Black October Revisited

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 3, 2013)

See the Black October Revisited Photogallery: www.themoscowtimes.com/multimedia/photogalleries/black-october-revisited/5114.html

People commemorated on Thursday the 20th anniversary of Black October, a 10-day standoff between President Boris Yeltsin and the parliament that ended in military force and the deaths of at least 187 people.

Members of the Alfa special forces and other law enforcement agencies who defended the Ostankino against anti-Kremlin demonstrators on Oct. 3, 1993, met near the television center at 10:30 a.m. Nationalists held a memorial service at the same site at noon, while ultranationalists staged an evening rally at the White House, which back in 1993 housed the parliament, the House of Soviets.

A constitutional crisis erupted Sept. 21, 1993, when Yeltsin dissolved the parliament. In response, the parliament impeached Yeltsin and swore in his vice president, Alexander Rutskoi, as the new president.

Days passed without compromise from either side, despite the efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church to mediate. On Oct. 2, protesters blocked traffic on the city’s main streets and constructed barricades.

Tensions boiled over Oct. 3 when anti-Kremlin demonstrators toppled police cordons to storm the parliament building, seized the Mayor’s Office and tried to capture Ostankino. The military, following Yeltsin’s orders, stormed the House of Soviets in the early hours of Oct. 4, removing anti-Kremlin activists holed up inside and arresting their leaders, including Rutskoi.

The authorities say 187 people died and 437 other were injured in the conflict, the deadliest single event of street fighting in Moscow since the 1917 Revolution.