Navigating Chaos: American Policy Responses to the 1993 Russian Constitutional Crisis and its Impact on NATO Expansion

 

What is Going on in Russia from a Former Expat Perspective

World events shape each generation of man creating a unique and semi-collective life experience.  I am proudly a child of the 1970s and share certain experiences with all Americans who are my age.  The Cold War. Neil Armstrong. Vietnam. Watergate. Iran Hostage Crisis. Ronald Reagan. Mikhail Gorbachev. Glasnost. The Fall of the Berlin Wall.  These are the collective world events shaping the collective psyche of Gen X, and I have been fascinated by these remarkable historic events my entire life.  

As most of you know, I ended up learning Russian and working in Russia and eastern Europe in the mid-90s.  Having had that experience and when Russia invaded Ukraine in February, I was keenly interested in what is going on in Russia.  Living in the USA, it is not incredibly difficult to gauge American public opinion, but it is quite difficult to assess public opinion in Russia from a far.  As is abundantly clear to any regular readers, I do not trust what I am told by the media or by the government.  I operate as Ronald Reagan advised in reference to the USSR, "trust but verify."

So instead of relying solely on American media which tends to parrot the government's talking points, I started calling my friends from Russia and listening to Russian podcasts in order to get an idea of what is really going on in Russia.  One of my Russian friends who lives in the USA is full-on Qanon.  While this contact provides little evidence of public opinion in Russia, the fact that my Russian friend who lives here is completely tripped out about global authoritarians lurking among us is noteworthy.  My Russian GenXer friends have a collective experience in the 1970s as well.  Political Persecution.  Religious Persecution.  Political Prisoners. The Gulag Archipelago. Mikhail Gorbachev. Glasnost. The Fall of the Berlin Wall.  Russian Gen Xers know authoritarians when they see them, and many of them living in the USA are apoplectic about American political trends towards restriction on free speech and domestic totalitarianism.  If you know a Russian-American in their 50s, ask them about it.  They will explain American totalitarianism to you chapter and verse and will provide ample examples.  Indeed, our government is not far behind Russia on the scale between liberty and totalitarianism, but that is a topic for another day.  In this day of censorship in the USA, we fear being "cancelled," while Russian citizens fear being thrown in jail.  Whether being cancelled or thrown in jail, curtailment of the freedom of speech is the most important tool of the would-be totalitarian.  

In any event, as I said before, Russian Gen Xers know authoritarians when they see them, and my Russian friends are clearly living under an authoritarian regime in Russia.  Many of these folks are afraid to talk about it over the phone or text for fear of "the knock on the door" from the government.  Speaking of Alexei Navalny, who was allegedly poisoned by the Russian government for criticizing Putin, is ill-advised.  One of my friends told me that she had deleted a couple of our messages for fear of having them on her phone.  She and other Russians are using as many social media outlets as possible to connect with the outside, because they fear that outlets may be shut down by the government or by the West.  Others who have spoken out against the Russian government have fled their homeland for other countries as political refugees.  The fear of censorship is real in Russia and is palpable.  In fact, although my sample size is small, it seems to me that the vast majority of Russians know that the Rubicon has been crossed and that they live in a totalitarian state.  The government controls the media in Russia and, therefore, has complete control of the national message and the narrative.  Journalists, who complained too much or asked too many good questions, were regularly assassinated in Moscow when I lived there in 1993-1994.  It was common.  Journalists shot by "bandits" while exiting their building or while exiting their flats.  I remember that one was found dead in the bathtub of his flat, and this happened when Russia was a new "democracy."  The name may have changed, and the constitution of its government is different, but Russia was and is still like the USSR.  Under Putin, it was like USSR-light.  Russia kept its citizens in check through fear and intimidation in amounts that most people could tolerate so long as life was economically better.  Hence, no mass exoduses, at least not until Putin initiated the partial mobilization.

Troops Loyal to Rutskoy Attempt to Seize Ostankino Tower - October 3, 1993

 Editor's Note:  It has been a few years since I, for the most part, stopped writing.  Due to the state of our democracy and at the encouragement of my wife, I will more regularly participate in the public discussion.  For some reason, she thinks that my point of view is unique and understandable.  So as I begin this venture again, I think that it is very appropriate and timely to discuss my time in Moscow in 1993 in continuation of a series from years ago.  Such story is timely in that power hungry leaders use crisis in order to attain or solidify power.  We must always beware of such people and, by looking beyond their words, analyze carefully their motivations.  In any event, I believe that we left off on October 1, 1993. 

While we (my roommate Paul and I) were enjoying a beautiful weekend in Nizhni Novgorod, Moscow remained in a constitutional crisis and slipped into chaos.  By way of background, I have reprinted below a brief explanation from Wikipedia in connection with the 1993 Constitutional Crisis in Russia.

"The constitutional crisis of 1993 was a political stand-off between the Russian president and the Russian parliament that was resolved by using military force. The relations between the president and the parliament had been deteriorating for some time. The constitutional crisis reached a tipping point on September 21, 1993, when President Boris Yeltsin purported to dissolve the country's legislature (the Congress of People's Deputies and its Supreme Soviet), although the president did not have the power to dissolve the parliament according to the then-current constitution. Yeltsin used the results of the referendum of April 1993 to justify his actions. In response, the parliament declared that the president's decision was null and void, impeached Yeltsin and proclaimed vice president Aleksandr Rutskoy to be acting president."

"The situation deteriorated at the beginning of October. On October 3rd, demonstrators removed police cordons around the parliament and, urged by their leaders, took over the Mayor's offices and tried to storm the Ostankino television centre. The army, which had initially declared its neutrality, by Yeltsin's orders stormed the Supreme Soviet building in the early morning hours of October 4th, and arrested the leaders of the resistance."

"The ten-day conflict became the deadliest single event of street fighting in Moscow's history since the October Revolution of 1917. According to government estimates, 187 people were killed and 437 wounded, while sources close to Russian communists put the death toll at as high as 2,000."

In the morning of Sunday, October 3, 1993, Paul and I left Nizhni Novgorod by train headed back to Moscow.  Prior to Nizhni Novgorod and despite arriving in Russia in July of 1993, I had been so busy working that I had not been able to leave Moscow.  Our trip to Nizhni Novgorod was my first trip out of the city.  Unlike our travels a few days prior to Nizhni Novgorod which was the night train, we were taking the day train today.  Again and similar to the previous Sunday when Paul and I listened to speeches at the Moscow mayor's office, it was a beautiful autumn day.  The yellow leaves of the aspen trees littered the forest between the small, drab, Soviet-looking towns where we occasionally stopped to transfer passengers and at which we would buy a couple of Twix bars and some soda. 

To me, this autumn day is noteworthy.  You must remember that I grew up on the south-side of Chicago, the son of a steelworker, and grandson to West Virginia hillbillies.  Prior to this time in my life when I was 23 years old, I had never traveled abroad.  As a matter of fact, I had barely traveled at all.  I was 21 years old when I flew on my first commercial flight so hopping on a plane and traveling and working in the former Soviet Union a short two years later was an extreme culture shock to me.  Not only was Russia a foreign country, it was the former Soviet Union - our Cold War adversary.  We were always nervous that we would encounter some Russian citizens that did not take too kindly to Americans, so we usually attempted to blend in as much as possible.  And there was always the fear that things in Russia could go sideways and we'd be stuck.  Yet, here we are jumping out of the train in Vladimir to buy some Twix.  As with most of my time in Russia, it was surreal.

In any event, we arrived in the evening at Kursky Train Station in Moscow's center.  We lived on the Garden Ring between Kursky Train Station and the Taganskaya metro station but closer to Kursky.  We walked out of the train station and literally onto the Garden Ring.  In order to understand that the Garden Ring is a very large road, please see the picture below.

Viewing Russia From the Inside - by George Friedman

Editor's Note:  This article is a great article explaining the situation between Russia and the USA.

"Last week I flew into Moscow, arriving at 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 8. It gets dark in Moscow around that time, and the sun doesn't rise until about 10 a.m. at this time of the year — the so-called Black Days versus White Nights. For anyone used to life closer to the equator, this is unsettling. It is the first sign that you are not only in a foreign country, which I am used to, but also in a foreign environment. Yet as we drove toward downtown Moscow, well over an hour away, the traffic, the road work, were all commonplace. Moscow has three airports, and we flew into the farthest one from downtown, Domodedovo — the primary international airport. There is endless renovation going on in Moscow, and while it holds up traffic, it indicates that prosperity continues, at least in the capital."

"Our host met us and we quickly went to work getting a sense of each other and talking about the events of the day. He had spent a great deal of time in the United States and was far more familiar with the nuances of American life than I was with Russian. In that he was the perfect host, translating his country to me, always with the spin of a Russian patriot, which he surely was. We talked as we drove into Moscow, managing to dive deep into the subject."

"Our host met us and we quickly went to work getting a sense of each other and talking about the events of the day. He had spent a great deal of time in the United States and was far more familiar with the nuances of American life than I was with Russian. In that he was the perfect host, translating his country to me, always with the spin of a Russian patriot, which he surely was. We talked as we drove into Moscow, managing to dive deep into the subject."

"From him, and from conversations with Russian experts on most of the regions of the world — students at the Institute of International Relations — and with a handful of what I took to be ordinary citizens (not employed by government agencies engaged in managing Russia's foreign and economic affairs), I gained a sense of Russia's concerns. The concerns are what you might expect. The emphasis and order of those concerns were not."
The rest of the article is here.
 

I am for peace!

A friend of mine posted this video on a Russian social networking website. Please watch the video below. It is in Russian, but there are subtitles. The video is that of famous Ukranians begging for peace in Ukraine. It is quite moving.

Nizhni Novgorod - October 1, 1993

Editor's Note:  This story is a continuation of a series of events in the fall of 1993 detailed herein.  A while back, my wife asked me to write these stories down for our children.  I have told them most of the stories, but I do not think that I told them this one.  They like the crazy, gun shooting stories from Moscow.  This story is about a pleasant weekend in a beautiful little city - Nizhni Novgorod. 

On September 30, 1993, and in the late evening and while Moscow was still in turmoil, my roommate Paul and I took the train from Moscow to Nizhni Novgorod. As I stated previously, Paul is a first generation American whose family moved to Czechoslovakia just before the 1917 October Revolution. During World War II, his family finally moved to the USA near Washington D.C. Paul had a bunch of family in Nizhni Novgorod whom we went to visit.  If I am not mistaken, it was the first time he had met them, as the city was previously closed to all foreigners during the Soviet era (discussed in a little more detail below).



Paul's young cousin

It was the night train to Nizhni Novgorod, and the trip took about eight hours if memory serves me correctly. Thankfully, we bought the tickets as though we were Russians. At that time (and I am told even today), there were two ticket prices - one for Russians and one for foreigners. Also, the foreigners were all seated in one car which often led to robberies. Presumably with the help of the steward, it was not uncommon for the foreigners' car to be gassed and the riders robbed as they slept. I heard tales of expats traveling to St. Petersburg and with their money and important documents duct-taped to their stomachs while they slept, yet still waking with no documents, no cash, and a huge headache (literally and figuratively).

The ride on the train was delightful. We shared a cabin with two Russians, and we laughed and ate through most of the late evening. The ride was more bumpy than the local Amtrak, but the constant sound of the train crossing the joints in the rails was therapeutic and hypnotic. I slept like a baby.

We arrived at our destination the next morning very well rested. Paul's family showed us all over the city. It was so nice to be out of Moscow and in the country. Nizhni Novgorod is a very old city by American standards; it was founded 400 years prior to the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock!

"After the destruction of the Mordvin Inäzor Obram, a hillfort named Obran Osh (Ashli) on the site of the future stone Kremlin, in 1221 a small Russian wooden hillfort was founded by Grand Duke Yury II. Located at the confluence of two of the most important rivers in his principality, the Volga (Mordvin "Rav" or "Rava") and the Oka, Obran Osh was renamed Nizhny Novgorod. Its name literally means Lower Newtown to distinguish it from the older Veliky Novgorod."

You can read more about the history of Nizhni Novgorod here.

Much like being on Red Square (a place that not many Americans visited prior to 1993), Nizhni Novgorod was a closed city during the Soviet era and very few Americans had been there in recent times.

"During much of the Soviet era, the city was closed to foreigners to safeguard the security of Soviet military research and production facilities, even though it was a popular stopping point for Soviet tourists traveling up and down the Volga in tourist boats. Unusually for a Soviet city of that size, even street maps were not available for sale until the mid-1970s."

The Volga River runs through the city, and the kind of reminded me of Cincinnati and how the Ohio River runs right through the middle of the city. We went to some local events and met a ton of people who were very excited to meet some Americans. During the weekend, I was invited to stay and teach English. I gave it quite a bit of thought and later politely declined, as I was really enjoying working in the import warehouse in Moscow.

After a wonderful weekend getaway, we took the day train back to Moscow on Sunday. I spent the whole day gazing out the train window at the Russian rural landscape, and it was a gorgeous fall day and beautiful scenery.

On October 3, 1993, and in the late evening, we arrived in Moscow at the Kyrski train station - right across the street from our flat. We lived on the busiest road in Moscow - the Garden Ring. Instead of the usual ten lanes of traffic, the Garden Ring was unusually and completely empty. Unbeknownst to us who had been on a train all day and cut off from all communication, riots and little war had started in Moscow.

Moscow - September 26, 1993

"At noon, smiling and relaxed, he joined a huge throng in Red Square to listen to the National Symphony Orchestra from Washington, conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, once a dissident here. The orchestra played Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the composer's death. Church bells rang and cannons -- used in the 1812 victory over Napoleon -- were fired under sunny but cold weather."

"After the concert, about 15,000 pro-Yeltsin demonstrators gathered nearby and then marched a few blocks to Moscow City Hall. Bearing red, white and blue Russian flags and carrying pictures of Mr. Yeltsin, they shouted 'Yeltsin, Yeltsin' and 'down with Communism.'"

"Olga Savelyeva, a 46-year-old engineer, said that if Mr. Yeltsin's opponents -- now holed up in the Russian Parliament's White House -- prevailed, civil war would follow."

"'I'd go and fight myself,' said the slender woman, who looked 20 years older than her years. 'Those who support the parliament and are there now are party functionaries who have lost their privileges and old people who took part in the Second World War. The ideals they fought for have been destroyed. Now they live in the past, and find some small consolation by standing outside the White House.'"

"A pensioner, 63-year-old Yulia Yerokhina, said the only reason the Yeltsin crowd was not larger was that the president had already won."

"'He doesn't need us today,' she said. 'When he does, we'll be there.'"

The rest of this historical article is here.

As detailed here, my roommate and I saw a concert on Red Square and then attended a pro-Yeltsin political rally. After words, we walked to the White House where Alexander Rutskoi (Yeltsin's opponent) was holed up.

The foundation of the crisis started in 1992 with Yeltsin's economic reforms. The reforms were a "shock therapy" of introducing capitalism to the former soicalist state. GDP fell drastically and inflation exploded.

By September 24, 1993, the battle lines had been drawn. President Boris Yeltsin unconstitutionally dissolved the legislature. In response, the parliament declared that Yeltsin's decision null and void, impeached Yeltsin, and proclaimed vice president Rutskoi to be acting president.

Mobs of people had just finished a festive rally in support of Yeltsin, but the mood at the White House was completely different. Hundreds of ill-kept people were literally camping around the White House. They flew white, yellow and black striped flags and some even wore swastikas. Seeing the swastikas was a dead give away that these people did not share my world views.

I tried as hard as I could to hide that I was an American, as I was certain that we would not be welcome.

Someone was giving a speech, and the tone of his voice was violent. The reaction of the crowd was very odd. It was lethargic. It seemed that the opponents of Yeltsin were losing their resolve and were ready to leave. It did not take long for me to be ready to leave too.

Our next weekend was going to be grand! We were going to Nizhni Novgorod to see my rommates family!

My First Political Rally - September 26, 1993 - Moscow

With affairs in Russia again in turmoil and people taking to the streets (a recent article is here), I am lately reminded of the turbulent weeks in Moscow in the fall of 1993.

Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife (I think)

On September 26, 1993, Mstislav Rostropovich conducted a concert - the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovasky - on Red Square.   The pictures on the left hand side were taken by me that morning.

Early in the morning, my roommate and I took the metro to Red Square in order to be sure not to miss any of the festivities. It was a crisp, cold fall morning in Moscow. Cold, but beautiful. Lots of sun with large clouds throughout the sky. The concert was wonderful, and we did get to see Rostropovich up close before the concert while he was being interviewed by countless media. 

I found out later that night that my sister, who at the time was living with my mother in Cincinnati, saw me on CNN.  When my mother asked if my sister was sure that it was me, my sister responded, "How many people in Moscow have that West Virginia Mountaineers hat?"  It was a hat that I had worn every winter since I was ten years old.

Boris Yeltsin was also at the concert.  Yeltsin was seated near the front of the crowd, and we could see him from a distance.  I was struck by the lack of security surrounding Yeltsin.  While we were moving towards him, I was thinking that there would be no way that the president of the USA would be in a crowd like that sitting among the people without a substantial secret service presence.  I am sure that there was security for Yeltsin there, but I just never saw them.  We were able to worm our way through the crowd to get within fifty yards from him.  I have a picture somewhere, but I just cannot find it.

St. Basil's Cathedral from Red Square

While we were navigating through the crowd, the cannons which were part of the concert (1812 Overture) were fired.  I was so focused on getting closer to Yeltsin that when the cannons were fired, it scared me half to death.

While we enjoyed a festive and inspiring concert on Red Square, we forgot that Russia was on the verge of imploding and Yeltsin was fighting to keep control of the government.

"The power is out, there's no water and the toilets don't flush. The people claiming to be the legitimate rulers of Russia spend their days shivering in dimly-lit rooms and their nights curled up on tables or the floor."

Nothing to hide, everything to fear - Igor Birman

"One of the most haunting impressions of my Soviet childhood was stories my grandparents told about the Black Raven. As a small boy I was terrified of this polished and poised creature of the night, usually sighted as it crouched to swoop upon an unsuspecting victim and carry him away, never to be seen again."

"The Black Raven, however, was no avian figment of the human mind. Rather, this secret-police sedan — named for the Russian symbol of death — was a very real fixture of life in the Soviet Union of 1930s."

"Those who saw the Raven stop outside their building of communal flats contemplated last words to families as they waited tensely for the dreaded knock. Its reverberations from another door brought a macabre sense of relief, lasting only until the Raven's next appearance. Such was the abject terror of living in the claws of despotism. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't tempered by that infamous platitude: 'If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.'"

"How very different from a life in America, secured from fear by the assurances of individual liberty."

"But in the 17 years since I became an American, we've been averting our gaze as these sacred assurances slowly waned. With passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, we look away again as Congress exposes Americans to the specter of prison without charge or trial and smothers that basic right of free citizens to invoke the law against their government."

The rest of the article is here.

Igor and I have discussed the former Soviet Union on many occasions. As a matter of fact and though we did not meet until 2009, we lived very near to each other in Moscow in 1993. Americans are lulled into a false sense of security in connection with personal freedoms and liberty. Without a vigilant electorate, an all-powerful government can take these God-given rights. "Benevolence is fleeting."

Red Square and Mstislav Rostropovich

After I graduated from Miami University in 1993, like every other graduate, it was time to get a job. Having two majors - Russian Langauge & Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs - it seemed appropriate that I looked to do something in connection with Russia.

In mid May of that year, I called the US Department of Commerce and requested a list of every American company doing business in Russia. After receiving the list, I sent my resume to every company with an office in the USA (over 120 companies). Over the next few weeks, I received only two responses - one from a company in Stamford, Connecticut, and one from a New York businessman who had an import warehouse in Moscow, Russia. So for the first time in my life, I left the USA and went to work in the former Soviet Union.

I arrived in July of 1993, but I was so busy working, I never had time to visit the sights. Eventhough I lived in downtown Moscow and only minutes from Red Square, I did not walk across Red Square until Septmeber 25, 1993, and that was by accident! I was out that evening with a few friends (including my roommate Paul Moser) and we turned left and bang, there I was, standing on the most iconic symbol of the former Soviet Union.

Being on Red Square was a strange feeling for me. The only time that I had seen Red Square was on television as the tanks and missiles were paraded across the square during the annual Soviet May Day parades. Now, I was standing there, looking at the Kremlin and Lenin's Mausoleum. I knew that at that time not a whole lot of Americans had been to Red Square, as the Cold War had only ended a few years before. I had the wonderful feeling that it was a new world with a new beginning. The early 90's was a very interesting time to be in Russia.

That evening, a stage was being erected on Red Square for a concert to be held the following day. On September 26, 1993, Mstislav Rostropovich was going to conduct a concert - the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovasky - on Red Square. For most of his life, Rostropovich fought the Soviets for freedom of speech and democratic values and was punished by the Soviets for such views. Rostropovich left the Soviet Union in 1974 and settled in the United States. In 1978 and because of his public opposition to the Soviet Union's restriction of cultural freedom, his Soviet citizenship was revoked. Rostropovich did not return to the Soviet Union until 1990, and his return was a symbol of the new beginning for Russia and for the post-Cold War world.

A contemporary background video about Rostropovich's 1993 concert is below.


The following day, Paul and I happily returned to Red Square in order to watch Rostropovich's concert and enjoy a beautiful, cool fall day in Moscow.

The Scariest Day of my Life - 1993 Russian Constitutional Crisis

If you have not been following the current events in Russia, the people in mass numbers are protesting the allegedly fraudulent Duma elections which occurred recently.

"The holiday mood, winter chill and end-of-the-year fatigue failed to dampen the country’s newfound political activism, with a protest on Moscow's Prospekt Akademika Sakharova on Saturday garnering more people than its Dec. 10 predecessor on Bolotnaya Ploshchad."

"Attendance estimates ranged from 30,000 to 120,000. Several Moscow Times reporters at the event put the figure at about 80,000, which is well above the 30,000 to 60,000 at the previous event."

"The roster of speakers was more diverse and impressive than on Dec. 10, with whistleblower Alexei Navalny, socialite Ksenia Sobchak and even former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin taking turns at the microphone, to various reactions from the crowd."

"The purpose of the rally was to protest the widely disputed outcome of Dec. 4 State Duma elections and the Kremlin's overall stifling of the country's politics. But for some newcomers, it had also become personal."

The rest of the article in connection with the recent protests in Moscow is here.

Over the past few days while following the enormous demonstrations in Moscow, I have not been able to keep my mind off of the fateful events in the fall of 1993 in Russia, as I was there...watching it live right before my eyes...dodging bullets.

By way of background, I have reprinted below a brief explanation from Wikipedia in connection with the 1993 Constitutional Crisis in Russia.

"The constitutional crisis of 1993 was a political stand-off between the Russian president and the Russian parliament that was resolved by using military force. The relations between the president and the parliament had been deteriorating for some time. The constitutional crisis reached a tipping point on September 21, 1993, when President Boris Yeltsin purported to dissolve the country's legislature (the Congress of People's Deputies and its Supreme Soviet), although the president did not have the power to dissolve the parliament according to the then-current constitution. Yeltsin used the results of the referendum of April 1993 to justify his actions. In response, the parliament declared that the president's decision was null and void, impeached Yeltsin and proclaimed vice president Aleksandr Rutskoy to be acting president."

"The situation deteriorated at the beginning of October. On October 3rd, demonstrators removed police cordons around the parliament and urged by their leaders, took over the Mayor's offices and tried to storm the Ostankino television centre. The army, which had initially declared its neutrality, by Yeltsin's orders stormed the Supreme Soviet building in the early morning hours of October 4th and arrested the leaders of the resistance."

"The ten-day conflict became the deadliest single event of street fighting in Moscow's history since the October Revolution of 1917. According to government estimates, 187 people were killed and 437 wounded, while sources close to Russian communists put the death toll at as high as 2,000."

The reason that I cannot keep my mind off of the events from 1993 is that it scared me to death. On October 4, 1993, across the street from the American Embassy, I watched men shooting AK-47s all around me. From under the bridge on top of which the Russian tanks rested, I watched the Tanks of the Taman Division shell the Russian White House. 

My excuse for being in the center of the events that day is simple - when you are young for some reason you think you are immortal.

October 4, 1993, was the scariest day of my life.

At the urging of my wife and to memorialize the events for my kids, I will spend the next week trying to recount the events starting on September 25, 1993 - the first time that I was on Red Square - and finishing on October 7, 1993 - the day I came back to the USA for a three-week vacation.

Despite all that transpired that day, I did go back to Moscow shortly thereafter and lived there for another eight months.