies voted for the impeachment of the president, with the required 689 votes. Yeltsin remained in power.

   On April 25, at a national referendum, the majority supported the president and the government and spoke in favor of holding early elections of people's deputies. On May 1, the first clashes between riot police and opponents of the president took place.

4. What is Decree No. 1400 and how did it aggravate the situation?

   On September 21, 1993, Yeltsin signed Decree No. 1400 on the dissolution of the Congress of People's Deputies and the Armed Forces, although he had no right to do so. In response, the Supreme Council declared that this decree was contrary to the Constitution, therefore it would not be executed and Yeltsin was deprived of the powers of the president. Yeltsin was supported by the Ministry of Defense and law enforcement agencies.

   In the following weeks, members of the Supreme Council, people's deputies and Deputy Prime Minister Rutsky were effectively locked in the White House, where communications, electricity and water were cut off. The building was cordoned off by police and military personnel. The White House was guarded by opposition volunteers.

   X Extraordinary Congress of People's Deputies in the White House, where electricity and water are cut off

5. Assault "Ostankino"

   On October 3, supporters of the Armed Forces went to a rally on October Square and then broke through the defenses of the White House. After Rutskoi's appeals, the protesters successfully seized the city hall building and moved to take the Ostankino television center.

   By the time the capture began, the TV tower was guarded by 900 soldiers with military equipment. At some point, the first explosion was heard among the soldiers. It was immediately followed by indiscriminate shooting into the crowd at everyone indiscriminately. When the opposition tried to hide in the nearby Oak Grove, they were squeezed from both sides and started shooting from armored personnel carriers and from gun nests on the roof of Ostankino.

   During the assault on Ostankino, October 3, 1993.

   At the time of the assault, television broadcasting was stopped

6. White House shooting

   On the night of October 4, Yeltsin decides to take the White House with the help of armored vehicles. At 7 am, tanks began shelling the government building.

   While the building was being shelled, snipers on the rooftops fired on the crowded people near the White House.

   By five o'clock in the evening the resistance of the defenders was completely crushed. Opposition leaders, including Khasbulatov and Rutskoi, were arrested. Yeltsin remained in power.

   White House October 4, 1993

7. How many people died during the October Putsch?

   According to official figures, 46 people died during the storming of Ostankino, and approximately 165 people died during the shooting of the White House, but witnesses report that there were many more victims. Over the course of 20 years, various theories have appeared in which the numbers vary from 500 to 2000 dead.

8. The results of the October Putsch

   The Supreme Council and the Congress of People's Deputies ceased to exist. The entire system of Soviet power that had existed since 1917 was liquidated.

   Before the elections on December 12, 1993, all power was in the hands of Yeltsin. On that day, the modern Constitution was chosen, as well as the State Duma and the Federation Council.

9. What happened after the October Putsch?

   In February 1994, all those arrested in connection with the October putsch were amnestied.

   Yeltsin served as president until the end of 1999. The constitution adopted after the coup in 1993 is still in force today. According to the new state principles, the president has more powers than the government.

In the fall of 1993, the conflict between the branches of power led to fighting on the streets of Moscow, the shooting of the White House and hundreds of victims. According to many, then the fate of not only the political structure of Russia, but also the integrity of the country was being decided.

This event has many names - "The shooting of the White House", "October uprising of 1993", "Decree 1400", "October coup", "Yeltsin's coup of 1993", "Black October". However, it is the latter that is neutral in nature, reflecting the tragedy of the situation that arose due to the unwillingness of the warring parties to compromise.

The internal political crisis in the Russian Federation, which has been developing since the end of 1992, resulted in a clash between supporters of President Boris Yeltsin on the one hand and the Supreme Council on the other. Political scientists see this as the apogee of the conflict between the two models of power: the new liberal-democratic and the obsolete Soviet.

The result of the confrontation was the forcible termination of the operation of the Supreme Soviet in Russia, which had existed since 1938, as the highest body of state power. In the clashes between the opposing sides in Moscow, which peaked on October 3-4, 1993, according to official figures, at least 158 ​​people were killed, another 423 were injured or otherwise injured.

Russian society still does not have clear answers to a number of key questions about those tragic days. There are only versions of participants and eyewitnesses of events, journalists, political scientists. The investigation into the actions of the conflicting parties, initiated by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, remained incomplete. The investigative group was dissolved by the State Duma after a decision was made on the amnesty of all persons involved in the events of September 21 - October 4, 1993.

Relinquish power

It all started in December 1992, when, at the 7th Congress of People's Deputies, parliamentarians and the leadership of the Supreme Soviet sharply criticized Yegor Gaidar's government. As a result, the reformer's candidacy, nominated by the president for the post of chairman of the government, was not approved by the Congress.

Yeltsin, in response, lashed out at the deputies and proposed for discussion the idea of ​​an all-Russian referendum on the issue of confidence. “What force has drawn us into this black streak? Yeltsin thought. - First of all - the constitutional ambiguity. Oath on the Constitution, the constitutional duty of the president. And at the same time, his full limitation of rights.

On March 20, 1993, Yeltsin, in a televised address to the people, announced the suspension of the Constitution and the introduction of a "special procedure for governing the country." Three days later, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation reacted, recognizing Yeltsin's actions as unconstitutional and seeing them as grounds for removing the president from office.

On March 28, the Congress of People's Deputies got involved, which rejected the draft on calling early presidential and parliamentary elections and held a vote on the removal of Yeltsin from office. But the impeachment attempt failed. 617 deputies voted for the removal of the president from office, with the required 689 votes.

On April 25, a nationwide referendum initiated by Yeltsin was held, in which the majority supported the president and the government and spoke in favor of holding early elections of people's deputies of the Russian Federation. Boris Yeltsin's opponents, dissatisfied with the results of the referendum, went to a demonstration on May 1, which was dispersed by riot police. On this day, the first blood was shed.

fatal decree

But Yeltsin's confrontation with the Supreme Soviet, headed by Speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov and Vice President Alexander Rutskoi, was just beginning. On September 1, 1993, Yeltsin, by his decree, temporarily suspended Rutskoy from his duties "in connection with the ongoing investigation, and also due to the lack of instructions to the vice president."

However, Rutskoy's accusations of corruption were not confirmed - compromising documents were found to be fake. Parliamentarians then sharply condemned the presidential decree, believing that it intruded into the sphere of authority of the judiciary of state power.

But Yeltsin does not stop and on September 21 signed the fatal decree No. 1400 "On a phased constitutional reform in the Russian Federation", which ultimately provoked riots in the capital. The decree ordered the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet to cease their activities “in order to preserve the unity and integrity of the Russian Federation; leading the country out of the economic and political crisis.

Boris Yeltsin directly accused the parliament and the Supreme Soviet of pursuing a policy of weakening the government and, ultimately, removing the president, having prepared and adopted "dozens of new anti-people decisions" in recent months.

A coup d'état was brewing in the country. According to political scientists, Yeltsin's opponents had motives for removing the incumbent president. Khasbulatov, by the time the Congress of People's Deputies was dissolved, had lost his constituency, since Chechnya had de facto separated from Russia. Rutskoi had no chance of winning the presidential election, but as acting president he could count on rising popularity.

As a result of Decree No. 1400, in accordance with Article 121.6 of the current Constitution, Yeltsin was automatically removed from the post of president, since his powers could not be used to dissolve or suspend the activities of any legally elected bodies of state power. The post of head of state de jure passed to Vice President Rutskoi.

President acts

Back in August 1993, Yeltsin predicted a "hot autumn." He frequented the bases of key army units in the Moscow region, at the same time he received a two-three-fold increase in the salaries of the officers.

In early September, by order of Yeltsin, the head of the Constitutional Court, Valery Zorkin, was deprived of a car with a special connection, and the building of the Constitutional Court itself was released from protection. At the same time, the Grand Kremlin Palace was closed for repairs, and the deputies who lost their premises for work were forced to move to the White House.

On September 23, Yeltsin reached the White House. After the deputies and members of the Supreme Council refused to leave the building, the government turned off the heating, water, electricity and telephone in it. The White House was surrounded by three cordons of barbed wire and several thousand soldiers. However, the defenders of the Supreme Council also had weapons.

A few days before these events, Yeltsin met with Defense Minister Pavel Grachev and Director of the Federal Security Service Mikhail Barsukov at the government dacha in Zavidovo. The former head of the presidential guard Alexander Korzhakov told how Barsukov proposed to conduct command and staff exercises to work out the interaction between those units that may have to fight in the capital.

In response, Grachev started up: “Are you panicking, Misha? Yes, I will tear everyone there with my paratroopers. And B.N. supported him: “Sergeich knows better. He passed Afghanistan." And you, they say, “parquet”, shut up, ”Korzhakov recalled the conversation.

Apogee

The Patriarch of All Rus' Alexy II tried to prevent the imminent drama. With his mediation, on October 1, the conflicting parties signed a Protocol that provided for the beginning of the withdrawal of troops from the House of Soviets and the disarmament of its defenders. However, the White House Defense Staff, together with the deputies, denounced the Protocol and was ready to continue the confrontation.

On October 3, riots began in Moscow: the cordon around the White House was broken by supporters of the Supreme Council, and a group of armed men led by General Albert Makashov seized the building of the Moscow City Hall. At the same time, demonstrations in support of the Supreme Soviet were held in many places in the capital, in which the participants in the actions actively clashed with the police.

After Rutskoi's call, a crowd of demonstrators moved towards the television center, intending to seize it in order to give the leaders of the parliament an opportunity to address the people. However, the armed units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were ready to meet. When a young man with a grenade launcher fired a shot to knock down the door, the troops opened fire on the demonstrators and their sympathizers. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, at least 46 people were killed and subsequently died from their wounds in the area of ​​the television center.

After the bloodshed near Ostankino, Yeltsin convinced Defense Minister Pavel Grachev to order army units to storm the White House. The attack began on the morning of 4 October. The inconsistency in the actions of the military led to the fact that heavy machine guns and tanks fired not only at the building, but also at unarmed people who were in the cordon zone near the House of Soviets, which led to numerous casualties. By evening, the resistance of the White House defenders was crushed.

Politician and blogger Alexander Verbin called the action on October 4 "paid military", noting that the OMON special forces and specially trained snipers, on Yeltsin's orders, shot the defenders of the Constitution. Not the last role in the behavior of the president, according to the blogger, was played by the support of the West.

The figure of Yeltsin as the head of the state built on the fragments of the USSR completely tripled the West, primarily the United States, so Western politicians actually turned a blind eye to the execution of parliament. Doctor of Law Alexander Domrin says that there are even facts that indicate the intention of the Americans to send troops to Moscow to support Yeltsin.

There is no unanimity

Politicians, journalists, intellectuals were divided in their opinions about the events that took place in October 1993. For example, academician Dmitry Likhachev then expressed full support for Yeltsin's actions: “The president is the only person who is elected by the people. This means that what he did is not only correct, but also logical. References to the fact that the Decree does not comply with the Constitution are nonsense.”

Russian publicist Igor Pykhalov sees Yeltsin's victory as an attempt to establish a pro-Western regime in Russia. The trouble with those events is that we did not have an organizing force capable of resisting Western influence, Pykhalov believes. The Supreme Council, according to the publicist, had a significant drawback - the people who stood on its side did not have a single leadership or a single ideology. Therefore, they could not agree and develop a position understandable to the broad masses.

Yeltsin provoked the confrontation because he was losing, says American writer and journalist David Sutter. “The President has made no effort to work with Parliament,” Sutter continues. “He didn’t try to influence legislators, he didn’t explain what his policy was, he ignored parliamentary debates.”

Subsequently, Yeltsin interpreted the events between September 21 and October 4 as a confrontation between democracy and communist reaction. But experts tend to see this as a struggle for power between former allies, for whom resentment over corruption in the executive branch was a powerful irritant.

Political scientist Yevgeny Gilbo believes that the confrontation between Yeltsin and Khasbulatov was beneficial to both sides, since their policy did not have a constructive reform program, and the only form of existence for them was only confrontation.

“Stupid struggle for power” is how publicist Leonid Radzikhovsky expresses himself categorically. According to the Constitution then in force, the two branches of power squeezed each other. According to the stupid Soviet law, the Congress of People's Deputies had "full power", writes Radzikhovsky. But since neither deputies nor members of the Supreme Council could lead the country, the real power was in the hands of the president.