1993 Russian constitutional crisis

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=1993 Russian constitutional crisis


caption=
result=Victory of the President. Presidential rule by decree is imposed. Supreme Soviet disbanded
partof=
place=Moscow, Russia
date=21 September - 5 October 1993
combatant1=

combatant2=


commander1=
Pavel Grachev
Viktor Yerin

commander2=
Ruslan Khasbulatov
Albert Makashov

strength1=
strength2=
casualties1= 12 killed (of which at least 9 by friendly fire)
casualties2= 187 killed, 437 wounded (official government estimate)
Up to 2,000 killed (claims by the Soviets)The Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 began on 21 September, when Russian President Boris Yeltsin dissolved the country's legislature (Congress of People's Deputies and its Supreme Soviet), which opposed his moves to consolidate power and push forward with economic reforms. Yeltsin's decree of 21 September contravened the then-functioning constitution; on 15 October, after the end of the crisis, he ordered a referendum on a new constitution.

The Congress rejected the decree and voted to remove Yeltsin from the Presidency through impeachment. The Vice President, Aleksandr Rutskoy proclimed himself as Acting President. On 28 September, the Supreme Soviet began rallying its supporters in the streets of Moscow where the first blood was shed. The legislators found themselves barricaded inside the White House of Russia parliament building. For the next week, hostilities grew, until the Soviets started an armed uprising in Moscow on 2 October. Russia was on the brink of civil war. The army, however, remained under President's control, which determined the outcome of the crisis. On October 3, troops loyal to the President besieged the Supreme Soviet building, and urges the Soviets to surrender. When the Soviets refused, the building was shelled by the tank-fire.

By 5 October 1993, the uprising was over. The ten-day conflict had seen the most deadly street fighting in Moscow since the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917. According to government estimates, 187 people had been killed and 437 wounded, while sources, close to Russian communists put the death toll to as high as 2,000. ["On 7 October, even the pro-American “Radio Liberty” reported that about 1012 people had been killed and many more had died later in the hospitals. The “Voice of America” reported that many bodies of those who had been defending the Parliament building had been cremated during the night without any registration." cite web | url=http://www.marxist.com/1993-moscow-rebellion-masses-6.htm | title=The role of the masses during the October 1993 Moscow rebellion | author=(A. Kramer)] .

During the conflict President Yeltsin enjoyed the support of Russian liberal intelligentsia, Russian military, U.S. President Bill Clinton and other Western leaders. Surpeme Soviet had the support of some Communist party veterans and radical nationalists. For that reason the supporters of the Supreme Soviet were dubbed a "Red-Brown coalition" (Russian: Красно-коричневые).

Origins of the crisis

Intensifying executive-legislative power struggle

As part of Russian economic reform during the 1990s, Yeltsin's program took effect on 2 January 1992. [ cite web | url=http://www.heritage.org/Research/RussiaandEurasia/bg879.cfm | title=The Creeping Counterrevolution in Russia: Local Resistance to Privitization | accessdate=2007-09-04 | author=Urmanov, Alexandr | publisher=The Heritage Foundation | date=1992-02-06] Soon afterward prices skyrocketed, government spending was slashed, and heavy new taxes went into effect. A deep credit crunch shut down many industries and brought about a protracted depression. Certain politicians began quickly to distance themselves from the program; and increasingly the ensuing political confrontation between Yeltsin on the one side, and the opposition to radical economic reform on the other, became centered in the two branches of government.

Throughout 1992, opposition to Yeltsin's reform policies grew stronger and more intractable among regional leaders who wanted more independence from Moscow. Russia's vice president, Aleksandr Rutskoy, denounced the Yeltsin program as "economic genocide." [Celestine Bohlen, "Yeltsin Deputy Calls Reforms 'Economic Genocide,'" "New York Times", 9 February 1992.] Leaders of oil-rich republics such as Tatarstan and Bashkortostan called for full independence from Russia.

Also throughout 1992, Yeltsin wrestled with the Supreme Soviet (the standing legislature) and the Russian Congress of People's Deputies (the country's highest legislative body, from which the Supreme Soviet members were drawn) for control over government and government policy. In 1992 the speaker of the Russian Supreme Soviet, Ruslan Khasbulatov, came out in opposition to the reforms, despite claiming to support Yeltsin's overall goals.

The president was concerned about the terms of the constitutional amendments passed in late 1991, which meant that his special powers of decree were set to expire by the end of 1992 (Yeltsin expanded the powers of the presidency beyond normal constitutional limits in carrying out the reform program). Yeltsin, awaiting implementation of his privatization program, demanded that parliament reinstate his decree powers (only parliament had the authority to replace or amend the constitution). But in the Russian Congress of People's Deputies and in the Supreme Soviet, the deputies refused to adopt a new constitution that would enshrine the scope of presidential powers demanded by Yeltsin into law.

eventh session of the Congress of People's Deputies (CPD)

During its December 1992 session, the parliament clashed with Yeltsin on a number of issues, and the conflict came to a head on 9 December when the parliament refused to confirm Yegor Gaidar, the widely unpopular architect of Russia's market liberalizations, as prime minister. The parliament refused to nominate Gaidar, demanding modifications of the economic program and directed the Central Bank, which was under the parliament's control, to continue issuing credits to enterprises to keep them from shutting down. [See, e.g., Thomas F. Remington, "Politics in Russia" (New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., 2002), p. 50.]

In a speech the next day on 10 December, Yeltsin deemed the congress as a "fortress of conservative and reactionary forces." Parliament responded by voting to take control of the parliamentary army.

On 12 December, Yeltsin and parliament speaker Khasbulatov agreed on a compromise that included the following provisions: (1) a national referendum on framing a new Russian constitution to be held in April 1993; (2) most of Yeltsin's emergency powers were extended until the referendum; (3) the parliament asserted its right to nominate and vote on its own choices for prime minister; and (4) the parliament asserted its right to reject the president's choices to head the Defense, Foreign Affairs, Interior, and Security ministries. Yeltsin nominated Viktor Chernomyrdin to be prime minister on 14 December, and the parliament confirmed him.

Yeltsin's December 1992 compromise with the seventh Congress of the People's Deputies temporarily backfired. Early 1993 saw increasing tension between Yeltsin and the parliament over the language of the referendum and power sharing. In a series of collisions over policy, the congress whittled away the president's extraordinary powers, which it had granted him in late 1991. The legislature, marshaled by Speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, began to sense that it could block and even defeat the president. The tactic that it adopted was gradually to erode presidential control over the government. In response, the president called a referendum on a constitution for 11 April.

Eighth session of the CPD

The eighth Congress of People's Deputies opened on 10 March 1993 with an attack on the president by Khasbulatov, who accused Yeltsin of acting unconstitutionally. In mid-March, an emergency session of the Congress of People's Deputies voted to amend the constitution, strip Yeltsin of many of his powers, and cancel the scheduled April referendum, again opening the door to legislation that would shift the balance of power away from the president. The president walked out of the congress. Vladimir Shumeyko, first deputy prime minister, declared that the referendum would go ahead, but on 25 April.

The parliament was gradually expanding its influence over the government. On 16 March the president signed a decree that conferred Cabinet rank on Viktor Gerashchenko, chairman of the central bank, and three other officials; this was in accordance with the decision of the eighth congress that these officials should be members of the government. The congress' ruling, however, had made it clear that as ministers they would continue to be subordinate to parliament.

"Special regime"

On 20 March Yeltsin addressed the nation directly to declare that he has just signed the decree introducing a "special regime", under which he would assume extraordinary executive power pending the results of a referendum on the timing of new legislative elections, on a new constitution, and on public confidence in the president and vice president. Yeltsin also strongly opposed the parliament, accusing the deputies of trying to restore the Soviet-era order.

Vice President Rutskoy, a key Yeltsin opponent, condemned Yeltsin's declaration as a grab for special powers. After the Constitutional Court ruled that Yeltsin had indeed acted unconstitutionally, it turned out that another decree was signed instead, which did not violate the constitution.

Ninth session of the CPD

The ninth congress, which opened on 26 March, began with an extraordinary session of the Congress of People's Deputies taking up discussions of emergency measures to defend the constitution, including impeachment of President Yeltsin. Yeltsin conceded that he had made mistakes and reached out to swing voters in parliament. Yeltsin publicly swore he would not obey a congressional decision against him during impeachment. On 28 March the vote to impeach him failed; votes for impeachment falling 72 short of the 689 votes needed for a 2/3 majority.

National referendum

The referendum would go ahead, but since the impeachment vote failed, the Congress of People's Deputies sought to set new terms for a popular referendum. The legislature's version of the referendum asked whether citizens had confidence in Yeltsin, approved of his reforms, and supported early presidential and legislative elections. The parliament voted that in order to win, the president would need to obtain 50% of the whole electorate, rather than 50% of those actually voting, to avoid an early presidential election.

This time, the Constitutional Court supported Yeltsin and ruled that the president required only a simple majority on two issues: confidence in him, and economic and social policy; he would need the support of half the electorate in order to call new parliamentary and presidential elections.

On 25 April a majority of voters expressed confidence in the president and called for new legislative elections. Yeltsin termed the results a mandate for him to continue in power. Although this permitted the president to declare that the population supported him, not the parliament, he lacked a constitutional mechanism to implement his victory.

Constitutional convention

Yeltsin decreed the creation of a special constitutional convention to meet in to examine the draft constitution that he had presented in April. The convention was to consist of political leaders from a wide range of government institutions, regions, public organizations, and political parties. The Constitutional Committee of the Congress of People's Deputies decided to participate and present its own draft constitution. Of course, the two main drafts contained contrary views of legislative-executive relations.

Some 200 representatives at the conference ultimately adopted a draft constitution on 12 July that envisaged a bicameral legislature and the dissolution of the congress. But because the convention's draft of the constitution would dissolve the congress, there was little likelihood that the congress would vote itself into oblivion. The Supreme Soviet immediately rejected the draft and declared that the Congress of People's Deputies was the supreme lawmaking body and hence would decide on the new constitution.

The parliament was active in July, while the president was on vacation, and passed a number of decrees that revised economic policy in order to "end the division of society." It also launched investigations of key advisers of the president, accusing them of corruption. The president returned in August and declared that he would deploy all means, including circumventing the constitution, to achieve new parliamentary elections.

Clashes of power in September

The president launched his offensive on 1 September when he attempted to suspend Vice President Rutskoy, a key adversary. Rutskoy, elected on the same ticket as Yeltsin in 1991, was the president's automatic successor. A presidential spokesman said that he had been suspended because of "accusations of corruption." On 3 September, the Supreme Soviet rejected Yeltsin's suspension of Rutskoy and referred the question to the Constitutional Court.

Two weeks later he declared that he would agree to call early presidential elections provided that the parliament also called elections. The parliament ignored him. On 18 September, Yeltsin then named Yegor Gaidar, who had been forced out of office by parliamentary opposition in 1992, a deputy prime minister and a deputy premier for economic affairs. This appointment was rejected by the Supreme Soviet.

iege and assault

On 21 September 1993, President Boris Yeltsin dissolved the Supreme Soviet, which was in direct contradiction with the articles of Russian Constitution, e.g.:

Article 121-6. "The powers of the President of Russian Federation cannot be used to change national and state organization of Russian Federation, to dissolve or to interfere with the functioning of any elected organs of state power. In this case, his powers cease immediately."

He also scrapped the constitution, replacing it with one that gave him extraordinary executive powers. (According to the new plan, the lower house would have 450 deputies and be called the State Duma, the name of the Russian legislature before the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. The Federation Council, which would bring together representatives from the 89 subdivisions of the Russian Federation, would play the role of an upper house.)

Yeltsin claimed that by dissolving the Russian parliament in September 1993 he was clearing the tracks for a rapid transition to a functioning market economy. With this pledge, he received strong backing from the leading capitalist powers of the West and the other Soviet successor states. Yeltsin's biggest political asset has always been his close relationship to the Western powers, particularly the United States, but this has left him open to charges in Russia of being an agent of foreign interests and of groveling before the West.

Parliament invalidates Yeltsin's presidency

Rutskoy called Yeltsin's move a step toward a coup d'etat. The next day, the Constitutional Court held that Yeltsin had violated the constitution and could be impeached. During an all-night session, chaired by Khasbulatov, parliament declared the president's decree null and void. Rutskoy was proclaimed president and took the oath on the constitution. He dismissed Yeltsin and the key ministers Pavel Grachev (defense), Nikolay Golushko (security), and Viktor Yerin (interior). Russia now had two presidents and two ministers of defense, security, and interior. It was dual power in earnest. Although Gennady Zyuganov and other top leaders of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation did not participate in the events, individual members of communist organizations actively supported the parliament.

On 24 September, an undaunted Yeltsin announced presidential elections for June 1994. The same day, the Congress of People's Deputies voted to hold simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections by March 1994. [For further details see [http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/russiagov/stories/dissolve092293.htm Margaret Shapiro, "Yeltsin Dissolves Parliament, Orders New Vote," Washington Post, 22 September 1993.] ] Yeltsin scoffed at the parliament backed-proposal for simultaneous elections, and responded the next day by cutting off electricity, phone service, and hot water in the parliament building.

Protests in Moscow

Yeltsin also sparked popular unrest with his dissolution of a parliament increasingly opposed to his economic reforms. Between 21 September-24, the general atmosphere changed in favor of the defenders of the parliament.Fact|date=August 2008 Moscow saw what amounted to a spontaneous mass uprising of demonstrators numbering in the tens of thousands marching in the streets resolutely seeking to aid forces defending the parliament building.Fact|date=August 2008 However, the army leaders remained faithful to Yeltsin.

On 28 September, Moscow saw the first bloody clashes between the OMON riot police and demonstrators. The Interior Ministry moved to seal off the parliament building. Barricades and wire were put around the building. On 1 October, the Interior Ministry estimated that 600 fighting men with a large cache of arms had joined Yeltsin's political opponents in the parliament building. On 30 September, the first barricades were built.

The leaders of parliament were still not discounting the prospects of a compromise with Yeltsin. The Russian Orthodox Church acted as a host to desultory discussions between representatives of the parliament and the president. The negotiations with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch as mediator continued until 2 October. On the afternoon of 3 October, however, Moscow police failed to control a demonstration near the White House, and the political impasse developed into armed conflict.

torming of the television premises

2 October and 3 October were the culmination of violent clashes with the police. On 2 October, supporters of parliament constructed barricades and blocked traffic on Moscow's main streets. On the afternoon of 3 October, armed opponents of Yeltsin successfully stormed the police cordon around the White House territory, where the Russian parliament was barricaded. Paramilitaries from the Russian Neo-nazi party RNU and Labour Russia movement, as well as a few units of the internal military (armed forces normally reporting to the Ministry of Interior), supported the Supreme Soviet.

Rutskoy greeted the crowds from the White House balcony, and urged them to go on to seize the national television center at Ostankino. Khasbulatov also called for the storming of the Kremlin. With some people already dead on the streets, Yeltsin declared a state of emergency in Moscow.

On the evening of 3 October, after taking the mayor's office, pro-parliament demonstrators marched toward Ostankino, the television center. But the pro-parliament crowds were met at the television complex by Interior Ministry units. A pitched battle followed. Part of the TV center was significantly damaged. Television stations went off the air and 62 people were killed. Before midnight, the Interior Ministry's units had turned back the parliament loyalists.

When broadcasting resumed late in the evening, Yegor Gaidar called on television for a meeting in support of President Yeltsin. Several hundred of Yeltsin's supporters spent the night in the square in front of the Moscow City Hall preparing for further clashes, only to learn in the morning of 4 October that the army was on their side.

torming of the White House

Between 2 October-4, the position of the army was the deciding factor. The military debated for several hours whether or not respond to Yeltsin's call for action. By this time dozens of people had been killed and hundreds had been wounded.

Rutskoy, as a former general, appealed to some of his ex-colleagues. After all, many officers and especially rank-and-file soldiers had little sympathy for Yeltsin. But the supporters of the parliament did not send any emissaries to the barracks to recruit lower-ranking officer corps, making the fatal mistake of attempting to deliberate only among high-ranking military officials who already had close ties to parliamentary leaders. In the end, a prevailing bulk of the generals did not want to take their chances with a Rutskoy-Khasbulatov regime. Some generals had stated their intention to back the parliament, but at the last moment moved over to Yeltsin's side.

By sunrise, 4 October, the Russian army encircled the parliament building, and a few hours later army tanks began to shell the White House. By noon, troops entered the White House and began to occupy it, floor by floor. Hostilities were stopped several times to allow some in the White House to leave. By mid-afternoon, popular resistance in the streets was completely suppressed, barring an occasional sniper's fire.

Crushing the "second October Revolution," which, as mentioned, saw the deadliest street fighting in Moscow since 1917, cost hundreds of lives. Police said, on 8 October, that 187 had died in the conflict and 437 had been wounded. Unofficial sources named much higher numbers: up to 2,000 dead. In any event, nearly all the victims were killed by troops loyal to Yeltsin. Russian Army and Interior Ministry lost 12 soldiers, at least 9 of which were accidentally killed by their own men. It had been a close call; Yeltsin owed his victory to the military, the former KGB, and the Ministry of Interior, not to support from the regions or a popular base of support.

The crisis was a strong example of the problems of executive-legislative balance in Russia's presidential system, and, moreover, the likelihood of conflict of a zero-sum character and the absence of obvious mechanisms to resolve it. [Since the release of Argentine political scientist Juan Linz's 1985 influential essay "Presidential or Parliamentary Democracy: Does it Make a Difference?" the argument that presidentialism is less likely to sustain stable democratic regimes has gained widespread currency in Western comparative politics literature. According to Linz, conflict is always latent between the president and the legislature due to competing claims to legitimacy derived from the same source: electoral mandates from the very same body of citizens. Thus, a conflict can escalate dramatically since it cannot be resolved through rules, procedures, negotiations, or compromise.] In the end, this was a battle of competing legitimacy of the executive and the legislature, won by the side that could muster the support of the ultimate instruments of coercion. [See, e.g., Stephen White, "Russia: Presidential Leadership under Yeltsin," in Ray Taras, ed., "Postcommunist Presidents" (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 57–61.]

Yeltsin's consolidation of power

Immediate aftermath

In the weeks following the storming of the White House, Yeltsin issued a barrage of presidential decrees intended to consolidate his position. On 5 October, Yeltsin banned political leftist and nationalist parties and newspapers that had supported the parliament. In an address to the nation on 6 October, Yeltsin also called on those regional councils that had opposed him—by far the majority—to disband. Valery Zorkin, chairman of the Constitutional Court, was forced to resign. The chairman of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions was also sacked, and the president took the opportunity to deprive trade unions of many of their administrative functions so as to whittle away their direct working ties to their rank-and-file membership.

Yeltsin decreed, on 12 October, that both houses of parliament would be elected in December. On 15 October, he ordered that a popular referendum be held in December on a new constitution. Rutskoy and Khasbulatov were charged on 15 October with "organizing mass disorders" and imprisoned. They were later released in 1994 when Yeltsin's position was sufficiently secure.

"Russia needs order," Yeltsin told the Russian people in a television broadcast in November in introducing his new draft of the constitution, which was to be put to a referendum on 12 December. The new basic law would concentrate sweeping powers in the hands of the president. The bicameral legislature, to sit for only two years, was restricted in crucial areas. The president could choose the prime minister even if the parliament objected and could appoint the military leadership without parliamentary approval. He would head and appoint the members of a new, more powerful security council. If a vote of no confidence in the government was passed, the president would be enabled to keep it in office for three months and could dissolve the parliament if it repeated the vote. The president could veto any bill passed by a simple majority in the lower house, after which a two-thirds majority would be required for the legislation to be passed. The president could not be impeached for contravening the constitution. The central bank would become independent, but the president would need the approval of the State Duma to appoint the bank's governor, who would thereafter be independent of the parliament. At the time, most political observers regarded the draft constitution as shaped by and for Yeltsin and perhaps unlikely to survive him.

End of the first constitutional period

On 12 December, Yeltsin managed to push through his new constitution, creating a strong presidency and giving the president sweeping powers to issue decrees. ("For details on the constitution passed in 1993 see the Constitution and government structure of Russia.")

In the parliament election on the same day the pro-Yeltsin party Democratic Choice of Russia became the second largest party, and unexpectedly, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) became the largest, alarming many observers abroad with his neo-fascist, chauvinist declarations.

Nevertheless, the referendum marked the end of the constitutional period defined by the constitution adopted by the Russian SFSR in 1978, which was amended many times while Russia was a part of Mikhail Gorbachev's Soviet Union. ("For further details on the democratization of the former Soviet Union, see History of the Soviet Union (1985–1991).") Although Russia would emerge as a dual presidential-parliamentary system in theory, substantial power would rest in the president's hands. Russia now has a prime minister who heads a cabinet and directs the administration, but the system is an example of presidentialism with the cover of a presidential prime minister, not an effective semipresidential constitutional model. (The premier, for example, is appointed, and in effect freely dismissed, by the president.)

Notes and references

ee also

* History of post-Soviet Russia
* Politics of post-Soviet Russia
*

[http://1993.sovnarkom.ru/1993foto.htm3]