Global Information1991 Soviet coup attempt information
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| 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt | |||||||
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| Part of the Cold War, the Revolutions of 1989, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union | |||||||
 (Clockwise from top left)
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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 Presidency of the Soviet Union
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Supporting republics:[1] Abkhazia  Azerbaijan Byelorussia Checheno-Ingushetia Gagauzia Tajikistan Tatarstan Transnistria[2] Turkmenistan Uzbekistan |
Supporting republics:[1] Armenia Estonia Georgia Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lithuania Moldova Nakhchivan  Ukraine | ||||||
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Interfront:
 Communist Party of the RSFSR Communist Party of Estonia (CPSU) Communist Party of Latvia Communist Party of Lithuania Liberal Democratic Party[3] |
  Russian nationalists and monarchists Popular Front of Azerbaijan Belarusian Popular Front All-National Congress of the Chechen People[4] People's Movement of Ukraine UNA–UNSO | ||||||
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Diplomatic support: [5][6][7]
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Diplomatic support: [5][7][9]
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Gennady Yanayev  Dmitry Yazov Vladimir Kryuchkov Valentin Pavlov Boris Pugo † Oleg Baklanov Vasily Starodubtsev Alexander Tizyakov |
Mikhail Gorbachev[a] Boris Yeltsin Alexander Rutskoy Ruslan Khasbulatov Ivan Silayev Konstantin Kobets Gavriil Popov Pavel Grachev Anatoly Sobchak | ||||||
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Vladislav Ardzinba Hasan Hasanov Anatoly Malofeyev Nikolay Dementey Doku Zavgayev Stepan Topal Qahhor Mahkamov Mintimer Shaimiev Igor Smirnov Saparmurat Niyazov Islam Karimov |
Levon Ter-Petrosyan Edgar Savisaar Zviad Gamsakhurdia Nursultan Nazarbayev Askar Akayev Ivars Godmanis Vytautas Landsbergis Gediminas Vagnorius Mircea Snegur Valeriu Muravschi Heydar Aliyev Leonid Kravchuk | ||||||
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Valentin Kuptsov Alfrēds Rubiks Mykolas Burokevičius |
Abulfaz Elchibey Zianon Pazniak Dzhokhar Dudayev Viacheslav Chornovil Yuriy Shukhevych | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
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3 committed suicide
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| Part of a series on the |
| History of the Soviet Union |
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 Soviet Union portal |
The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, also known as the August Coup,[b] was a failed attempt by hardliners of the Soviet Union's Communist Party to forcibly seize control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was Soviet President and General Secretary of the Communist Party at the time. The coup leaders consisted of top military and civilian officials, including Vice President Gennady Yanayev, who together formed the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP). They opposed Gorbachev's reform program, were angry at the loss of control over Eastern European states and fearful of the USSR's New Union Treaty which was on the verge of being signed. The treaty was to decentralize much of the central Soviet government's power and distribute it among its fifteen republics.
The GKChP hardliners dispatched KGB agents, who detained Gorbachev at his holiday estate but failed to detain the recently elected president of a newly reconstituted Russia, Boris Yeltsin, who had been both an ally and critic of Gorbachev. The GKChP was poorly organized and met with effective resistance by both Yeltsin and a civilian campaign of anti-authoritarian protesters, mainly in Moscow.[12] The coup collapsed in two days, and Gorbachev returned to office while the plotters all lost their posts. Yeltsin subsequently became the dominant leader and Gorbachev lost much of his influence. The failed coup led to both the immediate collapse of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the dissolution of the USSR four months later.
Following the capitulation of the GKChP, popularly referred to as the "Gang of Eight", both the Supreme Court of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and President Gorbachev described its actions as a coup attempt.
- ^ a b Ольга Васильева, «Республики во время путча» в сб.статей: «Путч. Хроника тревожных дней». // Издательство «Прогресс», 1991. (in Russian). Accessed 14 June 2009. Archived 17 June 2009.
- ^ "Solving Transnistria: Any Optimists Left? by Cristian Urse. p. 58" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 September 2020.
- ^ A party led by the politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky – Accessed 13 September 2009. Archived 16 September 2009
- ^ Hayward, Alker; Rupesinghe, Kumar; Gurr, Ted Robert (1999). Journeys Through Conflict. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 119. ISBN 9780742510289.
- ^ a b "Би-би-си – Россия – Хроника путча. Часть II". news.bbc.co.uk. 18 August 2006. Archived from the original on 28 August 2007. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
- ^ Р. Г. Апресян. Народное сопротивление августовскому путчу (recuperato il 27 novembre 2010 tramite Internet Archive)
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
SovietCoup_Intlwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Апресян Р.Г. Народное сопротивление августовскому путчу". Archived from the original on 11 September 2007. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Guptawas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Third Soviet official commits suicide". United Press International. 26 August 1991. Archived from the original on 8 March 2019. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
- ^ "The Central Committee Chief of Administration Kills Himself". Deseret News. Archived from the original on 8 March 2019. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
- ^ Mark Kramer, "The Dialectics of Empire: Soviet Leaders and the Challenge of Civil Resistance in East-Central Europe, 1968–91", in Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash (eds.), Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present, Oxford University Press, 2009 pp. 108–109 Archived 20 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
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