View source for 1991 Soviet coup attempt

{{Short description|Failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev}}
{{distinguish|text=the [[1993 Russian constitutional crisis]]}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| partof            = the [[Cold War]], the [[Revolutions of 1989]],<br />and the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]]
| image             = 
{{Multiple image
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| image1=1991-August-Moscow-2.jpg
| image2=Boris_Yeltsin_22_August_1991-1.jpg
| image3=T-80 1991 coup attempt04 (cropped).jpg
| image4=Thursday_morning_on_Smolenskaya_(8000376283).jpg
| image5=August_1991_coup_-_awaiting_the_counterattack_outside_the_White_House_Moscow_-_panoramio.jpg
| footer ='''Clockwise from top left:'''
{{flatlist|
* Memorial to three citizens killed defying the [[State Committee on the State of Emergency|GKChP]] coup
* [[Boris Yeltsin]], the [[List of leaders of the RSFSR|Russian President]], waving the newly adopted [[Flag of Russia|national flag]]
* Barricade on Smolenskaya Street that reads "Ban, dissolve, prosecute the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]]!"
* Pro-Yeltsin forces' barricades near Moscow's [[White House (Moscow)|White House]]
* GKChP tanks on the [[Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge]] near [[Red Square]]
}}
}}
| image_size        = 320px
| caption           = 
| date              = 18–22{{spaces}}August 1991 (5 days)
| place             = [[Moscow]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]]
| territory         = 
| causes            = * Increasing independence of republican elites from the central Soviet government
* Proposed [[New Union Treaty]]
* Political reforms, [[perestroika]] and [[glasnost]] politics
| goals             = * Gorbachev's resignation
* {{nowrap|Abolish the New Union treaty proposal}}
* Stop political reforms
| result            = Presidential victory; coup fails
* Self-dissolution of the [[State Committee on the State of Emergency|GKChP]]
* Failure of the proposed [[New Union Treaty]]
* Dissolution of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] and seizure of its banks and buildings by the [[Russian SFSR]]
* Restoration of [[Estonia]]n and [[Latvia]]n independence
* [[Declaration of Independence of Ukraine|Ukraine's declaration of independence]]
* [[Belarus]]' declaration of independence
* [[Chechen Revolution]] and [[Declaration of Sovereignty of the Chechen Republic]]
* Power shift continued towards republic elites, [[President of the Soviet Union|Soviet President]] left with effectively no authority
* [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union]] on 26{{spaces}}December 1991
| combatant1        = '''{{flagicon|Union of Soviet Socialist Republics}}''' '''[[State Committee on the State of Emergency]]'''
* {{Flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division|Taman Guards]]
* {{Flagicon image|Red Army flag.svg}} [[4th Guards Kantemirovskaya Tank Division|Kantemir Division]]
* [[File:КПСС.svg|21px]] [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]]
* [[File:Emblema KGB.svg|12px]] [[KGB]]
** [[File:Emblema KGB.svg|12px]] [[Alpha Group]]
** [[File:Emblema KGB.svg|12px]] [[Vympel|Vympel Group]]
| combatant1a       = '''Supporting [[Republics of the Soviet Union|republics]]''':<ref name="repcoup1991">[http://old.russ.ru/antolog/1991/vasil2.htm Ольга Васильева, «Республики во время путча» в сб.статей: «Путч. Хроника тревожных дней».] // Издательство «Прогресс», 1991. '''(in Russian)'''. Accessed 14 June 2009. [https://web.archive.org/web/20071001010614/http://old.russ.ru/antolog/1991/vasil2.htm Archived] 17 June 2009.</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Dunlop|first=John B.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/761105926|title=The rise of Russia and the fall of the Soviet empire|date=1995|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|isbn=978-1-4008-2100-6|edition=1st pbk. printing, with new postscript|location=[[Princeton, N.J.]]|oclc=761105926|access-date=23 May 2021|archive-date=4 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204043921/https://www.worldcat.org/title/rise-of-russia-and-the-fall-of-the-soviet-empire/oclc/761105926|url-status=live}}</ref><br />''{{flagcountry|Abkhaz ASSR|name=Abkhazia}}''<br />{{flagcountry|Azerbaijan SSR|1991|name=Azerbaijan}}<br />''{{flagicon image|Flag of the Buryat ASSR.svg}} [[Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Buryatia]]''<br />{{flagcountry|Byelorussian SSR|name=Byelorussia}}<br /> {{flagicon image|Flag of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR.svg}} ''[[Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Checheno-Ingushetia]]''<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of the Gagauz people.svg}} ''[[Gagauz Republic|Gagauzia]]''<br />''{{flagicon image|Flag of the Kabardino-Balkar ASSR.svg}} [[Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Kabardino-Balkaria]]''<br />''{{flagicon image|Flag of the North Ossetian ASSR.svg}} [[North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|North Ossetia]]''<br />{{flagcountry|Tajik SSR|name=Tajikistan}}<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of Tatar ASSR.svg}} ''[[Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Tatarstan]]''<br />{{flagcountry|Turkmen SSR|name=Turkmenistan}}<br />{{flagcountry|Uzbek SSR|name=Uzbekistan}}
| combatant1b       = {{collapsible list
|title={{nowrap|[[Interfront]]{{nobold|:}}}}
|1={{flagicon|Estonian SSR}} [[Intermovement]]
|2={{flagicon|Latvian SSR}} [[International Front of the Working People of Latvia|IFWP]]
|3={{flagicon|Lithuanian SSR}} [[Yedinstvo (Lithuania)|Yedinstvo]]
|4={{flagicon|Moldavian SSR}} [[Unity Movement for Equality in Rights|Unitate-Edinstvo]]
|5={{flagicon|Ukrainian SSR}}{{Flagicon image|Флаг Интердвижения Донбасса.svg}} [[International Movement of Donbass]]}}{{flagicon|Russian SFSR}} [[Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Communist Party of the RSFSR]]<br />{{flagicon|Estonian SSR}} [[Communist Party of Estonia (1990)|Communist Party of Estonia (CPSU)]]<br />{{flagicon|Latvian SSR}} [[Communist Party of Latvia]]<br />{{flagicon|Lithuanian SSR}} [[Communist Party of Lithuania]]<br />{{Flagicon image|Flag of the LDPSU.svg}} [[Liberal Democratic Party of the Soviet Union|Liberal Democratic Party]]<ref>[http://www.lenta.ru/lib/14159799/full.htm A party led by the politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky –  Accessed 13 September 2009.] [https://web.archive.org/web/20090408033136/http://lenta.ru/lib/14159799/full.htm Archived] 16 September 2009</ref><br />{{flagicon|Union of Soviet Socialist Republics}} Pro-coup and anti-Yeltsin demonstrators and organizations
| combatant1c       = {{collapsible list
|title=Diplomatic support{{nobold|:<br /><ref name="bbc">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/russia/newsid_5261000/5261982.stm|title=Би-би-си – Россия – Хроника путча. Часть II|website=news.bbc.co.uk|date=18 August 2006|access-date=14 August 2013|archive-date=28 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070828040103/http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/russia/newsid_5261000/5261982.stm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=eth>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070911002221/http://ethics.iph.ras.ru/works/N/9.html Р. Г. Апресян. Народное сопротивление августовскому путчу] (recuperato il 27 novembre 2010 tramite [[Internet Archive]])</ref><ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/>}}
|1={{flagcountry|Republic of Afghanistan (1987–1992)}}
|2={{flag|China}}
|3={{flag|Cuba}}
|4={{flagicon image|Flag of Iraq (1991–2004).svg}} [[Ba'athist Iraq|Iraq]]
|5={{Flag|Laos}}
|6={{flagcountry|Libyan Arab Jamahiriya|1977}}
|7={{flag|North Korea|1948}}
|8={{flag|Sudan}}
|9={{flagdeco|Palestine}} [[Palestine Liberation Organization|PLO]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ethics.iph.ras.ru/works/N/9.html |title=Апресян Р.Г. Народное сопротивление августовскому путчу |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070911002221/http://ethics.iph.ras.ru/works/N/9.html |access-date=2021-12-04|archive-date=11 September 2007 }}</ref>
|10={{flag|Vietnam}}|11={{tree list}}
*{{Flag|Yugoslavia}}
**{{flag|SR Serbia|name=Serbia}}
**{{flag|SR Montenegro|name=Montenegro}}
{{tree list/end}}
}}
| combatant2        = '''{{flagicon image|USSR, Flag commander 1964.svg}} [[President of the Soviet Union|Presidency of the Soviet Union]]'''<hr/>
'''{{flagdeco|Russian SFSR}}{{flag|Russian SFSR|1991}}'''
*[[File:Emblem of the Russian SFSR (1978–1991), Emblem of Russia (1991–1992).svg|18px]] [[Supreme Soviet of Russia|Supreme Soviet]]
*[[File:Emblem of the Russian SFSR (1978–1991), Emblem of Russia (1991–1992).svg|18px]] [[Congress of People's Deputies of Russia|Congress of People's Deputies]]
*[[File:Emblem of the Russian SFSR (1978–1991), Emblem of Russia (1991–1992).svg|18px]] [[Council of Ministers of Russia|Council of Ministers]]
| combatant2a       = '''Supporting [[Republics of the Soviet Union|republics]]''':<ref name="repcoup1991"/><br />{{flagcountry|Armenian SSR|1990|name=Armenia}}<br /> {{flagcountry|Estonian SSR|1990|name=Estonia}}<br />{{flagcountry|Georgian SSR|1990|name=Georgia}}<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (reverse).svg}} [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic|Kazakhstan]]<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic (reverse).svg}} [[Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic|Kyrgyzstan]]<br />{{flagcountry|Latvian SSR|1990|name=Latvia}}<br />{{flagcountry|Lithuanian SSR|1988|name=Lithuania}}<br />{{flagcountry|Moldavian SSR|1990|name=Moldova}}<br />''{{flagcountry|Nakhichevan ASSR|1990|name=Nakhichevan}}''<br />{{flagdeco|Ukraine|1991}} [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukraine]]
| combatant2b       = {{flagdeco|Russia}} [[Russian nationalism|Russian nationalists]] <br />{{flagicon|Russian SFSR|1991}} [[Liberalism in Russia|Russian liberals]]<br />{{flagicon|Russian SFSR|1991}} Anti-coup and pro-Yeltsin demonstrators and organizations<br /> ([[Democratic Russia]])<br>{{flagicon|Azerbaijan|1918}} [[Azerbaijani Popular Front Party|Popular Front of Azerbaijan]]<br />{{flagicon|Belarus|1991}} [[Belarusian Popular Front]]<br />{{Flagicon image|Flag of the All-National Congress of the Chechen People.svg}} [[All-National Congress of the Chechen People]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hayward |first1=Alker|last2=Rupesinghe|first2=Kumar|last3=Gurr|first3=Ted Robert|title=Journeys Through Conflict|date=1999 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9780742510289|page=119}}</ref><br />{{flagicon|Ukraine|1918}} [[People's Movement of Ukraine]]<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of UNA-UNSO.svg}} [[Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People's Self-Defence|UNA–UNSO]]<br />{{flagicon|Lithuania|1988}} [[Sąjūdis]]
| combatant2c       = {{collapsible list
|title=Diplomatic support{{nobold|:<br /><ref name="bbc"/><ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/><ref name=Gupta/>}}
|1={{Flag|Australia}}
|2={{Flag|Bulgaria}}
|3={{Flag|Canada}}
|4={{flagdeco|Czechoslovakia}} [[Czech and Slovak Federative Republic|Czechoslovakia]]
|5={{Flag|Denmark}}
|6={{Flagicon|European Union}} [[European Economic Community|EEC]]
|7={{Flag|France}}
|8={{flag|Germany}}
|9={{Flag|Holy See}}
|10={{Flag|Hungary}}
|11={{flag|Israel}}
|12={{flag|Italy}}
|13={{flag|Japan|1947}}
|14={{flagcountry|Mongolian People's Republic}}
|15={{flag|NATO}}
|16={{Flag|New Zealand}}
|17={{Flag|Poland}}
|18={{Flag|Romania}}
|19={{Flag|South Korea|1984}}
|20={{flag|Taiwan}}
|21={{flag|Turkey}}
|22={{flag|United Kingdom}}
|23={{Flag|United States}}
|24={{tree list}}
*{{Flag|Yugoslavia}}
**{{flagicon image|Flag of Croatia.svg}} [[Socialist Republic of Croatia|Croatia]]
**{{flagicon image|Flag of Slovenia.svg}} [[Socialist Republic of Slovenia|Slovenia]]
{{tree list/end}}
}}
| commander1        = {{nowrap|'''{{Flagicon|USSR}} [[Gennady Yanayev]]'''{{Surrendered}}}}<br/>{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Sergey Akhromeyev]]{{KIA|Suicide}}<br />{{nowrap|{{Flagicon|USSR}} [[Dmitry Yazov]]{{Surrendered}}}}<br />{{nowrap|{{Flagicon|USSR}} [[Vladimir Kryuchkov]]{{Surrendered}}}}<br />{{nowrap|{{Flagicon|USSR}} [[Valentin Pavlov]]{{Surrendered}}}}<br />{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Boris Pugo]]{{KIA|Suicide}}<br />{{nowrap|{{Flagicon|USSR}} [[Oleg Baklanov]]{{Surrendered}}}}<br />{{nowrap|{{Flagicon|USSR}} [[Vasily Starodubtsev]]{{Surrendered}}}}<br />{{nowrap|{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Alexander Tizyakov]]{{Surrendered}}}}<br />{{flagicon|USSR}} [[Nikolay Kruchina]]{{KIA|Suicide}}
| commander1a       = {{flagicon|Abkhaz ASSR}} ''[[Vladislav Ardzinba]]''<br />{{flagicon|Azerbaijan SSR}}{{flagicon|Azerbaijan SSR|1991}} [[Hasan Hasanov]]<br />{{flagicon|Byelorussian SSR}} [[Anatoly Malofeyev]]<br />{{flagicon|Byelorussian SSR}} [[Mikalay Dzyemyantsyey|Nikolay Dementey]]<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR.svg|link=Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic}} ''[[Doku Zavgayev]]''<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of the Gagauz people.svg|link=Gagauz Republic}} ''[[Stepan Topal]]''<br />{{flagicon|Tajik SSR}} [[Qahhor Mahkamov]]<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of Tatar ASSR.svg|link=Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic}} ''[[Mintimer Shaimiev]]''<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (1952–1990).svg|link=Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic}} ''[[Igor Smirnov (politician)|Igor Smirnov]]''<br />{{flagicon|Turkmen SSR}} [[Saparmurat Niyazov]]<br />{{flagicon|Uzbek SSR}} [[Islam Karimov]]
| commander1b       = {{flagicon|Russian SFSR}} [[:ru:Купцов, Валентин Александрович|Valentin Kuptsov]]<br />{{flagicon|Latvian SSR}} [[Alfrēds Rubiks]]<br />{{flagicon|Lithuanian SSR}} [[Mykolas Burokevičius]]
| commander2        = {{flagicon image|USSR, Flag commander 1964.svg}} '''[[Mikhail Gorbachev]]'''{{efn|under [[house arrest]]}}<hr/>'''{{flagicon|Russian SFSR|1991}} [[Boris Yeltsin]]'''<br />{{nowrap|{{flagicon|Russian SFSR|1991}} [[Alexander Rutskoy]]}}<br />{{nowrap|{{flagicon|Russian SFSR|1991}} [[Ruslan Khasbulatov]]}}<br />{{flagicon|Russian SFSR|1991}} [[Ivan Silayev]]<br />{{flagicon|Russian SFSR|1991}} [[Konstantin Kobets]]{{Clear}}{{flagicon|Russian SFSR|1991}} [[Gavriil Kharitonovich Popov|Gavriil Popov]]{{Clear}}{{flagicon|Russian SFSR|1991}} [[Pavel Grachev]]{{Clear}}{{flagicon|Russian SFSR|1991}} [[Anatoly Sobchak]]
| commander2a       = {{flagicon|Armenian SSR|1990}} [[Levon Ter-Petrosyan]]<br />{{flagicon|Estonian SSR|1990}} [[Edgar Savisaar]]<br />{{flagicon|Georgian SSR|1990}} [[Zviad Gamsakhurdia]]<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (reverse).svg}} [[Nursultan Nazarbayev]]<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic (reverse).svg}} [[Askar Akayev]]<br />{{flagicon|Latvian SSR|1990}} [[Ivars Godmanis]]<br />{{flagicon|Lithuanian SSR|1988}} [[Vytautas Landsbergis]]{{Clear}}{{flagicon|Lithuanian SSR|1988}} [[Gediminas Vagnorius]]<br />{{flagicon|Moldavian SSR|1990}} [[Mircea Snegur]]<br />{{flagicon|Moldavian SSR|1990}} [[Valeriu Muravschi]]<br />{{flagicon|Nakhichevan ASSR|1990}} ''[[Heydar Aliyev]]''<br />{{flagicon|Ukraine|1991}} [[Leonid Kravchuk]]
| commander2b       = {{flagicon|Azerbaijan|1918}} [[Abulfaz Elchibey]]<br />{{flagicon|Belarus|1991}} [[Zianon Pazniak]]<br />{{flagicon|Belarus|1991}} [[Stanislav Shushkevich]]<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of the All-National Congress of the Chechen People.svg}} [[Dzhokhar Dudayev]]<br />{{flagicon|Ukraine|1918}} [[Viacheslav Chornovil]]<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of UNA-UNSO.svg}} [[Yuriy Shukhevych]]
| casualties1       = 3 died by suicide:
* [[Boris Pugo]], the [[Ministry of Internal Affairs (Soviet Union)|Minister of Interior]]
* [[Sergey Akhromeyev]], a military advisor to Gorbachev
* [[Nikolay Kruchina]], the Administrator of Affairs of the [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee of the CPSU]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/08/26/Third-Soviet-official-commits-suicide/5619683179200/|title=Third Soviet official commits suicide|date=26 August 1991|publisher=United Press International|access-date=7 March 2019|archive-date=8 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190308081651/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/08/26/Third-Soviet-official-commits-suicide/5619683179200/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.deseretnews.com/article/179916/THE-CENTRAL-COMMITTEE-CHIEF-OF-ADMINISTRATION-KILLS-HIMSELF.html|title=The Central Committee Chief of Administration Kills Himself |publisher=Deseret News|access-date=7 March 2019|archive-date=8 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190308081514/https://www.deseretnews.com/article/179916/THE-CENTRAL-COMMITTEE-CHIEF-OF-ADMINISTRATION-KILLS-HIMSELF.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| casualties2       = * 3 civilians killed on 21{{spaces}}August
| conflict          = 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt
}}
{{History of the Soviet Union}}

The '''1991 Soviet coup attempt''', also known as the '''August Coup''',{{Efn|{{langx|ru|Августовский путч|Avgustovskiy Putch|August Putsch}}}} was a failed attempt by [[hardline]]rs of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU) to [[Coup d'état|forcibly seize control]] of the country from [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], who was [[President of the Soviet Union|Soviet President]] and [[General Secretary of the CPSU]] 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]] ({{langx|ru|ГКЧП|GKChP}}). They opposed Gorbachev's [[Perestroika|reform program]], were angry at the [[Revolutions of 1989|loss of control over Eastern European states]] and fearful of the [[New Union Treaty]], which was on the verge of being signed by the [[Soviet Union]] (USSR). The treaty was to decentralize much of the [[Government of the Soviet Union|central Soviet government]]'s power and distribute it among its [[Republics of the Soviet Union|fifteen republics]]; [[Boris Yeltsin]]'s demand for more autonomy to the republics opened a window for the plotters to organize the coup.

The GKChP hardliners dispatched [[KGB]] agents who detained Gorbachev at his [[dacha]] but failed to detain the recently elected [[List of leaders of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|president]] of a [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|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]].<ref name="Kramer">Mark Kramer, "The Dialectics of Empire: Soviet Leaders and the Challenge of Civil Resistance in East-Central Europe, 1968–91", in [[Adam Roberts (scholar)|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 [https://books.google.com/books?id=BxOQKrCe7UUC&q=Civil+resistance+and+power+politics pp. 108–109] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320185749/https://books.google.com/books?id=BxOQKrCe7UUC&dq=Civil+resistance+and+power+politics&source=gbs_navlinks_s |date=20 March 2017 }}.</ref> 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 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.

==Background==
Since assuming power as [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] in 1985, Gorbachev had embarked on an ambitious reform program embodied in the twin concepts of ''[[perestroika]]'' (economic and political restructuring) and ''[[glasnost]]'' (openness).<ref name=":4">{{cite web|url=http://mars.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/gorrev.html |title=''Gorbachev and Perestroika''. Professor Gerhard Rempel, Department of History, Western New England College, 1996-02-02, accessed 2008-07-12 |publisher=Mars.wnec.edu |access-date=31 March 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828102933/http://mars.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/gorrev.html |archive-date=28 August 2008}}</ref> These moves prompted resistance and suspicion on the part of hard-line members of the ''[[nomenklatura]]''. The reforms also caused [[nationalist]] agitation on the part of the [[Soviet Union]]'s non-[[Russians|Russian]] minorities to grow, and there were fears that some or all of the [[Republics of the Soviet Union|union republics]] might secede. In 1991, the Soviet Union was in a severe economic and political crisis. Scarcity of food, medicine, and other consumables was widespread,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sarker|first1=Sunil Kumar|title=The rise and fall of communism|date=1994|publisher=Atlantic publishers and distributors|location=New Delhi|isbn=978-8171565153|page=94|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rGf2b1nsn9cC&q=economic+conditions+in+the+the+Soviet+Union+1991+food|access-date=4 January 2017|archive-date=9 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709213800/https://books.google.com/books?id=rGf2b1nsn9cC&q=economic+conditions+in+the+the+Soviet+Union+1991+food|url-status=live}}</ref> people had to stand in long [[Queue area|lines]] to buy even essential goods,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP86T00591R000100140005-4.pdf|title=USSR: The food supply situation|website=CIA.gov|access-date=26 July 2019|archive-date=23 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323092510/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP86T00591R000100140005-4.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> fuel stocks were as much as 50% lower than the estimated amount needed for the approaching winter, and inflation exceeded 300% per year, with factories lacking the cash needed to pay salaries.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gupta|first1=R.C.|title=Collapse of the Soviet Union|date=1997|publisher=Krishna Prakashan Media|location=India|isbn=978-8185842813|page=62|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_UwroC6xtPQC&q=Collapse+of+the+Soviet+Union+Gupta|access-date=4 January 2017|archive-date=9 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709213759/https://books.google.com/books?id=_UwroC6xtPQC&q=Collapse+of+the+Soviet+Union+Gupta|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1990, [[Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic|Estonia]],<ref name="Ziemele5">[[#Ziemele2005|Ziemele (2005)]]. p. 30.</ref> [[Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic|Latvia]],<ref name="Ziemele8">[[#Ziemele2005|Ziemele (2005)]]. p. 35.</ref> [[Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic|Lithuania]]<ref name="Ziemele10">[[#Ziemele2005|Ziemele (2005)]]. pp. 38–40.</ref> and [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Armenia]]<ref>''Маркедонов Сергей'' [https://www.apn.ru/publications/article10413.htm Самоопределение по ленинским принципам] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116153617/https://www.apn.ru/publications/article10413.htm |date=16 November 2020 }}</ref> had already declared the restoration of their independence from the Soviet Union. In January 1991, a [[January Events (Lithuania)|violent attempt to return Lithuania to the Soviet Union by force]] took place. About a week later, [[The Barricades|a similar attempt]] was engineered by local pro-Soviet forces to overthrow Latvian authorities.

[[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russia]] [[Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|declared its sovereignty]] on 12{{spaces}}June 1990 and thereafter limited the application of Soviet laws, in particular those governing finance and the economy, on Russian territory. The [[Supreme Soviet of Russia|Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR]] adopted laws that contradicted Soviet laws (the so-called [[War of Laws]]).

In the [[1991 Soviet Union referendum|unionwide referendum on 17 March 1991]], boycotted by the [[Baltic states]], [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Armenia]], [[Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic|Georgia]], and [[Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic|Moldova]], a [[supermajority]] of residents in the other republics expressed the desire to retain the renewed Soviet Union, with 77.85% voting in favor. Following negotiations, eight of the remaining nine republics ([[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukraine]] abstaining) approved the [[Union of Sovereign States|New Union Treaty]] with some conditions. The treaty was to make the Soviet Union a federation of independent republics called the [[Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics]], with a common president, [[foreign policy]], and military. [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russia]], [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic|Kazakhstan]] and [[Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic|Uzbekistan]] were to sign the Treaty in Moscow on 20{{spaces}}August 1991.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://yeltsin.ru/day-by-day/1991/08/03/33235/ |title=Многоступенчатый запуск нового Союза намечен на 20 августа |access-date=24 March 2021 |archive-date=2 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602215054/https://yeltsin.ru/day-by-day/1991/08/03/33235/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[https://www.gorby.ru/userfiles/union_could_be_saved.pdf Союз можно было сохранить. Белая книга: Документы и факты о политике М. С. Горбачёва по реформированию и сохранению многонационального государства] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310042330/https://www.gorby.ru/userfiles/union_could_be_saved.pdf |date=10 March 2021 }}. – 2-е изд., перераб. и доп. – М.: АСТ, 2007. – С. 316 – 567 с.</ref>

British historian [[Dan Stone (historian)|Dan Stone]] wrote the following about the plotters' motivation: <blockquote>The coup was the last gasp of those who were astonished at and felt betrayed by the precipitous collapse of the [[Soviet Empire|Soviet Union's empire]] in [[Eastern Bloc|Eastern Europe]] and the swift destruction of the [[Warsaw Pact]] and [[Comecon]] that followed. Many feared the consequences of Gorbachev's German policies above all, not just for leaving officers unemployed but for sacrificing gains achieved in the [[Great Patriotic War (term)|Great Patriotic War]] to German [[revanchism]] and [[irredentism]] – after all, this had been the Kremlin's greatest fear since the end of the war.<ref>Dan Stone, Goodbye to all that? The story of Europe since 1945 (Oxford University Press, 2014) p. 23.</ref></blockquote>

==Preparation==

=== Planning ===
The KGB began considering a coup in September 1990. Soviet politician [[Alexander Yakovlev]] began warning Gorbachev about the possibility of one after the [[28th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|28th Party Congress]] in June 1990.<ref name=":1"/> On 11{{spaces}}December 1990, [[KGB]] Chairman [[Vladimir Kryuchkov]] made a "call for order" over the [[Moscow Programme]] television station.<ref name="State">[[Yevgenia Albats]] and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. ''The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia – Past, Present, and Future''. 1994. {{ISBN|0-374-52738-5}}, pp. 276–293.</ref> That day, he asked two KGB officers<ref>KGB Maj. Gen. Vyacheslav Zhizhin and KGB Col. Alexei Yegorov, ''The State Within a State'', pp. 276–277.</ref> to prepare measures to be taken in the event a [[state of emergency]] was declared in the USSR. Later, Kryuchkov brought [[Minister of Defence (Soviet Union)|Soviet Defense Minister]] [[Dmitry Yazov]], [[Central Control Commission of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Control Commission]] Chairman [[Boris Pugo]], [[Premier of the Soviet Union|Premier]] [[Valentin Pavlov]], Vice President [[Gennady Yanayev]], Soviet Defense Council deputy chief [[Oleg Baklanov]], Gorbachev secretariat head [[Valery Boldin]], and [[Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU Central Committee Secretary]] [[Oleg Shenin]] into the conspiracy.<ref name="91internalkgbreport">{{cite web|url=https://flb.ru/material.phtml?id=3632|title=Заключение по материалам расследования роли и участии должностных лиц КГБ СССР в событиях 19–21 августа 1991 года|website=flb.ru|access-date=10 April 2020|archive-date=26 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210326152828/https://flb.ru/material.phtml?id=3632|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="NovayaGazeta51">{{in lang|ru}} [http://2001.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2001/51n/n51n-s15.shtml "Novaya Gazeta" No. 51 of 23 July 2001] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120215063833/http://2001.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2001/51n/n51n-s15.shtml |date=15 February 2012 }} (extracts from the indictment of the conspirators)</ref>

When Kryuchkov complained about the Soviet Union's growing instability to the [[Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union|Congress of People's Deputies]], Gorbachev attempted to appease him by issuing a presidential decree enhancing the powers of the KGB and appointing Pugo to the Cabinet as [[Ministry of Internal Affairs (Soviet Union)|Minister of Internal Affairs]]. Foreign Secretary [[Eduard Shevardnadze]] resigned in protest and rejected an offered appointment as vice president, warning that "a dictatorship is coming." Gorbachev was forced to appoint Yanayev in his place.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kyriakodis |first=Harry G. |date=1991 |title=The 1991 Soviet and 1917 Bolshewk Coups Compared: Causes, Consequences and Legality |url=https://www.schoeningh.de/view/journals/ruhi/18/1-4/article-p317_13.xml |journal=Russian History |volume=18 |issue=1–4 |pages=323–328 |doi=10.1163/187633191X00137 |issn=0094-288X |ref=None |access-date=30 June 2022 |archive-date=3 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803084001/https://www.schoeningh.de/view/journals/ruhi/18/1-4/article-p317_13.xml |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Beginning with the [[January Events]] in [[Lithuania]], members of Gorbachev's Cabinet hoped that he could be persuaded to declare a state of emergency and "restore order," and formed the [[State Committee on the State of Emergency]] (GKChP).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Hoffman|first=David E.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/320432478|title=The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Deadly Legacy|date=2009|publisher=Doubleday|isbn=978-0-385-52437-7|edition=1|location=New York|oclc=320432478|access-date=19 May 2021|archive-date=4 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204043921/https://www.worldcat.org/title/dead-hand-the-untold-story-of-the-cold-war-arms-race-and-its-dangerous-legacy/oclc/320432478|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 17{{spaces}}June 1991, Soviet Premier Pavlov requested extraordinary powers from the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union|Supreme Soviet]]. Several days later, Moscow Mayor [[Gavriil Popov (politician)|Gavriil Popov]] informed U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union [[Jack F. Matlock Jr.]] that a coup against Gorbachev was being planned. When Matlock tried to warn him, Gorbachev falsely assumed that his own Cabinet was not involved and underestimated the risk of a coup.<ref name=":0" /> Gorbachev reversed Pavlov's request for more powers and jokingly told his Cabinet "The coup is over," remaining oblivious to their plans.{{Sfn|Kyriakodis|1991|p=328}}

On 23{{spaces}}July 1991, several party functionaries and literati published a piece in the hardline ''[[Sovetskaya Rossiya]]'' newspaper, entitled "[[A Word to the People]]", that called for decisive action to prevent calamity.<ref>[https://kprf.ru/media/filestorage/library/c65ca2_pravdamos_27_261_6.pdf A Word to the People, full text] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804210553/https://kprf.ru/media/filestorage/library/c65ca2_pravdamos_27_261_6.pdf |date=4 August 2021 }} scan from the [[Pravda]] newspaper at the [[Communist Party of the Russian Federation|KPRF]] website (in Russian)</ref>

Six days later, on 29{{spaces}}July, Gorbachev, [[President of Russia|Russian President]] [[Boris Yeltsin]] and [[President of Kazakhstan|Kazakh President]] [[Nursultan Nazarbayev]] discussed the possibility of replacing hardliners such as Pavlov, Yazov, Kryuchkov and Pugo with more liberal figures,<ref name=Timeline>{{in lang|ru}} [http://archive.rusbg.com/viewtopic.php?p=183469&sid=ab7f23384901f822938fcbc1b4e31240 Timeline of the events] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071127115224/http://archive.rusbg.com/viewtopic.php?p=183469&sid=ab7f23384901f822938fcbc1b4e31240 |date=27 November 2007 }} by Artem Krechnikov, Moscow BBC correspondent</ref> with Nazarbayev as Prime Minister (in Pavlov's place). Kryuchkov, who had placed Gorbachev under close surveillance as Subject 110 several months earlier, eventually got wind of the conversation from an [[Covert listening device|electronic bug]] planted by Gorbachev's bodyguard, [[Vladimir Medvedev]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=Mitrokhin>[[Christopher Andrew (historian)|Christopher Andrew]] and [[Vasili Mitrokhin]] (2000). ''The [[Mitrokhin Archive]]: The KGB in Europe and the West''. [[Gardners Books]]. {{ISBN|0-14-028487-7}}, pp. 513–514.</ref><ref>The KGB surveillance logbook included every move of Gorbachev and his wife [[Raisa Gorbacheva]], ''Subject 111'', such as "18:30. 111 is in the bathtub."''The State Within a State'', pp. 276–277</ref> Yeltsin also prepared for a coup by establishing a secret defense committee, ordering military and KGB commands to side with RSFSR authorities and establishing a "reserve government" in [[Yekaterinburg|Sverdlovsk]] under Deputy Prime Minister [[Oleg Lobov]].

=== Commencement ===
On 4{{spaces}}August, Gorbachev went on holiday to his [[dacha]] in [[Foros, Crimea]].<ref name="Timeline" /> He planned to return to Moscow in time for the [[Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics|New Union Treaty]] signing on 20{{spaces}}August. On 15{{spaces}}August, the text of the draft treaty was published, which would have stripped the coup planners of much of their authority.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://soveticus5.narod.ru/gazety/sr910815.htm#u001 |title=Договор о Союзе суверенных государств |access-date=15 August 2021 |archive-date=4 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204043932/http://soveticus5.narod.ru/gazety/sr910815.htm#u001 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Sfn|Kyriakodis|1991|p=280}}

On 17{{spaces}}August, the members of the GKChP met at a [[KGB]] guesthouse in Moscow and studied the treaty document. Decisions were made to introduce a state of emergency from 19{{spaces}}August, to form a State Emergency Committee, and require Gorbachev to sign the relevant decrees or to resign and transfer powers to Vice President Yanayev.<ref name="Timeline" /> They believed the pact would pave the way for the Soviet Union's breakup, and decided it was time to act. The next day, Baklanov, Boldin, Shenin, and Soviet Deputy Defense Minister General [[Valentin Varennikov]] flew to Crimea for a meeting with Gorbachev. Yazov ordered General [[Pavel Grachev]], commander of the [[Soviet Airborne Forces]], to begin coordinating with KGB Deputy Chairmen Viktor Grushko and Genii Ageev to implement [[martial law]].<ref name=":1" />

At 4:32{{spaces}}pm on 18{{spaces}}August, the GKChP cut communications to Gorbachev's dacha, including [[Landline|telephone landlines]] and the [[nuclear command and control]] system.<ref name=Timeline/> Eight minutes later Lieutenant General Yuri Plekhanov, Head of the [[Ninth Chief Directorate]] of the KGB, allowed the group into Gorbachev's dacha. Gorbachev realized what was happening after discovering the telephone outages. Baklanov, Boldin, Shenin and Varennikov demanded that Gorbachev either declare a state of emergency or resign and name Yanayev as acting president to allow the members of the GKChP "to restore order" to the country.<ref name=NovayaGazeta51/><ref name=NovayaGazeta59>{{in lang|ru}} [http://2001.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2001/59n/n59n-s16.shtml ''Novaya Gazeta'' No. 59 of 20 August 2001] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929122150/http://2001.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2001/59n/n59n-s16.shtml |date=29 September 2007 }} (extracts from the indictment of the conspirators)</ref><ref name=Kommersant79717>[http://www.nr2.ru/projects/79717.html ''Kommersant''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080107015414/http://www.nr2.ru/projects/79717.html |date=7 January 2008 }}, 18 August 2006 {{in lang|ru}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

Gorbachev has always claimed that he refused point-blank to accept the ultimatum.<ref name=NovayaGazeta59/><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/news/newsid_1494000/1494325.stm|title=Горбачев: "Я за союз, но не союзное государство"|trans-title=Gorbachev: "I am for the union, but not the union state"|language=ru|date=16 August 2001|work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=26 June 2007|archive-date=10 March 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310140152/http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/news/newsid_1494000/1494325.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> Varennikov has insisted that Gorbachev said: "Damn you. Do what you want. But report my opinion!"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mysteriouscountry.ru/wiki/index.php/%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2_%D0%92%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD_%D0%98%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87/%D0%9D%D0%B5%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B5/%D0%9A%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0_6/%D0%A7%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C_9/%D0%93%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B0_2|title=Варенников Валентин Иванович/Неповторимое/Книга 6/Часть 9/Глава 2 – Таинственная Страна|website=mysteriouscountry.ru|access-date=6 July 2011|archive-date=10 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010070806/http://www.mysteriouscountry.ru/wiki/index.php/%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2_%D0%92%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD_%D0%98%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87/%D0%9D%D0%B5%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B5/%D0%9A%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0_6/%D0%A7%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C_9/%D0%93%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B0_2|url-status=dead}}</ref> However, those present at the dacha at the time testified that Baklanov, Boldin, Shenin and Varennikov had been clearly disappointed and nervous after the meeting with Gorbachev.<ref name=NovayaGazeta59/> Gorbachev is said to have insulted Varennikov by pretending to forget his name, and to have told his former trusted advisor Boldin "Shut up, you prick! How dare you give me lectures about the situation in the country!"<ref name=":0" /> With Gorbachev's refusal, the conspirators ordered that he remain confined to the dacha. Additional KGB security guards were placed at the dacha gates with orders to stop anybody from leaving.<ref name=NovayaGazeta59/>

At 7:30{{spaces}}pm, Baklanov, Boldin, Shenin and Varennikov flew to Moscow, accompanied by Plekhanov. His deputy, Vyacheslav Generalov, remained "on the farm" in Foros.<ref name=Timeline/>

At 8:00{{spaces}}pm, Yanayev, Pavlov, Kryuchkov, Yazov, Pugo and Soviet Supreme Soviet Chairman [[Anatoly Lukyanov]] gathered in the Kremlin cabinet of the Prime Minister, discussing and editing the documents of the State Emergency Committee.<ref name=Timeline/> At 10:15{{spaces}}pm, they were joined by Baklanov, Shenin, Boldin, Varennikov and Plekhanov. It was decided to publicly declare Gorbachev ill. Yanayev hesitated, but the others convinced him that leadership and responsibility would be collective.<ref name="Timeline" />

At 11:25{{spaces}}pm, Yanayev signed a decree entrusting himself with presidential powers.<ref name="Timeline" />

GKChP members ordered that 250,000 pairs of handcuffs from a factory in [[Pskov]] be sent to Moscow,<ref>''Revolutionary Passage'' by Marc Garcelon [https://books.google.com/books?id=2dqGABT3Yw0C&pg=PA157 p. 159] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516183548/https://books.google.com/books?id=2dqGABT3Yw0C&pg=PA157 |date=16 May 2016 }}</ref> also ordering 300,000 arrest forms. Kryuchkov doubled the pay of all KGB personnel, called them back from holiday, and placed them on alert. [[Lefortovo Prison]] was emptied to receive prisoners.<ref name="Mitrokhin" />

==The coup chronology==
{{Main|Timeline of the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt}}

The members of the [[State Committee on the State of Emergency|GKChP]] met in the [[Moscow Kremlin|Kremlin]] after Baklanov, Boldin, Shenin and Varennikov returned from Crimea. Yanayev (who had only just been persuaded to join the plot), Pavlov and Baklanov signed the so-called "Declaration of the Soviet Leadership", which declared a state of emergency in the entirety of the USSR and announced that the State Committee on the State of Emergency (Государственный Комитет по Чрезвычайному Положению, ГКЧП, or ''Gosudarstvenniy Komitet po Chrezvichaynomu Polozheniyu'', ''GKChP'') had been created "to manage the country and effectively maintain the regime of the state of emergency". The GKChP included the following members:
* [[Gennady Yanayev]], Vice President
* [[Valentin Pavlov]], Prime Minister
* [[Vladimir Kryuchkov]], head of the [[KGB]]
* [[Dmitry Yazov]], Minister of Defence
* [[Boris Pugo]], Minister of Interior
* [[Oleg Baklanov]], First Deputy Chairman of the Defense Council under the President of the USSR
* [[Vasily Starodubtsev]], Chairman of the Peasant Union
* [[Alexander Tizyakov]], President of the Association of the State Enterprises and Objects of Industry, Transport, and Communications<ref name=Kommersant79717/><ref name=gkchppost>{{cite web|url=http://souz.info/library/other/gkchp/gkchppost.htm|title=Souz.Info Постановления ГКЧП|website=souz.info|access-date=26 June 2007|archive-date=26 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071226092755/http://souz.info/library/other/gkchp/gkchppost.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Yanayev signed the decree naming himself acting Soviet President, using the pretense of Gorbachev's inability to perform presidential duties due to "illness".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://souz.info/library/other/gkchp/gkchpukaz.htm |title=УКАЗ вице-президента СССР |access-date=13 August 2021 |archive-date=26 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190826224704/http://www.souz.info/library/other/gkchp/gkchpukaz.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> However, Russian investigators later identified Kryuchkov as the key planner of the coup.<ref name=":1" /> Yanayev later claimed that he had been forced to participate in the coup under the threat of arrest.{{Sfn|Kyriakodis|1991|p=338}} The eight aforementioned GKChP members became known as the "[[State Committee on the State of Emergency|Gang of Eight]]".

The GKChP banned all Moscow newspapers except for nine party-controlled newspapers.<ref name=gkchppost/><ref>The newspapers that were allowed were [[Trud (Russian newspaper)|''Trud'']], ''[[Tribuna (Russian newspaper)|Rabochaya Tribuna]]'', ''[[Izvestia]]'', ''[[Pravda]]'', ''[[Krasnaya Zvezda]]'', ''[[Sovetskaya Rossiya]]'', ''[[Moskovskaya Pravda]]'', ''Leninskoye Znamya'', and ''Sel'skaya zhizn′''.</ref> It also issued a populist declaration which stated that "the honour and dignity of the [[New Soviet man|Soviet man]] must be restored."<ref name=gkchppost/>

===Monday 19 August===

==== Early hours ====
At 1:00{{spaces}}am, Yanayev signed documents on the formation of the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP), consisting of himself, Pavlov, Kryuchkov, Yazov, Pugo, Baklanov, Tizyakov and Starodubtsev. Included in the documents was the "Appeal to the Soviet people".<ref name=Timeline/><ref>Янаев Г. И. [http://www.x-libri.ru/elib/janav000/00000045.htm Последний бой за СССР] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917121951/http://www.x-libri.ru/elib/janav000/00000045.htm |date=17 September 2018 }}. – М.: Эксмо, 2010. – 443 с.</ref>

The GKChP members present signed GKChP Resolution No. 1, which introduced the following: a state of emergency "in certain areas of the USSR" lasting six months from 4:00{{spaces}}am Moscow time on 19{{spaces}}August; the prohibition of rallies, demonstrations and strikes; suspension of the activities of political parties, public organizations and mass movements that impede the normalization of the situation; and the allocation of up to {{convert|1500|m2|acre|1}} of land to all interested city residents for personal use.<ref name=Timeline/><ref name=gkchppost/>

At 4:00{{spaces}}am, the Sevastopol regiment of [[KGB Border Troops|KGB border troops]] surrounded Gorbachev's presidential dacha in Foros. By order of Soviet Air Defense Chief of Staff Colonel-General Igor Maltsev, two tractors blocked the runway on which the President's aircraft were located: a [[Tupolev Tu-134|Tu-134]] jet and [[Mil Mi-8|Mi-8]] helicopter.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://old.russ.ru/antolog/1991/putch11.htm |title=Путч: день первый. 19 августа 1991 года |access-date=13 August 2021 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304204619/http://old.russ.ru/antolog/1991/putch11.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Morning ====
Starting at 6:00{{spaces}}am, all of the GKChP documents were broadcast over state radio and television.<ref name=Timeline/> The KGB immediately issued an arrest list that included newly elected Russian SFSR President [[Boris Yeltsin]], his allies, and the leaders of the umbrella activist group [[Democratic Russia]].<ref name=":1" /> The Russian SFSR-controlled [[Radio Rossii]] and [[All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company|Televidenie Rossii]], plus [[Echo of Moscow|Ekho Moskvy]], the only independent political radio station, were taken off the air. However, the latter station later resumed its broadcasts and became a source of reliable information during the coup. The [[BBC World Service]] and [[Voice of America]] were also able to provide continuous coverage. Gorbachev and his family heard the news from a BBC bulletin on a small [[Sony]] [[transistor radio]] that had not been seized. For the next several days, he refused to take food from outside the dacha to avoid being [[poison]]ed, and took long outdoor strolls to dispute reports of his ill health.<ref name=Kommersant79720>{{in lang|ru}} [http://www.nr2.ru/ekb/publications/79720.html another "Kommersant" article] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080107014601/http://www.nr2.ru/ekb/publications/79720.html |date=7 January 2008 }}, 18 August 2006</ref><ref name=":0" />

Under Yanayev's orders,{{verify source|date=March 2022}} units of the [[2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division|Tamanskaya mechanized infantry]] and [[4th Guards Tank Division|Kantemirovskaya armored division]] rolled into Moscow, along with [[Soviet Airborne Forces|airborne troops]]. Around 4,000 soldiers, 350 tanks, 300 armoured personnel carriers and 420 trucks were sent to Moscow. Four [[Congress of People's Deputies of Russia|Russian SFSR people's deputies]] were detained by the KGB at a [[Soviet Army]] base near the capital.<ref name="91internalkgbreport" /> However, almost no other arrests were made by the KGB during the coup. [[Ulysse Gosset]] and Vladimir Federovski later alleged that the KGB was planning to carry out a much larger wave of arrests two weeks after the coup, after which it would have abolished almost all legislative and local administrative structures under a highly centralized [[Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union|Council of Ministers]].<ref name=":1" /> Yanayev instructed Foreign Minister [[Alexander Bessmertnykh (politician)|Alexander Bessmertnykh]] to make a statement requesting formal [[diplomatic recognition]] from foreign governments and the [[United Nations]].<ref name=":1" />

The GKChP conspirators considered detaining Yeltsin upon his return from a visit to [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic|Kazakhstan]] on 17{{spaces}}August but failed when Yeltsin redirected his flight from [[Chkalovsky Air Base]] northeast of Moscow to [[Vnukovo International Airport|Vnukovo Airport]] southwest of the city. Afterwards, they considered capturing him at his [[dacha]] near Moscow. The [[Alpha Group|KGB Alpha Group]] surrounded his dacha with [[Spetsnaz]], but for undisclosed reasons did not apprehend him. The commanding officer, [[Viktor Fyodorovich Karpukhin|Viktor Karpukhin]], later alleged that he had received an order from Kryuchkov to arrest Yeltsin but disobeyed it, although his account has been questioned.<ref name=":1" /> The failure to arrest Yeltsin proved fatal to the plotters' plans.<ref name="91internalkgbreport" /><ref name="NovayaGazeta55">{{cite web|url=http://2001.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2001/55n/n55n-s14.shtml|title="Novaya Gazeta" No. 55 of 6 August 2001 (extracts from the indictment of the conspirators)|access-date=26 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051224101119/http://2001.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2001/55n/n55n-s14.shtml|archive-date=24 December 2005|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="NovayaGazeta57">{{cite web|url=http://2001.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2001/57n/n57n-s12.shtml|title="Novaya Gazeta" No. 57 of 13 August 2001 (extracts from the indictment of the conspirators)|access-date=26 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929123630/http://2001.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2001/57n/n57n-s12.shtml|archive-date=29 September 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> After the announcement of the coup at 6:30{{spaces}}am, Yeltsin began inviting prominent Russian officials to his dacha, including [[Mayor of Saint Petersburg|Leningrad Mayor]] [[Anatoly Sobchak]], Moscow Deputy Mayor Yury Luzhkov, Colonel-General [[Konstantin Kobets]], RSFSR Prime Minister [[Ivan Silayev]], RSFSR Vice President [[Alexander Rutskoy]], and RSFSR Supreme Soviet Chairman [[Ruslan Khasbulatov]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=Timeline/>
[[File:Moscow White House area 1980 Central Moscow (30849056096) (cropped).jpg|thumb|U.S. map of [[Moscow]] with 1980s street names]]
Yeltsin initially wanted to remain at the dacha and organize a rival government, but Kobets advised his group to travel to the [[White House (Moscow)|White House]], Russia's parliament building, to maintain communications with coup opponents. They arrived and occupied the building at 9:00{{spaces}}am. Together with Silayev and Khasbulatov, Yeltsin issued a declaration "To the Citizens of Russia" that condemned the GKChP's actions as a reactionary anti-constitutional coup. The military was urged not to take part in the coup, and local authorities were asked to follow laws from the RSFSR President rather than the GKChP. Although he initially avoided the measure to avoid sparking a [[civil war]], Yeltsin also subsequently took command of all Soviet military and security forces in the RSFSR.<ref name=":1" /> The joint declaration called for a [[general strike]], with the demand to let Gorbachev address the people.<ref name=russianbook>{{cite web|url=http://old.russ.ru/antolog/1991|title=Путч. Хроника тревожных дней.|website=old.russ.ru|access-date=26 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522071605/http://old.russ.ru/antolog/1991/|archive-date=22 May 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> This declaration was distributed around Moscow in the form of [[Pamphlet|flyers]], and disseminated nationwide through [[Medium wave|medium-wave radio]] and [[Usenet newsgroup]]s via the [[RELCOM]] computer network.<ref>{{cite web|author1=Andrei Soldatov |author2=Irina Borogan |date=2016-08-19|title=How the 1991 Soviet Internet Helped Stop a Coup and Spread a Message of Freedom|url=https://slate.com/technology/2016/08/the-1991-soviet-internet-helped-stop-a-coup-and-spread-a-message-of-freedom.html|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Slate Magazine|language=en|archive-date=27 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527054706/https://slate.com/technology/2016/08/the-1991-soviet-internet-helped-stop-a-coup-and-spread-a-message-of-freedom.html|url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[Izvestia]]'' newspaper workers threatened to go on strike unless Yeltsin's proclamation was printed in the paper.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Varney|first1=Wendy|last2=Martin|first2=Brian|title=Lessons from the 1991 Soviet Coup|date=2000|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23607685|journal=Peace Research|volume=32|issue=1|pages=52–68|jstor=23607685|issn=0008-4697|access-date=24 May 2020|archive-date=24 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724143745/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23607685|url-status=live}}</ref>

The GKChP relied on regional and local [[Soviet (council)|soviets]], mostly still dominated by the Communist Party, to support the coup by forming emergency committees to repress dissidence. The [[Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU Secretariat]] under Boldin sent coded telegrams to local party committees to assist the coup. Yeltsin's authorities later discovered that nearly 70 percent of the committees either backed it or attempted to remain neutral. Within the RSFSR, the [[Oblasts of Russia|oblasts]] of [[Samara Oblast|Samara]], [[Lipetsk Oblast|Lipetsk]], [[Tambov Oblast|Tambov]], [[Saratov Oblast|Saratov]], [[Orenburg Oblast|Orenburg]], [[Irkutsk Oblast|Irkutsk]], and [[Tomsk Oblast|Tomsk]] and the [[krai]] of [[Altai Krai|Altai]] and [[Krasnodar Krai|Krasnodar]] all supported the coup and pressured ''[[raikom]]'' to do so as well, while only three oblasts aside from [[Moscow Oblast|Moscow]] and [[Leningrad Oblast|Leningrad]] opposed it. However, some of the soviets faced internal resistance against emergency rule. The [[Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics]] of [[Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Tatarstan]], [[Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Kabardino-Balkaria]], [[Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Checheno-Ingushetia]], [[Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|Buryatia]], and [[North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic|North Ossetia]] all sided with the GKChP.<ref name=":1" /> [[Soviet Armed Forces]] officers seized control of city halls and government buildings around the country claiming to be in control, as well as television stations in the [[Baltic states]].{{Sfn|Kyriakodis|1991|p=334}}

The Soviet public was divided on the coup. A poll in the RSFSR by Mnenie on the morning of 19{{spaces}}August showed that 23.6 percent of Russians believed the GKChP could improve living standards, while 41.9 percent had no opinion. However, separate polls by [[Interfax]] showed that many Russians, including 71 percent of [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]] residents, feared the return of mass repression. The GKChP enjoyed strong support in the [[Russians in Estonia|Russian-majority regions]] of Estonia and [[Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic|Transnistria]], while Yeltsin enjoyed strong support in [[Yekaterinburg|Sverdlovsk]] and [[Nizhny Novgorod]].<ref name=":1" />

At 10:00{{spaces}}am, Rutskoy, Silayev, and Khasbulatov delivered a letter to Lukyanov demanding a medical exam of Gorbachev by the [[World Health Organization]] and a meeting between themselves, Yeltsin, Gorbachev, and Yanayev within 24 hours. Rutskoy later visited [[Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow]], spiritual leader of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]], and convinced him to declare support for Yeltsin. Meanwhile, in Leningrad, Military District Commander [[Viktor Samsonov]] ordered the formation of an emergency committee for the city, chaired by Leningrad First Secretary Boris Gidaspov, to circumvent Sobchak's democratically elected municipal government. Samsonov's troops were ultimately blocked by hundreds of thousands of demonstrators supported by the police, which forced [[Leningrad Television]] to broadcast a statement by Sobchak. Workers at the [[Kirov Plant]] went on strike in support of Yeltsin. Moscow First Secretary Yuri Prokofev attempted a similar maneuver in the capital but was rebuffed when Boris Nikolskii refused to accept the office of Mayor of Moscow.<ref name=":1" /> At 11:00{{spaces}}am, RSFSR Foreign Minister [[Andrei Kozyrev]] held a press conference for foreign journalists and diplomats, and gained the support of most of the West for Yeltsin.<ref name=":1" />

==== Afternoon and evening ====
That afternoon, Moscow citizens began gathering around the White House, erecting barricades around it.<ref name=russianbook/> In response, Yanayev declared a state of emergency in Moscow at 4:00{{spaces}}pm.<ref name=Kommersant79717/><ref name=gkchppost/> He declared at a 5:00{{spaces}}pm press conference that Gorbachev was "resting". He said: "Over these years he has got very tired and needs some time to get his health back." Yanayev's shaking hands led some people to think he was drunk, and his trembling voice and weak posture made his words unconvincing. Victoria E. Bonnell and Gregory Frieden noted that the press conference allowed spontaneous questioning from journalists who openly accused the GKChP of carrying out a coup, as well as the lack of censorship by news crews, who did not hide Yanayev's erratic motions the way they had with past leaders such as [[Leonid Brezhnev]], making the coup leaders appear more incompetent to Soviet audiences.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Bonnell|first1=Victoria E.|last2=Freidin|first2=Gregory|date=1993|title=Televorot: The Role of Television Coverage in Russia's August 1991 Coup|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2499653|journal=Slavic Review|volume=52|issue=4|pages=810–838|doi=10.2307/2499653|jstor=2499653|s2cid=163397619 |issn=0037-6779|access-date=27 May 2021|archive-date=27 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527054709/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2499653|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Gorbachev's security detail managed to construct a makeshift [[television antenna]] so he and his family could watch the press conference.<ref name=Kommersant79717/> After viewing the conference, Gorbachev expressed confidence that Yeltsin would be able to stop the coup. That night, his family smuggled out a [[videotape]] of Gorbachev condemning the coup.

Yanayev and the rest of the State Committee ordered the [[Cabinet of Ministers]] to alter the [[Five-year plans of the Soviet Union|five-year plan]] of the time to relieve the housing shortage. All city dwellers were each given {{convert|1/3|acre|m2|-3|order=flip}} to combat winter shortages by growing fruits and vegetables. Due to the illness of Valentin Pavlov, the duties of the Soviet head of the government were entrusted to First Deputy Prime Minister [[Vitaly Doguzhiyev]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://online.lexpro.ru/document/2238 |title=Распоряжение Кабинета Министров СССР от 19.08.1991 № 943р |access-date=23 March 2021 |archive-date=11 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711145212/https://online.lexpro.ru/document/2238 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Timeline/>

Meanwhile, the Soviet forces carrying out the coup began to suffer from mass defections to the RSFSR as well as soldiers refusing to obey orders to shoot civilians. Yeltsin asked his followers not to harass the soldiers and offered amnesty for any military servicemen who defected to oppose the coup.{{Sfn|Kyriakodis|1991|p=335-336}} Major Evdokimov, chief of staff of a tank battalion of the [[2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division|Tamanskaya Division]] guarding the White House, declared his loyalty to the leadership of the [[Russian SFSR]].<ref name=russianbook/><ref>"Izvestia", 18 August 2006 {{in lang|ru}}[http://www.izvestia.ru/hystory/article3095759] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310002630/http://www.izvestia.ru/hystory/article3095759|date=10 March 2007}}</ref> Yeltsin climbed one of the tanks and addressed the crowd. Unexpectedly, this episode was included in the state media's evening news.<ref>"Moskovskie Novosty", 2001, No. 33 {{cite web |url=http://www.mn.ru/issue.php?2001-33-3 |title=MN.RU: Московские Новости |access-date=2007-06-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071127062600/http://www.mn.ru/issue.php?2001-33-3 |archive-date=27 November 2007|language=ru}}</ref> Soviet Armed Forces officers loyal to the GKChP tried to prevent defections by confining soldiers to their barracks, but this only limited the availability of forces to carry out the coup.{{Sfn|Kyriakodis|1991|p=341}}

===Tuesday 20 August===
[[File:1991 coup attempt4.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Tanks in [[Red Square]]]]
At 8:00{{spaces}}am, the [[Soviet General Staff]] ordered that the [[Cheget]] briefcase controlling [[Nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union|Soviet nuclear weapons]] be returned to Moscow. Although Gorbachev discovered that the GKChP's actions had cut off communications with the nuclear duty officers, the Cheget was returned to the capital by 2:00{{spaces}}pm. However, [[Soviet Air Forces|Soviet Air Force]] Commander-in-Chief [[Yevgeny Shaposhnikov]] opposed the coup and claimed in his memoirs that he and the commanders of the [[Soviet Navy]] and the [[Strategic Rocket Forces]] told Yazov that they would not follow orders for a nuclear launch. After the coup, Gorbachev refused to admit that he had lost control of the country's nuclear weapons.<ref name=":0" />

At noon, [[Moscow Military District#note-0|Moscow military district]] commander General [[Nikolai Vasilyevich Kalinin|Nikolai Kalinin]], whom Yanayev appointed [[Military Commandant of Moscow|military commandant of Moscow]], declared a [[curfew]] in Moscow from 11:00{{spaces}}pm to 5:00{{spaces}}am, effective 20{{spaces}}August.<ref name="NovayaGazeta51" /><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/597 |title=Приказ Коменданта г. Москвы N 2 |date=26 August 1991 |access-date=13 August 2021 |archive-date=4 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204043921/https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/597 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="russianbook" /> This was understood as a sign that an attack on the White House was imminent.

The defenders of the White House prepared themselves, most being unarmed. Evdokimov's tanks were moved from the White House in the evening.<ref name=Kommersant79717/><ref name=Nezavisimoe>{{in lang|ru}} [http://nvo.ng.ru/history/2006-08-18/1_19aug91.html "Nezavisimoe Voiennoye Obozrenie"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080107015607/http://nvo.ng.ru/history/2006-08-18/1_19aug91.html |date=7 January 2008 }}, 18 August 2006</ref> The makeshift White House defense headquarters was headed by General [[Konstantin Kobets]], a Russian SFSR [[Congress of People's Deputies of Russia|people's deputy]].<ref name=Nezavisimoe/><ref name=heroes>{{cite web|url=http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=1201|title=Усов Владимир Александрович|website=warheroes.ru|access-date=26 June 2007|archive-date=9 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071209222956/http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=1201|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsF4c06txHM |title=The Soviet Coup: Day One, August 19th 1991 |date=26 August 2011 |publisher=YouTube |access-date=2021-12-04 |archive-date=23 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190923071323/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsF4c06txHM |url-status=live }}</ref> Outside, [[Eduard Shevardnadze]], [[Mstislav Rostropovich]], and [[Yelena Bonner]] delivered speeches in support of Yeltsin.<ref name=":1" />

In the afternoon, Kryuchkov, Yazov and Pugo finally decided to attack the White House. This decision was supported by other GKChP members (with the exception of Pavlov, who had been sent to his dacha due to drunkenness). Kryuchkov's and Yazov's deputies, KGB general Gennady Ageyev and Army general [[Vladislav Achalov]], planned the assault, codenamed "Operation Grom" (Thunder), which would gather elements of the [[Alpha Group]] and [[Vympel]] elite special forces units, supported by paratroopers, Moscow [[OMON]], [[Internal Troops]] of the [[Separate Operational Purpose Division|ODON]], three tank companies and a helicopter squadron. Alpha Group commander General [[Viktor Fyodorovich Karpukhin|Viktor Karpukhin]] and other senior unit officers, together with Airborne deputy commander Gen. [[Alexander Lebed]] mingled with the crowds near the White House and assessed the possibility of such an operation. Afterwards, Karpukhin and Vympel commander Colonel Boris Beskov tried to convince Ageyev that the operation would result in bloodshed and should be cancelled.<ref name=91internalkgbreport/><ref name=NovayaGazeta51/><ref name=Timeline/><ref name=Argumenty>[http://nd.flb.ru/?path=3&info_id=1222&text_version=19 "Argumenty i Facty"]{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, 15 August 2001</ref> Lebed, with the consent of his superior  [[Pavel Grachev]] , returned to the White House and secretly informed the defense headquarters that the attack would begin at 2:00{{spaces}}am the following morning.<ref name=Timeline/><ref name=Argumenty/>

While the events were unfolding in the capital, [[Estonia]]'s [[Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic|Supreme Council]] declared at 11:03{{spaces}}pm the full reinstatement of the independent status of the Republic of Estonia after 51 years.

State-controlled TASS dispatches from 20{{spaces}}August emphasize a hardline approach against crime, especially economic crimes and the [[Russian mafia]], which the GKChP blamed on increasing trade with the West. Draft decrees were later discovered which would have allowed military and police patrols to shoot "[[Hooliganism|hooligans]]," including pro-democracy demonstrators.<ref name=":1" />

===Wednesday 21 August===
At about 1:00{{spaces}}am, not far from the [[White House (Moscow)|White House]], [[trolleybus]]es and street cleaning machines were used to barricade a tunnel against arriving Taman Guards [[infantry fighting vehicle]]s (IFVs), commanded by Captain [[Sergey Surovikin]],<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://ria.ru/spravka/20110707/398468102.html|title=Сергей Владимирович Суровикин. Биографическая справка|date=7 July 2011|work=RIA Novosti|language=ru|trans-title=Sergey Vladimirovich Surovikin: Biography|access-date=12 October 2016|archive-date=13 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013081932/https://ria.ru/spravka/20110707/398468102.html|url-status=live}}</ref> who years later rose to army general and commander of Russian forces in the [[2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine|2022 invasion of Ukraine]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-01-11 |title=Ukraine war: Sergei Surovikin removed as commander of Ukraine invasion force |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64235713 |access-date=2023-06-24 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111221145/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64235713 |url-status=live }}</ref> Three men were killed in the ensuing clash: Dmitry Komar, Vladimir Usov, and Ilya Krichevsky; several others were wounded. Komar, a 22-year-old [[Soviet–Afghan War|Soviet-Afghan War]] veteran, was shot and crushed trying to cover a moving IFV's observation slit. Usov, a 37-year-old economist, was killed by a stray bullet while coming to Komar's aid. The crowd set fire to an IFV and Krichevsky, a 28-year-old architect, was shot dead as the troops pulled back. The three men were posthumously awarded the title [[Hero of the Soviet Union]].<ref name="Kommersant79717" /><ref name="heroes" /><ref>{{Cite news|work=[[The Guardian Online]]|title=Calls for recognition of 1991 Soviet coup martyrs on 20th anniversary|date=16 August 2011|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/16/soviet-coup-martyrs-anniversary|access-date=9 March 2018|archive-date=9 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180309182722/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/16/soviet-coup-martyrs-anniversary|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>A Russian site on Ilya Krichevsky {{cite web |url=http://amkworks113.ru/pbl/pbl-8.html |title=Александр М. Кобринский, "Растянутое мгновение" |access-date=2010-12-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811105836/http://amkworks113.ru/pbl/pbl-8.html |archive-date=11 August 2011}}. Accessed 15 August 2009.  [https://archive.today/20120527070658/http://amkob113.narod.ru/kobra/pbl/pbl-8.html Archived] 17 August 2009.</ref> According to journalist and democracy campaigner [[Sergey Parkhomenko]], who was in the crowd defending the White House, "those deaths played a crucial role: both sides were so horrified that it brought a halt to everything."<ref>{{Cite news|work=[[The Moscow Times]]|title=Russia's Brightest Moment: The 1991 Coup That Failed|date=19 August 2016|url=https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/the-forgotten-coup-55030|access-date=9 March 2018|archive-date=20 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320184121/https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/the-forgotten-coup-55030|url-status=live}}</ref> Alpha Group and Vympel did not move to the White House as planned, and Yazov ordered the troops to pull out of Moscow. Reports also surfaced that Gorbachev had been placed under [[house arrest]] in Crimea.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/21/world/the-soviet-crisis-gorbachev-reportedly-arrested-in-the-crimea.html|title=The Soviet Crisis; Gorbachev Reportedly Arrested in the Crimea|first=Serge|last=Schmemann|work=The New York Times|date=21 August 1991|access-date=15 October 2020|archive-date=17 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017055604/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/21/world/the-soviet-crisis-gorbachev-reportedly-arrested-in-the-crimea.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/08/21/gorbachev-reported-under-house-arrest/228b8d36-69c2-4df6-841d-1eae059afd8d|title=Gorbachev Reported Under House Arrest |first=Michael|last=Dobbs|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=21 August 1991|access-date=15 October 2020|archive-date=4 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204044007/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/08/21/gorbachev-reported-under-house-arrest/228b8d36-69c2-4df6-841d-1eae059afd8d/|url-status=live}}</ref> During the final day of her family's exile, [[Raisa Gorbacheva]] suffered a minor [[stroke]].<ref name=":0" />

At 8:00{{spaces}}am, the troops began to leave Moscow.<ref name=Timeline/>

Between 8:00 and 9:00{{spaces}}am, the GKChP members met in the [[Ministry of Defense (Soviet Union)|Defence Ministry]] and, not knowing what to do, decided to send Kryuchkov, Yazov, Baklanov, Tizyakov, [[Anatoly Lukyanov]], and Deputy [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU General Secretary]] [[Vladimir Ivashko]] to Crimea to meet Gorbachev,<ref name=Timeline/> who refused to meet them when they arrived.

At 10:00{{spaces}}am, the session of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR opened in the White House, at which President Yeltsin spoke.<ref name=Timeline/>

At 1:00{{spaces}}pm, the Soviet Cabinet of Ministers circulated a statement about its non-involvement in the putsch.<ref name=Timeline/> At 1:20{{spaces}}pm, Kryuchkov, Yazov, Baklanov, Tizyakov, Lukyanov and CPSU Central Committee Deputy General Secretary Vladimir Ivashko left for the airport, getting stuck in a traffic jam created by the Taman Division armored vehicles returning to their base.<ref name="Timeline" />

At 2:00{{spaces}}pm, the CPSU Central Committee Secretariat issued a statement demanding that the GKChP clarify the fate of the head of the Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev.<ref name="Timeline" />

At 2:30{{spaces}}pm, Soviet Minister of Internal Affairs Boris Pugo signed the last GKChP order{{snd}}a cypher telegram to the regional departments of internal affairs with a demand to strengthen the security of television and radio organizations and report on all violations of the GKChP Resolution on information control.<ref name="Timeline" />

At 4:08{{spaces}}pm, the plane with the GKChP delegation landed in Crimea.<ref name="Timeline" /> Around 4:00{{spaces}}pm, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, chaired by the heads of the chambers of the union parliament,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://vedomosti.sssr.su/1991/35/#01431 |title=Заседание Президиума Верховного Совета СССР |access-date=10 August 2021 |archive-date=6 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506003718/http://vedomosti.sssr.su/1991/35/#01431 |url-status=live }}</ref> adopted a resolution in which it declared illegal the removal of the Soviet President from his duties and their transfer to the Vice President,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://gkchp.sssr.su/gkchp.pdf |title=Заседание Президиума Верховного Совета СССР, ТАСС: 21 августа 1991 года |access-date=10 August 2021 |archive-date=21 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121222908/http://gkchp.sssr.su/gkchp.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> and in this vein demanded that Yanayev cancel the decrees and emergency orders based on them<ref name="Август 91-го. А был ли заговор">Лукьянов А. И. [http://www.x-libri.ru/elib/lukjn000/00000029.htm Август 91-го. А был ли заговор?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210810165143/http://www.x-libri.ru/elib/lukjn000/00000029.htm |date=10 August 2021 }} – М.: Алгоритм, Эксмо, 2010. – 240 с.</ref> as legally invalid from the moment they were signed.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://sergej-manit.livejournal.com/1043146.html |title=Постановление Президиума Верховного Совета СССР от 21 августа 1991 года № 2352-I «О неотложных мерах по восстановлению конституционного порядка в стране» |access-date=10 August 2021 |archive-date=10 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210810164843/https://sergej-manit.livejournal.com/1043146.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

At 4:52{{spaces}}pm, a group of Russian deputies and public figures led by RSFSR Vice President [[Alexander Rutskoy]], as well as Soviet Security Council members Yevgeny Primakov and Vadim Bakatin, flew to Gorbachev's dacha in Foros. They were accompanied by 36 officers of the RSFSR Ministry of Internal Affairs armed with machine guns, under the command of RSFSR Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Andrei Dunaev.<ref name="Timeline" />

Eight minutes later, at 5:00{{spaces}}pm, the GKChP delegation arrived at the presidential dacha. President Gorbachev refused to receive it and demanded that communication to the outside world be restored.<ref name="Timeline" /> At the same time, Yanayev signed a decree dissolving the State Emergency Committee<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/278983 |title=Геннадий Янаев: Горбачёва никто не арестовывал |date=18 August 2001 |access-date=10 August 2021 |archive-date=24 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210524093142/https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/278983 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://echo.msk.ru/programs/beseda/15381/ |title=10-я годовщина событий августа 1991 года |access-date=10 August 2021 |archive-date=5 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205001803/https://echo.msk.ru/programs/beseda/15381/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and declaring all of its decisions invalid.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.newlookmedia.ru/?p=11427 |title=КАЛИФ ЯНАЕВ |access-date=10 August 2021 |archive-date=21 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121114131/http://www.newlookmedia.ru/?p=11427 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Август 91-го. А был ли заговор"/>

At 7:16{{spaces}}pm, the plane of the Russian delegation led by Rutskoy landed in Crimea.<ref name="Timeline" />

At 8:00{{spaces}}pm, the [[Procurator General of the Soviet Union|Soviet General Prosecutor's Office]] initiated a criminal case into the attempted coup.<ref name="Timeline" /><ref name="russianbook" />

At 8:10{{spaces}}pm, Rutskoy and his delegation went to see Gorbachev. According to eyewitnesses, the meeting was cordial and joyful, allowing them to momentarily forget divisions between Soviet and Russian authorities.<ref name="Timeline" />

From 9:40 to 10:10{{spaces}}pm, Gorbachev received Lukyanov and Ivashko in the presence of Rutskoy and Primakov, accusing the USSR Supreme Soviet Speaker of [[treason]], and the party deputy of inaction during the putsch.<ref name="Timeline" />

Around 10:00{{spaces}}pm, RSFSR Prosecutor General Valentin Stepankov signed an arrest warrant for the Emergency Committee members.<ref name="Timeline" />

That day, the [[Supreme Soviet of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic|Supreme Council]] of the [[Latvia|Republic of Latvia]] declared its sovereignty officially completed with a law passed by its deputies, confirming the independence restoration act of 4{{spaces}}May as an official act.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.likumi.lv/doc.php?id=69512|title= Constitutional law on statehood of the Republic of Latvia|access-date= 7 January 2008|author= Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR|author-link= Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia|date= 21 August 1991|publisher= [[Latvijas Vēstnesis]]|language= lv|archive-date= 9 May 2009|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090509071056/http://www.likumi.lv/doc.php?id=69512|url-status= live}}</ref> In [[Estonia]], just a day after the restitution of the country's full independence, the [[Tallinn TV Tower]] was taken over by [[Soviet Airborne Forces|Soviet Russian airborne troops]]. But while television broadcasts were cut for a time, the radio signal was kept on the air after a handful of [[Estonian Defence League]] (the unified [[paramilitary]] forces of Estonia) members barricaded themselves in the tower's broadcasting studio.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.estonica.org/en/The_August_coup_and_Estonian_independence_1991/|title= The August coup and Estonian independence (1991)|website=www.estonica.org|access-date=16 June 2018|archive-date=15 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615032856/http://www.estonica.org/en/The_August_coup_and_Estonian_independence_1991/|url-status=live}}</ref> That evening, as news from Moscow about the coup's failure reached Tallinn, the Russian paratroopers left the TV tower and the Estonian capital.

===Thursday 22 August===
[[File:1991-Barrikad-BelyDom.jpg|thumb|22 August 1991]]
At one minute past midnight, Gorbachev, his family and assistants flew to Moscow on Rutskoy's plane. The GKChP members were sent back on a different plane; only [[Vladimir Kryuchkov|Kryuchkov]] flew in the presidential plane, under police custody (according to Rutskoy, "they [would] definitely not be shot down with him on board"). Upon arrival, Kryuchkov, Yazov and Tizyakov were arrested on the airfield, which was illegal under Soviet law as officials representing the central government could only be arrested and tried under Soviet law, which prevailed over the laws of the constituent republics.<ref>{{Citation |title=Евгений Спицын о предателях народа или "ГКЧП. Как рушили СССР". | date=14 June 2022 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCeGDY9Bd1U |language=en |access-date=2022-10-24 |archive-date=24 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221024093348/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCeGDY9Bd1U&gl=US&hl=en |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Timeline/>

At 2:00{{spaces}}am, when Gorbachev arrived at Moscow's [[Vnukovo International Airport|Vnukovo Airport]], television showed live footage of him walking down the [[airstair]]s wearing a knitted sweater. Later, he would be criticized for not going to the White House, but to rest at his dacha.<ref name=Timeline/>

At 6:00{{spaces}}am, Soviet Vice President Yanayev was arrested in his office.<ref name=Timeline/><ref>Янаев Г. И. [http://www.x-libri.ru/elib/janav000/00000028.htm Последний бой за СССР] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917121901/http://www.x-libri.ru/elib/janav000/00000028.htm |date=17 September 2018 }}. – М.: Эксмо, 2010. – 443 с.</ref>

Boris Pugo and his wife died by suicide after being contacted by the RSFSR for a meeting over his role in the coup attempt.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Synovitz |first=Ron |date=2016-08-19 |title=What Happened To The August 1991 Soviet Coup Plotters? |language=en |work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/what-happened-to-the-august-1991-coup-plotters/27933729.html |access-date=2023-06-24 |archive-date=4 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704153717/https://www.rferl.org/a/what-happened-to-the-august-1991-coup-plotters/27933729.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Friday 23 August ===
Pavlov, Starodubtsev, Baklanov, Boldin, and Shenin would all be taken into custody within the next 48 hours.<ref name=Timeline/>

==Aftermath==
[[File:1991-August-Moscow.jpg|thumb|Victims' place of death]]
Since several heads of the regional [[Committee|executive committees]] supported the GKChP, on 21{{spaces}}August 1991 the [[Supreme Soviet of Russia|Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR]] adopted Decision No. 1626-1, which authorized Russian President [[Boris Yeltsin]] to appoint heads of regional administrations,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.lawmix.ru/expertlaw/273389 |title=Постановление Верховного Совета РСФСР от 21.08.1991 № 1626-I О дополнительных полномочиях Президента РСФСР по обеспечению законности деятельности Советов народных депутатов в условиях ликвидации последствий попытки государственного переворота в СССР |access-date=10 August 2021 |archive-date=10 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210810192432/https://www.lawmix.ru/expertlaw/273389 |url-status=live }}</ref> although the [[1978 Russian Constitution|Constitution of the Russian SFSR]] did not empower the president with such authority. The Russian Supreme Soviet passed another decision the following day declaring the [[Flag of Russia|old imperial colors]] Russia's national flag;<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.consultant.ru/cons/cgi/online.cgi?req=doc&base=EXP&n=221423#cyoLifS8IMdtkgbx |title=Постановление Верховного Совета РСФСР от 22 августа 1991 года № 1627/1-1 «Об официальном признании и использовании Национального флага РСФСР» |access-date=10 August 2021 |archive-date=4 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204043927/http://www.consultant.ru/cons/cgi/online.cgi?req=doc&base=EXP&n=221423#cyoLifS8IMdtkgbx |url-status=live }}</ref> it replaced the [[Flag of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR flag]] two months later.

On the night of 24{{spaces}}August, the [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]] statue in front of the [[Lubyanka Building|KGB building at Dzerzhinskiy Square (Lubianka)]] was dismantled, while thousands of Moscow citizens took part in the funeral of Dmitry Komar, Vladimir Usov and Ilya Krichevsky, the three citizens who had died in the tunnel incident. Gorbachev posthumously awarded them with the title of [[Hero of the Soviet Union]]. Yeltsin asked their relatives to forgive him for not being able to prevent their deaths.<ref name=Timeline/>

===End of the CPSU===
Gorbachev initially tried to defend the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]], proclaiming at a 22{{spaces}}August press conference that it still represented a "[[Progressivism|progressive]] force" despite its leaders' participation in the coup.<ref name=":0" /> Gorbachev resigned as CPSU [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary]] on{{spaces}}24{{spaces}}August.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.illuminats.ru/component/content/article/29-new/1198-statement-by-mikhail-gorbachev-on-the-addition-of-duties-the-secretary-general-of-the-cpsu-24-august-1991?directory=29 |title=Заявление М. С. Горбачева о сложение обязанностей генерального секретаря ЦК КПСС |trans-title=Statement by M. S. Gorbachev on the resignation of the duties of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU |language=ru |date=August 24, 1991|access-date=4 April 2021 |archive-date=21 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721014247/http://www.illuminats.ru/component/content/article/29-new/1198-statement-by-mikhail-gorbachev-on-the-addition-of-duties-the-secretary-general-of-the-cpsu-24-august-1991?directory=29 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Timeline/> [[Vladimir Ivashko]] replaced him as acting General Secretary, but resigned on 29{{spaces}}August{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} when the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union|Supreme Soviet of the USSR]] suspended the activities of the party throughout the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://constitution20.info/ckeditor_assets/attachments/490/1991_08_29_postvs_sssr.pdf |title=Постановление Верховного Совета СССР от 29 августа 1991 г. № 2371-I «О ситуации, возникшей в стране в связи с имевшим место государственным переворотом» |trans-title=Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 29, 1991 No. 2371-I "On the situation that arose in the country in connection with the coup d'état that took place" |date=August 29, 1991 |language=ru |access-date=4 April 2021 |archive-date=14 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714113935/http://constitution20.info/ckeditor_assets/attachments/490/1991_08_29_postvs_sssr.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a decree, Yeltsin ordered the transfer of the CPSU archives to the state archive authorities,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://kremlin.ru/acts/bank/140 |title=Указ Президента РСФСР от 24 августа 1991 г. № 83 «О партийных архивах» |trans-title=Decree of the President of the RSFSR of August 24, 1991 No. 83 "On Party Archives" |date=August 24, 1991 |language=ru |access-date=10 August 2021 |archive-date=10 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210810190639/http://kremlin.ru/acts/bank/140 |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Nationalization|nationalized]] all CPSU assets in the Russian SFSR<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://kremlin.ru/acts/bank/144 |title=Указ Президента РСФСР от 25 августа 1991 г. № 90 «Об имуществе КПСС и Коммунистической партии РСФСР» |trans-title=Decree of the President of the RSFSR of August 25, 1991 No. 90 "On the property of the CPSU and the Communist Party of the RSFSR" |date=August 25, 1991 |language=ru |access-date=10 August 2021 |archive-date=30 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030125617/http://kremlin.ru/acts/bank/144 |url-status=live }}</ref> (these included not only party committee headquarters but also assets such as educational institutions and hotels).{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} The party's [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]] headquarters were handed over to the [[Government of Moscow]].<ref name=":0" /> On 6{{spaces}}November, Yeltsin issued a decree banning the party in Russia.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://kremlin.ru/acts/bank/385 |title=Указ Президента РСФСР от 6 ноября 1991 г. № 169 «О деятельности КПСС и КП РСФСР» |trans-title=Decree of the President of the RSFSR of November 6, 1991 No. 169 "On the activities of the CPSU and the Communist Party of the RSFSR" |date=November 6, 1991 |language=ru |access-date=4 April 2021 |archive-date=1 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301170411/http://kremlin.ru/acts/bank/385 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===The Dissolution of the Soviet Union===
{{See also|Belavezha Accords|Dissolution of the Soviet Union}}
{{more citations needed section|date=August 2016}}
On 24{{spaces}}August 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev created the so-called "Committee for the Operational Management of the Soviet Economy" (Комитет по оперативному управлению народным хозяйством СССР), to replace the [[USSR Cabinet of Ministers]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.libussr.ru/doc_ussr/usr_19391.htm |title=Указ Президента СССР от 24.08.1991 N УП-2461 "О Кабинете Министров СССР" |access-date=4 April 2021 |archive-date=27 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127002356/http://www.libussr.ru/doc_ussr/usr_19391.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> headed by [[Valentin Pavlov]], a GKChP member. Russian Prime Minister [[Ivan Silayev]] headed the committee.

That same day, Ukraine's [[Verkhovna Rada]] adopted the [[Declaration of Independence of Ukraine|Act of Independence of Ukraine]] and called for a referendum on support of the Act of Independence.

On 25{{spaces}}August, the [[Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR]] announced its [[Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Declaration of Sovereignty]] as a constitutional law.<ref name="byind">{{cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/belarus/39.htm|title=Belarus&nbsp;– Prelude to Independence|access-date=22 December 2007|last=Fedor|first=Helen|year=1995|work=Belarus: A Country Study|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|archive-date=10 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010070350/http://countrystudies.us/belarus/39.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://belzakon.net/%D0%97%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE/%D0%97%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D0%A0%D0%91/199/2106 |title=Закон Республики Беларусь от 25 августа 1991 г. №1017-XII "О придании статуса конституционного закона Декларации Верховного Совета Белорусской ССР о государственном суверенитете Белорусской ССР" |access-date=4 April 2021 |archive-date=4 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204043937/https://belzakon.net/%D0%97%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE/%D0%97%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D0%A0%D0%91/199/2106 |url-status=live }}</ref>

On 28{{spaces}}August, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dismissed Prime Minister Pavlov<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://base.garant.ru/6334608/ |title=Постановление Верховного Совета СССР от 28 августа 1991 г. № 2366-I «Об освобождении Павлова В. С. от обязанностей Премьер-министра СССР» |access-date=5 April 2021 |archive-date=31 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210131005854/http://base.garant.ru/6334608/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and entrusted the functions of the Soviet government to the Committee for the Operational Management of the Soviet Economy.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://base.garant.ru/6334609/ |title=Постановление Верховного Совета СССР от 28 августа 1991 г. № 2367-I «О недоверии Кабинету Министров СССР» |access-date=5 April 2021 |archive-date=13 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413153355/http://base.garant.ru/6334609/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The next day, Supreme Soviet Chairman [[Anatoly Lukyanov]] was arrested.<ref name="Timeline" />

On 5{{spaces}}September, the [[Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union]] adopted Soviet Law No. 2392-1 "On the Authorities of the Soviet Union in the Transitional Period", replacing itself with the [[Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union]]. Two new legislative chambers{{snd}}the Soviet of the Union (Совет Союза) and the Soviet of Republics (Совет Республик){{snd}}replaced the [[Soviet of the Union]] and the [[Soviet of Nationalities]] (both elected by the USSR Congress of People's Deputies). The Soviet of the Union was to be formed by the popularly elected [[Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union|USSR people's deputies]] and would only consider issues concerning civil rights and freedoms and other issues which did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Soviet of Republics. Its decisions would have to be reviewed by the Soviet of Republics. The Soviet of Republics was to include 20 deputies from each union republic and one deputy to represent each [[Republics of Russia|autonomous region]] of each union republic (both Soviet people's deputies and [[Congress of People's Deputies of Russia|republics' people's deputies]]) delegated by the legislatures of the union republic. Russia, with 52 delegates, was an exception. However, the delegation of each union republic was to have only one vote in the Soviet of Republics. The laws were to be first adopted by the Soviet of the Union and then by the Soviet of Republics, which would set procedures for the central government, approve the appointment of central ministers and consider inter-republic agreements.<ref name="pravo.levonevsky.org">{{cite web|url=http://pravo.levonevsky.org/baza/soviet/sssr0036.htm|title=Закон СССР от 05.09.1991 N 2392-1 об органах государственной|website=pravo.levonevsky.org|access-date=27 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100713021550/http://pravo.levonevsky.org/baza/soviet/sssr0036.htm|archive-date=13 July 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Also created was the [[State Council of the Soviet Union|Soviet State Council]] (Государственный совет СССР), which included the [[Soviet President]] and the presidents of union republics. The "Committee for the Operational Management of the Soviet Economy" was replaced by the USSR Inter-republic Economic Committee (Межреспубликанский экономический комитет СССР),<ref name="pravo.levonevsky.org" /> also headed by [[Ivan Silayev]].

On 27{{spaces}}August, the [[Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic|Supreme Soviet of Moldova]] [[Moldovan Declaration of Independence|declared the independence of Moldova from the Soviet Union]]. The [[Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic|Supreme Soviets of Azerbaijan]] and [[Supreme Soviet of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic|Kyrgyzstan]] did the same on 30 and 31{{spaces}}August, respectively. On 6{{spaces}}September, the newly created Soviet State Council recognized the independence of [[Estonia]], [[Latvia]] and [[Lithuania]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rian.ru/history/20050906/41308028.html|title=6 сентября|date=5 September 2005|access-date=27 June 2007|archive-date=27 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071127063649/http://www.rian.ru/history/20050906/41308028.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Estonia had declared re-independence on 20{{spaces}}August, Latvia the following day, while Lithuania had already done so on 11{{spaces}}March the previous year. On 9{{spaces}}September, the [[Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic|Supreme Soviet of Tajikistan]] declared the independence of [[Tajikistan]] from the Soviet Union. Also in September, over 99% percent of voters in [[Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Armenia]] voted for independence of the republic in a [[1991 Armenian independence referendum|referendum]]. The immediate aftermath of the vote was the [[Supreme Council of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Armenian Supreme Soviet]]'s declaration of independence on 21{{spaces}}September. On{{spaces}}27 October, the [[Supreme Soviet of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic|Supreme Soviet of Turkmenistan]] declared the independence of [[Turkmenistan]] from the Soviet Union. On 1{{spaces}}December, Ukraine held a [[1991 Ukrainian independence referendum|referendum]], in which more than 90% of residents supported the Act of Independence of Ukraine.

By November, the only Soviet Republics that had not declared independence were Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. That same month, seven republics (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan) agreed to a new union treaty that would form a [[confederation]] called the Union of Sovereign States. However, this confederation never materialized.

On 8{{spaces}}December, [[Boris Yeltsin]], [[Leonid Kravchuk]] and [[Stanislav Shushkevich]]{{snd}}the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and [[Belarus]] (which had adopted the name in August 1991){{snd}}as well as the prime ministers of the three republics, met in [[Minsk]], Belarus to sign the [[Belovezha Accords]]. The Accords declared that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist "as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality." It repudiated the [[Treaty on the Creation of the USSR|1922 union treaty]] that established the Soviet Union and established the [[Commonwealth of Independent States]] (CIS) in the Union's place. On 12{{spaces}}December, the [[Supreme Soviet of Russia|Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR]] ratified the accords and recalled the Russian deputies from the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Although this has been interpreted as the moment that Russia seceded from the Union, Russia took the position that it was not possible to secede from a state that no longer existed. The lower chamber of the Supreme Soviet, the Council of the Union, was forced to halt its operations, as the departure of the Russian deputies left it without a quorum.

Doubts remained about the legitimacy of the 8{{spaces}}December accords, since only three republics took part. Thus, on 21{{spaces}}December in [[Alma-Ata]], the [[Alma-Ata Protocol]] expanded the CIS to include [[Armenia]], [[Azerbaijan]] and the five republics of [[Central Asia]]. They also pre-emptively accepted Gorbachev's resignation. With 11 of the 12 remaining republics (all except [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]) having agreed that the Union no longer existed, Gorbachev bowed to the inevitable and said he would resign as soon as the CIS became a reality (Georgia joined the CIS in 1993, only to withdraw in 2008 after [[Russo-Georgian War|its war with Russia]]; the three Baltic states were never a part of the commonwealth, instead joining both the [[European Union]] and [[NATO]] in 2004.)

On 24{{spaces}}December 1991, the Russian SFSR{{snd}}now renamed the Russian Federation{{snd}}with the concurrence of the other republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States, informed the [[United Nations]] that it would [[Russia and the United Nations|inherit the Soviet Union's membership in the UN]]{{snd}}including the Soviet Union's permanent seat on the [[United Nations Security Council]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/Others/inf397.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031123143520/http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/Others/inf397.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 November 2003|title=INFCIRC/397 – Note to the Director General from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation|date=23 November 2003}}</ref> No member state of the UN formally objected to this step. The legitimacy of this act has been [[Russia and the United Nations#Legality|questioned by some legal scholars]] as the Soviet Union itself was not constitutionally succeeded by the Russian Federation, but merely dissolved. Others argued that the international community had already established the precedent of recognizing the Soviet Union as the legal successor of the [[Russian Empire]], and so recognizing [[Russia|the Russian Federation]] as the Soviet Union's [[Succession of states|successor state]] was valid.

On 25{{spaces}}December, Gorbachev announced his resignation as President of the Soviet Union. The red hammer and sickle flag of the Soviet Union was lowered from the Senate building in the [[Moscow Kremlin|Kremlin]] and replaced with the tricolour flag of Russia. The next day, 26 December, the [[Soviet of Nationalities#Soviet of the Republics|Soviet of Republics]], the upper chamber of the Supreme Soviet, formally voted the Soviet Union out of existence (the lower chamber, the Council of the Union, had been left without a quorum after the Russian deputies withdrew), thus ending the life of the world's first and oldest socialist state. All former Soviet embassies became Russian embassies, and Russia received all nuclear weapons located in other former republics by 1996. A [[1993 Russian constitutional crisis|constitutional crisis]] in late 1993 escalated into violence, and the new [[Constitution of Russia|Russian constitution]] that came into force at the end of the year abolished the last vestiges of the [[Politics of the Soviet Union|Soviet political system]].

===Beginning of radical economic reforms in Russia===
{{See also|Economic history of the Russian Federation}}
On 1{{spaces}}November 1991, the [[Congress of People's Deputies of Russia|RSFSR Congress of People's Deputies]] issued Decision No. 1831-1 "On the Legal Support of the Economic Reform" whereby the Russian president ([[Boris Yeltsin]]) was granted the right to issue decrees required for economic reform even if they contravened existing laws. Such decrees entered into force if they were not repealed within 7 days by the [[Supreme Soviet of Russia|Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR]] or its Presidium.<ref name=Konsultant>Konsultant+ (Russian legal database){{full citation needed|date=August 2011}}</ref> Five days later, Boris Yeltsin, in addition to his duties as president, assumed those of the prime minister. [[Yegor Gaidar]] became deputy prime minister and simultaneously economic and finance minister. On 15{{spaces}}November 1991, Boris Yeltsin issued Decree No. 213 "On the Liberalization of Foreign Economic Activity on the Territory of the RSFSR", whereby all Russian companies were allowed to import and export goods and acquire foreign currency (all foreign trade had previously been tightly controlled by the state).<ref name=Konsultant/> Following the issuance of Decree No. 213, on 3 December 1991 Boris Yeltsin issued Decree No. 297 "On the Measures to Liberalize Prices", whereby from 2{{spaces}}January 1992, most previously existing [[price controls]] were abolished.<ref name=Konsultant/>

=== Trial of GKChP members ===
The [[GKChP]] members and their accomplices were charged with [[treason]] in the form of a conspiracy aimed at capturing power. However, by January 1993, they had all been released from custody pending trial.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5308?isSearch=True |title=Ъ-Власть – Стародубцев на воле. С Лениным в башке и подпиской в руке |date=15 June 1992 |access-date=24 March 2021 |archive-date=23 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123045045/https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5308?isSearch=True |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/36887 |title=Ъ-Газета – Пресс-конференция по делу ГКЧП |date=27 January 1993 |access-date=24 March 2021 |archive-date=5 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210405124652/https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/36887 |url-status=live }}</ref> The trial in the Military Chamber of the [[Supreme Court of Russia|Russian Supreme Court]] began on 14 April 1993.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/45138 |title=Суд над членами ГКЧП |date=15 April 1993 |access-date=13 August 2021 |archive-date=13 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713195918/https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/45138 |url-status=live }}</ref> On 23{{spaces}}February 1994, the [[State Duma]] declared [[amnesty]] for all GKChP members and their accomplices, along with the participants of the [[1993 Russian constitutional crisis|October 1993 crisis]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_7180/ |title=Постановление Государственной Думы Федерального Собрания Российской Федерации от 23 февраля 1994 г. № 65-1 ГД «Об объявлении политической и экономической амнистии» |access-date=16 August 2021 |archive-date=9 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009073115/http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_7180/ |url-status=live }}</ref> They all accepted the amnesty, except for General Varennikov, who demanded the continuation of the trial and who was finally acquitted on 11{{spaces}}August 1994.<ref name=Timeline/> The Russian [[Public procurator|Procuracy]] also wanted to charge former Deputy Defense Minister [[Vladislav Achalov]], but the Russian Supreme Soviet refused to lift his immunity.<ref name=":1" /> Additionally, the Procuracy refrained from charging numerous other individuals accused of complicity in the coup, including the Army Chief of Staff.

===Commemoration of the civilians killed===
[[File:Vladimir Usov, Ilya Krichevsky, Dmitri Komar Stamps.png|thumb|Soviet stamps commemorating (from left to right) Ilya Krichevsky, Dmitry Komar and Vladimir Usov]]
Thousands of people attended the funeral of Dmitry Komar, Ilya Krichevsky, and Vladimir Usov on 24{{spaces}}August 1991. Gorbachev posthumously made the three [[Hero of the Soviet Union|Heroes of the Soviet Union]] for their bravery in "blocking the way to those who wanted to strangle democracy.".<ref>{{Cite news|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=SOVIET TURMOIL; Moscow Mourns And Exalts Men Killed by Coup|date=25 August 1991|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/25/world/soviet-turmoil-moscow-mourns-and-exalts-men-killed-by-coup.html|access-date=8 March 2018|archive-date=22 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822112309/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/25/world/soviet-turmoil-moscow-mourns-and-exalts-men-killed-by-coup.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Parliamentary commission===
In 1991, a parliamentary commission tasked with investigating causes for the attempted coup was established under [[Lev Ponomaryov]], but was dissolved in 1992 at [[Ruslan Khasbulatov]]'s insistence.

===Mysterious deaths of the participants of the coup===

On the 24th of August 1991, Sergey Akhromeyev was found dead in his office, serving as the Advisor to the President of USSR.

On the 26th of August, Nikolay Kruchina was found dead near his residence in the morning, having jumped from the window of his apartment a few hours prior. He served as the Managing Director of the Central Committee of the CPSU. His predecessor Georgiy Pavlov followed the same fate on the 6th of October of the same year.

On the 17th of October, former Deputy Head of the International Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU Dmitriy Lisovolik was found dead, having also jumped from the window of his apartment.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2004-11-12 |title=Самоубийства высокопоставленных советских чиновников |url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/524200 |access-date=2024-06-21 |website=www.kommersant.ru |language=ru |archive-date=25 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240825124951/https://www.kommersant.ru/common/socialnetworkblock |url-status=live }}</ref>

Said deaths have faced extensive scrutiny by historians and contemporaries, who noted the similarities with which the figurants ended their lives.

==International reactions==
===Western Bloc and NATO countries===
[[File:Bush Gorba P15623-25A.jpg|thumb|[[George H. W. Bush]], left, is seen with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990. Bush condemned the coup and the actions of the "Gang of Eight".]]
*{{flag|Australia}}: [[Prime Minister of Australia]] [[Bob Hawke]] said that "The developments in the Soviet Union ... raise the question as to whether the purpose is to reverse the political and economic reforms which have been taking place. Australia does not want to see repression, persecution or vindictive actions against Gorbachev or those associated with him."<ref name="SovietCoup_Intl" />
*{{flag|Canada}}: Several government members quickly reacted to the coup; [[Prime Minister of Canada|Prime Minister]] [[Brian Mulroney]] huddled with top advisers over the toppling of Mikhail Gorbachev, but officials said the Prime Minister would likely react cautiously to the stunning development. Mulroney condemned the coup and suspended food aid and other assistance to the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite news|last=Farnsworth|first=Clyde H.|date=25 August 1991|title=Canadian Is Attacked for Remarks on Soviet Coup|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/25/world/canadian-is-attacked-for-remarks-on-soviet-coup.html|access-date=14 February 2017|archive-date=10 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110172957/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/25/world/canadian-is-attacked-for-remarks-on-soviet-coup.html|url-status=live}}</ref> External Affairs Minister [[Barbara McDougall]] suggested on 20{{spaces}}August 1991 that "Canada could work with any Soviet junta that promises to carry on Gorbachev's legacy". [[Lloyd Axworthy]] and [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]] Leader [[Jean Chrétien|Jean Chretien]] said Canada must join with other Western governments to back Russian President Boris Yeltsin, former Soviet Foreign Minister and Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze and others fighting for Soviet democracy." McDougall met with the [[chargé d'affaires]] of the [[Soviet Embassy in Ottawa|Soviet embassy]], Vasily Sredin.<ref>{{cite web|title=archives|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/436458189|website=thestar.com|access-date=11 July 2017|archive-date=10 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010070350/https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/doc/436458189.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+21,+1991&author=Tim+Harper+Toronto+Star&pub=Toronto+Star&edition=&startpage=A.4&desc=McDougall+hints+Ottawa+may+recognize+Moscow+junta|id={{ProQuest|436458189}} |url-status=live}}</ref> As part of the [[North American Aerospace Defense Command|NORAD]] defense network, the government acknowledged that any US-Soviet nuclear confrontation would directly impact Canada as well. Canadian leaders believed both the US and Canada would be treated as a single set of targets.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Jockel|first=J.T.|author2=J.J. Sokolsky|title=Canada's Cold War Nuclear Experience|journal=Queens Quarterly|year=1999|issue=Special Issue|page=111}}</ref>
*{{flag|Israel}}: Israeli officials said they hoped Gorbachev's attempted removal would not derail the [[Madrid Conference of 1991|1991 Israeli-Palestinian peace conference in Madrid]] (co-sponsored by the US and USSR) or slow [[1990s post-Soviet aliyah|Soviet Jewish immigration]]. The quasi-governmental [[Jewish Agency for Israel|Jewish Agency]], which coordinated the massive flow of [[Refusenik|Jews]] arriving from the Soviet Union, called an emergency meeting to assess how the coup would affect Jewish immigration. "We are closely following what is happening in the Soviet Union with concern," Foreign Minister [[David Levy (Israeli politician)|David Levy]] said. "One might say that this is an internal issue of the Soviet Union, but in the Soviet Union ... everything internal has an influence for the entire world."<ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/> The Soviet Union restored ties with Israel on 26{{spaces}}December 1991.
*{{flag|Japan|1870}}: [[Prime Minister of Japan|Prime Minister]] [[Toshiki Kaifu]] ordered the [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan)|Foreign Ministry]] to analyze developments. Kaifu himself said that it was highly likely that the coup was unconstitutional. Chief Cabinet Secretary [[Misoji Sakamoto]] said, "I strongly hope that the leadership change will not influence the positive policies of Perestroika and new-thinking diplomacy."<ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/> In addition, Japanese aid and technical loans to the Soviet Union were frozen.<ref name=Gupta>R.C. Gupta. (1997) ''Collapse of the Soviet Union''. p. 57. {{ISBN|9788185842813}},</ref> Japan left open the question of the coup's legitimacy; government spokesman Taizo Watanabe said that "[the Soviet government has] the right to decide whether it is constitutional or unconstitutional. Japan notably differed from western states by not announcing an outright condemnation of the coup. "<ref name=":2" />
*{{flag|South Korea|1984}}: [[President of South Korea|President]] [[Roh Tae-woo]] welcomed the coup's collapse as a symbolic victory for the Soviet people. He said "It was a triumph of the courage and resolve of the Soviet citizens towards freedom and democracy."<ref name=Gupta/>
*{{Flag|United Kingdom}}: [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[John Major]] met with his [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|cabinet]] on 19{{spaces}}August to deal with the crisis and said "There seems little doubt that President Gorbachev has been removed from power by an unconstitutional seizure of power. There are constitutional ways of removing the president of the Soviet Union; they have not been used. I believe that the whole world has a very serious stake in the events currently taking place in the Soviet Union. The reform process there is of vital importance to the world and of most vital importance of course to the Soviet people themselves and I hope that is fully clear. There is a great deal of information we don't yet have, but I would like to make clear above all that we would expect the Soviet Union to respect and honor all the commitments that President Gorbachev has made on its behalf."<ref name="SovietCoup_Intl" /> The British Government froze $80 million in economic aid to Moscow, while the [[European Economic Community|European Community]] scheduled an emergency meeting to suspend a $1.5 billion aid program.<ref name="nytimes.com" /> In a 1991 interview, Major said he thought that "there are many reasons why [the coup] failed and a great deal of time and trouble will be spent on analysing that later. There were, I think, a number of things that were significant. I don't think it was terribly well-handled from the point of view of those organising the coup. I think the enormous and unanimous condemnation of the rest of the world publicly of the coup was of immense encouragement to the people resisting it. That is not just my view; that is the view that has been expressed to me by Mr. Shevardnadze, [[Alexander Yakovlev|Mr. Yakovlev]], President Yeltsin and many others as well to whom I have spoken to the last 48 hours. The moral pressure from the West and the fact that we were prepared to state unequivocally that the coup was illegal and that we wanted the legal government restored, was of immense help in the Soviet Union. I think that did play a part."
*{{Flag|United States}}: During his vacation in [[Walker's Point Estate]] in [[Kennebunkport, Maine]], [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[George H. W. Bush]] made a blunt demand for Gorbachev's restoration to power and said the United States did not accept the legitimacy of the self-proclaimed new Soviet government. Bush rushed to the White House from his vacation home, receiving a letter from Kozyrev aboard [[Air Force One]]. He then issued a strongly-worded statement that followed a day of consultations with other Western alliance leaders amid a concerted effort to squeeze the new Soviet leadership by freezing economic aid programs. Bush decried the coup as a "misguided and illegitimate effort" that "bypasses both Soviet law and the will of the [[Soviet people]]s." He called the overthrow "very disturbing" and put a hold on U.S. aid to the Soviet Union until the coup was ended.<ref name="SovietCoup_Intl">{{cite web | title = World reacts with shock to Gorbachev ouster | last = Ishërwood | first = Julian M. | work = United Press International | date = 19 August 1991 | access-date = 31 May 2017 | url = http://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/08/19/World-reacts-with-shock-to-Gorbachev-ouster/5234533009911/ | archive-date = 26 May 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190526035106/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/08/19/World-reacts-with-shock-to-Gorbachev-ouster/5234533009911/ | url-status = live }}</ref><ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/20/world/the-soviet-crisis-bush-condemns-soviet-coup-and-calls-for-its-reversal.html|title=The Soviet Crisis; Bush Condemns Soviet Coup and Calls For Its Reversal|first=Andrew|last=Rosenthal|date=20 August 1991|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=14 February 2017|archive-date=5 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505023327/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/20/world/the-soviet-crisis-bush-condemns-soviet-coup-and-calls-for-its-reversal.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The Bush statement, drafted after a series of meetings with top aides, was much more forceful than the President's initial reaction that morning in Maine. It was in keeping with a Western effort to apply both diplomatic and economic pressure on the Soviet officials seeking to gain control of the country. On 2{{spaces}}September, the United States re-recognized the independence of [[Estonia]], [[Latvia]] and [[Lithuania]] when Bush delivered the press conference in Kennebunkport.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/03/world/soviet-turmoil-excerpts-bush-s-conference-strong-support-for-baltic-independence.html|title=Soviet Turmoil; Excerpts From Bush's Conference: 'Strong Support' for Baltic Independence|date=3 September 1991|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=14 February 2017|archive-date=13 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113161621/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/03/world/soviet-turmoil-excerpts-bush-s-conference-strong-support-for-baltic-independence.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Secretary of State [[James Baker]] issued a statement warning "The whole world is watching. Legitimacy in 1991 flows not from the barrel of a gun but from the will of the people. History cannot be reversed. Sooner or later your effort will fail."{{Sfn|Kyriakodis|1991|p=337}} The coup also led several members of Congress such as [[Sam Nunn]], [[Les Aspin]], and [[Richard Lugar]] to become concerned about the security of [[Russia and weapons of mass destruction|Soviet weapons of mass destruction]] and the potential for [[nuclear proliferation]] in existing unstable conditions. Despite public opposition to further aid to the Soviet Union and ambivalence from the Bush administration, they oversaw the ratification of the [[Soviet Nuclear Threat Reduction Act of 1991]], authorizing the [[Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction|Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program]] and providing funding to [[post-Soviet states]] for the decommissioning of WMD stockpiles.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14743892.2019.1599627?journalCode=rach20|doi=10.1080/14743892.2019.1599627|title=From Crisis to Split: The Communist Party USA, 1989–1991|year=2019|last1=Rosenberg|first1=Daniel|journal=American Communist History|volume=18|issue=1–2|pages=1–55|s2cid=159619768|access-date=10 November 2021|archive-date=10 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110072241/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14743892.2019.1599627?journalCode=rach20|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Former President [[Ronald Reagan]] said:
{{blockquote|"I can't believe that the Soviet people will allow a reversal in the progress that they have recently made toward economic and political freedom. Based on my extensive meetings and conversations with him, I am convinced that President Gorbachev had the best interest of the Soviet people in mind. I have always felt that his opposition came from the communist bureaucracy, and I can only hope that enough progress was made that a movement toward democracy will be unstoppable."<ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/>}}
*Meanwhile, [[Communist Party USA|CPUSA]] Chairman [[Gus Hall]] supported the coup, causing division within an already shrinking party. The CPSU had broken ties with the CPUSA in 1989 over the latter's condemnation of Perestroika.
*{{flag|Denmark}}: [[Minister of Foreign Affairs (Denmark)|Foreign Minister]] [[Uffe Ellemann-Jensen]] said the process of change in the Soviet Union could not be reversed. In a statement, he said "So much has happened and so many people have been involved in the changes in Soviet Union that I cannot see a total reversal."<ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/>
*{{flag|France}}: [[President of France|President]] [[François Mitterrand]] called on the new Soviet rulers to guarantee the ''life and liberty'' of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, who was "Gorbachev's rival in the changing Soviet Union." Mitterrand added that "France attaches a high price to the life and liberty of Messrs. Gorbachev and Yeltsin being guaranteed by the new Moscow leaders. These will be judged by their acts, especially on the fashion in which the two high personalities in question will be treated."<ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/> After the coup ended, Mitterrand was criticized for his hesitant reaction; this may have helped right wing opposition parties win the [[1993 French legislative election]].<ref name="digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org">{{cite web |url=https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/209614 |title=Wilson Center Digital Archive |publisher=Digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org |date=1991-08-24 |access-date=2021-12-04 |archive-date=14 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114190153/https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/209614 |url-status=live }}</ref>  
*{{flag|Germany}}: [[Chancellor of Germany|Chancellor]] [[Helmut Kohl]] cut his Austrian vacation short and returned to [[Bonn]] for an emergency meeting. He said he was sure Moscow would withdraw its remaining 272,000 troops from the [[former East Germany]] on schedule.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/436460688|title=archives|website=thestar.com|access-date=11 July 2017|archive-date=10 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010071717/https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/doc/436460688.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+20,+1991&author=&pub=Toronto+Star&edition=&startpage=A.17&desc=Keep+up+reform,+Kohl+urges+Soviets|id={{ProQuest|436460688}} |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Björn Engholm]], leader of Germany's opposition [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]], urged member states of the [[European Community]] "to speak with one voice" on the situation and said, "the West should not exclude the possibility of imposing economic and political sanctions on the Soviet Union to avoid a jolt to the right, in Moscow."<ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/>
*{{flag|Greece}}: Greece described the situation in the Soviet Union as "alarming". The Greek left was divided- the Alliance of the Left and former Socialist Prime Minister [[Andreas Papandreou]] issued statements condemning the coup. However, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece condemned Gorbachev for dismantling the Soviet State and reestablishing Capitalism.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/27/world/soviet-turmoil-french-communist-chief-attacked-for-stance-on-soviet-coup.html | title=Soviet Turmoil; French Communist Chief Attacked for Stance on Soviet Coup | newspaper=The New York Times | date=27 August 1991 | last1=Greenhouse | first1=Steven | access-date=22 July 2022 | archive-date=22 July 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220722051325/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/27/world/soviet-turmoil-french-communist-chief-attacked-for-stance-on-soviet-coup.html | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/>
*{{flag|Italy}}: [[Prime Minister of Italy|Prime Minister]] [[Giulio Andreotti]] released a statement saying, "I'm surprised, embittered and worried. We all know the difficulties that Gorbachev encountered. But I don't know how a new president, who, at least for now, doesn't have (Gorbachev's) prestige and international connections, can overcome the obstacles." [[Achille Occhetto]], head of the [[Democratic Party of the Left]], the direct heir of the [[Italian Communist Party]], called the ouster of Gorbachev "a most dramatic event of world proportions (which) will have immense repercussions on international life. I am personally and strongly struck, not only for the incalculable burden of this event, but also for the fate of comrade Gorbachev."<ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/>

===Communist states===
[[File:The Soviet Union 1988 CPA 5942 stamp (Perestroika (reformation). Worker. Industries and agriculture).jpg|thumb|A Soviet Stamp promoting Perestroika. For some Communist States, Gorbachev's reforms resulted in a drastic cutting of Soviet Aid. The coup's failure led to the abrupt end of any remaining Russian support for its former Communist allies.]]
Many but not all of states still officially [[Marxist–Leninist]] (not former Warsaw Pact members that had begun transitioning to a [[multi-party system]]) had supported the coup, while others left ambivalent or unofficial support and reversed their position when the coup failed.
*{{flagcountry|Republic of Afghanistan (1987–1992)}}: The failure of the coup resulted in the removal of Soviet political and military officers that favored continued aid to the [[People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan|People's Democratic Party]] government in Afghanistan. At the time, the Afghan regime was still completely dependent on the Soviet Union for its survival in the ongoing [[Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)|Afghan Civil War]]. The last Soviet military assistance arrived in October, with all Russian aid being halted by [[Boris Yeltsin]] in January 1992. Yeltsin hoped to repatriate Soviet [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] still being held by the [[Afghan mujahideen|Mujahideen]] and was not interested in protecting a 'Soviet Legacy'.<ref name="jstor.org">{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3992384|jstor=3992384|title=The Third World and the Dissolution of the USSR|last1=Webber|first1=Mark|journal=Third World Quarterly|year=1992|volume=13|issue=4|pages=691–713|doi=10.1080/01436599208420305|access-date=9 November 2021|archive-date=9 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109071838/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3992384|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In the aftermath of the coup, [[Mohammad Najibullah]] came to resent the Soviets for abandoning him, writing to former Soviet Foreign Minister Shevardnadze "I didn't want to be president, you talked me into it, insisted on it, and promised support. Now you are throwing me and the Republic of Afghanistan to its fate." In the winter of 1992, newly independent [[Tajikistan]], [[Uzbekistan]] and [[Turkmenistan]] provided food aid to Mohammad Najibullah's of their own accord in an attempt to save the regime, also establishing contacts with the Mujahideen. The end of Soviet weapons deliveries caused the defection of militia leader [[Abdul Rashid Dostum]] from [[Mohammad Najibullah]] to [[Ahmad Shah Massoud]], spelling the end of the DRA in April 1992.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Gibson |first=Joshua James |title=An Unsustainable Arrangement: The Collapse of the Republic of Afghanistan in 1992 |date=2015 |type=MA thesis |publisher=Ohio State University |url=http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429894687 |access-date=12 November 2022 |archive-date=25 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240825124944/https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/etd/r/1501/10?clear=10&p10_accession_num=osu1429894687 |url-status=live }}</ref>
*{{flagcountry|People's Socialist Republic of Albania}}: During the coup, Communist [[Party of Labour of Albania]] leader [[Ramiz Alia]] was still in power, having won the [[1991 Albanian parliamentary election]]. Encouraged by the coup's unraveling, three opposition parties demanded expedited reforms. The [[1992 Albanian parliamentary election]] resulted in a crushing defeat for the now-democratic [[Socialist Party of Albania]], leading to Alia's resignation as president in favor of [[Sali Berisha]].<ref name="digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org" />
*{{flagcountry|People's Republic of Angola}}: In December 1991, the ruling [[MPLA]], in its party congress changed its ideology from Marxism–Leninism to [[Social democracy|Social Democracy]] and committed to multi-party democracy. [[Angola–Russia relations]] became less relevant to both countries after the coup. Angola's ability to enforce its rule on some of its territories diminished due to the end of Soviet weapons deliveries and departures of Cuban personnel.<ref name="jstor.org"/>
*{{flag|China}}: The Chinese government appeared to tacitly support the coup when it issued a statement saying the move was an internal affair of the Soviet Union and when the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) released no immediate comment. Confidential Chinese documents have indicated that China's hardline leaders strongly disapproved of Gorbachev's program of political liberalization, blaming him for "the loss of Eastern Europe to capitalism." Western scholarship has alleged that Beijing had foreknowledge of the planned coup. This hypothesis is supported by two events: firstly, General [[Chi Haotian|Chi Haotian's]] Moscow visit between August{{spaces}}5 and August{{spaces}}12 to see GKChP member [[Dmitry Yazov]], and secondly, the rapid and mostly positive coverage of the coup in [[Mass media in China|Chinese media]], which ignored the activities of Boris Yeltsin. When the coup began, top CCP leaders had gathered to celebrate [[paramount leader]] [[Deng Xiaoping|Deng Xiaoping's]] birthday. Upon hearing the news, CCP elder [[Bo Yibo]] cursed Gorbachev. Deng then said "The Soviet coup is a good thing but we must not visibly be pleased but only delighted at the bottom of our hearts." China pronounced a policy of non-interference but hoped 'stability' (i.e. a restoration of Communist rule) would return to the Soviet Union. Behind closed doors, the [[Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party|Chinese Politburo]] agreed the coup should be recognized as a 'Marxist' act and that [[Sino-Soviet relations from 1969–1991|Sino-Soviet relations]] should be strengthened. However, Deng also encouraged CCP General Secretary [[Jiang Zemin]] to be cautious because the coup could fail. The GKChP was also interested in resolving the [[Sino-Soviet split]] and improving [[Sino-Soviet relations|diplomatic relations]], dispatching Vice Foreign Affairs Minister [[Alexander Belonogov]] to [[Beijing]] to request full recognition and support.<ref name=":1" /> Deng met with Belonogov and asked "what do you plan to do with Gorbachev" to measure the probability of the coup's success. After hesitating for a day, China was moments away from an official declaration of support for the GKChP when news of its end arrived. After the coup failed, Gorbachev suspended exchanges with China; allegedly the coup plotters attempted to flee to China, but this was flatly denied by both governments.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Garver |first1=John |title=The Chinese Communist Party and the Collapse of Soviet Communism |journal=The China Quarterly |year=1993 |volume=133 |issue=133 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1017/S0305741000018178 |jstor=654237 |s2cid=154647616 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/654237 |access-date=9 November 2021 |archive-date=9 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109154856/https://www.jstor.org/stable/654237 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Several Chinese people said that a key difference between the Soviet coup leaders' failed attempts to use tanks to crush dissent in Moscow and the hardline Chinese leaders' successful use of tank-led [[People's Liberation Army]] forces during the [[1989 Tiananmen Square protests|1989 Tiananmen Massacre]] was that the Soviet people had a powerful leader like Russian President Boris Yeltsin to rally around, whereas the Chinese protesters did not. The Soviet coup collapsed in three days without any major violence by the Soviet Army against civilians in June 1989, the [[People's Liberation Army]] killed thousands of people to crush the democracy movement.<ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/><ref>{{cite news|last1=Southerl|first1=Daniel|date=23 August 1991|title=Chinese Dissidents Hail Moscow Events |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/08/23/chinese-dissidents-hail-moscow-events/6fea0a33-ccc8-4e93-b6d5-665faa846e64/|url-status=live|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=10 November 2016|archive-date=10 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110173311/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/08/23/chinese-dissidents-hail-moscow-events/6fea0a33-ccc8-4e93-b6d5-665faa846e64/}}</ref>[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L0614-040, Berlin, Fidel Castro an der Grenze.jpg|thumb|Fidel Castro at East Berlin 1972. Cuba relied upon the Soviet Union and throughout the Cold War was a steadfast ally. Castro systemically opposed Gorbachev's perestroika but he did not publicly support the August Coup in 1991.]]
*{{flagcountry|People's Republic of the Congo}}: Congo was already moving away from Marxism–Leninism and had organized a democratic conference in June.<ref>{{cite news |last=Noble |first=Kenneth B. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/25/world/congo-political-conference-gives-africa-a-democratic-model.html |title=Congo Political Conference Gives Africa a Democratic Model |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=1991-06-25 |access-date=2021-12-04 |archive-date=8 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008142304/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/25/world/congo-political-conference-gives-africa-a-democratic-model.html |url-status=live }}</ref> All references to Communism were removed from the Congolese Constitution in April 1992, yet former Soviet protégé [[Denis Sassou Nguesso]] would later regain power and rule [[Republic of the Congo|Congo]] through to the present day.
*{{Flag|Cuba}}: On August{{spaces}}20, the Cuban Government issued a statement insisting on its neutrality, saying that the conflict was "not Cuba's to judge". In the same statement, Cuba also criticized the West for inciting divisions within the Soviet Union. A Western diplomat alleged that in private, Cuba's officials hoped the coup would succeed because the plotters would continue the [[Cuba–Soviet Union relations|special Soviet relationship]] with their country. In September 1991, three-quarters of Cuba's consumer goods came from the USSR, underlining the importance of Soviet events to Cuba's leaders.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-09-08-op-2758-story.html|title=The Last Days of the Soviet Lifeline : Now Cuba faces a midlife crisis|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=8 September 1991|access-date=10 November 2021|archive-date=10 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110055731/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-09-08-op-2758-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> As the Soviet coup unfolded, Cuban officials did not believe its leaders would prevail. While Gorbachev was in power, [[Fidel Castro]] never agreed with Perestroika and in July 1991 had reiterated his position that there would be no changes in Cuba, saying "In this revolution there will be no changes of name or ideas."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-23-wr-1043-story.html|title=World Report Extra : The Coup and Beyond : World View : Holding Out for Hammer and Sickle : There are still several orthodox Communist states in the world. Their reaction to the sudden fall – and return – of Mikhail Gorbachev. : Cuba : 'Option Zero' in Havana|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=23 August 1991|access-date=9 November 2021|archive-date=9 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109035418/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-23-wr-1043-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The end of Soviet assistance sparked the [[Special Period]] crisis that would last ten years.
*{{Flag|North Korea|1948}}: As the coup began, newspapers published documents from the GKChP without comment or statements of support. Privately, the regime instructed its officials to support the coup to "defend Socialist achievements". North Korean diplomats were present in Moscow and kept informal contacts with Russians as events unfolded, including soldiers on the ground. By the end of the first day, [[Embassy of North Korea, Moscow|North Korea's embassy in Moscow]] reported to [[Pyongyang]] that the coup would not succeed. At the time, there were changing attitudes in the north toward South Korea and a brief shootout at the [[Demilitarized zone|DMZ]] border.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-23-wr-1039-story.html|title=World Report Extra: The Coup and Beyond : World View : Holding Out for Hammer and Sickle : There are still several orthodox Communist states in the world. Their reaction to the sudden fall – and return – of Mikhail Gorbachev : North Korea : Pyongyang's Odd Drama|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=23 August 1991|access-date=9 November 2021|archive-date=9 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109052706/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-23-wr-1039-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> After the coup's failure, Vice President [[Pak Song-chol]] said "The invincible might of our own style of socialism is being highly demonstrated," and the "North is basically stable" in a reference to [[Juche]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/13/world/north-korea-tries-to-block-any-effects-of-failed-soviet-coup.html |title=North Korea Tries to Block Any Effects of Failed Soviet Coup |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=1991-09-13 |access-date=2021-12-04 |archive-date=9 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211109052706/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/13/world/north-korea-tries-to-block-any-effects-of-failed-soviet-coup.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Pyongyang would later blame Perestroika for the fall of the USSR, calling "Gorbachev's wrong anti-socialist policy" a "[[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionist]]" one.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/23255885|jstor = 23255885|title = North Korean Regime and Russian Political Power|last1 = Mikheev|first1 = Vasily V.|journal = The Journal of East Asian Affairs|year = 1998|volume = 12|issue = 2|pages = 553–576|access-date = 9 November 2021|archive-date = 9 November 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211109052706/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23255885|url-status = live}}</ref> The end of Soviet assistance was a direct cause of the [[North Korean famine|Arduous March]] that began in 1994. 
*{{Flag|Vietnam}}: The coup came at a time when promised Soviet aid was being slowed and later halted. Vietnamese Communists decided to not embrace a multi-party system in Vietnam due to the experience of Perestroika. An unnamed official said that "Vietnam would probably not feel sorry to see [the end of the Soviet president’s career] because Gorbachev has made many mistakes... too many compromises with the West. He has also made the position and the role of the Soviet Union in the world weaker." The official also said that Vietnam would benefit from a return to Communist rule in the Soviet Union. "These changes would also affect positively Vietnam’s economy because the West would carry out a hard policy towards the Soviet Union, then the latter would look for trade relations with such countries as Vietnam and China."<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-21-mn-905-story.html|title = Pope Fears the Loss of Hard-Won Church Gains in Soviet Union : Reaction: John Paul's enthusiastic tour of Eastern Europe ends on a glum note|website = [[Los Angeles Times]]|date = 21 August 1991|access-date = 10 November 2021|archive-date = 10 November 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211110191051/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-21-mn-905-story.html|url-status = live}}</ref> After the coup, top Communist Party official Thai Ninh was asked by foreign press if Vietnam felt betrayed by Gorbachev and Yeltsin. He answered, "It's better to let the Soviet people decide that".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/09/09/vietnam-fears-effects-of-soviet-upheaval/8da962c3-49e6-493b-af1f-72420dfc5365/ |title=Vietnam Fears Effects Of Soviet Upheaval |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=1991-09-09 |access-date=2021-12-04 |archive-date=20 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201220133348/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1991/09/09/vietnam-fears-effects-of-soviet-upheaval/8da962c3-49e6-493b-af1f-72420dfc5365/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The failed coup prompted Vietnam to [[China–Vietnam relations|normalize relations with China]] in November, ending the [[Sino-Vietnamese conflicts (1979–1991)|Sino-Vietnamese conflicts]] of the 1980s. In a major political victory for China, Vietnam recognized the [[State of Cambodia (1989–1993)|State of Cambodia]] (SOC). Increasingly, [[Beijing]] and [[Hanoi]] felt an ideological affinity with one another and a mutual desire to resist American-led [[Peaceful Evolution theory|Peaceful Evolution]]. Vietnam would look to [[ASEAN]] for new trading partners in the aftermath of the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|Soviet dissolution]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/25798159|jstor = 25798159|title = New Thinking in Vietnamese Foreign Policy|last1 = Yeong|first1 = Mike|journal = Contemporary Southeast Asia|year = 1992|volume = 14|issue = 3|pages = 257–268|access-date = 9 November 2021|archive-date = 9 November 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211109083927/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25798159|url-status = live}}</ref>
*{{Flag|Yugoslavia}}: The Coup was a profound event for all of Yugoslavia, [[United Press International]] reported reactions from ordinary Yugoslavs including economist Dragan Radic who said "Gorbachev has done a lot for world peace and helped replace hard-line communist regimes in the past few years.Yet, the West failed to support Gorbachev financially and economically and he was forced to step down because he could not feed the Soviet people." Officially, President [[Slobodan Milošević]], in charge of [[Socialist Republic of Serbia|Serbia]], was silent. Unofficially, there were numerous interactions between Yugoslavia and the USSR leading up to the start of the coup. The violent [[breakup of Yugoslavia]] had begun the previous year. Political actors in both nations realized the similarities of their political situations. On the anti-communist side, separatists in the USSR were building relations with Yugoslavia's breakaway republics. At the end of July, Lithuania recognized Slovenia and in August, Georgia recognized Slovenia and Croatia's independence. On the side of hardliners, both nations had factions embracing a [[Red–green–brown alliance#Similar terms|red-brown coalition]] between traditional communists and ultranationalists to maintain the territorial integrity of both the USSR and Yugoslavia. In the weeks leading up to the coup, conservatives in the USSR were using the precedence of Yugoslavia as an excuse to violently suppress uprisings of non-Russians. In fact, Yugoslavia may have been a major cause for the Gang of Eight to believe their actions were necessary to prevent the USSR's collapse. When Yugoslav Prime Minister [[Ante Marković]] visited Moscow in early August, Gorbachev pointed out the parallels between problems looming in both countries. Croatian President [[Franjo Tuđman]] claimed in October that "Communist Yugoslav Generals" had openly supported the coup and that they had received instructions from Moscow. The victory of the democrats in the USSR had major implications for Yugoslavia. Yeltsin knew that Milošević had secretly supported Soviet conservatives and relations between the two were dismal. By the time the USSR collapsed, the problem of Yugoslavia had become a part of the Russian political landscape. Yeltsin and liberal elites would publicly take an even-handed approach and encourage international cooperation to solve the crisis. In contrast, post-Soviet conservatives looked to create advantages for Russia by supporting Orthodox Serbs in their struggle to control the remaining Yugoslav nations. Sociology Professor Veljko Vujačić assessed the similarities and differences between the breakup of Yugoslavia and dissolution of the Soviet Union. Both nations were multi-national Marxist–Leninist states with Slavic rulers facing major secessionist movements. In Serbia, patriotism was linked with statehood. Milošević told his nationalist followers that every generation of Serbs has had their own "[[Kosovo Myth|Kosovo battle]]", dating back to the 14th century. In contrast, Russian nationalists including [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] drew a distinction between 'patriotic' Russian people and the 'oppressive' Russian state. Boris Yeltsin and his followers saw the USSR as an oppressor of Russia, thereby accelerating the mostly peaceful division of the former Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/why-the-soviet-union-and-yugoslavia-collapsed-the-way-they-did-reexamining-russian-and-serbian |title=Why the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia Collapsed the Way They Did: Reexamining Russian and Serbian Nationalism |publisher=Wilson Center |access-date=2021-12-04 |archive-date=14 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114224835/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/why-the-soviet-union-and-yugoslavia-collapsed-the-way-they-did-reexamining-russian-and-serbian |url-status=live }}</ref> On 27{{spaces}}April 1992, Yugoslavia formally disintegrated and with it vanished any mention of Marxist–Leninism in its [[Serbia and Montenegro|Serbian and Montenegrin]] successor state.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/40202977|jstor = 40202977|title = Russia and the Balkans: Pan-Slavism, Partnership and Power|last1 = Cohen|first1 = Lenard J.|journal = International Journal|year = 1994|volume = 49|issue = 4|pages = 814–845|doi = 10.1177/002070209404900405|s2cid = 147158781|access-date = 14 November 2021|archive-date = 14 November 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211114213007/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40202977|url-status = live|url-access = subscription}}</ref>

=== Former Warsaw Pact members ===
The [[Warsaw Pact]] had dissolved in July, and its members had rapidly changed, with [[Marxist–Leninist]] pro-Soviet governments deposed or elected out of office. As a result, all criticized or expressed weary sentiments about events in Moscow. Some former Warsaw Pact members deployed armed forces to strategically important areas.
* {{flag|Bulgaria}}: [[President of Bulgaria|President]] [[Zhelyu Zhelev]] stated that "Such anti-democratic methods can never lead to anything good neither for the Soviet Union, nor for Eastern Europe, nor for the democratic developments in the world."<ref name="SovietCoup_Intl" />
* {{flagdeco|Czechoslovakia}} [[Czech and Slovak Federative Republic|Czechoslovakia]]: [[List of presidents of Czechoslovakia|President]] [[Václav Havel]] warned that his nation could potentially face a "wave of refugees" crossing its [[Slovakia–Ukraine border|border]] with the [[Ukrainian SSR]]. However, Havel said "It is not possible to reverse the changes that have already happened in the Soviet Union. We believe democracy will eventually prevail in the Soviet Union."<ref name="SovietCoup_Intl" /> Interior Ministry spokesman Martin Fendrych said an unspecified number of additional troops had been moved to reinforce the Czechoslovak border with the Soviet Union.<ref name="SovietCoup_Intl" />
* {{flag|Hungary}}: Deputy Speaker of Parliament [[Mátyás Szűrös]] said, "Undoubtedly, the [[Economy of the Soviet Union|Soviet economy]] has collapsed but this has not been the result of Gorbachev's policy but of the paralyzing influence of conservatives," adding, "Suddenly, the likelihood of a civil war in the Soviet Union has increased."<ref name="SovietCoup_Intl" />
* {{flag|Poland}}: A statement released by the [[President of Poland|President]] [[Lech Wałęsa]], whose [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] union helped prompt the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, appealed for calm. "May unity and responsibility for our state gain the upper hand." The statement, read on Polish radio by spokesman Andrzej Drzycimski, continued, "The situation in the USSR is significant for our country. It can affect our bilateral relations. We want them to be friendly." But Wałęsa emphasized that Poland would keep its hard-won sovereignty while pursuing economic and political reforms.<ref name="SovietCoup_Intl" />
* {{Flag|Romania}}: [[Prime Minister of Romania|Prime Minister]] [[Petre Roman]] said the coup was an attempt to re-establish hardline [[communism]] in the most [[Stalinism|Stalinist]] manner.<ref name=":2" />

===Other sovereign states===
*{{Flag|El Salvador}}: The end of the [[Salvadoran Civil War]] with the Communist [[Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front|FMLN]] was being negotiated. [[President of El Salvador|President]] [[Alfredo Cristiani]] voiced concern that the coup could encourage the FMLN to end negotiations, or that Cuba's relationship with the Soviet Union would be restored. Cuba had long been a supplier to the FMLN. Ernesto Altschul, Cristiani's deputy chief of staff, said, "Obviously, this can affect our situation." After the coup failed, the [[Chapultepec Peace Accords]] were signed in January 1992, ending twelve years of brutal conflict.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1991/08/20/world-reaction/|website=[[Tampa Bay Times]]|date=October 13, 2005|title=World Reaction|access-date=31 March 2022|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331223547/https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1991/08/20/world-reaction/|url-status=live}}</ref> 
*{{Flag|India}}: As the coup was ongoing, Indian leaders indicated a degree of sympathy for Soviet hardliners. [[Prime Minister of India|Prime Minister]] [[P. V. Narasimha Rao]] said "Mr. Gorbachev's ouster was a warning to people who favored reforms without controls." Likewise, India's ambassador in Moscow remarked that Gorbachev had "brought about the disintegration of the [Communist] party". [[List of chief ministers of West Bengal|Chief Minister of West Bengal]] and [[Communist Party of India (Marxist)]] cofounder [[Jyoti Basu]] wholeheartedly endorsed the coup. When the coup failed, India's government changed course, celebrating "the reassertion of democratic values and a triumph for the will of the people." Despite official support for Yeltsin's victory, Indian politicians feared that a spill-over effect from the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] would encourage secessionist movements at home. The loss of an economic partner and ideological friend upset the Rao Administration and India's leftist movement, as the [[Indian National Congress]] felt it shared some of the CPSU's values. The ''Christian Science Monitor'' wrote that "India feels orphaned – ideologically, strategically, economically"<ref>{{Cite journal|url = https://www.csmonitor.com/1991/1007/07182.html|title = Breakup of Soviet Union Leaves India Shaken|journal = Christian Science Monitor|date = 7 October 1991|access-date = 10 November 2021|archive-date = 10 November 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211110070431/https://www.csmonitor.com/1991/1007/07182.html|url-status = live}}</ref> 
*{{flagcountry|Ba'athist Iraq}}: [[Saddam Hussein]] was a close ally of the Soviet Union until Gorbachev denounced the [[invasion of Kuwait]] that preceded the [[Gulf War]], and relations between the two countries had grown tense. One Iraqi spokesman quoted by the official [[Iraqi News Agency]] said that "Iraq’s right and steadfastness was one of the main reasons behind the fall [of Gorbachev]... because [Iraq] exposed [his] policy of treason and conspiracy. It is natural that we welcome such change like the states and people who were affected by the policies of the former regime." In other words, Hussein seemingly took credit for inspiring the coup. This position was echoed by the Jordanian Newspaper ''[[Al Ra'i (Jordanian newspaper)|Al Ra'i]]''.<ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/><ref name=":2"/>
*{{flagcountry|Libyan Arab Jamahiriya}}: Government radio quoted leader [[Muammar Gaddafi]] praising the coup leaders for their "brave historical action."<ref name=":2"/>
*{{flag|Philippines|1986}}: [[President of the Philippines|President]] [[Corazon Aquino]] expressed "grave concern" saying, "We hope that the progress toward world peace... achieved under the leadership of President Gorbachev will continue to be preserved and enhanced further."<ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/>
*{{flag|South Africa|1982}}: [[Minister of International Relations and Cooperation|Foreign Minister]] [[Pik Botha]] said, "I very much hope that [Soviet developments] will neither give rise to large-scale turbulence within the Soviet Union itself or more widely in Europe, nor jeopardize the era of hard-won international cooperation upon which the world has embarked."<ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/>

===Supranational bodies and organizations===
*{{Flag|Holy See}}: While celebrating Mass in [[Budapest]], [[Pope John Paul II]] said in scripted remarks that he hoped the Soviet Union's reforms would survive Gorbachev's fall. "I particularly appreciated the sincere desire that guided him and the lofty inspiration that animated him in the promotion of human rights and dignity, as well as in his commitment for the well-being of the country and of the international community. May the process initiated by him not fall into decline." The Pope also prayed for the Soviet Union itself, asking that "our prayers become even more intense to ask God that that great country may be spared further tragedy."<ref name=":2" />
*{{flag|NATO}}: The alliance held an emergency meeting in Brussels condemning the Soviet coup. "If indeed this coup did fail, it will be a great victory for the courageous Soviet people who have tasted freedom and who are not prepared to have it taken away from them," said United States Secretary of State [[James A. Baker III]]. Baker also stated, "[i]t will also, to some extent, be a victory, too, for the international community and for all those governments who reacted strongly to these events." NATO Secretary-General [[Manfred Wörner]] also said, "We should see how the situation in the Soviet Union develops. Our own plans will take into account what happens there."<ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1991/08/21/natos-response-covers-all-bases/|title=Nato's Response Covers All Bases|website=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=21 August 1991 |access-date=10 November 2016|archive-date=11 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161111001957/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-08-21/news/9103020365_1_foreign-ministers-kremlin-coup-coup-leaders|url-status=live}}</ref>
*{{flag|Palestine Liberation Organization}}: The Palestinian Liberation Organization was satisfied with the coup. [[Yasser Abed Rabbo]], who was a member of the [[Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization|PLO Executive Committee]], said he hoped the putsch "will permit resolution in the best interests of the Palestinians of the problem of Soviet Jews in Israel."<ref name=SovietCoup_Intl/>

==Subsequent fate of GKChP Gang of Eight==
* [[Gennady Yanayev|Gennadiy Yanayev]], granted amnesty by the Russian State Duma in 1994, went on to head the Department of History and International Relations for the Russian International Academy of Tourism<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/8060046/Gennady-Yanayev.html|title=Gennady Yanayev|date=12 October 2010|access-date=4 April 2018|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308213451/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/8060046/Gennady-Yanayev.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and died in 2010.
* [[Valentin Pavlov]], granted amnesty by the Russian State Duma in 1994, subsequently served as a financial expert for several banks and other financial institutions and became chairman of [[Free Economic Society]],<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-apr-01-me-pavlov1-story.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240825124943/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-apr-01-me-pavlov1-story.html|date=25 August 2024}} "LA Times", March 2015</ref> dying in 2003.
* [[Vladimir Kryuchkov]], granted amnesty by the Russian State Duma in 1994, died in 2007.
* [[Dmitry Yazov|Dmitriy Yazov]], granted amnesty by the Russian State Duma in 1994, became adviser to the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Academy of General Staff;<ref>Simon Saradzhyan [https://web.archive.org/web/20150402104544/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/sitemap/free/1998/6/article/coup-leader-may-join-defense-team/288967.html Coup Leader May Join Defense Team], "The Moscow Times", March 2015</ref> he died in 2020.
* [[Boris Pugo]] died from two gunshots to the head on 22{{spaces}}August 1991. His death was ruled as a suicide.<ref name=":4" />
* [[Oleg Baklanov]], granted amnesty by the Russian State Duma in 1994, later served as chairman of the board of directors for "Rosobshchemash"; he died in 2021.
* [[Vasily Starodubtsev|Vasiliy Starodubtsev]], freed from arrest in 1992 due to health complications, served as deputy to the [[Federation Council of Russia]] (1993–95), governor of [[Tula Oblast]] (1997–2005), and then member of the [[Communist Party of the Russian Federation]] (since 2007)<ref>Rupert Cornwell [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/vasily-starodubtsev-politician-who-tried-to-topple-gorbachev-in-1991-6284480.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010070156/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/vasily-starodubtsev-politician-who-tried-to-topple-gorbachev-in-1991-6284480.html|date=10 October 2017}}"Vasily Starodubtsev: Politician who tried to topple Gorbachev in 1991", March 2015</ref> until his death in 2011.
* [[Alexander Tizyakov]], granted amnesty by the Russian State Duma in 1994, was later a member of the [[Communist Party of the Russian Federation]], founder of series of enterprises such as "Antal" (machine manufacturing), "Severnaya kazna" (insurance), "Vidikon" ([[electric arc furnace]] manufacturing) and "Fidelity" ([[fast-moving consumer goods]] production);<ref>Vladimir Socor [http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=5407&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=217&no_cache=1#.VQGVXGSxNF9] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402130101/http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=5407&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=217&no_cache=1#.VQGVXGSxNF9|date=2 April 2015}}"The Jamestown Foundation", March 2015</ref> he died in 2019.

==In popular media==
*''[[The Man Who Doesn't Return]]''  is a drama film by [[Sergey Snezhkin]] in 1991.
*''[[Three Days (1992 film)]]''  is a drama film by [[Šarūnas Bartas]].
*''[[Three Days in August (1992 film)]]''  is a co-production film between Russia and the United States by [[Jan Jung]] in 1992.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}
*[[Sergey Medvedev]]'s 2001 [[Channel One Russia|Channel One]] film ''Swan Lake'', commissioned by the [[State Committee on the State of Emergency]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://2001.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2001/60n/n60n-s13.shtml|title="ЛЕБЕДИНОЕ ОЗЕРО" ВЫСОХЛО Новый телесезон начался с юбилея ГКЧП — но без балета|last=ЖЕЛЕЗНОВА |first=Мария |date=August 23, 2001 |publisher=[[Novaya Gazeta]] |access-date=December 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180929221858/http://2001.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2001/60n/n60n-s13.shtml|archive-date=September 29, 2018 |language=Russian}}</ref>
*''[[Yeltsin: Three Days in August]]'' (''Ельцин. Три дня в августе'') is a 2011 Russian film that [[Dramatization|dramatizes]] the coup.
*''[[The Event (2015 film)|The Event]]'' (Событие) is a 2015 Russian [[Documentary film|documentary]] by [[Sergei Loznitsa]] that uses footage shot 19–24{{spaces}}August 1991 by [[camera operator]]s of the Saint Petersburg Documentary film studio to tell the story of the coup as it unfolded in Leningrad.
*''[[Russia 1985–1999: TraumaZone]]'' is a BBC documentary television series in 2022.
*In "House Divided", a [[For All Mankind (TV series)#Season 4 (2023–24)|season 4 episode of For All Mankind]], an [[alternate history]] TV series, the coup succeeds and Mikhail Gorbachev is overthrown.

==See also==
{{Portal|Soviet Union|1990s|Politics}}
* [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union]]
* [[History of the Soviet Union]]
* [[1993 Russian constitutional crisis]]
* [[Wagner Group rebellion]]
* [[State collapse]]
* [[Swan Lake]]
*[[January 6 United States Capitol attack]]

==Notes and references==
{{notelist}}
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
: See also: {{section link|Bibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet Union|The Dissolution of the Soviet Union and Bloc}}
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Bonnell |first1=Victoria E. |last2=Freidin |first2=Gregory |date=1993 |title=Televorot: The Role of Television Coverage in Russia's August 1991 Coup |url=https://www-leland.stanford.edu/~gfreidin/Publications/Televorot1.pdf |journal=Slavic Review |language=en |volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=810–838 |doi=10.2307/2499653 |jstor=2499653 |issn=0037-6779}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Breslauer |first=George W. |date=April 1992 |title=Reflections on the Anniversary of the August 1991 Coup |journal=Soviet Economy |language=en |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=164–174 |doi=10.1080/08826994.1992.10641350 |issn=0882-6994}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Dunlop |first=John B. |date=2003 |title=The August 1991 Coup and Its Impact on Soviet Politics |url=https://direct.mit.edu/jcws/article-pdf/5/1/94/695771/152039703320996731.pdf |journal=[[Journal of Cold War Studies]] |language=en |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=94–127 |doi=10.1162/152039703320996731 |issn=1520-3972}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Gibson |first=James L. |date=September 1997 |title=Mass Opposition to the Soviet Putsch of August 1991: Collective Action, Rational Choice, and Democratic Values in the Former Soviet Union |journal=American Political Science Review |language=en |volume=91 |issue=3 |pages=671–684 |doi=10.2307/2952082 |jstor=2952082 |issn=0003-0554}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Hamburg |first=Roger |date=1992 |title=After the Abortive Soviet Coup and 'What Is To Be Done?' The Post Soviet Military |journal=Journal of Political & Military Sociology |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=305–322 |jstor=45294287}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Kyriakodis |first=Harry G. |year=1991 |title=The 1991 Soviet and 1917 Bolshewk Coups Compared: Causes, Consequences and Legality |url=https://wp.towson.edu/iajournal/files/2017/11/1991-AND-1917-COUPS-COMPARED-1j76ntt.pdf |journal=Russian History |volume=18 |issue=1–4 |pages=317–362 |doi=10.1163/187633191X00137 |issn=0094-288X}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Lepingwell |first=John W. R. |date=July 1992 |title=Soviet Civil-Military Relations and the August Coup |journal=[[World Politics]] |language=en |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=539–572 |doi=10.2307/2010487 |issn=0043-8871 |jstor=2010487}}
* {{Cite book |last=McNair |first=Brian |title=Getting the message: news, truth and power |date=1996 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-07984-6 |editor-last=Eldridge |editor-first=John |edition=1. publ., repr |series=Communication and society |location=London New York |pages=53–72 |chapter=Reform and restructuring in the Soviet media before and after the August 1991 coup |editor-last2=Eldridge |editor-first2=John Eric}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Matthee |first=Heinrich |date=1991 |title=A Breakdown of Civil-Military Relations: The Soviet Coup of 1991 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/37368507.pdf |journal=Scientia Militaria - South African Journal of Military Studies |volume=29 |doi=10.5787/29-0-185 |issn=2224-0020}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Meyer |first=Stephen M. |date=1991 |title=How the Threat (and the Coup) Collapsed: The Politicization of the Soviet Military |journal=[[International Security (journal)|International Security]] |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=5–38 |doi=10.2307/2539087|jstor=2539087 }}
* {{Cite book |last=Ōgushi |first=Atsushi |title=The demise of the Soviet Communist Party |date=2008 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-43439-3 |series=BASEES/Routledge series on Russian and East European studies |location=London; New York |oclc=144769250}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Saar |first1=Andrus |last2=Joe |first2=Liivi |date=1992 |title=Polling, Under the Gun: Political Attitudes in Estonia, Surveyed at the Height of the Soviet Coup Attempt, August 1991 |journal=[[Public Opinion Quarterly]] |volume=56 |issue=4 |pages=519 |doi=10.1086/269341}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Varney |first1=Wendy |last2=Martin |first2=Brian |date=February 2000 |title=Lessons from the 1991 Soviet coup |url=https://documents.uow.edu.au/~/bmartin/pubs/00pr.html |journal=Peace Research |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=52–68 |jstor=23607685}}
* {{Cite thesis |last=Charles Vogt |first=William |title=The Soviet coup of August 1991: why it happened, and why it was doomed to fail |date=December 1991 |degree=MA |publisher=[[Naval Postgraduate School]] |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/36721382.pdf}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ziemele |first=Ineta |author-link=Ineta Ziemele |title=State continuity and nationality: the Baltic States and Russia: past present and future as defined by international law |publisher=[[M. Nijhoff]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-90-04-14295-4 |location=Leiden; Boston |oclc=ocm57170584 |ref=Ziemele2005}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Zlotnik |first=Marc |date=2003 |title=Yeltsin and Gorbachev: The Politics of Confrontation |journal=[[Journal of Cold War Studies]] |language=en |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=128–164 |doi=10.1162/152039703320996740 |issn=1520-3972}}

===Primary sources===
* {{Cite book |last=Gorbačev |first=Michail |author-link=Mikhail Gorbachev |title=The August coup: the truth and the lessons |date=1991 |publisher=[[HarperCollins Publisher]] |isbn=978-0-06-016890-2 |edition=1. |location=New York, NY}} Includes transcript of the videotaped statement made 19/20{{spaces}}August 1991 as his Foros dacha.
* {{Cite book |title=Russia at the barricades: eyewitness accounts of the August 1991 Coup |date=1994 |publisher=Sharpe |isbn=978-1-56324-272-4 |editor-last=Bonnell |editor-first=Victoria E. |location=Armonk, NY |editor-last2=Cooper |editor-first2=Ann |editor-last3=Freidin |editor-first3=Gregory}} Includes the chronology of the coup, photos, and accounts from a broad cross-section of participants and eyewitnesses, including the editors.
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://soviethistory.msu.edu/1991-2/the-august-coup/the-august-coup-texts/ The August Coup texts]
* [https://sites.google.com/site/jiriksoviet/voices-from-an-attempted-soviet-coup Voices From An Attempted Soviet Coup.] first person accounts and documents from both sides of the barricades. Compiled and edited by Anya Chernyakhovskaya, Dr John Jirik and Nikolai Lamm.
* [http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/communications/logs/report-ussr-gorbatchev IRC logs]: Transcript of internet chat from the time of the coup
* [http://ian.chard.org/stuff/un_gorby.html TASS transmissions at the time of the coup] (captured from short-wave radio transmissions, contains decoding errors)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051125113124/http://www.andrewcoyne.com/Essays/Newspapers/Globe%2091-96/Soviet%20coup%20analysis%20(1991).rtfd/TXT.html Andrew Coyne: Getting to the Roots of a Deserved Failure]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070217162124/http://archive.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=1&i_number=696 ''The St. Petersburg Times'' #696(63), 17 August 2001] The issue of ''[[The St. Petersburg Times (Russia)|The St. Petersburg Times]]'' devoted to the tenth anniversary of the coup attempt.
* [http://www.marxist.net/stalinism/collapse/script.htm?5.htm The Collapse of Stalinism] Chronology of the Coup The USSR in 1991: The Implosion of a Superpower by Dr Robert F. Miller
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927043613/http://www.memoryarchive.org/en/Moscow_Coup%2C_August_1991%2C_Anonymous Moscow Coup, August 1991, Anonymous]: Memories of an anonymous Russian in Wiki Memory Archive
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080107010002/http://www.douglassmith.info/143/the-1991-soviet-coup.-a-personal-account..html Personal account and photographs of historian Douglas Smith, an eyewitness to the coup]
* {{YouTube|8VAHy76QO7o|Vadim Anatov, a programmer for Relcom (the first public ISP in the USSR)}} talking about the role of the Internet in resistance to the coup.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040923072304/http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/2004/sep/tsypkinSept04.asp Adventures of the "Nuclear Briefcase": A Russian Document Analysis], ''Strategic Insights'', Volume III, Issue 9 (September 2004), by Mikhail Tsypkin
* [http://omniatlas.com/maps/europe/19910819/ Map of Europe showing areas affected by Soviet Coup Attempt]

{{Russian Conflicts}}
{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Coup d'état|state=United States (2021)}}
{{Boris Yeltsin}}
{{Soviet Union topics}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1991 Soviet Coup D'etat Attempt}}
[[Category:Conflicts in 1991]]
[[Category:August 1991 in the Soviet Union|Coup d'etat attempt]]
[[Category:Military history of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1990s coups d'état and coup attempts|Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Attempted coups in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1991 in politics]]
[[Category:Rebellions in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt| ]]
[[Category:Political scandals in Russia]]
[[Category:1991 in Moscow]]
[[Category:August 1991 in Russia]]
[[Category:Attacks on legislatures in Europe]]
[[Category:Attacks on government buildings and structures in Russia]]
[[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in 1991]]
[[Category:Communist Party of the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Communist rebellions]]
[[Category:1991 in the Soviet Union| ]]