- Date
- 04/10/1993
- First
- Alexander
- Surname
- SMIRNOV
- Sex/Age
- M, 40
- Incident
- crossfire
- Motive
- J
- Place
- street
- Job
- journalist
- Medium
- Federal District Plus
- Moscow
- Street, Town, Region
- Supreme Soviet building, Moscow
- Freelance
- no
- Local/National
- local, Molodyozhny kurier
- Other Ties
- Cause of Death
- crossfire
- Legal Qualification
- no information
- Impunity
- amnesty
Seven journalists died in Moscow in early October 1993 when months of confrontation between President Yeltsin and Russia's parliament, the Supreme Soviet, reached their violent culmination.
On the morning of 4 October the Supreme Soviet building was surrounded and shelled by the army but it was not until late afternoon that those inside finally surrendered. In the meantime crowds of curious onlookers swelled numbers outside the building. By evening over 70 had died, among them two out-of-town journalists.
Alexander Smirnov had been sent to Moscow from Chuvashia by his newspaper "Molodyozhny kurier" (based in the republic’s capital Yoshkar Ola). He was killed around noon on 4 October by shots to the chest and shoulder.
An investigation into the 1993 “disturbances” by the Prosecutor General's office was closed on 23 February 1994 when an amnesty was issued for all involved.