Oleg,
While I applaud your effort, your view about Russia is somewhat limited. For one, we should remember the Gaidar’s reforms in 1992, which were the most drastic neo-liberal reforms in Europe. Ever. It was Gaidar who saved Russia from starvation, when he drastically cut the government regulations. But in the end of 1992 he was forced to resigned by the commies in the Supreme Parliament, and he was substituted by a corrupt oil oligarch Chernomyrdyn, who immediately started printing money like crazy. The inflation jumped to 1000%. You are not very correct on the media though, at that time most of the media was quite anti-communist, including the TV and the newspapers. In 2003 Eltsin decided to get rid of the communist parliament and change the Constitution – and he did not have much choice. At that time, the communists in the parliament believed there were no laws that limited their power. Literally.
In 2003, during the referendum Eltsin’s economic policy was supported by the majority of the people, and he theoretically could have thrown out the bustards back then. But he waited until end September 2003, when he declared the Parliament closed. But he badly organized things, and he was not ready that the commies would stay. After some hesitation he organized a complete blocade of the Parliament building, and at some point he even turned off water and electricity. But in October 3, huge communist demonstrations were able to get through the blockade, and the police escaped from the crowds. At this point, the communists decided they could take over, and they sent their groups to take over the TV station. After a few hours of gun fighting for the TV center, they were unexpectedly attacked by the Russian armed forces that came out of no-where. During ther night, democtatic leaders called for the people of Moscow to come to the defense of democracy, and gather near the mayor’s office (the mayor was also pro-democracy). Huge crowds gathered there, and demanded to get guns – so they could go and finish off the communist scum. The commies retreated from the TV station to the Parliament, and around 6:30, the Russian armed forces and the people’s crowds surrounded the Parliament and started the bombardment. Some commies were able to escape through the underground tunnels, and more mayhem on the streets of Moscow was ensured.
At that time, btw, I lived half a kilometer from the “White House”, the Parliament building. It was quite an interesting time.
BTW, Eltsin did not appear on TV through out the 2 weeks of the stand-off.
