In early October 1993, people poured into the streets of Moscow, tanks drove in, the building of the White House was on fire, snipers fired, and people died. In mid-November 2013, people poured into the streets of Kiev, in February 2014 the building of the House of Trade Unions was on fire, snipers were shooting, people were killed. Much in common? More likely no than yes.
As they say - feel the difference: in Moscow, the so-called elite - two branches of government fought for power by violent methods - in Kiev citizens of their country took to the streets protesting against the corrupt government that violated the agreement with the people who elected it and perverted the Constitution. In Moscow, the people of Russia did not put forward any demands on any of the branches of government. In Kiev, the citizens of Ukraine immediately put forward a number of conditions, and demanded their fulfillment from the President and deputies elected by them.
Moscow
By the fall of 1993, the confrontation between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, headed by Speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, reached its climax. Each side tried to monopolize power. As the popular wisdom says: "Whichever party you create in Russia, you will still get the CPSU." Each of the parties sought to create its own "KPSS", to completely usurp power in its hands and thus to rule the country and, most importantly, its resources. At the end of September, Yeltsin signed decree No. 1400 on direct presidential rule, which turned the mechanism of debatable confrontation into a violent one. Yes, a huge number of people took to the streets to support Boris Yeltsin, but on the same streets there were also a considerable number of supporters and defenders of the White House. And the order to shoot his defenders by snipers still many cannot forgive Yeltsin.
Kiev
On the first night of the confrontation on the Kiev Maidan, at the call of journalist Mustafa Nayem, came out, according to various estimates, from two to five thousand angry citizens of Ukraine. This is how the “people's veche” was formed, which considered that the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, who, under pressure from Russia, refused to sign an agreement with the EU on European integration, thereby betrayed his people. The "People's Veche" demanded the return of agreements with the EU, the resignation of Yanukovych and the government, and a return to the 2004 Constitution, which provides for a parliamentary republic, not a presidential one. It should be recalled that, having come to power, Viktor Yanukovych changed the Constitution of Ukraine "for himself." Neither that night, nor later, did not even his associates in the Party of Regions take the side of Yanukovych.
Moscow
Moscow in October 1993 plunged into chaos and anarchy for several days - into a civil war of a local - Moscow - scale. By and large, neither the power structures, nor the citizens of their country were ruled by any of the warring parties. Employees of the "Alpha" unit refused to comply with Yeltsin's order to storm the White House, but regular military units came to the rescue, which from large-caliber guns fired at the building, after which a fire broke out.
Ruslan Khasbulatov and Russian Vice-President Alexander Rutskoi failed to organize any effective force support. By and large, according to eyewitnesses, everything was decided by chance, although a helicopter and an escape plan were ready for Yeltsin.
But history does not know the subjunctive mood, and Boris Yeltsin managed to carry out a coup d'etat, crushing all branches of government under himself, creating a convenient Constitution "for himself", excluding parliamentary-presidential administration of the country. All this happened under loud assurances of the need for liberal reforms. Russia embarked on the path of personalism, practically autocracy. The deaths of 157 people who died in those days have not yet been investigated.
Kiev
There was no civil war on the Maidan in Kiev. There was a confrontation between the people and the legitimate President, whose governance ceased to suit the people of Ukraine. The confrontation was also legitimate, since in the constitutions of almost all democratic countries, not excluding Ukraine, citizens are guaranteed the right to freely express their will and hold rallies.
The situation escalated several times. Especially in February, when the police received and carried out an order to harshly disperse civilians, mainly students, after which hundreds of thousands of angry citizens took to the streets of Kiev and the Maidan. The people of Ukraine have resolutely stood up for upholding their constitutional rights and freedoms. The second tough confrontation took place in February, more than a hundred civilians and employees of power structures were killed. An investigation is underway.
But, despite heavy human sacrifices, the people of Ukraine managed to achieve almost all the conditions put forward in those days: the election of a new president, the signing of an agreement with the EU, a return to the 2004 Constitution, the resignation of the collaborationist Rada and re-elections to it. A civil war imposed from the outside, growing into a domestic one, undoubtedly slowed down the course of democratic reforms and transformations, but the determination of Ukrainians to transform their country does not subside.
