Anton Nosik: "Postcard from 1993"

“First, they seized the building of the Mir Hotel next to the White House (expecting to arrest the “Yeltsin and Erin gang,” which was not there), then they fired at and stormed the “book” of the mayor’s office on Novy Arbat. Why did they need it, to this day unknown. Then the defenders of the White House loaded onto trucks and, under red flags, set off to storm the Ostankino television center.

The assault, as we know, was unsuccessful: the Vityaz fighters, who were riding behind the column of rebels, managed to get to Ostankino before the militia, and took up defensive positions in ASK-3, repelling the attack of Makashov’s militants. But the main result of the assault was that the management of the television center ordered to turn off broadcasting. Television screens across the country went dark."