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CCIP · 11-08-10, 11:37 PM

Never wish for this. NEVER

The story of the 1993 parliamentary crisis is a tragic one, and is one of three main reasons I will never be able to forgive Yeltsin. "Parliamentary crisis" as such is also a great euphemism to hide what really happened in those days - and let's make no bs about it - an all-out, violent civil war between the legislative and executive branches of government. The executive decidedly won. NEVER wish for this to happen, because that's death of democracy as such.

To me personally, having been in Russia when this was happening, this was a more defining a moment of my lifetime than Sept 11th (even if objectively, Sept 11th repercussions are more global). According to some sources, about 3,000 people died - a similar figure to Sept 11th. More importantly, this is where many people's faith in a safe, democratic Russia also died - and a year later, Yeltsin made a gambit to repair his reputation through a "fast and victorious" war in Chechnya. This is also the point where Russia's current style of presidential leadership, so often blamed on Putin rather than Yeltsin, was almost irreversibly set. I know the alternative (i.e. commies) wasn't pretty either, but honestly, this is just something that put history on a path that can't easily be derailed now. The train has passed. 1993 was the year that my family began seriously considering emigration. By early 1995, we didn't see any other option but to leave the country, all because of precisely THIS.

Here's a favourite Russian song written about these events, with more video from the ground... always sticks in my mind, quite painfully at that:

11-08-10, 11:37 PM	#2
CCIP Navy Seal Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Waterloo, Canada Posts: 8,700 Downloads: 29 Uploads: 2	Never wish for this. NEVER The story of the 1993 parliamentary crisis is a tragic one, and is one of three main reasons I will never be able to forgive Yeltsin. "Parliamentary crisis" as such is also a great euphemism to hide what really happened in those days - and let's make no bs about it - an all-out, violent civil war between the legislative and executive branches of government. The executive decidedly won. NEVER wish for this to happen, because that's death of democracy as such. To me personally, having been in Russia when this was happening, this was a more defining a moment of my lifetime than Sept 11th (even if objectively, Sept 11th repercussions are more global). According to some sources, about 3,000 people died - a similar figure to Sept 11th. More importantly, this is where many people's faith in a safe, democratic Russia also died - and a year later, Yeltsin made a gambit to repair his reputation through a "fast and victorious" war in Chechnya. This is also the point where Russia's current style of presidential leadership, so often blamed on Putin rather than Yeltsin, was almost irreversibly set. I know the alternative (i.e. commies) wasn't pretty either, but honestly, this is just something that put history on a path that can't easily be derailed now. The train has passed. 1993 was the year that my family began seriously considering emigration. By early 1995, we didn't see any other option but to leave the country, all because of precisely THIS. Here's a favourite Russian song written about these events, with more video from the ground... always sticks in my mind, quite painfully at that: __________________ There are only forty people in the world and five of them are hamburgers. -Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart)