popular vote. He helped found the Commonwealth of Independent States, which ended any attempts to preserve the USSR. He moved to end state control of the economy, privatized most industries and among other things outlawed the Communist Party. Beginning in 1992 the conflict between Yeltsin and his political opponents intensified. Yeltsin suffered a series of defeats at thehands of the Russian Constitutional Court, chaired by Valeriy Zorkin. The court overturned Yeltsin's decree creating a Russian ministry of security and internal affairs and lifted portions of Yeltsin's ban on the Soviet Communist party. In 1993 the court repealed his ban on the National Salvation Front, a communist-nationalist organization that had called for Yeltsin's removal. In 1993 Yeltsin announced on television that he had issued a decree declaring special presidential rule. But when the decree was published there was no mention of special presidential powers. Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoy sharply criticized Yeltsin for issuing the decree and for using a referendum to gain popular approval of reform policies. Yeltsin asked Rutskoy to resign as vice president, and when Rutskoy refused, Yeltsin removed Rutskoy's powers of office, despite protests by the Supreme Soviet. Yeltsin won the support of the majority of Russian voters who participated in the April 1993 referendum, but the referendum did little to end his power struggle with parliament. In September, Yeltsin attempted to break the power deadlock by dissolving parliament and calling for new parliamentary elections. "In turn, parliament voted to impeach Yeltsin and swore in Rutskoy as acting president. Led by Rutskoy and chairman of the Supreme Soviet Ruslan Khasbulatov, hundreds of legislators and anti-Yeltsin demonstrators occupied the parliament building in Moscow. On September 28 Yeltsin ordered troops to barricade the parliament building, and in the following week security forces, acting in suppo...
