1993 Constitutional Crisis — Yeltsin Shells His Own Parliament

After Yeltsin unconstitutionally dissolved the elected Russian parliament in September 1993, hundreds of deputies and supporters barricaded themselves inside the White House (parliament building) in Moscow. When street clashes escalated, Yeltsin ordered the army to shell the building with tank fire on 4 October 1993, live on television; the official death toll was 187, though independent estimates ranged into the hundreds. Yeltsin used the crisis to push through a new constitution months later that dramatically expanded presidential power at parliament's expense.