1991 Soviet Coup
In August 1991, a group of hard-line Communist Party officials tried to remove Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev from power. The move sent shock waves around the world, which feared a rollback of Gorbachev´s reforms and his efforts to end the Cold War. The putsch collapsed in three days as throngs took to the streets of Moscow in defiance. The events dramatically weakened Gorbachev´s rule and precipitated the collapse of the 74-year-old Soviet Union about four months later.
Associated Press writer Ann Imse covered the failed coup. Thirty years later, the AP is making a version of her story available, with photos.
Soviet Hard-liners Seize Power From Gorbachev
By ANN IMSE
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) - Communist hard-liners backed by tanks and troops seized power today from President Mikhail S. Gorbachev in a coup that threatened the reforms he used for six years to transform the Soviet Union and end the Cold War.
FILE In this Monday, Aug. 19, 1991 file photo, Boris Yeltsin, President of the Russian Federation, makes a speech from atop a tank in front of the Russian parliament building in Moscow, Russia. In the capital, where thousands of protesters confronted soldiers on tanks and armed personnel carriers, Yeltsin climbed atop one military vehicle and urged the Russian people to fight back with an immediate general strike. (AP Photo, File)
Vice President Gennady Yanayev said he was taking over as acting president under a state of emergency, supported by an eight-member committee that includes the KGB and top military and police officials.
Gorbachev was detained at his vacation home in the Crimea, said a spokesman for Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian republic.
Yeltsin quickly moved into the forefront of resistance to the takeover. He ordered Soviet soldiers, police and KGB agents to follow his command on the territory of the sprawling Russian republic, which includes Moscow.
In the capital, where thousands of protesters confronted soldiers on tanks and armed personnel carriers, Yeltsin climbed atop one military vehicle and urged the Russian people to fight back with an immediate general strike.
"I´m not going to order my troops to shoot Boris Yeltsin," one military commander was quoted as saying.
It was unclear if the confrontations would lead to large-scale resistance to the coup.
No injuries or deaths were immediately reported in the protests.
Late today, the official Soviet news agency Tass reported Yeltsin´s condemnation of the coup and his call for a general strike, a move that may reflect feuding between pro- and anti-coup factions at the agency.
Yeltsin also received support from leaders of the republics of Kazakhstan and the Ukraine.
As President Bush joined other Western leaders in condemning the coup, there were also reports of a new crackdown in the breakaway Baltic republics.
Yanayev (pronounced yah-NEYE-yeff), at his first post-coup news conference, denounced the Yeltsin-led resistance as "dangerous and irresponsible ... fraught with the potential of armed conflict."
But he added: "We will do our utmost not to use force against civilians." Yanayev claimed that Gorbachev "is now on vacation" in an undisclosed "safe place."
"He is very tired after all these years, and he will need some time to get better. We hope ... he will take office again," he told reporters.
The emergency decree announcing the takeover early today had said Gorbachev, 60, was unable to perform his duties for health reasons. However, there has been no recent indication he was ill.
Gorbachev was to have returned to Moscow today for Tuesday´s signing of a treaty, opposed by hard-liners, that would have given the restive republics more power at the expense of the Communist central government.
In Moscow, hundreds of armored vehicles poured into the streets, and long columns of tanks churned up the pavement. Dozens of armored vehicles surrounded the Russian Federation building.
The vehicles later backed off several hundred yards and the intervening space filled with hundreds of pro-Yeltsin demonstrators. They used barricades of trucks, buses and bricks to protect the building and Yeltsin inside.
Late in the afternoon, most of the armored vehicles around the Russian headquarters had left.
Russian deputies reported that 38,000 copies of Yeltsin´s appeal to the people of Russia have been printed up and were being distributed at airports and train stations.
More than a hundred members of the Russian legislature gathered at the Russian Parliament and decided to split up into groups and talk to soldiers throughout Moscow, hoping to persuade them not to support the coup.
In the rain-soaked streets of central Moscow, many of the protesters engaged in shouting matches with Soviet soldiers.
"We won´t stand for it!" cried Muscovite Alexander Muzhin.
"It´s our army. They will support us," said Gasha Kolchin, a 20-year-old medical student at Moscow State University, as he rode on a tank in a downtown street, clutching a red-white-and-blue, pre-revolutionary Russian flag.
"We are not afraid. We are sure that democracy will win in our country," he said.
President Bush, who cut short a Maine vacation to return to Washington, put aid to the Soviet Union on hold and urged Western allies to do likewise. He was highly critical of the overthrow of Gorbachev "by a very hard-line group," saying it violated the Soviet Constitution.
"Coups can fail," Bush said. "What hasn´t been heard from yet is the people of the Soviet Union."
Western leaders said they expected Moscow to honor international commitments in arms control and other matters. Bush and Gorbachev signed a historic Strategic Arms Control Treaty on the reduction of nuclear weapons only weeks ago.
Reports said some internal airports around the country were being closed, although airlines said operations were apparently normal at Moscow´s international airport.
Military action was reported in other Soviet republics. The Soviet military commander of the Baltics informed the governments of the three republics he was assuming control and they faced arrest if they resisted, Latvian officials said.
Soviet warships reportedly blocked the main harbor in Estonia and troops silenced Lithuanian television and radio.
"If needed, I will put my head on the block because we can´t retreat," said Estonian President Arnold Ruutel.
Former Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, a key architect of Gorbachev´s reform-minded international policies, said the West should move to back reformers in the Soviet Union.
"The West should show its solidarity with reform movements in the country. What is happening now is a tragedy for the West, for the Soviet Union and for the East as well," he told The Associated Press.
Some independent Soviet media were silenced, and word of the takeover came from official outlets, such as the Tass news agency.
The new ruling committee announced it assumed emergency powers at 6 a.m. today (11 p.m. EDT Sunday). Yanayev, who took over as acting president, said the changes were temporary and did not mean a renunciation of reforms or affect the Soviet Union´s international commitments.
Even so, the takeover threw into question Gorbachev´s policies of creating a free-market economy, granting autonomy to the nation´s republics and carrying out arms control agreements with the United States.
It was unclear if Yanayev, 53, a little-known provincial official when Gorbachev chose him as his deputy in December, held the main power or if he was merely a figurehead.
The decree banned disruptive demonstrations and strikes and said disobedient elected officials and political parties would be suspended. It said a committee would be created to establish control over the media and that a curfew may be necessary.
The new Union Treaty that Gorbachev was to have signed Tuesday was opposed by hard-liners, who said it would effectively hobble the central government´s power and transfer authority to the republics. The hard-liners said that the 15 republics would be subject to national laws.
Sources said the overthrow had been in the works since Friday. That day, a former Gorbachev aide and reformer, Alexander Yakovlev, had said publicly that Stalinist hard-liners were plotting a coup. He also resigned from the party.
The hard-liners also moved against reformists outside Moscow. Announcers on Leningrad television read the Tass announcement and said Leningrad´s reformist mayor, Anatoly Sobchak, had been removed from office.
FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 19, 1991 file photo, a crowd gathers around a personnel carrier as some people climb aboard the vehicle and try to block its advance near Red Square in downtown Moscow, Russia. The August 1991 coup that briefly ousted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev collapsed in just three days, precipitating the breakup of the Soviet Union that plotters said they were trying to prevent. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko, File)
FILE In this Monday, Aug. 19, 1991 file photo, a distraught Soviet woman is held back by two men as she cries and as she struggles to stand in front of a tank passing on the street near the Ukraine Hotel in Moscow, Russia. In Moscow, hundreds of armored vehicles poured into the streets, and long columns of tanks churned up the pavement. Dozens of armored vehicles surrounded the Russian Federation building. (AP Photo/Olga Shalygin, File)
FILE In this Monday, Aug. 19, 1991 file photo, groups of people wander among the half dozen Soviet tanks parked behind the Red Square with St. Basil's Cathedral in the background, near the bank of the Moscow River, Russia. The August 1991 coup that briefly ousted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev collapsed in just three days, precipitating the breakup of the Soviet Union that plotters said they were trying to prevent. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko, File)
FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 19, 1991 file photo, Soviet tanks are surrounded by anti-coup demonstrators in an attempt to prevent them from moving into Moscow's Red Square, Russia. In Moscow, hundreds of armored vehicles poured into the streets, and long columns of tanks churned up the pavement. Dozens of armored vehicles surrounded the Russian Federation building. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko, File)
FILE - In this Friday, April 9, 1993 file photo, Former Russian Vice President Gennady Yanayev speaks during his interview with the Associated Press at his apartment in Moscow, Russia. Yanayev, 53, a little-known provincial official when Gorbachev chose him as his deputy in December, held the main power or if he was merely a figurehead. Gennady Yanayev said he was taking over as acting president under a state of emergency, supported by an eight-member committee that includes the KGB and top military and police officials. (AP Photo/Olga Shalygin, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, Aug. 20, 1991 file photo, a convoy of Soviet tanks holds its position near Moscow's central airfield less than two miles from the Kremlin, Russia. In Moscow, hundreds of armored vehicles poured into the streets, and long columns of tanks churned up the pavement. Dozens of armored vehicles surrounded the Russian Federation building. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko, File)
FILE In this Tuesday, Aug. 20, 1991 file photo, Muscovites debate with soldiers who guard the Manezh Square at Gorky Street in downtown Moscow during the coup attempt by hard-line Communists against the Soviet president, Russia. The August 1991 coup that briefly ousted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev collapsed in just three days, precipitating the breakup of the Soviet Union that plotters said they were trying to prevent. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko, File)
FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 21, 1991 file photo, appreciative Muscovites hand bread, sausages and flowers to a Soviet tank's driver who helped stop the failed hardline coup in Moscow, Russia.The August 1991 coup that briefly ousted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev collapsed in just three days, precipitating the breakup of the Soviet Union that plotters said they were trying to prevent. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)
FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 21, 1991 file photo, a crowd greet a jubilant tank officer with the Russian national flag in the street of Moscow amid reports that the coup has failed, in Russia. The August 1991 coup that briefly ousted Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev collapsed in just three days, precipitating the breakup of the Soviet Union that plotters said they were trying to prevent. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 22, 1991 file photo, Russian Republic President Boris Yeltsin makes a V-sign to thousands of Muscovites during a rally in front of the Russian federation building to celebrate the failed military coup in Moscow, Russia. In the capital, where thousands of protesters confronted soldiers on tanks and armed personnel carriers, Yeltsin climbed atop one military vehicle and urged the Russian people to fight back with an immediate general strike. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko, File)
FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 21, 1991 file photo, former Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduard Shevardnadze is escorted to the area around the Russian Federation building where Soviet forces advanced in Moscow, Russia. Former Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, a key architect of Gorbachev's reform-minded international policies, said the West should move to back reformers in the Soviet Union. "The West should show its solidarity with reform movements in the country. What is happening now is a tragedy for the West, for the Soviet Union and for the East as well," he told The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianchenko, File)
FILE - In this Wednesday morning, Aug. 21, 1991 file photo, anti-coup demonstrators block the exit of Soviet armored personnel carriers from the area near the Soviet Foreign Ministry office burns during a verbal confrontation between demonstrators and Soviet soldiers standing atop an armored vehicle in downtown Moscow, Russia. During the August 1991 hardline coup, three people were killed and several others wounded in a violent clash between troops and protesters, who blocked the passage to a military convoy. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 22, 1991 file photo, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev speaks to a Soviet TV newsman at Vnukovo airport outside Moscow, shortly after arriving from the Crimea after a three day coup by Communist hard-liners failed, in Russia. In August 1991, a group of hard-line Communist Party officials tried to remove Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev from power. The coup sent shock waves around the world, which feared a rollback of Gorbachev's reforms and his efforts to end the Cold War. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 22, 1991 file photo, A crowd of about 100,000 people march from the Russian Parliament through Red Square celebrating the collapse of this week's hardline military coup in Moscow, Russia. In August 1991, a group of hard-line Communist Party officials tried to remove Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev from power. The coup sent shock waves around the world, which feared a rollback of Gorbachev's reforms and his efforts to end the Cold War. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
FILE - In this Friday, Aug. 23, 1991 file photo, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, left, holds stenographic notes given to him by Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin, right, at a special session of the Russian Federation Parliament. Gorbachev was to have returned to Moscow today for Tuesday's signing of a treaty, opposed by hard-liners, that would have given the restive republics more power at the expense of the Communist central government. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 24, 1991 file photo, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, rear right, clenches his fist to express solidarity with the thousands gathered to pay their respects to the victims of the failed Kremlin coup in Moscow, Russia. In August 1991, a group of hard-line Communist Party officials tried to remove Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev from power. The coup sent shock waves around the world, which feared a rollback of Gorbachev's reforms and his efforts to end the Cold War. (AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing, File)
FILE - In this Friday, Aug. 23, 1991 file photo, people kick the head of the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet secret police, in front of the KGB main headquarters on the Lubyanka Square. The statue was pulled down after the defeat of the August 1991 hardline coup. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
