The August crisis of 1991 briefly. August coup: actors and their fate

August putsch 1991

19/08/16, 10:00 Chapter 2

Why was all this

Anastasia Melnikova, columnist for MIA "Russia Today"

25 years ago, on August 18, 1991, the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP) was created in the USSR, it included the Vice-President of the USSR Gennady Yanaev, as well as party officials and leaders from the government, the KGB and the army. Vice-President of the USSR Gennady Yanaev was declared acting. President - "due to the impossibility for health reasons of Mikhail Gorbachev's performance of his duties."

All this was done under the pretext of stabilizing the situation in the country, but in fact the GKChP was created to disrupt the signing of an agreement on the Union of Sovereign States.

Recall that at the referendum on March 17, 1991, the majority of the country's citizens voted for the preservation and renewal of the Soviet Union (Armenia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Estonia did not vote). After the referendum, a project was developed to conclude a new union, suggesting a decentralized federation.

August 3 Mikhail Gorbachev speaks on television with a statement that the union treaty will be open for signing from August 20, the text of the treaty is published in Pravda on August 15. The signing of this version of the treaty failed precisely because of the attempt to remove Gorbachev from power by the participants in the State Emergency Committee and the introduction of a state of emergency in the country.

Chapter 3

Before the putsch

In fact, the ideological platform of the August coup was the “Word to the People”, published on July 23, 1991, an appeal by a group of politicians and cultural figures. Among the signatories of the appeal were Valentin Varennikov, Vasily Starodubtsev and Alexander Tizyakov, as well as Gennady Zyuganov, Alexander Prokhanov, Valentin Rasputin.

They criticized the policies of Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as their allies, calling for preventing the collapse of the USSR. The style of the main author of the appeal is easily guessed (this is Alexander Prokhanov):

“... Why are crafty and eloquent rulers, smart and cunning apostates, greedy and rich money-grubbers, mocking us, mocking our beliefs, taking advantage of our naivety, seized power, pilfer riches, take away houses, factories and lands from the people, cut the country into pieces , quarrel and fool us? ... "

It was an attempt to unite the army and the people in the fight against the inevitable evil - the collapse of the Soviet Union. The letter was resonant, but rather exacerbated the political situation than rallied the nation.

Chapter 4

Who was in the GKChP

The main organizer of the process was the chairman of the KGB, Vladimir Kryuchkov. All information flocked to him - including the results of surveillance and wiretapping of most officials.

The vice-president of the USSR Gennady Yanaev became the nominal head of the GKChP - he was convinced that he could be the only legitimate head of state during a state of emergency. He did not agree for a long time, demanded to provide him with information about the poor health of Mikhail Gorbachev, about the impossibility of fulfilling his duties as president. It was clear that Yanaev was not going to lead the coup, but legally, power should have passed to him as vice president (in the event of Gorbachev's incapacity).

The President of the USSR in those August days did have some health problems (sciatica), but not so serious as to resign: there was no question of any incapacity. Especially in the Soviet Union, where most of Gorbachev's predecessors ruled the country in a much more deplorable state of health.

Nevertheless, Gennady Yanaev, as vice president, became the interim leader of the country. He also signed documents on the formation of the State Committee for the State of Emergency. The committee, in addition to the vice president, included Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Anatoly Lukyanov, Chairman of the KGB Vladimir Kryuchkov, Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov, Interior Minister Boris Pugo and others.

Issues in the GKChP were resolved collectively, there was no clear leader, whose opinion could become decisive. And this, by the way, is one of the reasons for the failure of the coup: none of the members of the committee wanted to take responsibility for possible bloodshed, no one ordered the arrests of Gorbachev or Yeltsin, as well as the start of military operations.

Chapter 5

Yeltsin's supporters

Boris Yeltsin, in the absence of President Gorbachev, who was actually blocked in Foros, managed to form a team of like-minded people around him (Rutskoi, Silaev, Khasbulatov, Shakhrai, Burbulis, then Grachev and Lebed).

The GKChP did not have full control over its forces. For example, parts of the Taman division went over to the side of the White House defenders. On the tank of this division, Yeltsin addressed the people. The appeal that got into the information reports, shown on television, of course, influenced popular sentiment - more and more defenders flocked to the House of Soviets (White House), leaflets with an appeal were distributed around Moscow, "messengers" went to the army units - to convince them to take the side of the people .

Boris Yeltsin acted resolutely and competently, in fact, did nothing of what was expected of him in the State Emergency Committee. He did not resign, did not obey the orders of the State Emergency Committee, did not run away from the city, fearing arrest, did not start hostilities, did not ask for asylum in the American embassy (although everything was prepared for this).

Yeltsin's logic and actions were supported by tens of thousands of defenders of the White House: in conditions when it is completely incomprehensible what is happening with the President of the USSR, where he is not acting and why, in Moscow and other regions of the country there is the legitimate power of the legally elected Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who accused the State Emergency Committee in an attempted coup d'état and treason.

Chapter 6

What did Gorbachev do

Video footage of how Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife descended the plane on the night of August 22 spread around the world: the President of the USSR was released from illegal imprisonment and returned to Moscow.

Further information about how Gorbachev spent his time in Foros varies significantly. The official version is that the gekachepists actually placed him under house arrest in the Crimean residence, blocking access to any type of communication after the president of the USSR refused to declare a state of emergency. On August 18, a group of comrades flew to him (Varennikov, Baklanov, Shenin, Boldin) to persuade him to abandon the signing of the new Union Treaty scheduled for August 20.

They did not receive any consent from Mikhail Gorbachev - neither to introduce a state of emergency, nor to disrupt the treaty. However, according to the testimony of former Deputy Defense Minister Valentin Varennikov and other participants in the meeting, the president, saying goodbye, shook hands with them and said: “To hell with you, do what you want. But give me my opinion."

“Do what you want” is just the introduction of a state of emergency in the country. Why didn’t Gorbachev take any measures to prevent the State Emergency Committee, why didn’t he order, for example, to detain the participants in the future coup d’etat (after all, the President of the USSR is also the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces), why didn’t he bring his position to the attention of the Soviet people and the world press?
He lost the levers of control by refusing to introduce a state of emergency, but in this case, Boris Yeltsin, the leadership of the RSFSR and some other republics of the Union would have supported him.

Later, testimonies began to appear, interviews with border guards and Mikhail Gorbachev's guards that no one had isolated him in the Crimean residence, the plane was at his disposal, it was possible to use the telephone. However, those who blocked the president, the supreme commander of their country in Foros, were threatened with the article “Treason to the Motherland”, so they could say whatever they wanted later.

In any case, Mikhail Gorbachev could have stopped the creation of the GKChP in various ways, but did not do this, explaining later that he did not want to allow an armed confrontation and the inevitable victims.

Chapter 7

Three days in August

On the night of August 19, Gennady Yanaev signs a document on the creation of the State Committee for the State of Emergency. The resolution of the State Emergency Committee No. 1 refers to the introduction of a state of emergency "in certain areas of the USSR" for a period of six months, the ban on rallies and strikes, the suspension of the activities of political parties and public organizations that impede the normalization of the situation, as well as the allocation of 15 acres of land for personal use.

Boris Yeltsin holds meetings and telephone conversations with his supporters, including R.I. Khasbulatov, A. A. Sobchak, G. E. Burbulis, S. M. Shakhrai, M. N. Poltoranin. The appeal "To the citizens of Russia" is sent by fax, Yeltsin signs a decree "On the illegality of the actions of the State Emergency Committee."

At 7 am, on the orders of Defense Minister Yazov, the Kantemirovskaya Panzer Division, the Tamanskaya Motorized Rifle Division, and the 106th Airborne Division advanced to Moscow.

Boris Yeltsin arrives at the White House (Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR) and organizes a center of resistance to the actions of the State Emergency Committee. Spontaneous rallies gather on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment and Manezhnaya Square in Moscow, on St. Isaac's Square in Leningrad.

Ekho Moskvy becomes the mouthpiece of the opponents of the State Emergency Committee - Russian TV transmitters were turned off.

Tens of thousands of people gather in the center of Moscow and actually block the movement of military equipment. Yeltsin at the White House read out from the tank of the Taman division an appeal to the citizens of Russia. The protesters are building barricades and creating detachments (unarmed) of the militias.

At 5 p.m., a press conference of the State Emergency Committee was held at the press center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at which Gennady Yanaev announced that Mikhail Gorbachev's course for democratic reforms would continue, that the President of the USSR was on vacation and treatment in the Crimea, and after "recovery" would return to work.

At 9 pm, Boris Yeltsin speaks at a rally near the White House, saying that Russian leaders will not leave the building of the House of Soviets anywhere. A tank company of the Tamanskaya Guards Division was let through the barricades to the White House, the crews of the vehicles declared their loyalty to the government of the RSFSR. Paratroopers of the 106th division also arrived at the White House, along with Major General Alexander Lebed.

The Vremya program unexpectedly broadcasts a material by correspondent Sergei Medvedev with video frames in which Yeltsin read out the Decree "On the illegality of the actions of the State Emergency Committee" (by the way, in 1995 Sergei Medvedev will become the press secretary of the Russian president).
At night, the Russian deputies dispersed to the army units near Moscow, urging the military to go over to their side.

The next day, a group of Russian leaders met with GKChP member Anatoly Lukyanov, demanding that the activities of the GKChP be stopped (no ultimatum or threats to start hostilities were made).

On the afternoon of August 20, about 200 thousand people gather at the White House, Ruslan Khasbulatov, Ivan Silaev, Alexander Rutskoi, Eduard Shevardnadze and others speak at the many-hour rally along with Yeltsin.

The GKChP planned to start an assault on the White House, but no one decided on a military operation - there could have been many victims among the peaceful defenders of the House of Soviets, and among the military.

Boris Yeltsin announces the temporary assumption of the duties of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in Russia and appoints Konstantin Kobets Minister of Defense of the RSFSR. He gives orders for the return of troops to their places of permanent deployment.
At night, on the Garden Ring, an army patrol clashes with demonstrators, the soldiers shoot over their heads.

In the tunnel under Novy Arbat, soldiers use military weapons, demonstrators tried to stop the movement of military equipment, two peaceful demonstrators were shot dead, one was accidentally crushed (Dmitry Komar, Vladimir Usov and Ilya Krichevsky).

The defenders of the White House have more and more supporters among the military, General Gromov announces that the Dzerzhinsky division was not advanced to the center of Moscow, and the internal troops will not participate in the assault, and Air Force Commander Yevgeny Shaposhnikov invites Defense Minister Yazov to withdraw troops from Moscow. He is supported by Commander-in-Chief of the Navy Igor Chernavin and Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Missile Forces Yuri Maksimov.

At 10 o'clock, the session of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, chaired by Ruslan Khasbulatov, begins, and a statement is adopted condemning the GKChP.

A few hours later, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a resolution declaring illegal the removal of Mikhail Gorbachev from his duties and demanding that Vice President Yanaev cancel the state of emergency decrees.
Vice-President of the RSFSR, Prime Minister Ivan Silaev and other Russian leaders, as well as more than 30 armed police officers, fly to Foros Gorbachev.

On the evening of August 21, Vice-President Yanaev signed a decree dissolving the GKChP. An hour later, the Prosecutor General of the RSFSR, Valentin Stepankov, orders the arrest of former members of the State Emergency Committee.

Chapter 8

After the coup

Mikhail Gorbachev returns to Moscow, victorious rallies and rock concerts of the bands "Time Machine", "Alisa", "Kruiz", "Corrosion of Metal", "Mongol Shuudan" are already taking place near the White House. The historical flag of Russia (tricolor), which later became the state flag, was first installed on the top of the building of the House of Soviets.

The members of the GKChP were arrested, interrogations began, most of the committee members stated that they did not plan to remove Gorbachev from the presidency and start storming the White House.

The Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR Boris Pugo committed suicide when he learned that a group had gone to him to arrest him. On August 24, the body of Marshal Sergei Akhromeev, who worked as an adviser to the President of the USSR, was found in an office in the Kremlin, his suicide note said: “I can’t live when my Fatherland is dying and everything that I always considered the meaning of my life is destroyed.”

On August 26, the manager of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Nikolai Kruchina, fell from the balcony of his apartment and fell to his death.

The members of the State Committee for the State of Emergency were deprived of their positions, kept in custody for some time, then released on bail and amnestied. In February 1994, the only defendant in the GKChP case, Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR Valentin Varennikov, refused to accept the amnesty and was put on trial. In August of the same year, he was acquitted for lack of corpus delicti.
On August 29, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR suspends the activities of the CPSU throughout the entire territory of the USSR.

The historical white-blue-red tricolor became the symbol of the victory over the GKChP; on November 1, 1991, it was legally approved as the state flag of Russia.

© AP Photo / Alexander Zemlianichenko

On the night of August 18-19, 1991, representatives of the top leadership of the USSR, who disagreed with the reform policy of Mikhail Gorbachev and the draft of the new Union Treaty, created the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR (GKChP of the USSR) ... Encyclopedia of newsmakers

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- (also known as the Pavlovian reform after the name of the Prime Minister of the USSR Valentin Pavlov) the exchange of large banknotes in January April 1991. The reform was aimed at getting rid of the excess money supply that was in cash ... ... Wikipedia

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Books

• Committee-1991. The Untold Story of the Russian KGB, Mlechin Leonid Mikhailovich. People who are far from power do not even suspect that sophisticated intrigues lie at the heart of big politics, and that even good goals are achieved by very base means. Sometimes we find out over time...
• August coup 1991. As it was, Ignaz Lozo. Tanks on the streets of Moscow, a state of emergency, the Soviet president under house arrest in his summer residence in the Crimea: it was the dramatic culmination of the perestroika era - a coup against ...

Members of the State Emergency Committee declared a state of emergency in the country, and troops were sent to Moscow. The main goal of the putschists was to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union... One of the symbols of the "August coup" was the ballet "Swan Lake", which was shown on TV channels between news releases.

Lenta.ru

17-21 AUGUST 1991

A meeting of future members of the State Emergency Committee took place at the ABC facility, a closed guest residence of the KGB. It was decided to introduce a state of emergency from August 19, form the State Emergency Committee, require Gorbachev to sign the relevant decrees or resign and transfer powers to Vice President Gennady Yanaev, detain Yeltsin at the Chkalovsky airfield upon arrival from Kazakhstan for a conversation with Defense Minister Yazov, proceed further depending on the outcome of the negotiations.

Representatives of the committee flew to the Crimea to negotiate with Gorbachev, who is on vacation in Foros, to secure his consent to the introduction of a state of emergency. Gorbachev refused to give them his consent.

At 4:32 p.m., all types of communications were cut off at the presidential dacha, including the channel that provided control of the strategic nuclear forces of the USSR.

At 04:00, the Sevastopol regiment of the KGB troops of the USSR blocked the presidential dacha in Foros.

From 06.00 All-Union Radio begins to broadcast messages about the introduction of a state of emergency in some regions of the USSR, the decree of the Vice-President of the USSR Yanaev on his assumption of the duties of the President of the USSR in connection with the illness of Gorbachev, the statement of the Soviet leadership on the creation, the appeal of the State Emergency Committee to the Soviet people.

The GKChP included Vice President of the USSR Gennady Yanaev, Prime Minister of the USSR Valentin Pavlov, Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR Boris Pugo, Minister of Defense of the USSR Dmitry Yazov, Chairman of the KGB of the USSR Vladimir Kryuchkov, First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Defense Council Oleg Baklanov, Chairman of the Peasants' Union of the USSR Vasily Starodubtsev , President of the Association of State Enterprises and Objects of Industry, Construction, Transport and Communications of the USSR Alexander Tizyakov.

Around 07:00, on the orders of Yazov, the second Tamanskaya motorized rifle division and the fourth Kantemirovskaya tank division began to move towards Moscow. Marching on military equipment, the 51st, 137th and 331st parachute regiments also began to move towards the capital.

09.00. A rally in support of democracy and Yeltsin began at the monument to Yuri Dolgoruky in Moscow.

09.40. Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his associates arrive at the White House (House of Soviets of the RSFSR), in a telephone conversation with Kryuchkov, he refuses to recognize the State Emergency Committee.

10.00. The troops occupy their assigned positions in the center of Moscow. Directly at the White House is the armored vehicles of the battalion of the Tula Airborne Division under the command of Major General Alexander Lebed and the Taman Division.

11.45. The first columns of demonstrators arrived at Manezhnaya Square. No measures were taken to disperse the crowd.

12.15. Several thousand citizens gathered at the White House, Boris Yeltsin came out to them. He read from the tank "Appeal to the citizens of Russia", in which he called the actions of the State Emergency Committee "a reactionary, anti-constitutional coup." The appeal was signed by Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR Ivan Silaev and acting. Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Ruslan Khasbulatov.

12.30. Yeltsin issued Decree No. 59, where the creation of the GKChP was qualified as an attempted coup.

At about 2:00 pm, those gathered at the White House began the construction of improvised barricades.

14.30. The session of the Lensoviet adopted an appeal to the President of Russia, refused to recognize the State Emergency Committee and declare a state of emergency.

15.30. Major Yevdokimov's tank company went over to Yeltsin's side - 6 tanks without ammunition.

16.00. Yanaev's decree declares a state of emergency in Moscow.

At around 5:00 pm, Yeltsin issued Decree No. 61, by which the allied executive authorities, including law enforcement agencies, were reassigned to the President of the RSFSR.

At 17:00, a press conference by Yanaev and other members of the State Emergency Committee began at the press center of the Foreign Ministry. Answering the question where the president of the USSR is now, Yanaev said that Gorbachev was “on vacation and treatment in the Crimea. He has been very tired over the years and it takes time for him to recover.”

In Leningrad, thousands of rallies were held on St. Isaac's Square. People gathered for rallies against the GKChP in Nizhny Novgorod, Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk, Tyumen and other Russian cities.

The Radio of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, which had just been created in the White House, broadcast an appeal to citizens in which they were asked to dismantle the barricades in front of the White House so that the Taman division, loyal to the Russian leadership, could bring their tanks to positions near the building.

05.00. The Vitebsk division of the Airborne Forces of the KGB of the USSR and the Pskov division of the USSR Ministry of Defense made their way to Leningrad, but did not enter the city, but were stopped near Siverskaya (70 km from the city).

10.00. A mass rally on Palace Square in Leningrad gathered about 300,000 people. The military cities promised that the army would not interfere.

At about 11:00 am, the editors of 11 independent newspapers gathered at the editorial office of Moskovskiye Novosti and agreed to publish Obshchaya Gazeta, urgently registered with the RSFSR Ministry of Press (coming out the next day).

12.00. At the White House, a rally sanctioned by the city authorities began (at least 100,000 participants). Rally at the Moscow City Council - about 50 thousand participants.

In connection with the hospitalization of Valentin Pavlov, the temporary leadership of the Council of Ministers of the USSR was entrusted to Vitaly Doguzhiev.

Russia creates an interim republican ministry of defense. Konstantin Kobets is appointed Minister of Defense.

In the evening, the Vremya program announced the introduction of a curfew in the capital from 23.00 to 5.00.

On the night of August 21, in an underground transport tunnel at the intersection of Kalininsky Prospekt (now Novy Arbat Street) and Sadovoye Koltso (Tchaikovsky Street), clogged with armored vehicles, three civilians died during maneuvering: Dmitry Komar, Vladimir Usov and Ilya Krichevsky.

03.00. Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Yevgeny Shaposhnikov proposes to Yazov to withdraw troops from Moscow, and to "declare the GKChP illegal and disperse it."

05.00. A meeting of the board of the USSR Ministry of Defense was held, at which the commanders-in-chief of the Navy and the Strategic Missile Forces supported Shaposhnikov's proposal. Yazov orders the withdrawal of troops from Moscow.

11.00. An emergency session of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR opened. There was one issue on the agenda - the political situation in the RSFSR, "formed as a result of a coup d'état."

At 14.18 IL-62 with members of the State Emergency Committee on board flew to the Crimea to Gorbachev. The plane took off a few minutes before the arrival of a group of 50 employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RSFSR, which was tasked with arresting members of the committee.

Gorbachev refused to accept them and demanded to restore contact with the outside world.

At 4:52 pm, vice-president of the RSFSR Alexander Rutskoi and Prime Minister Ivan Silaev flew to Foros to Gorbachev on another plane.

White House defenders

22:00. Yeltsin signed a decree on the annulment of all decisions of the State Emergency Committee and on a number of reshuffles in the State Radio and Television.

01:30. The Tu-134 plane with Rutskoi, Silaev and Gorbachev landed in Moscow at Vnukovo-2.

Most members of the GKChP were arrested.

Mourning for the dead has been declared in Moscow.

From 12.00 the rally of the winners near the White House began. In the middle of the day, Yeltsin, Silaev and Khasbulatov spoke at it. During the rally, the demonstrators carried a huge banner of the Russian tricolor; The President of the RSFSR announced that a decision had been made to make the white-azure-red banner the new state flag of Russia.

The new state flag of Russia (tricolor) was installed for the first time on the top point of the building of the House of Soviets.

On the night of August 23, by order of the Moscow City Council, with a massive gathering of protesters, the monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky on Lubyanka Square was dismantled.

DOCUMENTS GKChP

Vice President of the USSR

Due to the impossibility for health reasons of Gorbachev's performance of his duties as the President of the USSR, on the basis of Article 1277 of the Constitution of the USSR, he assumed the duties of the President of the USSR from August 19, 1991.

Vice President of the USSR

G. I. Yanaev

From the Appeal

to the Soviet people

State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR

... The crisis of power had a catastrophic effect on the economy. A chaotic, spontaneous slip to the market caused an explosion of egoism - regional, departmental, group and personal. The war of laws and the encouragement of centrifugal tendencies resulted in the destruction of a single national economic mechanism that had been taking shape over decades. The result was a sharp drop in the standard of living of the vast majority of Soviet people, the flourishing of speculation and the shadow economy. It is high time to tell people the truth: if urgent measures are not taken to stabilize the economy, then in the very near future, famine and a new round of impoverishment are inevitable, from which one step to mass manifestations of spontaneous discontent with devastating consequences ...

From Decree No. 1

State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR

6. Citizens, institutions and organizations to immediately hand over all types of firearms, ammunition, explosives, military equipment and equipment illegally located v them. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, the KGB and the Ministry of Defense of the USSR shall ensure the strict implementation of this requirement. In cases of refusal - to seize them forcibly with the involvement of violators to strict criminal and administrative responsibility.

From Decree No. 2

State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR

1. Temporarily limit the list of published central, Moscow city and regional socio-political publications to the following newspapers: Trud, Rabochaya Tribuna, Izvestia, Pravda, Krasnaya Zvezda, Soviet Russia, Moskovskaya Pravda , "Lenin's banner", "Rural life".

"BAD BOY"

August 20, the second day of the coup, the nerves are on edge. Everyone who has a radio listens to the radio. Those who have a TV do not miss a single newscast. I then worked in "Vesti". Vesti was taken off the air. We sit and watch the first channel. At three o'clock, the usual episode, which no one had watched before. And then everyone stuck. And an announcer appears in the frame, and suddenly begins to read news reports: President Bush condemns the putschists, British Prime Minister John Major condemns, the world community is outraged - and in the end: Yeltsin outlawed the GKChP, the prosecutor of Russia, then there was Stepankov, initiates criminal case. We are shocked. And I imagine how many people, including participants in the events, who at that moment caught the slightest hint of which way the situation had swayed, ran to the White House to Yeltsin to sign their loyalty and loyalty. On the third day, in the evening, I meet Tanechka Sopova, who then worked in the Main Information Office of Central Television, well, hugs, kisses. I say: “Tatyan, what happened to you?” - “And this is me, Bad Boy,” says Tanya. “I was the responsible graduate.” That is, she collected a folder, picked up news.

And there was an order: to go and coordinate everything. “I go in,” he says, “once, and there the whole synclite sits and some people who are completely unfamiliar. Discuss what to transmit at 21 o'clock in the program "Time". And here I am, little, poking around with my papers. She really is such a tiny woman. “They tell me in plain text where I should go with my three-hour news:“ Type it yourself! - Well, I went and made up.

AND THERE ARE STATISTICS

The All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) annually conducts a survey of Russians on how they assess the events of August 1991.

In 1994, a survey showed that 53% of the respondents believed that the putsch had been suppressed in 1991, 38% called the actions of the State Emergency Committee a tragic event that had disastrous consequences for the country and people.

Five years later - in 1999 - in the course of a similar survey, only 9% of Russians considered the suppression of the GKChP a victory for the "democratic revolution"; 40% of respondents consider the events of those days just an episode of the struggle for power in the country's top leadership.

A sociological survey conducted by VCIOM in 2002 showed that the proportion of Russians who believe that in 1991 the leaders of the State Emergency Committee saved their homeland, the great USSR, increased one and a half times - from 14 to 21% and one and a half times (from 24 to 17 %), the proportion of those who believed that on August 19-21, 1991, the opponents of the State Emergency Committee were right, decreased.

More impressive results were obtained in August 2010 following the results of the voting on the series of programs "Court of Time", conducted by N. Svanidze. When asked what the GKChP of August 1991 was - a coup or an attempt to avoid the collapse of the country - despite the efforts of N. Svanidze, 93% of the surveyed viewers answered - it was a desire to preserve the USSR!

MARSHAL YAZOV: WE SERVED THE PEOPLE

DP.RU: In fact, the State Emergency Committee was impromptu, you, as a military leader, should have understood that if the operation is not prepared, the forces are not pulled together ...

Dmitry Yazov: No forces had to be pulled together, we were not going to kill anyone. The only thing we were going to do was to disrupt the signing of this treaty on the Union of sovereign states. It was obvious that there would be no state. And since there will be no state, it means that measures had to be taken so that the state exists. The whole government got together and decided: we must go to Gorbachev. Everyone went to tell him: are you for the state or not? Let's take action. But such a weak-willed as Mikhail Sergeevich could not do this. Didn't even listen. We left. Gorbachev made a speech, his son-in-law, Raisa Maksimovna, recorded him on tape: “I hid it so, and my daughter hid it so that no one would have found it.” Well, it’s clear where she plugged this tape, of course, no one would climb. Who needed it, this film. The state is falling apart, and he expressed resentment that they cut off his connection, did not allow him to talk with Bush.

DP.RU: I heard that you yourself assigned a battalion to guard the White House.

Dmitry Yazov: Absolutely right.

DP.RU: But then they said: the troops went over to Yeltsin's side. It turns out that everything was not so?

Dmitry Yazov: Of course not. Shortly before that, Yeltsin was elected president. Came to Tula. There Grachev showed him the exercises of the airborne division. Well, not the entire division - the regiment. They liked the teaching, they drank well, and Yeltsin thought that Pasha Grachev was his best friend. When the state of emergency was introduced, Yeltsin became indignant, like a coup. But no one arrested him. No one had a hand in it at all. Yeltsin then in 1993 could turn off the light, he could turn off the water, he could shoot the Supreme Council ... But we didn’t guess, such fools! Yeltsin was in Alma-Ata the day before and then said that the State Emergency Committee delayed the plane's departure for 4 hours in order to shoot down the plane. Imagine what a meanness! Newspapers wrote how he spent those 4 hours. We played tennis with Nazarbayev for 2.5 hours in the rain, then we went to wash... And he: they wanted to knock me down!!! I arrived at the White House myself and called Pasha Grachev: he sent out security. Grachev calls me: Yeltsin asks for security. I say: Lebed went with the battalion. So that there really were no provocations.

We organized patrols, there was a company of infantry fighting vehicles... Right here, right on Novy Arbat Avenue, we set up trolleybuses, made a barricade under the bridge. The tanks would pass, but the infantry fighting vehicles would stop. There were drunks: some began to beat with a stick, some threw a tent so that nothing could be seen. Three people died. Who was shooting? Someone shot from the roof. The soldiers did not shoot. Someone was interested. Everything was done in order to have a civil war. And I took and withdrew the troops. I was about to go to Gorbachev, and everyone came running. I say let's go. Arrived - he took such a pose. Didn't accept anyone. We humiliated him!!!

Rutskoi, Bakatin, Silaev arrived on another plane - that, excuse the expression, brethren, who, it seems, hated both the Soviet Union and the Russian people. Well, Rutskoi, the man whom we rescued from captivity, later showed what he was like: for the president, a year later - against the president. Ungrateful people - of course, we did not need gratitude from them, we served the people. Of course, I saw that there would be an arrest now. It cost me nothing to put a brigade on the airfield or to land on another airfield myself, but that would be a civil war. I served the people, and I would have to because they want to arrest me, unleash a war, shoot at the people. Just from a human point of view, it should have been done or not?

DP.RU: War is always bad...

Dmitry Yazov: Yes. And I think - to hell with him, in the end, let them arrest him: there is no corpus delicti. But they arrest him, and immediately the 64th article is treason. But how can you prove treason to me? Yesterday I was a minister, I sent troops to guard the Kremlin, to guard the water intake, to guard the Gokhran. Everything has been saved. Then they looted it. Diamonds, remember, were taken in bags to America ... And how did it all end? Three people gathered - Yeltsin, Kravchuk and Shushkevich. Did they have the right to liquidate the state? We signed while drunk, overslept, and in the morning the first thing we did was report to Bush… What a shame! Gorbachev: I was not informed. And they didn't report to you because they didn't want you to be president. You made them sovereign - they became sovereign. And you didn't care. Yeltsin literally 3-4 days later kicked him out of the Kremlin and from the dacha, and now he is hanging around the world.

GKChP member Dmitry Yazov: "The Americans put 5 trillion in order to eliminate the Soviet Union." Business Petersburg. August 19, 2011

25 years ago, political events took place in the country that could not but leave a mark on the history of the state. In August 1991, the country experienced a coup d'état and a seizure of power. About what the August putsch is, how events developed then and what they led to, tells NTV.

Read below

Causes of the putsch

In 1991, some conservative statesmen from among the country's top leadership were dissatisfied with the policies of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. They did not like the leader's new course. It was they who formed the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP). Their main goal was to prevent the collapse of the USSR and the signing of a new union treaty, creating a confederation instead of the USSR - the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics (Union of Sovereign States), and the leaders of the organization wanted to immediately return to the previous pre-perestroika course.

The GKChP included Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov, Interior Minister Boris Pugo, KGB head Vladimir Kryuchkov, Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov, First Deputy Chairman of the Defense Council Oleg Baklanov, Chairman of the Peasants' Union Vasily Starodubtsev, President of the Association of State Enterprises and Objects of Industry, Construction, Transport and connections Alexander Tizyakov. Thus, all the forces of the KGB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the army were on the side of the GKChP.

It must be said that despite the fact that Gennady Yanaev was the nominal head of the GKChP (formally, this organization had no leader at all), according to a number of experts, Vladimir Kryuchkov was the "true soul" of the committee. The leading role of Kryuchkov is repeatedly mentioned in the materials of the official investigation conducted by the KGB of the USSR in September 1991.

Chronicle of events

In the morning August 19, 1991 KGB troops controlled by the State Emergency Committee of the USSR blocked Mikhail Gorbachev at his dacha in the Crimea. By order of the Chief of Staff of the Air Defense Forces of the USSR, Colonel-General Igor Maltsev, two tractors blocked the runway on which the aircraft of the President of the country were located - the Tu-134 aircraft and the Mi-8 helicopter. A few hours later, it was announced on the radio that Mikhail Gorbachev allegedly could no longer perform the duties of head of state for health reasons and that now all power, according to the union constitution, would be concentrated in the hands of the vice-president of the country, Gennady Yanaev. They also reported on the creation of the State Emergency Committee.

The GKChP declared a state of emergency in the country. Tanks were brought into the capital, and Muscovites took to the streets.

In the evening August 19, 1991 members of the State Emergency Committee held a press conference, at which they behaved rather insecurely. Their opponents on August 20 went to the rally. Meanwhile, part of the military went over to the side of the protesters.

Besides, August 20, 1991 in Novo-Ogaryovo, an agreement on the creation of the SSG was to be signed by representatives of the Byelorussian SSR, the Kazakh SSR, the RSFSR, the Tajik SSR and the Uzbek SSR, and in the autumn the agreement was to be signed by the Azerbaijan SSR, the Kirghiz SSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Turkmen SSR. Boris Yeltsin insisted on signing this treaty as soon as possible. It was he who spoke sharply against the entire organization of the State Emergency Committee.

Then Yeltsin called the actions of the putschists illegal and, in order to organize resistance to them, arrived at the White House. Barricades were formed on the embankments of the Moskva River at the approaches to the center of resistance.

On the night of August 20-21, 1991 planned to take over the White House. In this case, no one could guarantee the absence of a large number of victims. Tanks were supposed to start the assault. It was planned that it was they who would fire frightening shots at close range and make passages in the rubble. Then the fighters of a separate motorized rifle division named after Dzerzhinsky will penetrate the ranks of the defenders, clear the way to the entrances of the White House and hold the "corridors". Tula paratroopers were supposed to go along them, who, with the help of equipment, would break open doors and glazed openings in the walls, after which they would start a fight on the floors of the building. At this moment, the Alpha fighters, acting according to an independent plan, were supposed to search and neutralize the leaders of the resistance inside the White House. Units with a total number of about 15 thousand people were allocated to carry out the operation. However, the members of the GKChP did not issue such an ambiguous order to the troops under their control.

It should be noted that later some participants in the events of those days denied that such an assault was planned.

Photo: TASS / Gennady Khamelyanin

White House defenders blocked the road with shifted trolleybuses. In addition, on the night of August 21, during the incident in the tunnel on the Garden Ring, three people died. They posthumously became Heroes of the Soviet Union "for the courage and civic prowess shown in the defense of democracy and the constitutional order of the USSR."

After the military action did not take place, the withdrawal of troops from Moscow began. Some members of the State Emergency Committee flew to Mikhail Gorbachev in Foros (Crimea), but he refused to accept them and demanded to restore contact with the outside world. At the same time, Yanaev signed a decree dissolving the GKChP.

August 22 Gorbachev returned to Moscow. Members of the dissolved GKChP - Kryuchkov, Yazov and Tizyakov - were arrested after arriving from Foros. Vice President Gennady Yanaev was also detained in his office in the Kremlin and taken to the prosecutor's office. GKChP member Boris Pugo committed suicide by shooting himself with a pistol when he learned that a group had come to him to arrest him.

The historical flag of Russia (tricolor), which later (in November 1991) became the state flag, was first installed on the top of the building of the House of Soviets. He became a kind of symbol of victory over the GKChP.

August 24, 1991 in an office in one of the buildings of the Moscow Kremlin, the security officer on duty discovered the body of Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergey Fedorovich Akhromeev, who was an adviser to the President of the USSR. According to investigators, the marshal committed suicide. Other putschists spent two years in prison, after which they were amnestied and released in 1994.

On August 24, in connection with the participation of members of the USSR Cabinet of Ministers in the activities of the State Emergency Committee, the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR proposed to the President of the USSR Gorbachev to disband the union government and announced that he would assume leadership of the ministries and departments of the USSR.

On the same day, Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and proposed that the Central Committee dissolve itself.

August 29, 1991 The Supreme Soviet of the USSR suspends the activities of the CPSU throughout the entire territory of the USSR.

What happened after the coup

An attempt by the GKChP to remove Gorbachev from power failed. By the time of the August coup, the imminent collapse of the USSR was already irreversible. It should be noted that the putschists did not find wide support among the population of the country, and after the events themselves, the authority of the CPSU was completely undermined. At the same time, the positions of Boris Yeltsin and his supporters strengthened.

Already at the end of December 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. On December 25, 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev announced the termination of his activities in this post "for reasons of principle", and on December 26, the Council of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a declaration on the termination of the existence of the USSR in connection with the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

August putsch 1991: how it was

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