The political crisis of autumn-winter 1993 on the pages of the newspaper "Muromsky Krai"

Pavlenko Alla Igorevna ORCID: 0009-0000-6032-7409 Postgraduate student; Department of History; Moscow City Pedagogical University 129226, Russia, Moscow, Second Agricultural ave., 4 cor 3, room 3413 lavrova_alla04@mail.ru

The political crisis of September-October 1993 was covered not only on the pages of the central periodical press. The development of the confrontation between the branches of government was closely monitored by local newspapers of Russian cities. After the end of the hot phase of the conflict, which resulted in the shooting of the House of Soviets on October 3-4, journalists and residents of Murom actively reflected on what had happened, and also wrote about the upcoming elections to the new Russian Parliament and the referendum on the draft Constitution of the Russian Federation on December 12.

Using the example of the socio-political newspaper Muromsky Krai, published in Murom, Vladimir region, we will consider how journalists covered the political process in the context of the vicissitudes in the highest echelons of power. Our attention is focused on the peculiarities of local journalism, which Murom's publicists and correspondents considered important to convey to the urban audience in the context of the political crisis of the end of 1993. As an additional source base for the study, archival materials stored in the Archival Department of the Moscow State University of the Murom district "Organizational Management" were used, as well as author's interviews with officials of the Murom administration, who reported on what was happening in the city at the end of 1993 in a provincial city.

Murom District is a small provincial town consisting of Muromsky district and the city of Murom in the Vladimir region. It is a rapidly developing industrial city with a railway junction during the Soviet period. At the time of the events under study, 126 thousand people lived in the city ^[29]. There were 29 large and medium-sized enterprises in the city. In 1990, about 50 thousand people worked in the industrial sector, by 1999 their number had almost halved ^[3]. For the first time, the weekly literary, public and literary newspaper "Muromsky Krai" was born on December 21, 1913 on the initiative of the merchants of the city ^[5], but the publication was closed two years later ^[4]. A modern newspaper with the same name was established by the city and district Councils of People's Deputies on the initiative of local historian and journalist V. I. Bogatov ^[4]. N. S. Khokhlova became the editor-in-chief. The weekly circulation of the newspaper was 17 thousand copies.

The first mention of the Murom newspaper about the beginning of an open confrontation between the authorities in Moscow was published on September 23, 1993 ^{[6, p.1]}. The journalist described the situation in government circles as follows: "priorities are determined in the upper echelons of power" ^{[6, p.1]}. The full decision of the small Council of the Murom City Council of People's Deputies was also published on the editorial page of the issue ^{[6, p.1]}. By the way, this is the only official document about the events in Moscow issued by the Murom authorities during the period of the capital's dual power. The city administration has not responded to the events in Moscow at any official level. During the discussion of Boris Yeltsin's speech on television on September 21 and the information received from the regional Council of People's Deputies, deputies of the city signed the Decision of the Small Council of the Murom City Council of People's Deputies of the Vladimir region No. 186/42 dated 09/22/1993 "On the speech of the President of the Russian Federation Yeltsin B.N. on television on 09/21/93", which stated that the assessment of Boris Yeltsin's activities by the Constitutional Court The Court of the Russian Federation is fair ^[2]. Members of the Small Council of People's Deputies of Murom called on citizens to remain calm, and the heads and employees of the Department of Internal Affairs, MB, Prosecutor's office, commanders and personnel of military units stationed in the city, "to remain faithful to the Constitution and Laws of the Russian Federation, the military oath and official duty." This document was sent to the President of Russia, the Supreme Council and the Regional Council of People's Deputies.

On September 25, the newspaper reported that the regional Council of People's Deputies decided to inform the Federal authorities that "unconstitutional orders, decrees and resolutions will not be executed" ^{[7, p.1]}. At the same time, the small Council of the Murom district discussed "gross violations of the Constitution by the President of the Russian Federation" ^{[7, p.1]}. Representatives of the city authorities assessed "political passions" in their own way ^{[7, p.1]} in Moscow. A member of the small Council, A. Zinoviev, saw in what was happening "a repetition of the events of two years ago" ^{[7, p.1]} and called for early elections. Another deputy, V. Elistratov, supported the re-election. At a meeting of deputies of Councils of all levels in the regional center on September 25, they also came to the conclusion that early elections are a way out of the current situation ^{[8, p.1]}. Mayor of Murom Pyotr Kaurov also shared his thoughts: "We must agree that the time has come for reforms of state power. For now, there are only reproaches for both. The President is reproached for the fact that nothing has changed in the economy, and the Supreme Council has not changed anything in politics" ^{[7, p.1]}.

Speaking about the sentiments of the Muromlans, the newspaper wrote that despite the "passions caused" by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation "On phased constitutional reform in the Russian Federation," most citizens and rural residents are concerned about more prosaic problems: cold in apartments, schools, frequent interruptions in water supply" ^{[8, p.1]}, etc. D. Nevertheless, the Board of the Murom Union of Entrepreneurs found it necessary to publicly express its attitude to the actions of the President of Russia: "In a form contrary to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. At its core, the Decree is the only correct solution to bring Russia out of the crisis" ^{[8, p.1]}. Members of the Union described Boris Yeltsin as "a hostage of the communist constitution, which does not provide for a mechanism for overcoming crisis political conditions" ^{[8, p.1]}. Entrepreneurs also called for early elections of branches of government. It is worth noting that, despite the fact that the newly minted businessmen were Boris Yeltsin's direct electorate, they assessed what was happening very objectively. From the point of view of legislation, the country really did not have regulatory mechanisms for overcoming the political crisis. The Chairman of the district Council of People's Deputies, N. I. Konyshkina, spoke for re-election, saying this in an interview with a newspaper correspondent ^{[9, p.2]}.

After the bloody events of October 3-4, the newspaper continued to write about what was happening in the capital and the reactions of the Muromites to the confrontation of the authorities. On October 5, the newspaper noted that the attention of the majority of citizens was focused on TV screens because of the footage of the storming of the Ostankino television center by the defenders of the White House ^{[10, p.1]}. In an article with the headline "Do not let yourself be dragged into the war", it was reported that the workers of JSC Murommashzavod most often assessed the Moscow events negatively. They were also united in one thing – "it is impossible to allow the continuation of the confrontation between the authorities, which has already gone far" ^{[10, p.1]}. Moreover, the workers, according to unknown correspondents of the Murom Region, showed civic awareness. It was decided not to get involved in the conflict of the authorities, "fueled by various extremist elements" ^{[10, p.1]}. It can be concluded that, according to the newspaper's editorial board, those who supported the confrontation of the authorities are radicals. In our opinion, this is a fair assessment, because in difficult, tense times, when the fate of the motherland is being decided, consolidation of society is needed, and not its division into opposing camps.

Muromsky Krai reported that seven members of the Small Council of the City Council of People's Deputies issued a political statement in which they assessed the events in Moscow as "an attempt to provoke a civil war on the part of the former Supreme Council and extremist forces" ^{[10, p.1]}. An excerpt from a letter with thirty-three signatures of employees of the city administration and employees of the district Council, headed by the deputy head of the Murom administration, S. V. Tikar, was also published ^{[10, p.1]}. Citizens supported the actions of the President and the government "to suppress violent groups." One very interesting fact draws attention – these documents are not stored in the local archive for unknown reasons.

It is worth noting that the newspaper paid a lot of attention to the opinions of citizens. Local residents did not participate in rallies or strikes on the basis of politics, for which they were thanked by the Chairman of the City Council of People's Deputies V. I. Zhukov and the head of the Murom administration P. A. Kaurov ^{[11, p.1]}. Deputy Director of Murrommashzavod JSC Yu. V. Vorontsov said that on October 4, "nothing prevented the plant administration from holding a meeting with representatives of one of the Canadian companies" ^{[11, p.1]}. At another plant of JSC Murom, a meeting was also held to summarize the work for the month ^{[11, p.1]}. In interviews with correspondents, the townspeople expressed hopes that the situation would stabilize ^{[11, p.1]}. The newspaper also published the indignation of the communist V. Volkov: "What does the President hope for with the help of false information in the media, what does he hope for, threatening to leave those who do not obey his Decrees out of work?!" ^{[11, p.2]}. But you can also find more radical thoughts on the pages of the newspaper. For example, a member of the small Council of the city Council, A. Samsonov, shared his views on what happened in Moscow: "The second attempt of the red-brown coup failed" ^{[12, p.1]}. Some time later, on October 26, the newspaper published letters from the Muromlians, which came to the editorial office. The townswoman G. Kokushkina believed that despite the attacks on the city Council from detractors, deputies continued to deal with the issues of the city ^{[19, p.1]}. Pensioner I. Semenov noted that it is impossible "to hold elections when all power, radio, television, print, that is, all mass media are concentrated in one hand" ^{[19, p.1]}. Muromlyanin N. Nikolaev wrote that "in our turbulent times, when in Moscow they are trying to divide portfolios"defenders the people", in my opinion, no one thinks about the people at all" ^{[19, p.1]}. A month after the shooting of the House of Soviets, a letter was published by E. Firsov, a teacher at the Murom branch of the Vladimir Polytechnic Institute, in which he very specifically described the events in the capital: "The Moscow putsch once again proved the wisdom of our people, who did not allow the inveterate and selfish politicians to plunge the country into the abyss of civil war" ^{[23, p.2]}.

The newspaper published the decision of an initiative group consisting of representatives of the Union of Entrepreneurs E. L. Krotov, the movement "Democratic Russia" G. S. Grishin, the Democratic Party S. S. Tsepina, the trade union committee of workers of cooperation V. H. Sokirko and deputies of the City Council O. V. Zykov, on the creation of the Murom Committee for support of Democracy and the President of Russia in order to coordinate "actions all public organizations for the prevention of antisocial manifestations in the city" ^{[11, p.1]}. It can be assumed that some active citizens were afraid and saw the prerequisites for riots on the streets of the city, therefore they announced their intention to create a special committee to combat anti-government sentiment in case of anything. However, the head of the city department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Vladimir region, V.Yu. Levichev, answering interview questions, said that their security service had no reason to interfere ^{[13, p.1]}.

On October 7, the head of the city administration met with journalists ^{[12, p.1]}. Then the mayor said that "in these tragic days for the country, our countryman, a soldier born in 1974, Roman Korovushkin, died." On October 16, an entire article was devoted to the soldier, in which it was reported that he was seconded to the Taman division ^{[15, p.1]}. Former colleagues of the head of the Murom administration, Pyotr Kaurov, reported in an interview with the author of this scientific article that the young man was killed by a sniper bullet ^[28]. The chief of staff noted that he was surprised by the fanaticism of the defenders of the White House. He believed that "There would have been significantly fewer victims if the heads of Makashov, Rutsky and others had been a little more sober" ^{[12, p.1]}. At the same time, it was announced that 35 deputies resigned from the regional Council, and some deputies appealed to the President of Russia with a request to dissolve the regional Council with the help of their Decree. Nevertheless, on October 12, the head of the regional administration, Yu. V. Volkov, dissolved the regional Council and transferred its functions to the regional administration ^{[14, p.1]}. Speaking about the fate of the local Council, Petr Kaurov said that dissolution is not yet possible, because it is not yet clear which body could replace it. However, the Murom Committee for the Protection of Democracy and the President of the Russian Federation did not agree with the opinion of the head of the city administration. In a public appeal of this public organization, it was reported that if the city Council does not dissolve itself, the committee will contact the commission to investigate the activities of officials in support of the putschists ^{[14, p.1]}. By the way, in the same address, committee members G. Grishin, O. Zykov, E. Krotov and S. Tsepina wrote that "bankrupt figures from the House of Soviets, who had closed with extremist movements of the communist fascist persuasion, decided to slow down the historical development of society with the help of weapons" ^{[14, p.1]}. Indeed, the city Council continued to nominally exist in the city, however, by intimidating deputies, the committee members, in fact, came into conflict with the head of the administration, who understood the importance of preliminary institutional preparation of the new authority in the city. However, seven people's deputies voluntarily resigned on October 14 ^{[15, p.1]}.

On October 19, an article by A. Khokhlova was published in the newspaper with reflections on what happened on September 21 ^{[16, p.1]}. The journalist believed that the events in Moscow qualified as a "coup d'etat or an attempt to do so," and "something like a shock" occurred in the city in the early days. A. Khokhlova noted, "the last two years of the actual inaction of the absolute majority of deputies and the events of October 1993 revealed the inefficiency and reactionary nature of the Soviets," and "the desire to preserve the deputy mandate is simply immoral" ^{[16, p.1]}. However, such characteristics are not accidental. On October 11, an extraordinary meeting of the small Council of the city Council was convened. Local deputies decided:

1. The decision of the small Council of September 22 of this year "On the speech of President Boris Yeltsin on television on 09/21/93" to recognize as erroneous as taken without a sufficiently clear assessment of the existing political situation ^{[16, p.1]}.

2. To approve the actions of the President of the Russian Federation to prevent the spread of armed conflict ^{[16, p.1]}.

3. Condemn the actions of the leadership of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and Vice-President Rutsky, who organized extremist forces for a military confrontation that threatened to escalate into a civil war ^{[16, p.1]}.

In addition, the deputies proposed to the chairman of the City Council V. I. Zhukov to voluntarily resign his powers due to "repeatedly revealed abuse of authority." This case demonstrates that under the pressure of circumstances and the obvious leadership positions of the executive branch, local deputies abruptly changed their attitude to political events in the capital. On the one hand, in our opinion, the deputies of the city acted pragmatically, on the other hand, it says that some of the deputies did not have solid grounds to support the federal parliament. It should be noted that in parallel, a second decision was made by another part of the deputies of the city, headed by Chairman V. G. Zhukov. They decided to condemn the actions of both the executive and representative authorities that contributed to the bloody events in Moscow on October 3-4. This part of the deputies was in solidarity with their opponents in the City Council about the reform of local authorities and early elections of new authorities. This indicates a serious split within the Murom authorities after the tragic events in Moscow. It should also be noted that these two solutions were not found in the city archive.

The local battles did not end there, but only developed. At the disposal of the Murom City Council of People's Deputies of the Vladimir region No. 39 dated 20.10.93. "On the convening of an extraordinary session of the Murom City Council of People's Deputies" it was reported that a group of seven deputies "intentionally blocks a meeting of the small Council" ^{[17, p.1]}. This indicates an increase in confrontation within the deputy corps of the city. Again, this Order was not found in the local archive.

The conflict within the city deputy corps could not but worry the city administration. At a regular meeting with journalists of the city, Mayor Pyotr Kaurov called on people's deputies to make a final decision on the work of the Soviets on November 3 ^{[18, p.1]}. Journalist A. Abrashkina considered that the best solution would be the self-dissolution of deputies ^{[18, p.1]}. Without waiting for the decisions of the city deputies, the head of the Murom district administration, A. Lukyanov, decided to dissolve the district Council of People's Deputies and transfer its functions to the administration, issuing an appropriate document such as the Resolution of the head of the Murom district administration "On the termination of the activities of the Murom District Council of People's Deputies of the twenty-first convocation and the acceptance of its functions by the administration" on 10/26/1993 No. 284 ^{[1],[20, p.1]}. It turns out that the district was the first to react to institutional changes in the district. Nevertheless, without waiting for the specified date, Peter Kaurov signed the Resolution of the head of the Murom city Administration No. 813 dated 29.10.93 "On the performance of the functions of the Murom City Council of People's Deputies" ^{[22, p.1]}, which reported with reference to the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 1760 dated 26.10.93 "On the reform of local self-government in the Russian Federation" on the termination of the activities of the Murom City Council of People's Deputies from October 29, when the above-mentioned Decree of the President of the Russian Federation was published. The city administration recognized the ownership and founder rights of all enterprises, organizations, public organizations, various foundations created by the Murom City Council, as well as the newspaper Muromsky Krai. Along with the rights of the city administration, the powers of the City Council also passed. At a meeting with journalists, Pyotr Kaurov, commenting on his decision, said that "together with the fullness of power, we bear all responsibility to the citizens" ^{[22, p.1]}. Nevertheless, former members of the City Council held a general meeting on November 3 ^{[23, p.1]}. After expressing gratitude to colleagues for The deputies went to work.

In parallel with the city's political vicissitudes, preparations were underway for the elections and the referendum on December 12. In issue No. 133 of the Murom Region, an informational article was published calling for voting for the list of the Democratic Party of Russia, which advocated "real market reforms, not calls for them" ^{[21, p.1]}. The head of the city administration, Pyotr Kaurov, explained to journalists that in preparation for the elections, the task of the authorities "to create equal opportunities for all voters to participate in elections" ^{[22, p.1]}, specifying that "hardly any of the administration employees are eager to sit in Parliament, we will resolve issues here, on the spot" ^{[22, p.1]}. From Murom, as reported, a teacher of the Murom branch of the Vladimir Polytechnic Institute, E. Y. Firsov, joined the election campaign ^{[21, p.1]}. Major figures of the city took up the realization of their ambitions – these are representatives of both government and commercial structures. It was noted by journalists that "there are several dozen people hungry for power even in the provinces for one place" ^{[23, p.1]}. During the debate between the Chairman of the Board of Directors of enterprises A.V. Larkin and the director of JSC "Roof" V. Ya. Khokhryakov, the latter asked his opponent the question: "How do we get out of the crisis in which we find ourselves thanks to the Government you support?" A.V. Larkin was unable to constructively answer the question, because "this time, not his inherent diplomacy was enough to calm the passions that flared up" ^{[23, p.1]}, as noted in the article. It can be noted that the columnists of the newspaper considered it important to highlight what is happening among the candidates for the posts of deputies of the State Duma. Journalists, analyzing public sentiment, believed that residents would vote for someone who could solve their everyday problems – for example, repair the roof ^{[23, p.2]}. In the article by A. Abrashkina, who published a survey of residents about future elections, one can find completely polar opinions about the figure of V. V. Zhirinovsky ^{[23, p.2]}.

The day before the election, the newspaper published a large number of materials on the front page of the issue about how the preparations were going on, saying that everything was ready. First of all, the editorial board called for voting for the sake of the future ^{[24, p.1]} and the happiness of children ^{[24, p.1]}. In the article "Is a new Constitution necessary?" the opinions of the Muromlans were published ^{[24, p.1]}. The published letters contained calls to vote for specific candidates for deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, as well as to make a confident choice in favor of the new Constitution ^{[24, p.1]}. However, the voting results were disappointing. 48.6% voted for the adoption of the Constitution, 49.3% of the voters of the Murom district voted against it ^{[25, p.1]}. But in general, the region adopted the Constitution with the following results: 190,382 people (54.58%) – for the Constitution, 158,414 people (45.42%) – against ^{[27, p.1]}. It was noted that young people were extremely reluctant to go to the polls. According to the results, 27% of voters voted for the LDPR, 13.9% – for the "Choice of Russia", 11.1% – for the Communist Party, 7.6% – for the "Women of Russia", 6.3% voted for the DPR, and 4.7% – for the Russian Unity and Accord Party ^{[25, p.1]}. The voting trend It also remained for the entire region: the LDPR was in the lead (29.49%), the Choice of Russia was in second place (13.76%), the Communist Party of the Russian Federation was in third place (10.02%) ^{[27, p.1]}. There were not enough votes in support of the Constitution in the Murom district ^{[25, p.1]}. The results of voting in the city also showed that Murom did not support the draft Constitution ^{[26, p.1]}. This means that the citizens showed extreme skepticism about the Constitution, although the newspaper published articles that supported the future of the Basic Law of the Russian Federation. The head of the Department of Agriculture of the district administration, N.I. Ganin, believed that this was due to the fact that "the peasants were not familiar with the draft Constitution in detail" ^{[26, p.1]}. Entrepreneur S.D. Golybin believed that "the election results are the result of insufficient work with people of progressive democratic forces" ^{[26, p.1]}. The General Director of JSC Murom, A.P. Sidorov, said in an interview that "it was necessary to work more with people" ^{[26, p.1]}.

Summing up, we note that the local newspaper differs significantly in content and nature of articles from the central press. There are several features in the "Murom region". It is characteristic that the opposition of the authorities was called by local journalists "political passions" and "civil war". The second feature of the newspaper can be considered a reflection of events after the shooting of the House of Soviets. The peak of this reflection was the change of landmarks by city deputies on October 11, as soon as it became clear that the executive branch had won a crushing victory over the Supreme Council. The third feature of the publications is the lack of explicit support for one of the parties to the political conflict at the top. The journalists focused their attention on ordinary everyday problems and issues that the townspeople had to face. We also note the importance of the local newspaper in the context of the publication of normative legal acts of a local nature, which cannot be found in local archives. It helps in historical research.

It can be concluded that the editorial board's rather peaceful position and unwillingness to promote anti-social sentiments contributed to the stabilization of the situation in the region. Despite all the hardships of life in conditions of serious economic and political crises, the Murom people remained faithful primarily to themselves and kept calm in a small town. Local residents were not afraid to express their public opinion and demonstrated their protest sentiments to the authorities by a majority of votes during the elections on December 12. This indicates a high degree of awareness among the citizens, who preferred to express their opinions on a legitimate basis instead of uncontrolled rallies and pickets.