A constitutional referendum was held in Russia on 12 December 1993. The new constitution was approved by 58% of voters, and came into force on 25 December.

Since 1992, President Boris Yeltsin had been arguing that the 1978 constitution was obsolete and needed replacing. He called for a new constitution which would grant more powers to the President. However, two competing drafts of a new constitution were drawn up by the government and the Congress of People's Deputies. Failure of the two groups to reach a compromise led to Yeltsin dissolving the Congress of People's Deputies in September 1993, leading to a constitutional crisis.

Yeltsin then called a Constitutional Assembly that was sympathetic to his views. The Assembly subsequently drafted a constitution that provided for a strong presidency, and was published on 11 November.

This referendum was officially named "nationwide voting" (Russian: всенародное голосование, romanized: vsenarodnoye golosovaniye) in documents.

Раздел второй
Заключительные и переходные положения
1. Конституция Российской Федерации вступает в силу со дня официального ее опубликования по результатам всенародного голосования.

— 1993 Constitution of Russia

Translated:

Second Section
Concluding and Transitional Provisions
1. The Constitution of the Russian Federation shall come into force from the moment of its official publication according to the results of a nationwide voting.