Russia at the Barricades: Eyewitness Accounts of the August 1991 Coup

Начало книги

A makeshift memorial on the spot where a young man was killed in the early morning of August 21

Three young men who perished at the barricades

A trolleybus damaged by an armored vehicle in the early morning of August 21

Revolution Square, Saratov: “Hangman of Russia”

At the Mariinskii Palace, St. Petersburg: “No to Red Fascism!” “Join the Indefinite Political Strike!” “No to the CPSU Dictatorship!”

Rally in Palace Square, August 19

Rally in Palace Square, August 20

A soldier reads Yeltsin’s appeal to the armed forces

Defenders of the White House, Tuesday night

On August 19, 1991, eight high-ranking Soviet officials took over the government of the USSR by force and proclaimed themselves the country’s new rulers. Less than seventy-two hours later, their attempt to seize power had collapsed. Though short-lived, the coup produced consequences few could have foreseen. Soon afterward, the Communist Party that had ruled Russia since 1917 was suspended and dispossessed. Five months after the coup, the Soviet Union itself had ceased to exist.

Читать дальше →