Tensions between President Boris Yeltsin and the Congress of People’s Deputies/Supreme Soviet escalated over executive authority and competing constitutional drafts, setting the stage for a showdown later that year.
Yeltsin signed Decree No. 1400 (“On Phased Constitutional Reform”), declaring the Congress of People’s Deputies and the Supreme Soviet dissolved—an action widely described as unconstitutional under the then-operative 1978 RSFSR constitution (as amended).
Russia’s Constitutional Court concluded that Yeltsin’s dissolution decree violated the constitution and could provide grounds for impeachment, escalating the institutional rupture into a dual-power situation.
The parliament moved to impeach Yeltsin, declared his decree null and void, and proclaimed Vice President Alexander Rutskoy acting president; lawmakers and supporters began barricading inside the Russian White House (parliament building).
The confrontation became a siege-like standoff, with police cordons and mounting street mobilization by both sides in Moscow as negotiations failed to produce a settlement.
Negotiations hosted by the Russian Orthodox Church, with Patriarch Alexy II involved as mediator, continued for days but ended without agreement, removing the last major off-ramp before violence.
On 3 October, armed opponents of Yeltsin broke through police lines near the White House; urged on by parliamentary leaders, groups moved on and took the mayor’s office in central Moscow.
Pro-parliament forces and supporters attempted to take the Ostankino television center; a gun battle followed with security forces, and the facility was damaged, intensifying the crisis into open armed conflict.
Yeltsin imposed a state of emergency in Moscow amid the violence, expanding extraordinary executive measures as he prepared to use force to end the standoff.
On Yeltsin’s orders, military units used tanks against the White House and special forces stormed the building, arresting Rutskoy, Ruslan Khasbulatov, and other leaders—effectively ending the armed phase of the crisis.
In the immediate aftermath, authorities suspended a range of opposition newspapers and political organizations under emergency measures—moves criticized by rights monitors as curtailing civil liberties and political competition ahead of December votes.
A new constitution drafted by a pro-Yeltsin Constitutional Assembly was published in November, framing a strong presidency and setting up the December nationwide referendum.
Russia held a nationwide referendum on the new constitution alongside elections for a new legislature (Federal Assembly). The constitution was approved by a majority of voters.
The new Constitution of the Russian Federation took effect upon official publication, legally replacing the Soviet-era governance framework and institutionalizing a strengthened presidency.
The State Duma adopted a political amnesty covering participants in the October 1993 events (and also figures tied to the 1991 coup attempt), leading to releases and the winding down of prosecutions tied to the crisis.
1993 Russian Constitutional Crisis (1993)
