DUSHANBE, August 19 – Sputnik. Twenty-five years ago, there was an attempted coup in the USSR: a self-proclaimed authority was created in Moscow - the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP), which existed until August 21, 1991.
On the night of August 18-19, 1991, representatives of the top leadership of the USSR, who disagreed with the reform policies of the country's President Mikhail Gorbachev and the draft of the new Union Treaty, created the State Emergency Committee of the USSR.
The main goal of the putschists was to prevent the liquidation of the USSR, which, in their opinion, should have begun on August 20 during the signing of the Union Treaty. According to the agreement, the USSR was to transform into a federation. The new federal state was supposed to be called the Union of Sovereign Soviet Republics, with the same abbreviation - USSR.
The State Emergency Committee 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 State Security Committee (KGB) of the USSR Vladimir Kryuchkov, First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Defense Council Oleg Baklanov, Chairman Peasant Union of the USSR Vasily Starodubtsev, President of the Association state enterprises and industrial, construction, transport and communications facilities of the USSR Alexander Tizyakov.
They were actively supported by the Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces Valentin Varennikov, Chief of Staff of the USSR President Valery Boldin, Politburo member and Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Oleg Shenin, Chief of the USSR Presidential Security Vyacheslav Generalov, Head of the Security Directorate of the KGB of the USSR Yuri Plekhanov, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Anatoly Lukyanov and some others.
The State Emergency Committee relied on the forces of the KGB (Alpha group), the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Dzerzhinsky division) and the Ministry of Defense (Tula Airborne Division, Taman Motorized Rifle Division, Kantemirovskaya Tank Division).
State Television and Radio provided information support to the putschists. The nominal head of the conspirators was USSR Vice President Gennady Yanaev.
On August 19, 1991, the day before the signing of the new Union Treaty, the media broadcast a “Statement of the Soviet leadership”, which stated that due to the impossibility for health reasons of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev to fulfill the duties of the President of the USSR, in accordance with Article 127.7 of the Constitution of the USSR, the powers of the President of the USSR passed to Vice President Gennady Yanaev, a state of emergency was introduced in certain areas of the USSR for a period of six months from four o'clock Moscow time on August 19, 1991, and the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR (GKChP USSR) was formed to govern the country.
Resolution of the State Emergency Committee No. 1 ordered the suspension of activities political parties, public organizations, prohibited holding rallies and street marches. Resolution No. 2 prohibited the publication of all newspapers except the newspapers "Trud", "Rabochaya Tribuna", "Izvestia", "Pravda", "Krasnaya Zvezda", " Soviet Russia", "Moskovskaya Pravda", "Lenin's Banner", "Rural Life".
Almost all television programs stopped broadcasting.
USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, who was on vacation in Crimea at that time, was isolated at a government dacha in the Crimean village of Foros.
On the morning of August 19, troops and military equipment occupied key points on the highways leading to the center of Moscow and surrounded the area adjacent to the Kremlin. Several dozen tanks came very close to the House of the Supreme Soviet and Government of the RSFSR on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment (White House).
In total, about four thousand military personnel, 362 tanks, 427 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) were brought into Moscow. Additional units of the Airborne Forces (Airborne Forces) were transferred to the vicinity of Leningrad, Tallinn, Tbilisi, and Riga.
The response was mass demonstrations and protest rallies in Moscow, Leningrad and a number of other cities in the country.
The resistance to the putschists was led by the President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin and the Russian leadership. Yeltsin signed Decrees No. 59 and No. 61, where the creation of the State Emergency Committee was qualified as an attempt at a coup; Allied executive authorities, including security forces, were reassigned to the President of the RSFSR.
The House of Soviets of the RSFSR (White House) became the center of resistance to the State Emergency Committee. At the call of the Russian authorities, masses of Muscovites gathered at the White House, among whom were representatives of various social groups from the democratically minded public, students, intellectuals to veterans of the war in Afghanistan.
On the very first day, a tank company of the Taman Division went over to the side of the White House defenders.
Boris Yeltsin, standing on a tank, read out an “Address to the Citizens of Russia,” in which he called the actions of the State Emergency Committee a “reactionary, anti-constitutional coup” and called on the country’s citizens to “give a worthy response to the putschists and demand to return the country to normal constitutional development.” The appeal was signed by the President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR Ivan Silaev, acting. Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR Ruslan Khasbulatov.
On the evening of August 19, a press conference of members of the State Emergency Committee was shown on television. Valentin Pavlov, who developed a hypertensive crisis, was absent from it. The members of the State Emergency Committee were noticeably nervous; The whole world went around the footage of Gennady Yanaev’s shaking hands.
Volunteer groups of defenders gathered around the White House to defend the building from an assault by government troops.
On the night of August 21, three civilians, Dmitry Komar, Vladimir Usov and Ilya Krichevsky, were killed in an underground transport tunnel at the intersection of Kalininsky Prospekt (now Novy Arbat Street) and the Garden Ring while maneuvering an infantry fighting vehicle.
Within three days, it became clear that society did not support the State Emergency Committee’s speech.
© Sputnik / Sergey Titov
On the morning of August 21, the withdrawal of troops from Moscow began, and at 11:30 a.m. an emergency session of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR was held. On August 22, on a TU-134 plane of the Russian leadership, USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev and his family returned to Moscow.
All members of the State Emergency Committee (with the exception of Boris Pugo, who committed suicide) and the Deputy Minister of Defense, Army General Valentin Varennikov, who helped them, as well as a number of other figures (including the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Anatoly Lukyanov) were arrested. They were charged under Article 64 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (treason).
On February 23, 1994, members of the State Emergency Committee were released from prison under an amnesty declared by the State Duma.
© Sputnik / Yuri Abramochkin
The August putsch was an attempt to remove Mikhail Gorbachev from the post of President of the USSR and change his course, undertaken by the self-proclaimed State Committee for a State of Emergency (GKChP) on August 19, 1991.
On August 17, 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, demand Gorbachev to sign the relevant decrees or resign and transfer powers to Vice President Gennady Yanaev, Yeltsin to be detained at the Chkalovsky airfield upon arrival from Kazakhstan for a conversation with Defense Minister Yazov, further action depending on the results of the negotiations.
On August 18, representatives of the committee flew to Crimea to negotiate with Gorbachev, who was on vacation in Foros, to secure his consent to introduce a state of emergency. Gorbachev refused to give them his consent.
At 16.32, all types of communications were turned 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 USSR KGB troops 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, a decree of the Vice-President of the USSR Yanaev on his assumption of duties as President of the USSR in connection with Gorbachev’s ill health, a statement by the Soviet leadership on the creation of the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR, an appeal from the State Emergency Committee to the Soviet people.
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 Television and Radio Broadcasting Company.
01:30. The Tu-134 plane with Rutsky, Silaev and Gorbachev landed in Moscow at Vnukovo-2.
Most members of the State Emergency Committee were arrested.
Moscow declared mourning for the victims.
The winners' rally at the White House began at 12.00. In the middle of the day, Yeltsin, Silaev and Khasbulatov spoke at it. During the rally, demonstrators brought out 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 at the top of the building of the House of Soviets.
On the night of August 23, by order of the Moscow City Council, amid a massive gathering of protesters, the monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky on Lubyanka Square was dismantled.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
Chronology
- 1991, August 19 - 21 Anti-state coup in Moscow
- 1991, December 8 Belovezhskaya Agreement between the leaderships of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus on the dissolution of the USSR
- 1991, December 25 Resignation of M.S. Gorbachev from the post of President of the USSR
- 1992, January Beginning of radical economic reform in Russia
August 1991 State Emergency Committee. August putsch
An acute crisis of confidence in Gorbachev, his inability to effectively lead the country and control the socio-political situation was also manifested in his defeats in the fight against political opponents both “on the right” and “on the left”.
On August 5, 1991, after Gorbachev left for Crimea, conservative leaders began preparing a conspiracy aimed at suppressing reforms and restoring the full power of the center and the CPSU.
Putsch began on August 19 and continued three days. On the first day, documents from the leaders of the coup were read out. Vice President of the USSR G. Yanaev in a decree issued on his behalf, he announced his assumption of “the duties of the President of the USSR” “due to the impossibility for health reasons of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev to fulfill his duties.” The “Statement of the Soviet Leadership” announced the formation State Committee for the State of Emergency composed of: O.D. Baklanov - First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Defense Council; V.A. Kryuchkov - Chairman of the KGB of the USSR; V.S. Pavlov - Prime Minister of the USSR; B.K. Pugo - Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR; A.I. Tizyakov - President of the Association of State Enterprises and Industrial, Construction, Transport and Communications Facilities of the USSR; G.I. Yanaev - acting President of the USSR. The names of the members of the State Emergency Committee were listed in alphabetical order, its formal leader G. Yanaev was listed at the end of the list.
The State Emergency Committee issued an appeal to the Soviet people, in which it was reported that perestroika initiated by Gorbachev failed that, taking advantage of the freedoms granted, extremist forces arose, setting a course for the liquidation of the Soviet Union, the collapse of the state and the seizure of power at any cost. Resolution No. 1, adopted by the State Emergency Committee, as a way out of the crisis, banned the activities of government and management structures that were not legalized by the Constitution of the USSR, suspended the activities of political parties, movements, associations, opposition CPSU, as well as the publication of disloyal newspapers, and restored censorship. The security forces were supposed to maintain the state of emergency.
August 19 by decision State Emergency Committee to Moscow troops were brought in. The center of resistance to the putschists became the Russian leadership, headed by the President of the RSFSR B.N. Yeltsin. He made an appeal “To the Citizens of Russia” and issued a decree, which spoke of the transfer of all executive authorities of the USSR to the direct subordination of the President of Russia. The White House, in which the Russian government is located, was given the opportunity to immediately begin organizing resistance to the putsch.
August 19, 1991 at the White HouseThe outcome of the confrontation between the State Emergency Committee and the Russian authorities was decided August 20, when B.N. Yeltsin and his entourage were able to turn the tide of events in their favor and took control of the situation in Moscow. On August 21, members of the State Emergency Committee were arrested. M.S. also returned to Moscow. Gorbachev. On August 23, during a meeting with deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, he was demanded to immediately sign a decree on dissolution of the CPSU. The President of the USSR accepted this and other ultimatums. The next day he dissolved the Union Cabinet of Ministers and resigned from the post of General Secretary Central Committee of the CPSU. The CPSU Central Committee announced its dissolution. As a result, not only the communist regime fell, but also the state-party structures cementing the USSR collapsed.
The collapse of all other state structures began: the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR was dissolved, and for the transition period until the conclusion of a new union treaty between the republics, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR became the highest representative body of power; Instead of a cabinet of ministers, a powerless inter-republican economic committee was created, and most of the union ministries were liquidated. The Baltic republics, which sought independence for two years, received it. Other republics passed laws that strengthened their sovereignty and made them virtually independent of Moscow.
An acute crisis of confidence in the President of the USSR M.S. Gorbachev, his inability to effectively lead the country and control the socio-political situation was also manifested in his defeats in the fight against political opponents both “on the right” and “on the left”.
The last attempt to strengthen the union power was the coming to power in August 1991 of the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR (GKChP). The State Emergency Committee included persons occupying the highest government positions in the USSR. The main events began on August 19 and lasted three days. On the first day, documents from the leaders of the coup were read out. Vice-President of the USSR G. Yanaev, in a decree issued on his behalf, announced his assumption of “the duties of the President of the USSR” “due to the impossibility for health reasons of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev to fulfill his duties.” The “Statement of the Soviet Leadership” announced the formation State Committee for the State of Emergency consisting of:
O.D. Baklanov, First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Defense Council;
V.A. Kryuchkov, Chairman of the KGB of the USSR;
V.V. Pavlov, Prime Minister of the USSR;
B.K. Pugo, Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR;
V.A. Starodubtsev, Chairman of the Peasant Union of the USSR;
A.I. Tizyakov, President of the Association of State Enterprises;
D.T. Yazov, Minister of Defense of the USSR;
G.I. Yanaev, Vice President of the USSR.
The State Emergency Committee issued an Appeal to the Soviet people, in which it was reported that perestroika initiated by Gorbachev failed, that, taking advantage of the granted freedoms, extremist forces arose that set a course for the liquidation of the Soviet Union, the collapse of the state and the seizure of power at any cost, and therefore the State Emergency Committee takes full power into its hands due to the need to protect the existence of the USSR and its Constitution. On August 19, the State Emergency Committee of the USSR adopted Resolution No. 1, which suspended the activities of parties, public organizations and mass movements, prohibited rallies, street processions, demonstrations, strikes, and the media were to come under the control of the State Emergency Committee.
August 19 by decision State Emergency Committee to Moscow troops were brought in. At the same time, the organizers of the coup did not dare to arrest B.N. Yeltsin, like other Russian leaders. Telephones and international communications of the White House were not turned off. At the press conference organized on August 19, the leadership of the State Emergency Committee behaved nervously, its leader G. Yanaev’s hands were shaking. The leaders of the State Emergency Committee could not provide a medical certificate about M.S.’s state of health. Gorbachev.
The Russian authorities, led by the President of the RSFSR B.N., took up the fight against the State Emergency Committee. Yeltsin. In the Decree of the President of the RSFSR dated August 19, 1991, the actions of the State Emergency Committee were declared illegal: “all decisions taken by the so-called State Emergency Committee are considered illegal and have no force on the territory of the RSFSR” and spoke about the transfer of all executive authorities of the USSR to the direct subordination of the President of Russia. B.N. Yeltsin also made an appeal “To the Citizens of Russia” in which he called on the population to fight against the State Emergency Committee. The White House, in which the Russian government is located, was given the opportunity to immediately begin organizing resistance to the putsch.
B.N. Yeltsin reassigned to himself “all executive authorities of the USSR, the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, operating on the territory of the RSFSR.”
The overwhelming majority of the Russian population did not resist the State Emergency Committee's rise to power. During such a short period of time the State Emergency Committee was in power, the majority of citizens were unable to determine their attitude towards it. The prevailing mood in society was confusion.
But the coup was doomed, because... the leadership of the State Emergency Committee advocated outdated socialist values, in which the majority of the population no longer believed. An attempt to establish a state of emergency in the country ended in failure in Moscow. About 100 thousand Muscovites concentrated near the House of Soviets in Moscow to support the Russian leadership. Most of the troops brought into Moscow went over to B.N. Yeltsin. The outcome of the confrontation between the State Emergency Committee and the Russian authorities was decided August 20, when B.N. Yeltsin and his entourage were able to turn the tide of events in their favor and took control of the situation in Moscow. On August 21, the leaders of the State Emergency Committee flew to Crimea, to Foros, to see the President of the USSR, allegedly isolated by them. On the evening of the same day, members of the State Emergency Committee were returned to Moscow and arrested. M.S. also returned to Moscow. Gorbachev. On August 22, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR declared the creation of the State Emergency Committee illegal. On the same day M.S. Gorbachev made a statement that he qualified everything that happened as a coup d'etat. On the same day, a criminal case was opened against members of the State Emergency Committee. On August 23, during a meeting with deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, he was demanded to immediately sign a decree on dissolution of the CPSU. The President of the USSR accepted this and other ultimatums. The next day, August 24, 1991, M.S. Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, dissolved the Union Cabinet of Ministers. The CPSU Central Committee announced its dissolution. B.N. Yeltsin suspended the activities of the Russian Communist Party and banned the activities of parties in the Armed Forces of the USSR on the territory of the RSFSR. August 24 B.N. Yeltsin signed a decree appointing his representatives to the territories and regions of the RSFSR. As a result of all the events that took place, not only the communist regime fell, but also the state-party structures cementing the USSR collapsed.
The collapse of all other state structures began: the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR was dissolved, and for the transition period until the conclusion of a new union treaty between the republics, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR became the highest representative body of power; Instead of a cabinet of ministers, a powerless inter-republican economic committee was created, and most of the union ministries were liquidated. The Baltic republics, which sought independence for two years, received it. Other republics passed laws that strengthened their sovereignty and made them virtually independent of Moscow.
On December 8, 1991, the Presidents of the Russian Federation (B. Yeltsin), Ukraine (L. Kravchuk) and Belarus (S. Shushkevich) signed an agreement in Belovezhskaya Pushcha on the termination of the existence of the USSR and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. At the meeting in Belovezhskaya Pushcha of the President of the USSR M.S. Gorbachev was not even invited.
On December 21 in Almaty, 11 republics that were formerly part of the USSR (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan) signed a Declaration confirming the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Soviet Union ceased to exist.
December 25, 1991 President of the USSR M.S. Gorbachev announced on Central Television his voluntary resignation as President.
The collapse of the USSR is the result of the influence of a whole sum of objective and subjective factors. Permanent failures of economic reforms M.S. Gorbachev encouraged the republics to leave the Union. The weakening of the power of the CPSU, this core of the Soviet system, also led to the collapse of the USSR.
Literature
Barsenkov, A.S. Introduction to modern Russian history (1985-1991): Course of lectures. - M.: Aspect-Press, 1991. - P. 213-236.
Sogrin, V.V. Political history modern Russia. 1985-2001: from Gorbachev to Putin / V.V. Sogrin. - M.: Publishing house "Ves Mir", 2001. - P. 86-102.
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