The Congress rejected the decree and voted to remove Yeltsin from presidency through impeachment. His estranged Vice President, Aleksandr Rutskoy, was sworn in in accordance with the existing constitution as Acting President. On September 28, public protests against Yeltsin's government began in earnest on the streets of Moscow where the first blood was shed. The army remained under Yeltsin's control, which determined the outcome of the crisis. The legislators found themselves barricaded inside the White House of Russia parliament building. For the next week, anti-Yeltsin protests grew, until a mass uprising erupted in the city on October 2. Russia was on the brink of civil war. At this point the security and military elites threw their support behind Yeltsin, besieged the parliament building, and through the use of tank artillery nearly destroyed the building and cleared it of the elected legislature.
By October 5, 1993, armed resistance to Yeltsin had been crushed. The ten-day conflict had seen the most deadly street fighting in Moscow since the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917. According to government estimates, 187 people had been killed and 437 wounded.