Black October 1993. Twenty-two years to shoot the House of Soviets
Twenty-two years ago, in September – October 1993, Russia was actually on the verge of a civil war. Confrontation of the legislative power represented by the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation and the executive power represented by President B.N. Yeltsin ended in an armed conflict in the center of Moscow, the shooting of the House of Soviets from tanks, the dissolution of the Supreme Council of the country and the adoption of the new Constitution. In fact, it was in September – October 1993. and the country underwent a radical transition to a new model of governance, a political organization, which, with certain changes, remains until the present. So far, the events of twenty-two years ago, about which young people are poorly informed (which is not surprising - children born five years later than “bloody October” will become adults next year, cause mixed opinions among politicians, historians, publicists and journalists, ordinary people Russian citizens. Largely related to the events of September - October 1993 it is still determined by political sympathies - to the left-patriotic, statist camp of domestic politics, or to the liberal (then called "democratic") forces. Today, after more than two decades, we can not only recall those events, but also evaluate their consequences. But first - still it should be recalled what exactly happened in September - early October 1993 in Moscow. On September 21, 1993, Boris Yeltsin issued Decree No. 1400, On Phased Constitutional Reform in the Russian Federation. On the evening of the same day - at about 20.00 p.m. on September 21, 1993 - this decree was voiced in a television address by Boris Yeltsin to citizens of the Russian Federation. The essence of the decree was to dissolve the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation and terminate the powers of people's deputies of the Russian Federation. Thus, the activities of the organs of Soviet power on the territory of the Russian Federation officially ceased. In the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation, the majority were political forces opposed to Yeltsin - the Russian Unity bloc, which included representatives of the Communist Party, the Fatherland faction, the Agrarian Union, and the Russia deputy group. The existence of the opposition Supreme Council of the Russian Federation created serious obstacles for the Yeltsin government in further market reforms.
Yeltsin's decree and the reaction of the Supreme Council
Naturally, the decision to dissolve the Supreme Council, which the opposition forces were aware of in advance, was extremely negatively received by the majority of the people's deputies, regardless of their political convictions. On the performance of Yeltsin, the deputies responded instantly. After 30 minutes after the president’s address on television, the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, Ruslan Khasbulatov, spoke. He defined the actions of Yeltsin from the point of view of deputies of the Supreme Council - “coup d'etat”. Two hours after the President’s televised address, an emergency meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation was held at 22.00, which adopted a Resolution “On the Immediate Termination of the Powers of the President of the Russian Federation B.N. Yeltsin. At about the same time, at an emergency meeting of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which was chaired by Valery Zorkin, it was decided that a presidential decree violated the current Constitution of the Russian Federation and was the basis for B.N. Yeltsin from the post of President of the Russian Federation. When in the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation it became known about the conclusion issued by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the deputies adopted a resolution on entrusting the duties of the president of the country to the current vice-president of the Russian Federation, Alexander Rutsky. So began the political crisis, which gradually grew into a direct confrontation between the legislative and executive authorities. Boris Yeltsin’s side was favored by liberal-oriented political parties that supported further market reforms in the country, as well as the majority of those who won in the reform process — the newly-minted Russian bourgeoisie, part of the creative intelligentsia, and well-paid employees of commercial firms.
At the same time, a considerable part of the workers and employees, especially in the provinces, spread sympathy for the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation and for the communist and national-patriotic parties that supported its position. The liberal media dubbed the bloc of supporters of a strong social state "red-brown", hinting at the tactical association of communists and nationalists. On the side of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation there were also sympathies of many personnel officers and law enforcement officers. Deputies of the Supreme Council decided to organize the defense of the House of Soviets and the formation of the Defense Headquarters. The Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation appealed to deputies, servicemen of the Russian Army, employees of the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, and all citizens of the Russian Federation to prevent a coup d'état. Already in 20.45 minutes, less than an hour after B.N. Yeltsin and the Supreme Council’s response, before the White House, as the building of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation was called, Muscovites began to gather. A spontaneous indefinite rally began, in which the main role was played by activists of various political parties and socio-political organizations. In 22.00, Moscow police officers cordoned off the Moscow City Hall building. The building of the Parliamentary Center was also blocked. In the meantime, the White House was building barricades. People have not yet forgotten the experience of two years ago, when in August 1991 were also built barricades - not only by the Communists, but by supporters of democratic reforms. Two years later, the parties switched places. An emergency session of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation opened in 00.00 hours, which lasted intermittently until 19 hours.
Approval of Rutskoi Acting the president. Rallies and volunteers
Already in 00.17, the Supreme Council adopted a resolution on the termination of the authority of the President of the Russian Federation Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin from 20 hours 00 minutes 21 September 1993 and on the transfer of powers of the President to the Vice-President of the Russian Federation Rutsky Alexander Vladimirovich. A.V. Rutsky was immediately canceled Yeltsin's decree on the dissolution of the Supreme Council.
- Vice President Alexander Rutskoi and Chairman of the Supreme Council Ruslan Khasbulatov. Photo: T.Kuzmina (ITAR-TASS)
After that, the Supreme Council adopted resolutions on new appointments to the most important posts in the security agencies of the country. Colonel-General Vladislav Achalov was appointed Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Army General Viktor Barannikov was appointed Minister of Security, Lieutenant-General Andrei Dunayev was Acting Minister of the Interior. Colonel-General Vladislav Achalov (1945-2011) in 1989-1990 commanded the Airborne Forces, then until September 1991 served as Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, and later was dismissed. General Achalov was also known as one of the leaders of the people's patriotic opposition, who did not hide his political views. At the material time he was a people's deputy of the USSR. Army General Viktor Barannikov (1940-1995), on the contrary, until the events of September-October 1993 was a supporter of Yeltsin and the transformations he was conducting. During the August events in 1991, Mr. Barannikov, who was then Minister of the Interior of the RSFSR, participated in organizing the resistance of the Emergency Committee and the arrest of one of the leaders of the Emergency Committee Marshal of the Soviet Union, Dmitry Yazov. In December, 1991 Barannikov was appointed Minister of Security and Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (after the KGB was dissolved, the country's security forces underwent numerous transformations, one of which was their temporary merger with the internal affairs bodies in a single ministry). Then Barannikov headed the Federal Security Agency, and after nine days - January 24 1992 - created on its basis, the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation. However, on July 27, 1993, General Barannikov was dismissed "for violating ethical standards, as well as for serious shortcomings in the work, including the leadership of the border troops." Apparently, the dismissal, unfair from his point of view, was one of the reasons that motivated yesterday’s Yeltsin minister to support the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation and to agree with the proposal to head the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation. Lieutenant General Andrei Dunaev (born 1939), like Barannikov, participated in the August events of 1991 on the side of the President of the Russian Federation B.N. Yeltsin. At that time, he served as Deputy Minister of the Interior of the RSFSR, participated in the arrest of Marshal of the Soviet Union Dmitry Yazov and in the return of Mikhail Gorbachev from Foros. In April, 1992 Dunayev was appointed first deputy minister of internal affairs of the Russian Federation Viktor Erin, but on July 22 1993 was dismissed for the same reasons as Barannikov.
By 10 hours of the morning 22 September about 1,500 people gathered at the House of Soviets, with the number of supporters of the Supreme Council growing every hour and in the second half of the day several thousand people were already here. Simultaneously, the delimitation of the branches of power occurred at the city level. The session of the Moscow City Council assessed Yeltsin’s actions as unconstitutional, and his decree as having no legal force. At the same time, the Moscow government, headed by Mayor Yury Luzhkov, supported the actions of the country's president and issued a statement. In the meantime, telephone communications and later electricity were disconnected in the building of the Supreme Council. There was a question about the organization of the protection of the "White House". The forces of the Security Department, which was subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, and in operational terms, to the First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council, Y. Voronin, were clearly not enough. After all, in the House of Soviets only 150 policemen carried the guard service. Another 40 person worked in the security department, which ensured the safety of the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, Ruslan Khasbulatov. In order to ensure the protection of the House of Soviets from among the citizens gathered outside the building, the formation of volunteer divisions began, in which people with military and civilian backgrounds, including activists of public and political organizations and not caring Muscovites and guests of the capital, who supported the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation. Vladislav Achalov, who took the post of Minister of Defense, issued an order to issue firearms to volunteers recruited into the security units of the House of Soviets weapons in the amount of 74 AKS-74U machine gun, 7 pistols, 9600 ammunition for AKS-74U, 112 pistol ammunition. Since Alexander Rutskoi did not trust the Security Department of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation, he ordered Vladislav Achalov to form a motorized rifle regiment from among the reservists of the city of Moscow by the 10 o'clock in the morning of September 25 to protect the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation. At the same time, Alexander Bovt, Director of the Security Department of the Supreme Council, received an order to issue automatic small arms according to the staffing of the motorized rifle regiment.
In the meantime, the building of the House of Soviets was blocked by the forces of the Moscow police, the riot police and the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation arriving to it. The task before the servicemen of the internal troops and the police officers was not to let anyone into the House of Soviets, but to release people from the House of Soviets. By this time there were about 2000 people in the building of the House of Soviets. The Moscow Directorate of Internal Affairs approved the Operational Action Plan, according to which people’s access to the House of Soviets was completely stopped. The streets adjacent to the building were blocked by barricades of watering machines and barbed wire that were set one behind the other. Directly in front of the barriers put two rows of a cordon of police officers and soldiers of the Interior Ministry troops. Three water cannons aimed at the city were also installed - in case of attempts to break through to the building of the House of Soviets of demonstrators from among opposition-minded citizens. From 8 on the morning of September 28, opposite the police cordon, people began to gather in support of A.V. Rutskoi and the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation. As the number of people grew, the situation became tense. So, in 18.45 in the lane area. Konyushkovsky, a group of about 1,000 people made an attempt to break through the cordon, but after a collision with police officers, was scattered. Fifteen minutes later, there was a clash between supporters of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation and the police in the vicinity of the Barrikadnaya metro station. The next day, the protesters repeatedly attempted to break through to the building of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation.
Attempts to resolve the situation
The President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, and the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Viktor Chernomyrdin, addressed Alexander Rutsky and Ruslan Khasbulatov, demanding to 4 October 1993 in withdraw from the House of Soviets of Deputies and supporters and hand over the weapons at their disposal. This offer was rejected. On the night of September 30 on October 1 1993 Negotiations were held at the Mir Hotel between representatives of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation and President Yeltsin. As a result of these negotiations, a decision was made on 1 on October 1993. collect and store non-standard weapons located on the territory of the House of Soviets, under the control of joint groups of representatives of both parties to the conflict. Also, the Supreme Council went to reduce the number of external guards of the House of Soviets, and Yeltsin, in response, allowed to include electricity and heat supply of the parliament building. After the implementation of these points of the agreement, the parties had to proceed with the removal of the external protection of the House of Soviets by the Moscow police and withdraw all security units established at the end of September by order of Rutskoi from the building. After that, it was supposed to proceed to further harmonization of legal and political guarantees. Light and heating in the "White House" were really soon turned on. However, at 6 in the morning of October 1, the Military Council of the Defense of the House of Soviets of the Russian Federation considered the signing of an agreement with representatives of Yeltsin, carried out by Abdulatipov and Sokolov, as erroneous. The actions of Abdulatipov and Sokolov were regarded as abuse of authority, and Protocol No. 1 was canceled. After this decision, the electricity in the House of Soviets was again cut off, and four columns of armored vehicles of the Special Purpose Motorized Rifle Division (the “Dzerzhinsky Division”) advanced to the building. In addition, it became known about the upcoming arrest of 164 defense leaders of the House of Soviets, people's deputies and politicians immediately after the seizure of the building. New negotiations began in 10.30 - this time in the St. Daniel Monastery, with the mediation of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia. They signed a program of measures to normalize the situation, which included the mutual provision of information about planned actions, the composition of the armed forces and armaments, the organization of joint protection of weapons storage sites, the establishment of a regime for passing citizens to the House of Soviets. However, October 2 A.V. Rutskoi issued a Decree “On the Presidium of the Council of Ministers - the Government of the Russian Federation”, according to which he dismissed Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, his first deputy Yegor Gaidar and a number of other ministers. In the afternoon of October 2, a rally of supporters of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation began, harshly dispersed by the police, at the Foreign Ministry building. The demonstrators built a barricade on the Garden Ring, blocking the movement. The police did not manage to disperse the defenders of the barricades and destroy the barricade itself, so the Moscow GUVD leadership reached an agreement with the demonstrators that they would leave the Garden Ring in 23 hours without meeting the police’s attempts to detain them. However, in reality, the demonstrators in an organized column left the barricade even earlier - at 21 an hour, headed by the well-known politician, leader of the Front of National Salvation, Ilya Konstantinov. The next day, October 3 1993, the situation around the White House continued to heat up. By 12.00, an opposition rally began on October Square, organized by the National Salvation Front of Ilya Konstantinov. The activists of the communist movement “Labor Russia”, led by Viktor Anpilov, who were present at the rally, gathered to go to the building of the House of Soviets. At about the same time, in the building of the Moscow city headquarters of the people's guards on ul. Tver, 8 gathered members of the Union of Cossack officers, the Union of veterans of the war in Afghanistan and other organizations that formed the Defense Headquarters of the Moscow City Council.
Rally on October Square and the Ostankino assault
By 14.00 hours, at which the beginning of the rally was scheduled, October Square was cordoned off by police. At the suggestion of Anpilov, some of the protesters, numbering several thousand people, moved towards the House of Soviets of the Russian Federation. Police officers and internal troops stopped the convoy of demonstrators and began to retreat. Gradually, the retreat became almost a flight - many policemen and soldiers threw batons and shields. Part of the equipment of law enforcement officers was captured by demonstrators. In 14.35, General Pankratov, head of the Moscow police department, ordered to send a reserve of 350 troops to the Zubovskaya Square. However, the arrived reserve after 5-7 minutes was swept away by the demonstrators, and the 10 vehicles captured by the troops arrived. 15.20 advanced groups of demonstrators approached the building of the Moscow City Hall. The cordon of police and internal troops was scattered here. The leadership issued an order to policemen and riot policemen to open fire with pistols and machine guns. Above the heads was given a line of large-caliber machine gun BTR. Demonstrators began to flee, pursued by police officers who used special means against them. Meanwhile, a group of members of the “Russian National Unity” numbering 15 people came out of the Supreme Council building to the sounds of shooting in the city hall, joined by three guards Colonel General Albert Makashov, a well-known leader of the patriotic opposition appointed by Rutsky deputy defense minister Vladislav Achalov. After the defenders of the House of Soviets launched a counterattack by the mayor’s office with a weapon, a panic broke out among the policemen guarding the mayor’s office. For half an hour, the demonstrators, led by General Makashov, seized the building of the Moscow mayor's office. The military and police officers who defended the mayor's office began to surrender. Some of them were detained and taken to the building of the House of Soviets, others were released. In addition, the demonstrators also detained several senior officials of the Moscow government, dissolved by order of the acting. President Alexander Rutskoi. The riot police and a unit of internal troops, retreating from the city hall building, threw military ZIL-131 trucks with keys in the ignition locks and one grenade launcher. The streets of Moscow were actually in the hands of the demonstrators. The latter took possession of 10-15 military trucks and 4 armored personnel carriers. Under the leadership of General Makashov and the leader of "Labor Russia" Anpilov, the demonstrators moved to the building of a television center in Ostankino. Some of the demonstrators drove in the captured trucks, General Albert Makashov with guards, Ilya Konstantinov, leader of the National Salvation Front, and Viktor Anpilov, leader of Labor Russia, followed the convoy in cars. For the defense of Ostankino from a possible attack by demonstrators, the commander of the Interior Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, General Anatoly Kulikov, sent 84 troops to the Sofrinsky Air Force Brigade without firearms. In addition, 105 military personnel of the special forces of the Vityaz Interior Ministry, who were armed with light machine guns, machine guns, grenade launchers, sniper rifles and moved on 6 armored personnel carriers, arrived at the television center. They took a circular defense.
- Colonel General Albert Makashov and Viktor Anpilov
The demonstrators demanded that the Ostankino leadership provide live broadcasts. Makashov entered into negotiations with the leadership of the Security Directorate, but the leaders of the television center did not come to the general. But delaying the time allowed an officer of the riot police of the Moscow police department to arrive in Ostankino 31 on a vehicle. Riot policemen also had firearms with them - 27 machine guns and 3 pistols. At the same time, a rally of Yeltsin's supporters began at the Moscow mayor's office, at which Valeria Novodvorskaya, Lev Ponomarev and other democrats spoke, calling for the creation of people's guards to counter the "red-brown". While there was a rally on Tverskoy, and Makashov and his comrades unsuccessfully tried to penetrate the Telecentre building, additional reinforcement arrived in Ostankino - 111 soldiers and officers of the Sofrinsky brigade of the MVD, led by the brigade commander Colonel V.A. Vasiliev and deputy commander of the internal troops for personnel, Lieutenant-General Pavel Golubets. The situation was tense near the television center, especially since a grenade launcher was in the hands of the demonstrators. After a shot rang out from the side of the TV building, as a result of which Nikolai Krestinin, a bodyguard of Makashov, was wounded, two explosions were heard at the broken doors of the building. They killed the fighter of the “Vityaz” detachment, Private Nikolay Sitnikov. What these explosions were, is still unknown. Most of the media share the point of view of a grenade launcher shot, but the investigative team investigating the incident did not find any traces of a grenade launcher shot. Therefore, a version was put forward that the explosion could have been carried out on purpose — in order to provoke servicemen to retaliate against the protesters. After an explosion was sounded, as a result of which Private Sitnikov was killed, special forces and armored personnel carriers opened fire on the demonstrators gathered outside the building. At least 46 people died. 20 .00 reinforcements arrived in Ostankino - another 58 servicemen of the Vityaz special forces on 3 armored personnel carriers armed with 52 machine guns, 6 machine guns and 3 grenade launchers. In addition to the Vityaz fighters, the 100 servicemen of one of the operational units of the internal troops arrived at the telecentre on ten armored personnel carriers. There was practically no firing back at the building and its defenders from the demonstrators who had arrived under the leadership of Makashov, with the exception of a few single shots from the crowd.
State of emergency in Moscow. Assault plan
Meanwhile, back in 16.00, President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree imposing a state of emergency in Moscow. Russian Defense Minister General Pavel Grachev contacted by telephone with the commander of the Taman Motorized Rifle Division stationed in Moscow, Major General Valery Yevnevich, informing him that riots were taking place in the capital and the police could not cope. Grachev ordered his subordinate to bring parts of the division into combat readiness and, at the first order, advance to the building of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and take it under protection. Yegor Gaidar phoned the Chairman of the State Committee for Emergency Situations, Major-General Sergei Shoigu, and ordered to prepare from the warehouses of the civil defense troops a thousand assault rifles to distribute to Yeltsin's supporters in the event of a further exacerbation of the situation. The building of the Moscow City Council, where Yeltsin's supporters gathered, was rally the whole evening on October 3. Speaking at it Konstantin Borovoy demanded to distribute weapons to citizens and begin the formation of the national teams. In the last 2,5 thousands of Yeltsin supporters signed up - reserve officers and ensigns. In addition, it was supposed to equip with small arms employees of private security companies controlled by businessmen - supporters of Boris Yeltsin. By 22.00, Boris Yeltsin, who held a meeting of the heads of law enforcement agencies, ordered the Minister of Defense, General Grachev, the Minister of Internal Affairs, General Yerin, and the Kremlin commandant, General Barsukov, to prepare for a possible assault on the House of Soviets.
Alexander Korzhakov, who at that time headed the Security Service of the President of the Russian Federation, recalls: “Yeltsin asked: - What are we going to do next? There was a dead silence. Everyone dropped their eyes. The President repeated the question: - How are we going to deal with them further, how are we going to smoke them? Silence again. Then I could not resist: - Allow me, Boris Nikolaevich, to make a proposal. He raised his eyebrows in question, but let him speak. I continued: - Boris Nikolaevich, we have a specific plan. Here is my deputy, Captain First Rank Zakharov. He can report in detail how to take the White House. Please listen to him ”(Quoted from A. Korzhakov, Boris Yeltsin: From dawn to dusk // https://www.litmir.co/br/?b=78738&p=41). Captain 1st rank Gennady Ivanovich Zakharov (1940-2012) - a legend of the Soviet and Russian special forces, until 1990 commanded a detachment of divers - scouts of the Baltic and Northern fleets, and after retiring from the Navy was admitted to the Security Service of the President of the Russian Federation, where he became an assistant its leader Alexander Korzhakov. Zakharov asked for ten tanks in order for the tanks to fire several volleys in order to psychologically influence the defenders of the White House. After that, according to the expert, the special forces were supposed to enter the case. However, according to the recollections of General Korzhakov, in the presence of tanks, they faced a shortage of experienced tankers. I had to recruit officers - volunteers. At 22.10, units of the Taman, Kantemirov and Tula divisions entered Moscow. The troops took under protection the building of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Kremlin. On the night of October 4, Yeltsin's supporters, who formed the people's guards, began to seize the premises of opposition newspapers, including Sovetskaya Rossiya, Den, etc. At 04.20 the advance of military units to the House of Soviets began. During the night in the center of Moscow, skirmishes periodically broke out between supporters of the Supreme Council and the military, as well as clashes between servicemen of various units, resulting from inconsistencies between the command of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense. By 6 a.m. in the area of the House of Soviets, military personnel of the units of the Taman motorized rifle, Kantemirovskaya tank, Tula airborne divisions, the special forces division of the Interior Ministry's Interior Ministry, the 119th parachute regiment, soldiers of the Smolensk OMON, who also arrived to the aid of the Moscow police, were concentrated. In addition to the military and police officers, 100 members of the Union of Afghan Veterans arrived to storm the House of Soviets, who also received weapons according to the order of the Deputy Minister of Defense, General Kondratyev.
Assault on the House of Soviets and its aftermath
In 07.30 4 in October 1993, an operation began to seize the House of Soviets. The BMP and BTR opened direct fire on the Supreme Soviet building. In 08.35, paratroopers of the Tula division marched toward the building under cover of fire from an armored personnel carrier and infantry fighting vehicles. Boris Yeltsin spoke on television on 09.00, announcing the introduction of troops to Moscow and the initiation of criminal proceedings against the leaders of the "coup" to which he referred to the leaders of the Supreme Soviet. To 09.15, the building of the House of Soviets was completely surrounded by military units. In 09.30, tanks launched the shelling of the House of Soviets. In total, 6 tanks that fired 12 shells participated in the shelling. In 09.40, helicopters appeared over the building of the House of Soviets. In 10.38, Alexander Rutskoi ordered his supporters not to shoot and not resist the soldiers storming the building. But the gradual withdrawal of the defenders of the House of Soviets began only in 12.30. In 14.45, the President of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, and the President of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, under the white flag, were able to enter the building of the House of Soviets for a meeting with Alexander Rutsky and Ruslan Khasbulatov. Aushev and Ilyumzhinov succeeded in removing 12 women and 1 children from the building. To 15.00, trucks carrying soldiers of the internal troops arrived at the House of Soviets. The order for the storming of the House of Soviets was given to the special divisions of the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation "Alpha" and "Vympel". However, the Vympel fighters refused to storm the parliament, for which the detachment fell out of favor with the president and was soon transferred to the Ministry of the Interior, after which many of the officers of the unit resigned. In 16: 00, a man entered the building of the House of Soviets who introduced himself as a fighter of the “A” group (“Alpha”). He offered to come with him, promising protection. With the Alpha player, the House of Soviets left its defenders near 100.
17.00 left another 500 man out of the building of the House of Soviets, including the well-known patriotic figure MP Sergei Baburin. Alexander Rutskoi and Ruslan Khasbulatov were arrested in 19.01, after which they were escorted to the Lefortovo detention center, accompanied by Airborne Troops and members of the Presidential Security Service. People’s Deputy Sergei Baburin was also arrested in 19.05. In 19.30, Andrei Dunaev, Viktor Barannikov and Vladislav Achalov were arrested. At the same time, the Alfa group fighters evacuated the remaining 1700 people from the building of the House of Soviets - people's deputies, supporters of the Supreme Council, members of the staff of the Supreme Council, journalists. During the night and morning of October 5, clashes with the use of firearms continued in Moscow, as a result of which people died. Thus, unknown persons attempted an attack on the ITAR-TASS building, but were pushed aside by riot police. Also, an armored troop-carrier grenade launcher was shot down in which the commander of an armored vehicle burned alive.
After the shooting of the House of Soviets and the suppression of popular speech, a criminal case was opened against the key figures of the events of September - October 1993 by the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation. Russian Vice President Alexander Rutskoi, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation Ruslan Khasbulatov, Defense Minister Vladislav Achalov appointed by the Supreme Council, Security Minister Viktor Barannikov, Interior Minister Andrei Dunayev, Deputy Defense Minister Albert Makashov, leader of the Russian National Unity Alexander Barkashov, Yevgeny Shtukaturov, head of security of General Makashov, Viktor Anpilov, leader of the Labor Russia movement, and a number of other political activists. However, 23 February 1994, the State Duma of the Russian Federation announced a political amnesty to the participants of the events of September - October 1993, after which they were all released from the Lefortovo detention center, despite some attempts at opposition from the presidential administration. Subsequently, Alexander Rutskoi even became governor of the Kursk region. Many of the political and state figures, whose names then, in the autumn of 1993, were on the lips of the whole country, are no longer alive. Among them are Boris Yeltsin and Yegor Gaidar, Viktor Chernomyrdin and Pavel Grachev. On the other hand, some participants in the September and October events are still active in the political life of the country. First of all, this applies to the leaders of the communist and national-patriotic opposition. The fate of the rank and file participants in the defense of the House of Soviets, as well as the soldiers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense who opposed them, was lost in the political and social maelstrom of the next two decades of the existence of the post-Soviet Russian statehood.
The events of October 1993 were turning in the Russian stories. According to the well-known analyst economist Mikhail Delyagin, after the shooting of the House of Soviets in 1993, the desacralization of the Russian authorities followed, and the people were finally deprived of the real possibility of influencing power. As M. Delyagin stressed, “the organizers of the action carried out a conscious extermination of people in order to“ cut down ”and intimidate the most active layer of society, discourage the people from the very thought of influencing their own destiny. It is estimated that more official data was killed by an order of magnitude - about 1500 people ”(M. Delyagin. The shooting of the White House 1993 of the year: consequences for Russia // http://kapital-rus.ru/articles/article/179221). Indeed, it was after the events of October 1993 in the Russian Federation that the model of power “a strong president is a weak parliament” was formed, and political parties and movements that came out from radical communist and national patriotic positions were pushed aside from further participation in legislation and went into the field of "extra-parliamentary policy." The most negative consequence of the “black October” was the impunity for the deaths of hundreds, and according to some data, more than a thousand and a half, Russian citizens, among whom were very different people - military personnel, workers, teachers, pensioners, students, schoolchildren. No one was held responsible for the "slaughter" in the center of Moscow. At the same time, it should be noted that in the event of a different development of events, Russia could plunge into the abyss of a real civil war, including with a high probability of a foreign military invasion to support President Yeltsin. Therefore, the tragedy of the October 1993 events for Russian society is aggravated not only by the presence of large human victims and negative consequences for real democracy in the country, but also by the ambiguity of the possible consequences of the autumn opposition of the president and the parliament.
Photographic materials were used: https://news.mail.ru, http://www.itogi.ru/,http://imrussia.org/, photochronograph.ru.
Yeltsin's decree and the reaction of the Supreme Council
Naturally, the decision to dissolve the Supreme Council, which the opposition forces were aware of in advance, was extremely negatively received by the majority of the people's deputies, regardless of their political convictions. On the performance of Yeltsin, the deputies responded instantly. After 30 minutes after the president’s address on television, the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, Ruslan Khasbulatov, spoke. He defined the actions of Yeltsin from the point of view of deputies of the Supreme Council - “coup d'etat”. Two hours after the President’s televised address, an emergency meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation was held at 22.00, which adopted a Resolution “On the Immediate Termination of the Powers of the President of the Russian Federation B.N. Yeltsin. At about the same time, at an emergency meeting of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which was chaired by Valery Zorkin, it was decided that a presidential decree violated the current Constitution of the Russian Federation and was the basis for B.N. Yeltsin from the post of President of the Russian Federation. When in the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation it became known about the conclusion issued by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the deputies adopted a resolution on entrusting the duties of the president of the country to the current vice-president of the Russian Federation, Alexander Rutsky. So began the political crisis, which gradually grew into a direct confrontation between the legislative and executive authorities. Boris Yeltsin’s side was favored by liberal-oriented political parties that supported further market reforms in the country, as well as the majority of those who won in the reform process — the newly-minted Russian bourgeoisie, part of the creative intelligentsia, and well-paid employees of commercial firms.
At the same time, a considerable part of the workers and employees, especially in the provinces, spread sympathy for the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation and for the communist and national-patriotic parties that supported its position. The liberal media dubbed the bloc of supporters of a strong social state "red-brown", hinting at the tactical association of communists and nationalists. On the side of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation there were also sympathies of many personnel officers and law enforcement officers. Deputies of the Supreme Council decided to organize the defense of the House of Soviets and the formation of the Defense Headquarters. The Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation appealed to deputies, servicemen of the Russian Army, employees of the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, and all citizens of the Russian Federation to prevent a coup d'état. Already in 20.45 minutes, less than an hour after B.N. Yeltsin and the Supreme Council’s response, before the White House, as the building of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation was called, Muscovites began to gather. A spontaneous indefinite rally began, in which the main role was played by activists of various political parties and socio-political organizations. In 22.00, Moscow police officers cordoned off the Moscow City Hall building. The building of the Parliamentary Center was also blocked. In the meantime, the White House was building barricades. People have not yet forgotten the experience of two years ago, when in August 1991 were also built barricades - not only by the Communists, but by supporters of democratic reforms. Two years later, the parties switched places. An emergency session of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation opened in 00.00 hours, which lasted intermittently until 19 hours.
Approval of Rutskoi Acting the president. Rallies and volunteers
Already in 00.17, the Supreme Council adopted a resolution on the termination of the authority of the President of the Russian Federation Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin from 20 hours 00 minutes 21 September 1993 and on the transfer of powers of the President to the Vice-President of the Russian Federation Rutsky Alexander Vladimirovich. A.V. Rutsky was immediately canceled Yeltsin's decree on the dissolution of the Supreme Council.
After that, the Supreme Council adopted resolutions on new appointments to the most important posts in the security agencies of the country. Colonel-General Vladislav Achalov was appointed Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Army General Viktor Barannikov was appointed Minister of Security, Lieutenant-General Andrei Dunayev was Acting Minister of the Interior. Colonel-General Vladislav Achalov (1945-2011) in 1989-1990 commanded the Airborne Forces, then until September 1991 served as Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, and later was dismissed. General Achalov was also known as one of the leaders of the people's patriotic opposition, who did not hide his political views. At the material time he was a people's deputy of the USSR. Army General Viktor Barannikov (1940-1995), on the contrary, until the events of September-October 1993 was a supporter of Yeltsin and the transformations he was conducting. During the August events in 1991, Mr. Barannikov, who was then Minister of the Interior of the RSFSR, participated in organizing the resistance of the Emergency Committee and the arrest of one of the leaders of the Emergency Committee Marshal of the Soviet Union, Dmitry Yazov. In December, 1991 Barannikov was appointed Minister of Security and Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (after the KGB was dissolved, the country's security forces underwent numerous transformations, one of which was their temporary merger with the internal affairs bodies in a single ministry). Then Barannikov headed the Federal Security Agency, and after nine days - January 24 1992 - created on its basis, the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation. However, on July 27, 1993, General Barannikov was dismissed "for violating ethical standards, as well as for serious shortcomings in the work, including the leadership of the border troops." Apparently, the dismissal, unfair from his point of view, was one of the reasons that motivated yesterday’s Yeltsin minister to support the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation and to agree with the proposal to head the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation. Lieutenant General Andrei Dunaev (born 1939), like Barannikov, participated in the August events of 1991 on the side of the President of the Russian Federation B.N. Yeltsin. At that time, he served as Deputy Minister of the Interior of the RSFSR, participated in the arrest of Marshal of the Soviet Union Dmitry Yazov and in the return of Mikhail Gorbachev from Foros. In April, 1992 Dunayev was appointed first deputy minister of internal affairs of the Russian Federation Viktor Erin, but on July 22 1993 was dismissed for the same reasons as Barannikov.
By 10 hours of the morning 22 September about 1,500 people gathered at the House of Soviets, with the number of supporters of the Supreme Council growing every hour and in the second half of the day several thousand people were already here. Simultaneously, the delimitation of the branches of power occurred at the city level. The session of the Moscow City Council assessed Yeltsin’s actions as unconstitutional, and his decree as having no legal force. At the same time, the Moscow government, headed by Mayor Yury Luzhkov, supported the actions of the country's president and issued a statement. In the meantime, telephone communications and later electricity were disconnected in the building of the Supreme Council. There was a question about the organization of the protection of the "White House". The forces of the Security Department, which was subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, and in operational terms, to the First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council, Y. Voronin, were clearly not enough. After all, in the House of Soviets only 150 policemen carried the guard service. Another 40 person worked in the security department, which ensured the safety of the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, Ruslan Khasbulatov. In order to ensure the protection of the House of Soviets from among the citizens gathered outside the building, the formation of volunteer divisions began, in which people with military and civilian backgrounds, including activists of public and political organizations and not caring Muscovites and guests of the capital, who supported the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation. Vladislav Achalov, who took the post of Minister of Defense, issued an order to issue firearms to volunteers recruited into the security units of the House of Soviets weapons in the amount of 74 AKS-74U machine gun, 7 pistols, 9600 ammunition for AKS-74U, 112 pistol ammunition. Since Alexander Rutskoi did not trust the Security Department of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation, he ordered Vladislav Achalov to form a motorized rifle regiment from among the reservists of the city of Moscow by the 10 o'clock in the morning of September 25 to protect the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation. At the same time, Alexander Bovt, Director of the Security Department of the Supreme Council, received an order to issue automatic small arms according to the staffing of the motorized rifle regiment.
In the meantime, the building of the House of Soviets was blocked by the forces of the Moscow police, the riot police and the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation arriving to it. The task before the servicemen of the internal troops and the police officers was not to let anyone into the House of Soviets, but to release people from the House of Soviets. By this time there were about 2000 people in the building of the House of Soviets. The Moscow Directorate of Internal Affairs approved the Operational Action Plan, according to which people’s access to the House of Soviets was completely stopped. The streets adjacent to the building were blocked by barricades of watering machines and barbed wire that were set one behind the other. Directly in front of the barriers put two rows of a cordon of police officers and soldiers of the Interior Ministry troops. Three water cannons aimed at the city were also installed - in case of attempts to break through to the building of the House of Soviets of demonstrators from among opposition-minded citizens. From 8 on the morning of September 28, opposite the police cordon, people began to gather in support of A.V. Rutskoi and the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation. As the number of people grew, the situation became tense. So, in 18.45 in the lane area. Konyushkovsky, a group of about 1,000 people made an attempt to break through the cordon, but after a collision with police officers, was scattered. Fifteen minutes later, there was a clash between supporters of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation and the police in the vicinity of the Barrikadnaya metro station. The next day, the protesters repeatedly attempted to break through to the building of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation.
Attempts to resolve the situation
The President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, and the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Viktor Chernomyrdin, addressed Alexander Rutsky and Ruslan Khasbulatov, demanding to 4 October 1993 in withdraw from the House of Soviets of Deputies and supporters and hand over the weapons at their disposal. This offer was rejected. On the night of September 30 on October 1 1993 Negotiations were held at the Mir Hotel between representatives of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation and President Yeltsin. As a result of these negotiations, a decision was made on 1 on October 1993. collect and store non-standard weapons located on the territory of the House of Soviets, under the control of joint groups of representatives of both parties to the conflict. Also, the Supreme Council went to reduce the number of external guards of the House of Soviets, and Yeltsin, in response, allowed to include electricity and heat supply of the parliament building. After the implementation of these points of the agreement, the parties had to proceed with the removal of the external protection of the House of Soviets by the Moscow police and withdraw all security units established at the end of September by order of Rutskoi from the building. After that, it was supposed to proceed to further harmonization of legal and political guarantees. Light and heating in the "White House" were really soon turned on. However, at 6 in the morning of October 1, the Military Council of the Defense of the House of Soviets of the Russian Federation considered the signing of an agreement with representatives of Yeltsin, carried out by Abdulatipov and Sokolov, as erroneous. The actions of Abdulatipov and Sokolov were regarded as abuse of authority, and Protocol No. 1 was canceled. After this decision, the electricity in the House of Soviets was again cut off, and four columns of armored vehicles of the Special Purpose Motorized Rifle Division (the “Dzerzhinsky Division”) advanced to the building. In addition, it became known about the upcoming arrest of 164 defense leaders of the House of Soviets, people's deputies and politicians immediately after the seizure of the building. New negotiations began in 10.30 - this time in the St. Daniel Monastery, with the mediation of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia. They signed a program of measures to normalize the situation, which included the mutual provision of information about planned actions, the composition of the armed forces and armaments, the organization of joint protection of weapons storage sites, the establishment of a regime for passing citizens to the House of Soviets. However, October 2 A.V. Rutskoi issued a Decree “On the Presidium of the Council of Ministers - the Government of the Russian Federation”, according to which he dismissed Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, his first deputy Yegor Gaidar and a number of other ministers. In the afternoon of October 2, a rally of supporters of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation began, harshly dispersed by the police, at the Foreign Ministry building. The demonstrators built a barricade on the Garden Ring, blocking the movement. The police did not manage to disperse the defenders of the barricades and destroy the barricade itself, so the Moscow GUVD leadership reached an agreement with the demonstrators that they would leave the Garden Ring in 23 hours without meeting the police’s attempts to detain them. However, in reality, the demonstrators in an organized column left the barricade even earlier - at 21 an hour, headed by the well-known politician, leader of the Front of National Salvation, Ilya Konstantinov. The next day, October 3 1993, the situation around the White House continued to heat up. By 12.00, an opposition rally began on October Square, organized by the National Salvation Front of Ilya Konstantinov. The activists of the communist movement “Labor Russia”, led by Viktor Anpilov, who were present at the rally, gathered to go to the building of the House of Soviets. At about the same time, in the building of the Moscow city headquarters of the people's guards on ul. Tver, 8 gathered members of the Union of Cossack officers, the Union of veterans of the war in Afghanistan and other organizations that formed the Defense Headquarters of the Moscow City Council.
Rally on October Square and the Ostankino assault
By 14.00 hours, at which the beginning of the rally was scheduled, October Square was cordoned off by police. At the suggestion of Anpilov, some of the protesters, numbering several thousand people, moved towards the House of Soviets of the Russian Federation. Police officers and internal troops stopped the convoy of demonstrators and began to retreat. Gradually, the retreat became almost a flight - many policemen and soldiers threw batons and shields. Part of the equipment of law enforcement officers was captured by demonstrators. In 14.35, General Pankratov, head of the Moscow police department, ordered to send a reserve of 350 troops to the Zubovskaya Square. However, the arrived reserve after 5-7 minutes was swept away by the demonstrators, and the 10 vehicles captured by the troops arrived. 15.20 advanced groups of demonstrators approached the building of the Moscow City Hall. The cordon of police and internal troops was scattered here. The leadership issued an order to policemen and riot policemen to open fire with pistols and machine guns. Above the heads was given a line of large-caliber machine gun BTR. Demonstrators began to flee, pursued by police officers who used special means against them. Meanwhile, a group of members of the “Russian National Unity” numbering 15 people came out of the Supreme Council building to the sounds of shooting in the city hall, joined by three guards Colonel General Albert Makashov, a well-known leader of the patriotic opposition appointed by Rutsky deputy defense minister Vladislav Achalov. After the defenders of the House of Soviets launched a counterattack by the mayor’s office with a weapon, a panic broke out among the policemen guarding the mayor’s office. For half an hour, the demonstrators, led by General Makashov, seized the building of the Moscow mayor's office. The military and police officers who defended the mayor's office began to surrender. Some of them were detained and taken to the building of the House of Soviets, others were released. In addition, the demonstrators also detained several senior officials of the Moscow government, dissolved by order of the acting. President Alexander Rutskoi. The riot police and a unit of internal troops, retreating from the city hall building, threw military ZIL-131 trucks with keys in the ignition locks and one grenade launcher. The streets of Moscow were actually in the hands of the demonstrators. The latter took possession of 10-15 military trucks and 4 armored personnel carriers. Under the leadership of General Makashov and the leader of "Labor Russia" Anpilov, the demonstrators moved to the building of a television center in Ostankino. Some of the demonstrators drove in the captured trucks, General Albert Makashov with guards, Ilya Konstantinov, leader of the National Salvation Front, and Viktor Anpilov, leader of Labor Russia, followed the convoy in cars. For the defense of Ostankino from a possible attack by demonstrators, the commander of the Interior Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, General Anatoly Kulikov, sent 84 troops to the Sofrinsky Air Force Brigade without firearms. In addition, 105 military personnel of the special forces of the Vityaz Interior Ministry, who were armed with light machine guns, machine guns, grenade launchers, sniper rifles and moved on 6 armored personnel carriers, arrived at the television center. They took a circular defense.
The demonstrators demanded that the Ostankino leadership provide live broadcasts. Makashov entered into negotiations with the leadership of the Security Directorate, but the leaders of the television center did not come to the general. But delaying the time allowed an officer of the riot police of the Moscow police department to arrive in Ostankino 31 on a vehicle. Riot policemen also had firearms with them - 27 machine guns and 3 pistols. At the same time, a rally of Yeltsin's supporters began at the Moscow mayor's office, at which Valeria Novodvorskaya, Lev Ponomarev and other democrats spoke, calling for the creation of people's guards to counter the "red-brown". While there was a rally on Tverskoy, and Makashov and his comrades unsuccessfully tried to penetrate the Telecentre building, additional reinforcement arrived in Ostankino - 111 soldiers and officers of the Sofrinsky brigade of the MVD, led by the brigade commander Colonel V.A. Vasiliev and deputy commander of the internal troops for personnel, Lieutenant-General Pavel Golubets. The situation was tense near the television center, especially since a grenade launcher was in the hands of the demonstrators. After a shot rang out from the side of the TV building, as a result of which Nikolai Krestinin, a bodyguard of Makashov, was wounded, two explosions were heard at the broken doors of the building. They killed the fighter of the “Vityaz” detachment, Private Nikolay Sitnikov. What these explosions were, is still unknown. Most of the media share the point of view of a grenade launcher shot, but the investigative team investigating the incident did not find any traces of a grenade launcher shot. Therefore, a version was put forward that the explosion could have been carried out on purpose — in order to provoke servicemen to retaliate against the protesters. After an explosion was sounded, as a result of which Private Sitnikov was killed, special forces and armored personnel carriers opened fire on the demonstrators gathered outside the building. At least 46 people died. 20 .00 reinforcements arrived in Ostankino - another 58 servicemen of the Vityaz special forces on 3 armored personnel carriers armed with 52 machine guns, 6 machine guns and 3 grenade launchers. In addition to the Vityaz fighters, the 100 servicemen of one of the operational units of the internal troops arrived at the telecentre on ten armored personnel carriers. There was practically no firing back at the building and its defenders from the demonstrators who had arrived under the leadership of Makashov, with the exception of a few single shots from the crowd.
State of emergency in Moscow. Assault plan
Meanwhile, back in 16.00, President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree imposing a state of emergency in Moscow. Russian Defense Minister General Pavel Grachev contacted by telephone with the commander of the Taman Motorized Rifle Division stationed in Moscow, Major General Valery Yevnevich, informing him that riots were taking place in the capital and the police could not cope. Grachev ordered his subordinate to bring parts of the division into combat readiness and, at the first order, advance to the building of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and take it under protection. Yegor Gaidar phoned the Chairman of the State Committee for Emergency Situations, Major-General Sergei Shoigu, and ordered to prepare from the warehouses of the civil defense troops a thousand assault rifles to distribute to Yeltsin's supporters in the event of a further exacerbation of the situation. The building of the Moscow City Council, where Yeltsin's supporters gathered, was rally the whole evening on October 3. Speaking at it Konstantin Borovoy demanded to distribute weapons to citizens and begin the formation of the national teams. In the last 2,5 thousands of Yeltsin supporters signed up - reserve officers and ensigns. In addition, it was supposed to equip with small arms employees of private security companies controlled by businessmen - supporters of Boris Yeltsin. By 22.00, Boris Yeltsin, who held a meeting of the heads of law enforcement agencies, ordered the Minister of Defense, General Grachev, the Minister of Internal Affairs, General Yerin, and the Kremlin commandant, General Barsukov, to prepare for a possible assault on the House of Soviets.
Alexander Korzhakov, who at that time headed the Security Service of the President of the Russian Federation, recalls: “Yeltsin asked: - What are we going to do next? There was a dead silence. Everyone dropped their eyes. The President repeated the question: - How are we going to deal with them further, how are we going to smoke them? Silence again. Then I could not resist: - Allow me, Boris Nikolaevich, to make a proposal. He raised his eyebrows in question, but let him speak. I continued: - Boris Nikolaevich, we have a specific plan. Here is my deputy, Captain First Rank Zakharov. He can report in detail how to take the White House. Please listen to him ”(Quoted from A. Korzhakov, Boris Yeltsin: From dawn to dusk // https://www.litmir.co/br/?b=78738&p=41). Captain 1st rank Gennady Ivanovich Zakharov (1940-2012) - a legend of the Soviet and Russian special forces, until 1990 commanded a detachment of divers - scouts of the Baltic and Northern fleets, and after retiring from the Navy was admitted to the Security Service of the President of the Russian Federation, where he became an assistant its leader Alexander Korzhakov. Zakharov asked for ten tanks in order for the tanks to fire several volleys in order to psychologically influence the defenders of the White House. After that, according to the expert, the special forces were supposed to enter the case. However, according to the recollections of General Korzhakov, in the presence of tanks, they faced a shortage of experienced tankers. I had to recruit officers - volunteers. At 22.10, units of the Taman, Kantemirov and Tula divisions entered Moscow. The troops took under protection the building of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Kremlin. On the night of October 4, Yeltsin's supporters, who formed the people's guards, began to seize the premises of opposition newspapers, including Sovetskaya Rossiya, Den, etc. At 04.20 the advance of military units to the House of Soviets began. During the night in the center of Moscow, skirmishes periodically broke out between supporters of the Supreme Council and the military, as well as clashes between servicemen of various units, resulting from inconsistencies between the command of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense. By 6 a.m. in the area of the House of Soviets, military personnel of the units of the Taman motorized rifle, Kantemirovskaya tank, Tula airborne divisions, the special forces division of the Interior Ministry's Interior Ministry, the 119th parachute regiment, soldiers of the Smolensk OMON, who also arrived to the aid of the Moscow police, were concentrated. In addition to the military and police officers, 100 members of the Union of Afghan Veterans arrived to storm the House of Soviets, who also received weapons according to the order of the Deputy Minister of Defense, General Kondratyev.
Assault on the House of Soviets and its aftermath
In 07.30 4 in October 1993, an operation began to seize the House of Soviets. The BMP and BTR opened direct fire on the Supreme Soviet building. In 08.35, paratroopers of the Tula division marched toward the building under cover of fire from an armored personnel carrier and infantry fighting vehicles. Boris Yeltsin spoke on television on 09.00, announcing the introduction of troops to Moscow and the initiation of criminal proceedings against the leaders of the "coup" to which he referred to the leaders of the Supreme Soviet. To 09.15, the building of the House of Soviets was completely surrounded by military units. In 09.30, tanks launched the shelling of the House of Soviets. In total, 6 tanks that fired 12 shells participated in the shelling. In 09.40, helicopters appeared over the building of the House of Soviets. In 10.38, Alexander Rutskoi ordered his supporters not to shoot and not resist the soldiers storming the building. But the gradual withdrawal of the defenders of the House of Soviets began only in 12.30. In 14.45, the President of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, and the President of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, under the white flag, were able to enter the building of the House of Soviets for a meeting with Alexander Rutsky and Ruslan Khasbulatov. Aushev and Ilyumzhinov succeeded in removing 12 women and 1 children from the building. To 15.00, trucks carrying soldiers of the internal troops arrived at the House of Soviets. The order for the storming of the House of Soviets was given to the special divisions of the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation "Alpha" and "Vympel". However, the Vympel fighters refused to storm the parliament, for which the detachment fell out of favor with the president and was soon transferred to the Ministry of the Interior, after which many of the officers of the unit resigned. In 16: 00, a man entered the building of the House of Soviets who introduced himself as a fighter of the “A” group (“Alpha”). He offered to come with him, promising protection. With the Alpha player, the House of Soviets left its defenders near 100.
17.00 left another 500 man out of the building of the House of Soviets, including the well-known patriotic figure MP Sergei Baburin. Alexander Rutskoi and Ruslan Khasbulatov were arrested in 19.01, after which they were escorted to the Lefortovo detention center, accompanied by Airborne Troops and members of the Presidential Security Service. People’s Deputy Sergei Baburin was also arrested in 19.05. In 19.30, Andrei Dunaev, Viktor Barannikov and Vladislav Achalov were arrested. At the same time, the Alfa group fighters evacuated the remaining 1700 people from the building of the House of Soviets - people's deputies, supporters of the Supreme Council, members of the staff of the Supreme Council, journalists. During the night and morning of October 5, clashes with the use of firearms continued in Moscow, as a result of which people died. Thus, unknown persons attempted an attack on the ITAR-TASS building, but were pushed aside by riot police. Also, an armored troop-carrier grenade launcher was shot down in which the commander of an armored vehicle burned alive.
After the shooting of the House of Soviets and the suppression of popular speech, a criminal case was opened against the key figures of the events of September - October 1993 by the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation. Russian Vice President Alexander Rutskoi, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation Ruslan Khasbulatov, Defense Minister Vladislav Achalov appointed by the Supreme Council, Security Minister Viktor Barannikov, Interior Minister Andrei Dunayev, Deputy Defense Minister Albert Makashov, leader of the Russian National Unity Alexander Barkashov, Yevgeny Shtukaturov, head of security of General Makashov, Viktor Anpilov, leader of the Labor Russia movement, and a number of other political activists. However, 23 February 1994, the State Duma of the Russian Federation announced a political amnesty to the participants of the events of September - October 1993, after which they were all released from the Lefortovo detention center, despite some attempts at opposition from the presidential administration. Subsequently, Alexander Rutskoi even became governor of the Kursk region. Many of the political and state figures, whose names then, in the autumn of 1993, were on the lips of the whole country, are no longer alive. Among them are Boris Yeltsin and Yegor Gaidar, Viktor Chernomyrdin and Pavel Grachev. On the other hand, some participants in the September and October events are still active in the political life of the country. First of all, this applies to the leaders of the communist and national-patriotic opposition. The fate of the rank and file participants in the defense of the House of Soviets, as well as the soldiers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense who opposed them, was lost in the political and social maelstrom of the next two decades of the existence of the post-Soviet Russian statehood.
The events of October 1993 were turning in the Russian stories. According to the well-known analyst economist Mikhail Delyagin, after the shooting of the House of Soviets in 1993, the desacralization of the Russian authorities followed, and the people were finally deprived of the real possibility of influencing power. As M. Delyagin stressed, “the organizers of the action carried out a conscious extermination of people in order to“ cut down ”and intimidate the most active layer of society, discourage the people from the very thought of influencing their own destiny. It is estimated that more official data was killed by an order of magnitude - about 1500 people ”(M. Delyagin. The shooting of the White House 1993 of the year: consequences for Russia // http://kapital-rus.ru/articles/article/179221). Indeed, it was after the events of October 1993 in the Russian Federation that the model of power “a strong president is a weak parliament” was formed, and political parties and movements that came out from radical communist and national patriotic positions were pushed aside from further participation in legislation and went into the field of "extra-parliamentary policy." The most negative consequence of the “black October” was the impunity for the deaths of hundreds, and according to some data, more than a thousand and a half, Russian citizens, among whom were very different people - military personnel, workers, teachers, pensioners, students, schoolchildren. No one was held responsible for the "slaughter" in the center of Moscow. At the same time, it should be noted that in the event of a different development of events, Russia could plunge into the abyss of a real civil war, including with a high probability of a foreign military invasion to support President Yeltsin. Therefore, the tragedy of the October 1993 events for Russian society is aggravated not only by the presence of large human victims and negative consequences for real democracy in the country, but also by the ambiguity of the possible consequences of the autumn opposition of the president and the parliament.
Photographic materials were used: https://news.mail.ru, http://www.itogi.ru/,http://imrussia.org/, photochronograph.ru.
Information