Yeltsin dragged on, it was necessary to shoot at the White House earlier. The shooting of the White House and the full list of the dead Why they shot at the White House

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In the movie "Independence Day", aliens blew up the White House, the image of which adorns the 20 USD banknote. However, this fact does not put the White House in the ranking of US attractions in an honorable second place after the Empire States Building in New York. First of all, the White House is a symbol of the American nation and the power of presidential power. This is the third century White House symbolizes the strength of the nation and the presidency of the United States. The classical architecture of this building, located on Pennsylvania Avenue, is rather laconic, but at the same time elegant and refined.

For the third century now, the White House has symbolized the strength of the nation and the US presidency.

Statistics show that many Russians confuse the White House with the Capitol, the building where the US Congress meets. To avoid confusion, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the history of the legendary White House

At the start of construction and project implementation

The foundation stone of the official residence of American presidents, known throughout the world as the White House, was laid in Washington on October 13, 1792 at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. as the White House was originally called, it was chosen by George Washington himself - the first president of the United States of America. According to the ruler, it was to be a place "not exceeding ten square miles ... on the Potomac River."

The first stone of the official residence of American presidents, known worldwide as the White House, was laid in Washington on October 13, 1792.

The president also co-designed the building, which was designed by architect James Hoben. worthy of winning the competition announced by George Washington in 1790 to develop an architectural design for the residence.

According to the project, the building of the presidential residence was supposed to be designed in the Palladian style, which is based on borrowing the principles of classical temple architecture. Ancient Greece and strict adherence to symmetry. $2.5 million was allocated for the construction of the White House.

The Presidential Palace welcomes its first guests

The project of George Washington and James Hoben fully materialized by the early summer of 1800. Date June 4, 1800 - is considered the day of completion of the construction of the White House. The constructed building of the presidential residence fully complied with the ideas of its architectural authors.

Unfortunately, the construction that dragged on for 8 years deprived George Washington of the right to become the first honored tenant of the Presidential Palace.

Unfortunately, the construction that dragged on for 8 years deprived George Washington of the right to become the first honored tenant of the Presidential Palace. At the time of the opening of the White House, on November 1, 1800, the country had already been led by the second president, John Adams, for several years, and it was he who moved into the luxurious mansion with his wife Abigail.

“I pray that the heavens will send down all the best gifts to this house and to all who will subsequently live here. Let only honest wise men rule under this roof,” the words are carved from a letter from John Adams to the First Lady on the mantelpiece in the Grand Dining Room.

Mystery of the name

There are several versions about the origin of the current name of the residence. According to one of them, the president's mansion began to be called the White House, since it, lined with white virgin sandstone and covered with a composition of lime, casein and lead, clearly stood out against the surrounding red granite buildings.

Some scholars note that the name White House was first used in 1811, that is, 11 years after construction was completed. At the same time, historians do not name the reason for the appearance of the name.

However, there is also another version. The opinion of some historians boils down to the fact that the residence began to be called the White House only after the restoration work carried out in order to eliminate the consequences of the fire of 1814. It is believed that it was during this global restoration that the building was painted white.

Be that as it may, the official name of the White House was assigned to the building only a century after the opening of the residence, in 1901, by Theodore Roosevelt.

Time for architectural change

The first century for the White House was an era of destruction and new life. In the 19th century, the White House expanded significantly: in 1801, the western and eastern terraces were added to the building.

The residence underwent a special reconstruction after the war of 1812. In August 1814 the "President's Palace" was burned down by the British. Work on the restoration of the mansion began almost immediately, and by 1817 the White House appeared before the people as good as new. Moreover, two underground floors appeared in the building, which housed the headquarters of the operational management foreign policy and military actions of the President. The rounded south portico was added to the building in 1824, and the columned north portico six years later.

At the beginning of the 20th century, in 1901 (during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt), the White House acquired two wings - the West, in which the first Oval Office was created 8 years later, and the East, which served as an entrance for guests. By the way, the East Wing acquired its modern look only by 1942. In 1927, the attic of the mansion was rebuilt for living quarters. And two years later, in order to eliminate the consequences of a strong fire, restoration work was carried out in the West Wing.

By the middle of the 20th century, the building needed overhaul. In this connection, under President Harry Truman, in 1949-1952, a major reconstruction of the White House was carried out. The wooden frame of the building was replaced with steel, the interior was redesigned.

Today the White House is a six-story building with 132 rooms, three elevators and many stairs. Tourists who come here on an excursion have a unique opportunity to see the most beautiful and historically significant premises. The famous “colorful rooms” (Blue, Green, Eastern and Red) are open for visiting, where solemn events are held, business and personal meetings are held. Guests are welcomed in the stunning Dining Room, and the Oval Office is workplace the president himself. For these and other premises for receptions, two whole floors are given, the rest belong to the presidential family (in addition to the basement).

Tour of the President's Residence

The White House is located in the heart of the US capital and is an integral part of the Presidential Park, which covers an area of ​​7.2 hectares. The ensemble of the White House also includes amazing gardens - on the west side is the Rose Garden created by Woodrow Wilson's wife, and on the East wing is the beautiful Jacqueline Kennedy Garden.

The White House is located in the heart of the US capital and is an integral part of the Presidential Park, which covers an area of ​​7.2 hectares.

The building of the presidential residence itself has 6 floors, 2 of which are underground. total area buildings is more than 5 thousand square meters. m. There are 132 rooms in the White House, including the famous colored rooms: the Oval Blue Hall for ceremonial receptions, the Green Hall for informal meetings, the Red Room, as well as the Family Dining Room, the Great Hall, the Cross Hall, the Oval Office, in which the the President himself, the Dining Room for official receptions and other rooms. The building also has 32 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, 8 stairs and 3 elevators.

Interior of the "President's House"

The interior of the White House has changed several times. Since the middle of the 20th century, each presidential family considered it necessary to add something special to the decoration of the mansion. However, despite all the changes, the interior of the White House to this day remains in the style of the 18th and 19th centuries. Moreover, all work related to changes in the design of the residence on the state floors must certainly be approved by a special Committee of the White House Board.

Today, walking through the rooms of the White House open to the public, you can see things that once belonged to members of the presidential families. For example, Eleanor Roosevelt's dressing table or Abigail Adams' silver coffee pot.

Visiting the White House

Anyone can visit the presidential residence on any day from Tuesday to Saturday. For excursions, rooms are open on two floors at once.

The doors of the White House were first opened to the general public under Thomas Jefferson.

By the way, for the first time the doors of the White House were opened to the general public under Thomas Jefferson. In 1805, the third President of the United States received guests for the first time in the Blue Drawing Room. At this reception were people who followed the president to the White House after being sworn in at the Capitol. Jefferson soon opened the doors of the residence to everyone. He also introduced the tradition of holding receptions in the White House in honor of the New Year and Independence Day, celebrated annually on July 4th.

The theme of "bloody October 1993" is still under seven seals today. No one knows exactly how many citizens died in those troubled days. However, the figures given by independent sources are appalling.

Scheduled for 7:00

In the autumn of 1993, the confrontation between the two branches of power - the president and the government, on the one hand, and people's deputies and the Supreme Council, on the other - reached a dead end. The constitution, which the opposition so zealously defended, bound Boris Yeltsin hand and foot. There was only one way out: to change the law, if necessary, by force.

The conflict went into a phase of extreme escalation on September 21, after the famous Decree No. 1400, in which Yeltsin temporarily terminated the powers of the Congress and the Supreme Council. Communications, water and electricity were cut off in the parliament building. However, the legislators blocked there were not going to give up. Volunteers came to their aid to defend the White House.

On the night of October 4, the president decides to storm the Supreme Council using armored vehicles, government troops are drawn to the building. The operation is scheduled for 7 am. As soon as the countdown of the eighth hour began, the first victim appeared - a police captain, filming what was happening from the balcony of the Ukraine Hotel, died from a bullet.

White House victims

Already at 10 am, information about the death began to arrive a large number defenders of the residence of the Supreme Council as a result of tank shelling. By 11:30 a.m., 158 people were in need of medical attention, 19 of whom later died in hospital. At 13:00, People's Deputy Vyacheslav Kotelnikov reported on the heavy casualties among those who were in the White House. At about 2:50 pm, unknown snipers begin to shoot at people crowded in front of the parliament.

Closer to 16:00, the resistance of the defenders was suppressed. The government commission assembled in hot pursuit quickly counts the victims of the tragedy - 124 killed, 348 wounded. Moreover, the list does not include those killed in the White House building itself.

The head of the investigation team of the Prosecutor General's Office, Leonid Proshkin, who dealt with cases of the seizure of the Moscow mayor's office and the television center, notes that all the victims are the result of attacks by government forces, since it was proved that "not a single person was killed by the weapons of the White House defenders." According to the Prosecutor General's Office, which MP Viktor Ilyukhin referred to, a total of 148 people were killed during the storming of the parliament, with 101 people near the building.

And then in various comments on these events, the numbers only grew. On October 4, CNN, relying on its sources, stated that about 500 people had died. The newspaper "Arguments and Facts" with reference to the soldiers internal troops, wrote that they collected the "charred and torn by tank shells" remains of almost 800 defenders. Among them were those who drowned in the flooded basements of the White House. Former deputy of the Supreme Council from Chelyabinsk region Anatoly Baronenko announced 900 dead.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta published an article by an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who did not want to introduce himself, who said: “In total, about 1,500 corpses were found in the White House, among them women and children. All of them were secretly taken out of there through an underground tunnel leading from the White House to the Krasnopresnenskaya metro station, and further outside the city, where they were burned.”

There is unconfirmed information that a note was seen on the desk of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Viktor Chernomyrdin, which indicated that in just three days 1,575 corpses were taken out of the White House. But Literaturnaya Rossiya was the most surprised by its announcement of 5,000 deaths.

Counting Difficulties

The representative of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Tatyana Astrakhankina, who headed the commission investigating the events of October 1993, found that shortly after the execution of the parliament, all materials on this case were classified, “some medical records of the wounded and the dead” were rewritten, and “dates of admission to morgues and hospitals” were also changed. . This, of course, creates an almost insurmountable obstacle to an accurate count of the number of victims of the storming of the White House.

It is possible to determine the number of dead, at least in the White House itself, only indirectly. According to the estimates of the General Newspaper, about 2,000 besieged people left the White House building without filtering. Given that initially there were about 2.5 thousand people, we can conclude that the number of victims did not exactly exceed 500.

We must not forget that the first victims of the confrontation between the supporters of the President and the Parliament appeared long before the attack on the White House. So, on September 23, two people died on the Leningrad Highway, and since September 27, according to some estimates, the victims have become almost daily.

According to Rutskoy and Khasbulatov, by the middle of the day on October 3, the death toll had reached 20 people. In the afternoon of the same day, as a result of a clash between the opposition and the forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the Crimean bridge, 26 civilians and 2 policemen were killed.

Even if we raise the lists of all those who died in hospitals and went missing during those days, it will be extremely difficult to determine which of them fell victim to precisely political clashes.

Ostankino massacre

On the eve of the assault on the White House on the evening of October 3, responding to Rutskoy's call, General Albert Makashov, at the head of an armed detachment of 20 people and several hundred volunteers, tried to seize the television center building. However, by the time the operation began, Ostankino was already guarded by 24 armored personnel carriers and about 900 soldiers loyal to the president.

After the trucks of supporters of the Supreme Council rammed the ASK-3 building, an explosion was heard (its source was never identified), which caused the first victims. This was the signal for heavy fire, which began to be conducted by internal troops and police officers from the building of the television complex.

They fired in bursts and single shots, including from sniper rifles, just into the crowd, without understanding the journalists, onlookers or trying to pull out the wounded. Later, indiscriminate shooting was explained by the large crowding of people and the onset of twilight.

But the worst began later. Most of the people tried to hide in the Oak Grove located next to AEK-3. One of the oppositionists recalled how the crowd was squeezed in a grove from two sides, and then they began to shoot from an armored personnel carrier and four automatic nests from the roof of a television center.

According to official figures, the battles for Ostankino claimed the lives of 46 people, including two inside the building. However, witnesses claim that there were many more victims.

Don't count the numbers

Writer Alexander Ostrovsky in his book The Shooting of the White House. Black October 1993" tried to sum up the victims of those tragic events, based on verified data: "Before October 2 - 4 people, on the afternoon of October 3 at the White House - 3, in Ostankino - 46, during the storming of the White House - at least 165, 3 and on October 4 in other places of the city - 30, on the night of October 4-5 - 95, plus those who died after October 5, in total - about 350 people.

However, many admit that official statistics are several times underestimated. How much, one can only guess, based on eyewitness accounts of those events.

Sergei Surnin, a teacher at Moscow State University, who observed the events near the White House, recalled how, after the shooting began, he and 40 other people fell to the ground: “Armored personnel carriers passed us and shot people lying down from a distance of 12-15 meters - one third of those lying nearby were killed or injured. And in the immediate vicinity of me - three dead, two wounded: next to me, to the right of me, a dead man, another dead behind me, in front, at least one dead."

Artist Anatoly Nabatov from the window of the White House saw how in the evening after the end of the assault, a group of about 200 people was brought to the Krasnaya Presnya stadium. They were stripped, and then at the wall adjacent to Druzhinnikovskaya Street, they began to shoot in batches until late at night on October 5. Eyewitnesses said that they were beaten beforehand. According to deputy Baronenko, at least 300 people were shot at the stadium and near it.

Georgy Gusev, a well-known public figure who headed the People's Action movement in 1993, testified that in the yards and entrances of the detainees, riot police beat the detainees, and then killed unknown people "in a strange form."

One of the drivers who took out the corpses from the parliament building and from the stadium admitted that he had to make two trips to the Moscow region in his truck. In the forest, the corpses were thrown into pits, covered with earth, and the burial place was leveled with a bulldozer.

Human rights activist Yevgeny Yurchenko, one of the founders of the Memorial society, who dealt with the secret destruction of corpses in Moscow crematoria, managed to learn from the workers of the Nikolo-Arkhangelsk cemetery about the burning of 300-400 corpses. Yurchenko also drew attention to the fact that if in "normal months", according to the statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, up to 200 unclaimed corpses were burned in crematoria, then in October 1993 this figure increased several times - up to 1500.

According to Yurchenko, the list of those killed during the events of September-October 1993, where the fact of disappearance was either proven or witnesses of death were found, is 829 people. But obviously this list is incomplete.

In Moscow, in the 65th year, the former Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Pavel Grachev died. However, he became famous not as a warrior, but as a punisher, who led the execution of the parliament in October 1993. The Interpreter's blog decided to see how the fate of other prominent punishers who received the "Hero of Russia" for the execution of Russian citizens developed.

The cause of Pavel Grachev's death is called mushroom poisoning - on September 12, in a serious condition, he ended up in intensive care, and never came to his senses.

Grachev went to the nomenklatura in a typical Soviet way. Born in the village of Rvy, Tula region, he chose the only possible variant career development in the late scoop for a person of his class - through the army. The landing troops, Afghanistan, were one of the first to take the oath and defect to the side of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. But Grachev was remembered not for these frills, but as the architect of a system that turned the army into a punitive appendage to the "vertical of power."

The first step on the path of the Soviet-Russian army to an analogue of the German SS formations was the confrontation between the Supreme Council (the Armed Forces, the symbol of which was the White House) and the administration of President Yeltsin in the fall of 1993. Let us briefly recall that then Yeltsin, by his decree No. 1400, trampled on the Constitution of the Russian Federation, deciding to disperse the Armed Forces. The Constitutional Court decided to remove Yeltsin from power, but the president (correctly - ex-president), enraged by the demand of the two branches of government to observe the rule of law, shot the parliament and the civilians who defended it. According to official data, about 200 people were killed on October 3-4, according to unofficial data, about 2,000. And for some time a concentration camp for the defenders of the White House was set up on the territory of the Krasnaya Presnya stadium.

The Moscow police, OMON, FSK (as the KGB-FSB was then called) and even civilians of liberal persuasion, armed with Yegor Gaidar's team, took part in punitive operations at that time. For the first time since civil war 1918-1922 in the execution of representatives of the two branches of power, the army also took over.

In September 1993, Minister Pavel Grachev hesitated for a long time - which side to take (he tried to guess how in August 1991, who would become the winner in the confrontation), but in the end he chose the side of Yeltsin. In a few days, he put together a punitive brigade, which, for money and other material values ​​(apartments, as well as the right to loot the premises of the Supreme Council), decided to participate in the execution of Russian citizens.

Punishers did not even hide themselves. For example, they did not put on masks (as special forces do now), awarding them the title of Hero of Russia for their dirty work was an open presidential decree.

The seeds of evil quickly sprouted: an army consisting of punishers usually ceases to fulfill its direct functions - to defend the Motherland. As already in 1994, Pavel Grachev was convinced, who liked to use a rabble of mercenaries in operations. That year, the Minister of Defense decided to quickly deal with the rebellious Chechnya, and he throws into this republic a punitive vanguard - the "heroes of Russia", who were directly involved in the execution of the White House. But killing unarmed civilians is not the same as fighting against well-trained militias. The results were not long in coming:

“October 4, volunteer officers of the Kantemirovskaya division Bashmakov S.A., Brulevich V.V., Yermolin A.V., Maslennikov A.I., Rudoy P.K., Petrakov A.I., Seryabryakov V.B. ., Rusakov and some others, led by Polyakov, Birchenko and Bakanov, proved to the whole world that for a small fraction of the “wooden”, at the request of our rulers, anyone would be shot from tanks: children, women, the House of Soviets.

The officers of the 12th TP, 4th TD, who distinguished themselves in Moscow on October 4, and then went along the "western contract" path. On November 26, 1994, the crews of three tank columns that entered Grozny with the money of Yeltsin and the Federal Grid Company to storm the local "White House", abandoned their tanks at the first shots and surrendered. Of the mercenary officers who shot for money on October 4, 1993 from T-80 tanks at the House of Soviets, on November 26, 1994, 4 commanders of those Kantemirov tank crews immediately ran over to the Dudaevites. Demonstrating the typical behavior of mercenaries, the “tankers” betrayed all their employers (they were hired to shoot from tanks for 6 million rubles on the nose), resentfully telling that the FSK promised them a safe walk and an easy victory (apparently, as in Moscow in 1993 - over women and children), and "those" suddenly also began to shoot.

(Aerial photograph of the bombed-out presidential palace in Grozny, January 1995)

Among the mercenaries who surrendered to the Chechens was Captain Rusakov (in October 1993 - senior lieutenant of the 12th TP 4th TD). In October 1993, it was this mercenary tanker who self-satisfiedly admitted from the TV screen that as early as 17.00 on October 4, 1993, he was hitting the White House with might and main from his T-80 tank, and to the question of the Ata-baty TV commentator about the fate women and children in the House of Soviets answered simply: “But my wife sits at home and does not climb anywhere ...”

Unlike Pavel Grachev, most of the punishers who received the title of "Hero of Russia" for the shooting of the White House still live happily. Here are brief, post-execution biographies of some of them.

Alexander Kishinsky. Participated in Chechen war. In 1997, he retired from the reserve. CHOP director.

Nikolai Belyaev- rose to the rank of Major General of the Airborne Forces.

Valery Evnevich. He rose to the rank of Colonel General. Wandered around "hot spots", crushed people in Tajikistan, Kosovo, the Caucasus, Transnistria. He developed a plan for a campaign against South Ossetia as part of "peace enforcement".

Victor Erin- he was dragged to the level of deputy chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Service, under Putin he was appointed a businessman - to the board of directors of Motovilikha Plants.

(Viktor Yerin is still in the rank of colonel general; his last rank is army general)

Nikolai Ignatov- killed Russian people in the rank of lieutenant colonel. Then he was transferred to Kosovo ("the famous throw to Pristina"). Lieutenant General, Deputy Commander of the Airborne Forces:

Sergey Lysyuk- On October 3, 1993, the Vityaz detachment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Lysyuk opened fire on the people besieging the Ostankino television center, as a result of which 46 people were killed and 114 wounded. Now he heads the Association for the Social Protection of Military Personnel, chairs other public offices:

Alexander Kishinsky- now the director of the CHOP.

Sergei Seliverstov. He rose to the rank of Colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 2009, he was appointed First Deputy Head of the 2014 Olympics Center at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

But the state took into account the merits of not all punishers. Many of them tried in vain. For example, Captain Grishin, being in the position of a tank gunner, personally fired at the White House, but was excluded from the list of those presented for the Order of Courage. Due to the abuse of alcohol, he was dismissed from the Armed Forces under the article "inconsistency in position." Now he is a pensioner, the head of the security service of a small bank. Major General Polyakov, commander of the Kantemirovskaya division in the fall of 1993, was fired from the army just a couple of years later as "unreliable". Army General Konstantin Kobets, despite the zealous execution of the order to shoot Russians, was placed in a pre-trial detention center in the late 1990s on charges of bribery and other crimes (he was released under an amnesty in 2000)

Here it is also necessary to add that in October 1993, and not only in Chechnya, these mercenaries often showed themselves to be completely inadequate. And they received the title of Hero of Russia for complete inadequacy - shooting at each other:

“At 7 am, the Dzerzhinsk people, advancing in armored vehicles to the parliament building, fired at people from the Afghan Veterans Union, who expressed a desire to defend democracy on the side of Yeltsin. One of the veterans was badly wounded. Tamantsy, having decided that these armored personnel carriers had gone over to the side of the enemy, opened their fire on them. Thus, a real battle unfolded between the two armored columns, during which a Lithuanian citizen who happened to be in the epicenter of madness was killed.

But these were only flowers. The armored personnel carrier of Dzerzhinsk under No. 444, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Savchenko, caught fire after an accurate shot from the craftsmen from the Taman division, and the commander, unable to leave the flaming car, died. A soldier was killed in another armored vehicle.

At about the same time, another armored group of internal troops flew into the territory of the Krasnaya Presnya stadium. At the same time, they did not spare the cartridges: everyone around was generously poured with lead. And nearby were the same combat guys from the 119th parachute regiment, who first hid from the fire, and then decided that these newly arrived warriors were definitely supporters of the Supreme Council, so they should be destroyed immediately. One of the airborne battalion commanders hit the Dzerzhins from a grenade launcher. Those answered adequately - from all trunks. The result is deplorable: the captain, the corporal were killed, several people were injured.

Around 10 am, two Dzerzhinsk BTEers were ordered to take up positions on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment. And there were already Tamans. And what do you think they did when they saw the approaching cars? That's right, they met them with dagger fire. A major, two starleys, a private were killed, many people were injured.

The command appreciated the exploits of both sides. Two became heroes of Russia (one of them, 19-year-old serviceman Oleg Petrov, posthumously; Major Sergei Gritsyuk, also posthumously - approx. BT), many were awarded orders and medals. For the fact that "wet" each other.

It is impossible not to mention another conclusion from that crime. For some reason, in the state-patriotic environment, they firmly believe that during mass unrest, “Russians will not shoot at Russians”, “the army is with the people” (or is neutral). The events of 1993 showed that the military (not to mention representatives of other power structures) can easily shoot at their own people, torture and burn them. And these were still people with a Soviet hardening, when in some corners of their brain the remnants of a humanistic upbringing were preserved. Today, a generation has grown up free from such sentiments: it will be necessary - they will shoot not only at their own people, but also at their own mother.

Shortly before his death, Pavel Grachev gave an interview. In it he, in particular,

1993 coup

After the collapse of the USSR, in 1991. a new state appears - Russia, the Russian Federation. It included 89 regions, including 21 autonomous republics.

During this period, the country was in an economic and political crisis, therefore it was necessary to create new governing bodies, to form the Russian statehood.

By the end of the 1980s, the state apparatus of Russia consisted of a two-stage system of representative bodies of the Congress of People's Deputies and a bicameral Supreme Soviet. The head of the executive branch was President B.N., elected by popular vote. Yeltsin. He was also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The highest judicial authority was the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. The predominant role in the highest structures of power was played by former deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Among them were appointed advisers to the President V. Shumeiko and Yu. Yarov, Chairman of the Constitutional Court V.D. Zorkin, many heads of local administrations.

The essence of the conflict

In conditions when the Russian Constitution, according to supporters of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, became a brake on reforms, and work on a new edition was too slow and inefficient, the President issued Decree No. 1400 "On a phased constitutional reform in Russian Federation", instructing the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation and the Congress of People's Deputies (according to the Constitution, the highest body of state power of the Russian Federation) to cease their activities.

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, meeting in an emergency session, came to the conclusion that this decree violates the Russian Constitution in twelve places and, according to the Constitution, is the basis for the dismissal of President Yeltsin from office. The Supreme Council refused to obey the President's unconstitutional decree and qualified his actions as a coup d'état. It was decided to convene the X Extraordinary Congress of People's Deputies. The police units that obeyed Yeltsin and Luzhkov were ordered to blockade the White House.

After the failure of negotiations through the mediation of Patriarch Alexy in Novo-Ogaryovo, a blockade of the Supreme Council began by the OMON of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In the building of the Supreme Council, electricity and water supply were turned on for some time, then they were turned off again.

At 14:00, a rally authorized by the Moscow Council took place in support of the Supreme Council on October Square. When several thousand people gathered, information was received that at the last moment the holding of a rally on Oktyabrskaya Square was prohibited by the Moscow City Hall. OMON attempted to block the area. There were calls to move the rally to another location.

What are the ways and means of seeking political compromises and agreement in such a conflict situation in Russia? Today, their achievement to a large extent depends on the positions of the opposing leaders and elites. The fate of the country largely depends on whether they are able to take into account the already existing socio-political pluralism, and not the dichotomy of society, satisfy its basic needs, give up part of the power and property in order to mitigate and eliminate the main threats to society, and fulfill the compromise agreements reached. The legitimation of state-political institutions and their policies can also be significantly facilitated by truly free, equal and competitive elections in a multi-party system, assuming at least the absence of a monopoly on the media, abuse of financial and political-power resources and the conviction of the majority of voters that political parties , candidates for elective office, election commissions and other participants and organizers of elections are equal and fully comply with the electoral laws and regulations, and these laws and instructions themselves are fair.

In this regard, it should be noted that the results of the 1996 elections and, most importantly, their assessment from the point of view of fairness and equality, undoubtedly, are influenced by the disparate difference in the volume and nature of the resources that the contenders for the post of President of the Russian Federation had at their disposal. Leaving aside the revealed imperfection of the electoral legislation, the sharp criticism of some voters was caused by the virtually complete monopoly of one of the candidates on the most influential types of media - television and radio. The irritation of some voters was also caused by the transformation of the leading members of the government, starting with its Chairman, into the central headquarters, and the heads of administrations of many regions and their subordinates into the actual regional headquarters for the election of B.N. Yeltsin. In addition to the conspicuous extreme high cost of his own election campaign(the lack of reliable data on its cost is another source of dissatisfaction among some citizens), a negative assessment of some voters was received by the incumbent President of the Russian Federation, which was carried out, in essence, as part of his election campaign.

Such recipes for resolving political conflicts and achieving stability, regularly offered to society as the postponement or even cancellation of elections, the dissolution of the opposition parliament, the prohibition of political parties, the establishment of a "democratic dictatorship", or a regime of personal power in the name of "order and the fight against crime", which are regularly offered to society, can turn into a tragic outcome. This is undeniably evidenced by the data of a study commissioned by the Central Election Commission in May 1996 on a representative all-Russian sample (the authors research project: V. G. Andreenkov, E. G. Andryushchenko, Yu. A. Vedeneev, V. S. Komarovsky, V.V. Lapaeva, V.V. Smirnov). Almost 60% of Russians view elections as the main means of forming government bodies. The fact that elections have become one of the basic political values ​​for most of Russian society is also confirmed by the fact that only 16.4% of respondents approve of the use of refusal to participate in elections as a means of influencing the authorities. While 67.1% do not approve of voter absenteeism.

The civic maturity of the Russian voter is also confirmed by other data from the mentioned study. Thus, the main motive (44.8% of respondents) of his voting for a particular candidate is an assessment of what he can do for Russia. The stability of this position is evidenced by the answers to the question about the motives for the participation of respondents in the elections of deputies of the State Duma in December 1995: 42.6% were guided primarily by the fulfillment of their civic duty, and 23% did not want others to decide for them who should be authorities.

At the same time, there are a number of aspects in the political consciousness of compatriots that are unfavorable for achieving political agreement. First of all, this is a rather large proportion of citizens who have a negative attitude towards the activities of the federal bodies of all three branches of government:

to the Federation Council - 21.6%
to the Constitutional Court - 22.4%
to the State Duma - 38.9%
to the President of the Russian Federation - 42.5%

This means that no less than every fifth (and in the case of the President - almost every second) Russian is a potential supporter of the opposition. In itself, the presence of those dissatisfied with state authorities and administration is not dangerous if citizens believe that by participating in elections they can change the situation in the country. However, 25.7% of compatriots do not believe in this to some extent.

Another institution of a democratic society that acts as an intermediary between a citizen, on the one hand, and state bodies, civil servants and government leaders, providing non-violent conflict resolution, on the other, are political parties. Alas, political parties in our country are not able to play this mediating and consensual role today. Only 20.4% of citizens consider themselves supporters of any political party; a candidate's affiliation to a particular political party ranks only fourth among the circumstances that a voter takes into account when choosing whom to vote for; only 8.6% of voters are in favor of voting only on party lists, and another 13.1% are in favor of a mixed electoral system, in which some deputies are elected on party lists. Thus, we can state a negatively alienated attitude towards political parties of the majority of Russians.

In order to achieve compromises and consent in society, along with the use of the entire known arsenal of resolving political conflicts, their legalization is necessary. This is primarily about resolving conflicts within the framework of constitutional and legal norms and through predominantly judicial and legal institutions and procedures. This, in turn, implies the restoration of the constitutional balance between the executive and legislative branches of government. The danger is too great that someday this or that President of the Russian Federation will use the huge constitutional powers, unprecedented for a democratic society, to establish once again an authoritarian regime for Russia.

As a result of the investigation of the Commission of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for additional study and analysis of the events that took place in the city of Moscow on September 21 - October 5, 1993, B. Yeltsin's actions were condemned and found to be contrary to the Constitution of the RSFSR in force at that time. According to the materials of the investigation conducted by the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, it was not established that any of the dead were killed with weapons that were at the disposal of the supporters of the Armed Forces.

Conclusion

Each of the parties to the conflict intended to achieve the removal of the opposite side from power while maintaining and strengthening its power.

Also, one of the causes of the conflict was the question of changing the current Constitution, amending the law, because the constitution adopted at the extraordinary seventh session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the ninth convocation on October 7, 1977 did not fit the new state system and many paragraphs of the constitution became invalid for the expiration of time.

Time has passed since October 1993, when the conflict between the branches of power led to fighting on the streets of Moscow, the shooting of the White House and hundreds of victims. But as it turned out, few people remember this. For many of our compatriots, the execution of October merges in their memory with August 1991 and the attempted coup d'état carried out by the so-called GKChP. Therefore, they are increasingly trying to look for those responsible for the October drama in 1991.

The difficult political and socio-psychological situation in Russia not only determines to a large extent the content of conflicts and the forms of their manifestation, but also affects their perception by the population, elites, and the effectiveness of the means of regulation used. The constitutional foundations and legal norms for resolving conflicts have not been developed.

For this reason, and due to the lack of experience in civilized and legitimate conflict management, forceful methods are most often used: not negotiations and compromise, but suppression of the enemy. The inherently conflicting methods of reforming Russian society continue to create conditions for the preservation of confrontation. The alienation of the population from power and politics not only leads to a decrease in the legitimacy of the dominant political forces, but also causes instability in the functioning of political system generally.

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