ABSTRACT
Many began erecting makeshift barricades around the Russian parliament. Inside the building almost 150 deputies had defied Boris Yeltsin’s decree and were gathering for an emergency session of the Supreme Soviet. Rutskoi had also named his own interior and security ministers. His first “decree” had declared war on Yeltsin and his government, specifying the death penalty for officials who “violently disrupted” the constitution. One of the most dangerous decisions of Yeltsin’s presidency was, quite simply, a terrifying leap into the dark. To point this out and to suggest that something might go wrong was to invite the wrath of the president, and accusations of rebellion and cowardice. Russia’s Choice had been set up as a “presidential party” and Yeltsin had agreed to make the opening address to the convention. The leaders of Russia’s Choice had called for unity and discipline. But the Yeltsin model charted another path.
