Radio War Nerd #260 — Yeltsin's 1993 Coup, Part 1: Background
Recorded: December 22, 2020
We recover lost history from Boris Yeltsin's coup against the Russian parliament in October 1993. Yeltsin's coup came courtesy of his biggest sponsors: then-President Bill Clinton, the international financial institutions, and their waterboys in the western press corps, who falsely portrayed the US-backed coup as a heroic defense of Russian democracy, before flushing the sordid episode down the memory hole.
In Part I, we look at the background and lead-up to the coup, from the 1990 Russian parliamentary elections that helped propel Boris Yeltsin's rise in the late Soviet era, to the controversial April 1993 referendum that Yeltsin used to justify bombing Russia's parliament 6 months later.
First, the War Nerd and Ames talk about UK lockdown follies & Henri de Monfried's book "Pearls, Farms and Hashish"...
At 26:58 - we start our series on Yeltsin's 1993 Coup...
Images:
*August 1991 coup fail: Boris Yeltsin — with support from the democratically-elected Russian parliament (background, "White House") plus covert support from the US National Security Agency — defeats a hapless antidemocratic coup by Soviet military-intelligence brass.
*October 1993 coup success: Yeltsin — with overt support from President Clinton, the EU, and the western press corps — bombs the democratically-elected Russian parliament (background, "White House") into submission, killing hundreds.
Total time: 1:37:19
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
Buy John Dolan's book "The War Nerd Iliad" and his audiobook "Pleasant Hell".
Comments (27)
The "nomenclatura" took Russians savings? Wow, way to exhonerate US CIANGO's when it matters- when assigning blame.
Im listening march 3 2022.. and this could be about covid trump or Ukraine…. Including George soros….does someone have a playbook?
Listening to the first few minutes of this on New Year’s Day 2022, and they could be talking about COVID today. Nothings changed lol
Hey, great show! Could you recommend a good book on the fall of the Soviet Union?
It's kind of crazy, considering all that happened, that nothing happened to Gaidar and Chubais. You'd think they'd get popped.
Gotta take issue with this French writer - hash is da bomb and opiates slowly kill you. Awesome Yeltsin ep! We've been waiting for this. :) Another example of this process: 1. "Have an election! Be a democracy like us!" 2. Election happens 3. "No, not that kind of election! You picked the wrong guys!" 4. Coup/sanctions/blockade/invasion/bombing
Great work. Can you please publish written notes for this series?
This was an amazing episode - do you (or other esteems commenters) have any suggestions on reading to really get a depth of knowledge of the privatization of Russia you described?
This was great. The part between the putsch and Yeltsin coup is an amazing and shocking story. I remember reading about the '91 putsch in the newspapers as a kid. Seemed real exciting for a kid. 1990 - 1992 were special years in India too. At that time, I never realised how close to disaster India was, and by extension my family and friends.
Hello War Nerd and Mark! The new Blindboy podcast episode description reads "Hot Take. The ideas that connect illegal British Army operations with Charles Manson and covert LSD research." It's very fun. I am a big fan of this Irish lads work. Check it out. I am guessing you two will very much enjoy......https://open.spotify.com/episode/3azSYc37Xbgn6WXe24S33F
I took the time to listen to this and can confirm that it's an excellent episode. All of the info presented on Manson is covered in (and I assume sourced from) Tom O'Neill's recent book Chaos, but the host does an excellent job connecting O'Neill's evidence to a larger theory of covert counterinsurgency warfare/terrorism with multiple historical examples. Only thing I wish had been added was at least a reference to the term "strategy of tension," as that's the best catch-all term I've heard for these kinds of operations and also because Operation Gladio is just absolutely mind-bending and worth bringing up for its own sake.
Yeah - this definitely needs to be made public. I mean we all know about it, but it's amazing how many people have no idea of how Russia was reamed by Yelstin & his Western backers.
Obligatory request from me that you make this a public repost.
Agree,this must be heard. Shout it out.
Srry won't do this again but rant. Had a nice telegram hangout with some nice people from Turkey, c-list tries to infiltrate it with stupid stories about how their Turkish neighbours think and worse. Fin have a nice day
Also since I got microtargeted, it was nato diplomats that gave Obama his nobel to arm him against the c-list crowd. Didn't work and I am just posing
Since 2 messages are a rant wasted. Whos strategic genius would think the azeris need a bigger fighting force? Sickening how these c listers think
Also your giving the numnuts with a military security clearance to much credit, erdo is running around after fires and doing his alpha thing. But the numnuts believe in nothing beside their hr title. C list historians
What a depressing intro, excusi for the 2 cents of Tigray. But beside the state capture I stand my ground good intentions and expats are part of the mix.
I see the injustice differently here. Yes ppl had money in the bank. But this was money valued within the old closed system. There was a currency collapse. The USSR started running a trade deficit in 1966. So this was a long time coming. It was an empire. There was no way to avoid a currency collapse. And its going to happen in the USA too. What was criminal is the privatization of assets. Assets should have been renationalized into Russia proper. And the tariffs should have been throttled.
You guys should do an entire series of the “privatization by liquidation” of the eastern bloc
Did Soros actually contribute his own money or was he used as a front by the CIA, I wonder? I mean, did he get a tax deduction? I wonder how it worked.
Larry Summers, Friend of Epstein (TM)
Uh oh sounds like you are claiming that George Soros is a powerful person and doesn't always use his power for good. This means you're basically Hitler.
I've been waiting for this ever since Ames went on True Anon! Great episode guys, thank you.
The confident whiz kid hypocrisy gymnastics of knowing what’s best. Really makes the modern Russiagate thing absolutely absurd.
Can't wait to dive into this as well. I'd like to make a show request if you guys can ever do an overview of the Ukraine/Russia conflict in Easter Ukraine. The episode (I forgot the number) with the Ukrainian professor examining what happened in Maidan square was great. I was hoping for some kind of general overview of the conflict itself. Beyond that, thank you guys for the great show. Always a pleasure to see a new episode being released. On that happy note...