Page 28 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 13(1) (2025)

million roubles – to the fall of the Soviet Par-
liament in 1993, it housed the Supreme Soviet
of Russia and became the central place of power
(Figure 1). The House of Soviets, symbolising the
central power of the USSR, was the main scene
of the unsuccessful coup in August 1991. The
coup was planned by Vice President Gennady
Yanayev with military units such as the Taman
and Kantemir division, the Communist Party of
Russia, and KGB agents, as an opposition to the
New Union Treaty, which reinforced the ongo-
ing economic crisis and the diminished cen-
28 tral power of the Soviet Union (Dunlop 2003;
White 1992). During the coup attempt from Au-
gust 19th to 22nd, President Yeltsin called on
studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 13 (2025), številka 1 / volume 13 (2025), number 1
a determined group of 200,000 civilians to re-
sist. This resulted in a four-day period of intense
conflict. Eventually, President Yeltsin delivered Figure 1: The former House of Soviets, now White
a successful political speech from the garden of House, in Moscow’s Krasnopresnenskaya embankment
the House of Soviets, standing atop one of the alongside the Moskva River, axonometric view, authors.
Taman tanks. Approximately 50,000 people had declared neutrality, the Russian Federation’s
gathered to listen to his speech and support his army stormed the House of Soviets, following
stance (Gibson 1997). Some results of the failed the order of Boris Yeltsin, from the tanks stand-
attempts were drastic: they provided Yeltsin ing in front of the building. It caused great dam-
with great power in the union, enabled the ex- age to the building and the lives of people inside
pansion of nationalist movements in the periph- the offices, and an end to the constitutional cri-
eries, accelerated the seceding of Ukrainian and sis in favour of Boris Yeltsin and his support-
Belarusian states from the Union in the coming ers (Koravlev and Alekhin 1993). The existence
days, and consequently, led to the dissolution of of tanks and military attacks on the square dis-
the Union in four months (Gibson 1997). tanced the crowds from the building even when
Two years after the dissolution of the So- there were no fences. The result was a form of si-
viet Union, in the Russian Federation, a con- lent-curious mob, watchful of the fire spreading
stitutional crisis and violent civil resistance oc- from the House of Soviets, whose dark smoke in
curred between the Parliament and president the sky has been captured in several photos.
Boris Yeltsin due to opposing political move- Eventually, Yeltsin oversaw the reconstruc-
ments (Malinova 2021). On 21 September 1993, tion projects. The responsible bodies decided to
when Yeltsin attempted to dissolve the parlia- change the name of the building to the White
ment consisting of the Supreme Soviet of Russia House and to install a metal fence around the
and the Congress of People’s Deputies, the par- site to prevent any possible attack. Additionally,
liament, as a response, called Vice President Al- public access to the garden of the White House
eksandr Rutskoy to become president in place was blocked (Mamaeva 2019).
of Yeltsin (Désert 2014). On the 3rd of October,
the crowds supporting Yeltsin gathered around
the streets of Moscow and were met with a vi-
olent attack by the police (Association for Dip-
lomatic Studies and Training n.d.). Although it