In 1991, as a result of the counter-revolution, Soviet power was overthrown in Russia, and reforms aimed at dismantling the socialist system were initiated. The Yeltsin-Gaidar government in late 1991 and early 1992 carried out price liberalization, began privatizing socialist property, and dismantled the Soviet Army. Communists and patriotic forces opposed these destructive reforms, organizing a series of protest events in Moscow and other cities of the country. The first major demonstration took place on February 23, 1992, in Moscow, timed to coincide with the Day of the Soviet Army and Navy.
After lengthy negotiations and an unconstitutional attempt to ban the rally by Moscow Mayor Gavriil Popov, the event was finally permitted by the Moscow City Council. On February 23, 1992, tens of thousands of people gathered in Mayakovsky Square and then proceeded up Tverskaya Street towards the Kremlin to lay flowers and wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The Moscow authorities blocked the street with trucks and deployed several thousand police and soldiers from the Dzerzhinsky Division. After the failure of negotiations on allowing the protesters into the city center, clashes broke out between protesters and police, resulting in the beating of demonstrators by OMON officers. The police acted very brutally: despite the presence of a large number of veterans of the Great Patriotic War, as well as women and children in the crowd, the officers beat the protesters until they lost consciousness and inflicted serious injuries.
The dispersal of the peaceful pro-Soviet demonstration on the Day of the Soviet Army and Navy became the first major clash between opponents of Yeltsin's reforms and government forces. The brutal actions of the police that day demonstrated to all of Russia the true, bestial face of the "democratic" authorities. As a result of the OMON beatings, dozens of people suffered injuries of varying severity, and Lieutenant General Peskov, who had fought in the Great Patriotic War from the first to the last day, died from the beatings. Later, the magazine "Moscow" noted: "Only through a darkening of the mind can one explain such ugliness, such shame, as the beating of elderly veterans by young police officers who came out to demonstrate on February 23, 1992."
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