Parliamentary elections were held in Russia on 12 December 1993 to elect all 450 seats of the 1st State Duma of the Russian Federation. Additionally, the elections were the first and only instance of direct elections to the Federation Council, with future members appointed by provincial legislatures and governors.

The far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia won a total of 64 seats, the most deputies of any single bloc in the chamber. The pro-government Choice of Russia bloc came second with 62 deputies, and the anti-government Communist Party of the Russian Federation came third with 42. Five seats in Tatarstan were left vacant due to turnout below 25%, and one seat in Chechnya was also unfilled.

The elections were held concurrently with the 1993 Russian constitutional referendum.

Since January 1993, there had been efforts between both elements within the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia and President Boris Yeltsin's inner circle. Boris Yeltsin and his alies hoped to create a parliament sympathetic to his reform agenda and minimise elements that were critical of his programme.

On 21 September Yeltsin declared the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet dissolved. Alexander Rutskoy called Yeltsin's move a step toward a coup d'état. The next day, the Constitutional Court held that Yeltsin had violated the constitution and could be impeached. During an all-night session, parliament declared the president's decree null and void. This began the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis.

With Yeltsin being victorious over parliament in the crisis, electoral law he declared by presidential decree was enacted, and his preferred constitutional draft put to referendum. Reformist parties supportive of Yeltsin were unsure how they would fare under the new electoral system.

Most political parties were not well-established, and instead functioned more akin to parliamentary groups than political parties. The parties with the most established organisational structures were there Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and the Agrarian Party of Russia. Political parties development were impacted by crises, and by their own improvisation in response to new institutions and the crises. Parties with less established structures had only a small window of time to prepare for Federal campaigning.

There were a total of 490 candidates competing for seats in the Federation Council, and for the State Duma, there were 1,757 candidates on party lists for the proportional representation seats, and 1,567 candidates running for the first-past-the-post electoral district seats.