After a standoff and bloodshed on both sides, the Russian Army finally forced the Congress to disperse with tank fire, leaving an estimated 147 dead and over 400 wounded (though the number might well have been higher). Yeltsin was congratulated for crushing the 'rebellion'. Yet was this event really the end of the last vestiges of the USSR or did it rather represent the extinction of Russian democracy, which was still in its cradle?
In his talk, Jeff Hawn will show that, even though the system was flawed and still evolving, Russia was moving towards a democratic system governed by the rule of law. This had been an ongoing process since 1990 and had been led in part by Boris Yeltsin - until he found it to be a challenge to his personal authority. The dissolution of the Congress represented not the end of the USSR but the paving of the way for a new post-Soviet Russia that would become first a “managed democratic” regime - and then an authoritarian one.
Jeff Hawn holds bachelor's and master's degrees in international relations from American University, Washington DC and a certificate in Russian studies from St. Petersburg State University in Russia. He is a doctoral candidate in International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He previously lived and worked in Washington DC first as a Policy Correspondent for RCR Wireless and later as a global intelligence analyst for the private intelligence company, Stratfor. Jeff also serves as a guest lecturer for undergraduate and graduate-level classes at American University and LSE on U.S.-Russian relations, Soviet
history, war and peace since 1914, intellectual history, international terrorism, and open-source intelligence. Jeff has had numerous articles published on a wide range of topics. In 2022, he became a Non-Resident Fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy based in Washington D.C. He has done extensive research on the constitutional crisis of 1993, and his PhD dissertation From Collapse to Crisis: The Fall of the Russian Parliament and the Constitutional Crisis of 1993 will be submitted to LSE in September 2024.
This is the fourth talk which King’s College, London have agreed to host on the Society’s behalf. Booking will close 48 hours before the scheduled date for the event, i.e. by 7.00 pm on Monday, 15th January, so that we can notify KCL in advance of the names of those who have booked to attend in-person. GBRS will disseminate the Microsoft Teams link by email to online attendees on Tuesday, 16th January, the day before the talk on Wednesday, 17th November.
As with Zoom, those attending the Microsoft Teams meeting will be able to take part in the Q & A session, either by putting questions orally or by the Chat mechanism.
This event will also be attended by KCL staff and students. For GBRS members and non-members booking via the GBRS website, 30 tickets have been allocated for in-person attendees and 30 tickets have been allocated for online attendees. Tickets, particularly for in-person attendance, are likely to be taken up very quickly and so, if you would like to attend in-person, you are encouraged to book early.
It would be helpful if on 17th January you could aim to arrive at the Strand Building between 6.30 pm and (at the latest) 6.45 pm so as to register in good time at reception. KCL will kindly be providing drinks from 6.30 pm on.