December 12, 2013

Constructing a Constitution


Constructing a Constitution

On this day 20 years ago – December 12, 1993 – the current Russian Constitution was enacted, marking the end of a turbulent and even violent constitutional crisis.

What exactly constitutes the Russian Constitution? Compared to the U.S. Constitution, it’s just a baby – its 20 years are nothing to the US’s two centuries. But much like the U.S. Constitution, the Russian Constitution of 1993 was a crisis-triggered replacement for a founding document that wasn’t providing the foundation the country needed.

The US had the Articles of Conferedation – Russia had a Soviet relic, the RSFSR Constitution of 1978. Alongside the old Soviet legislative branch – with Cold-War names like “Supreme Soviet” and “Council of People’s Deputies” – there now stood an entirely new executive leader, the Russian President. For a country that was just finding its bearings and figuring it all out, having an outdated constitution was certainly not much help.

By early 1993, the “leader” of Russia wasn’t just going by a new name (Mr. President, not Mr. Secretary!), he was also no longer the center of all power. In sharp contrast to the days of old, this new-fangled concept of democracy now meant that the legislature, the nominal representative of the people, actually had all the rights in deciding how the government would work. It just so happened that the legislature, under the leadership of Speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, was not too pleased with President Yeltsin’s program of rapid economic reform, and was happy to have the power to limit him in those efforts. 

There's Yeltsin (on the left) making Bill Clinton laugh

Yeltsin was all about the "will of the people" at this point – he peppered his speeches with references to narodovlastie – literally, the rule of the people. And just when the legislature felt smugly secure in knowing that it was elected by those same “people,” Yeltsin went and redefined the people’s will: he called for a referendum, a direct vote on “confidence in the Russian President.” In April 1993, the “confidents” won out, with a final tally of 58%.

Tanks shelling the White House! (No, not that White House.)

For the legislature, it was all downhill from there. Now anything they tried in opposition could be met with “oh but the people believe in me.” The Duma dug in, insisting on the unconsitutionality of the President’s actions, escalating the crisis until the army got involved and, in October 2013, on Yeltsin’s orders, stormed the White House (which in Russia is, confusingly, the legislature’s domain). Out of the chaos rose the new constitution, proposed as a draft by Yeltsin, and approved on December 12, 1993.

How was it approved? By referendum, of course. 

 

Photo credits: Wikimedia Commons

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955