SUMMARY

The Parliamentary Forces were the various parliamentarians and the groups that supported them in an unsuccessful coup attempt against Russian President Boris Yeltsin in September and October 1993 (see Russia (Soviet Union): Government). Opposition against constitutional reforms proposed by President Yeltsin motivated the Parliamentary Forces. These reforms included the disbanding of the Supreme Soviet (the “parliament”), which was to be replaced by a new bicameral legislative assembly. The leaders of the Parliamentary Forces considered Yeltsin’s disbanding of the Supreme Soviet on 21 September 1993 as a coup. In general, the parliamentary deputies that joined the attempted coup tried to retain the final remnants of the old Soviet political system; their opposition against Yeltsin was in part based on objection against his attempts at economic reform.

Aleksandr Rutskoy, who proclaimed himself acting president on 22 September 1993, and Ruslan Khasbulatov, the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet (Russia’s highest legislative body), were the main political leaders of the Parliamentary Forces. Colonel General Albert Makashov held military command over the forces that occupied the White House (the parliamentary building) and stormed Moscow City Hall. The leaders of the Parliamentary Forces were imprisoned after their defeat.

Even if no specific parliamentary force was fighting for the deputies, groups of people sympathizing with the deputies’ cause took up arms. The groups that gathered around the White House to support the parliamentarians barricaded inside included members of communist and nationalist organizations, Stalinists from the Working Russia movement, members of the Russian National Unity group, militants from Transnistria and Abkhazia, and former operatives of the Soviet Riga OMON (a special purpose police unit). The Parliamentary Forces numbered about 3000 in the final violent stage of the attempted coup.