Secrets are spilled of 1993 deception that allowed president to suppress parliament. This is amazing stuff.
Officials and participants today paint a fresh picture of the clashes that began with rioting on October 2 and led to tanks rolling up to the parliament building on October 4. The Kremlin and western governments portrayed the unrest as a liberal regime suppressing angry communist hardliners and rightwingers. Yet 10 years after the bloodshed, in which at least 123 people were killed, Russia is exploding the myth that the crackdown was anything other than a putsch against Mr Yeltsin’s political opponents.
The unrest was sparked by his decision in late September to dissolve a parliament increasingly opposed to his economic reforms. He also scrapped the constitution, replacing it with another that gave him near-monarchic executive powers. Rebel MPs, comprising communists, liberals and fascists, responded by barricading themselves into the parliament.