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| Letter of Forty-Two | |
|---|---|
| Name | Letter of Forty-Two |
| Date | 1993 |
| Place | Moscow |
| Signatories | Forty-two Russian cultural figures |
| Language | Russian |
Letter of Forty-Two The Letter of Forty-Two was an open letter published in October 1993 by forty-two prominent Russian intellectuals, artists, and public figures calling for decisive measures during the 1993 constitutional crisis in the Russian Federation. The document attracted immediate attention across Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and international media in publications associated with Izvestia, Moskovskij Komsomolets, and The New York Times, and it became a focal point in debates involving supporters of Boris Yeltsin, opponents linked to the Supreme Soviet of Russia (1990–1993), and observers from Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
The letter emerged amid the 1993 standoff between Boris Yeltsin and the legislature centered on the Supreme Soviet of Russia (1990–1993), following the dissolution of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation and the constitutional referendum crisis that involved confrontations at the White House (Russian parliament building). The crisis drew attention from international actors including Bill Clinton, John Major, Helmut Kohl, François Mitterrand, and institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank because of implications for post-Soviet transitions framed by precedents such as the August Coup of 1991 and the later Bosnian War responses. Cultural and intellectual communities in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg debated the balance of order and reform as influenced by figures like Alexander Rutskoy, Ruslan Khasbulatov, and factions from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and emerging liberal groups connected to Yegor Gaidar and Sergei Shakhrai.
The signatories included renowned artists and public intellectuals drawn from institutions such as the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow Art Theatre, Russian Academy of Arts, and academic affiliates at Lomonosov Moscow State University, Saint Petersburg State University, and the Russian Academy of Sciences. Participants ranged across theater directors, poets, novelists, film directors, and critics linked to the legacies of Sergei Eisenstein, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Anna Akhmatova as well as contemporaries associated with Daniil Granin, Vladimir Vysotsky's successors, and collaborators of Roman Abramovich-era patrons. Signatories’ public profiles intersected with media outlets like Ogonyok, Novaya Gazeta, Kommersant, and connections to cultural awards such as the State Prize of the Russian Federation and the Nobel Prize in Literature laureates' Russian interlocutors.
The document demanded urgent action from the executive to restore public order and safeguard constitutional continuity, urging measures that implicated the roles of Interior Ministry (Russia), the Prosecutor General of Russia, and the Federal Security Service in maintaining stability. It criticized parliamentary obstruction by deputies allied with Communist Party of the Russian Federation figures and nationalist blocs linked to Zhirinovsky-style movements, and it called for media discipline across outlets including Rossiya-1, Channel One Russia, and independent journals like Sovetskaya Kultura. The letter referenced cultural heritage sites such as Bolshoi Theatre and civic institutions including Moscow State University as endangered by ongoing political turmoil, invoking precedents from the October Revolution and post-Soviet legal debates tied to the forthcoming 1993 Russian constitutional referendum.
Reactions split among political leaders, law enforcement, and international observers. Boris Yeltsin's administration cited the letter in justifying emergency measures while critics in the Supreme Soviet of Russia (1990–1993) denounced signatories as endorsing repression, prompting counter-statements from figures associated with Alexander Rutskoy and Ruslan Khasbulatov. Media responses in Izvestia, Kommersant, The Moscow Times, British Broadcasting Corporation, and CNN varied from supportive editorials to investigative pieces comparing the episode to interventions in Czechoslovakia (1968) and debates about legitimacy seen in Weimar Republic scholarship. Law enforcement actors, including units tied to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Russian Armed Forces, referenced the letter amid orders concerning the White House (Russian parliament building) standoff and rules of engagement during the October events.
Public opinion reflected polarized views across demographic and geographic divides, from intellectual circles associated with Pushkin Museum patrons to workers in industrial centers like Magnitogorsk and Chelyabinsk. Newspapers and magazines—Novaya Gazeta, Ogonyok, Kommersant-Vlast—debated the ethics of intellectuals intervening in crises alongside international commentary from outlets such as Le Monde, Der Spiegel, The Washington Post, and The Guardian. Prominent cultural figures who did not sign, including those connected to Andrei Sakharov's legacy and Anna Politkovskaya's colleagues, issued separate statements, while student groups at Lomonosov Moscow State University and municipal councils in Saint Petersburg staged demonstrations referencing the letter in their slogans.
The letter influenced narratives about the role of intelligentsia in post-Soviet politics, shaping debates in legal circles around the 1993 Russian constitutional referendum and constitutional architecture formalized in the Constitution of Russia (1993). It became a reference point in cultural histories alongside discussions of censorship from the Soviet Union era and later assessments by scholars at Harvard University, Oxford University, Yale University, and European University at Saint Petersburg. Subsequent political memoirs by Boris Yeltsin, commentaries in New York Review of Books, and retrospectives in Российская газета examined the ethics and consequences of public interventions, situating the episode in the wider trajectory of Russian political development alongside events such as the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt and the evolution of United Russia and opposition movements led by figures like Mikhail Kasyanov and Alexei Navalny.