1993 Russian constitutional crisis

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In September and October 1993, a constitutional crisis arose in the Russian Federation from a conflict between the then Russian president Boris Yeltsin and the country's parliament. Yeltsin performed a self-coup, dissolving parliament and instituting a presidential rule by decree system. The crisis ended with Yeltsin using military force to attack Moscow's House of Soviets and arrest the lawmakers. In Russia, the events are known as the "October Coup" (Russian: Октябрьский путч, romanized: Oktyabr'skiy putch) or "Black October" (Чëрный октябрь, Chornyi Oktyabr'). With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic turned into an independent country, the Russian Federation. The Soviet-era 1978 Russian constitution remained in effect, though it had been amended in April 1991 to install a president independent of the parliament. Boris Yeltsin, elected president in July 1991, began assuming increasing powers, leading to a political standoff...

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