The Advent of Vladimir Zhirinovsky

Abstract

By October 1992, Yeltsin was contemplating the introduction of a state of emergency to overcome the increasingly obdurate opposition of the parliament to his rule.¹ Throughout the next calendar year, from October 1992 to October 1993, Yeltsin and the parliament disputed the right to control the government: a series of constitutional crises followed, in December 1992 and March–April 1993, in which the Parliament consistently tried to deprive Yeltsin of his powers and to make the government answerable to it, to which Yeltsin responded by threatening to prorogue it and call a constitutional referendum. As the parliamentary leaders felt their power and political careers to be increasingly threatened, they became more extreme in their rhetoric and actions.