The August 1991 Coup: Inevitable Failure and the Soviet Union's Death Knell

In August 1991, hardline Communists took power in Moscow.  They claimed that the actual Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, was ill and unfit for work.  They were upset with Gorbachev's attempts to accomodate the Soviet Union's consituent republics in new treaty negotations, and they feared that his weak response to communism's fracturing control over Eastern Europe would lead to a similar situtation within the USSR.  But the coup had failed within four days.  This was the time of Gorbachev's famous "perestroika" (restructuring) and "glasnost" (openness) reforms, which were meant to reform the Soviet Union's economy and allow for increased freedom of expression.  Though many were skeptical of these reforms, they had had some effect on Soviet society, and the coup plotters did not have a sufficient answer to them.  Nor did they establish effective political or military command over the situation, and people openly resisted the seizure of power.  Gorbachev was very soon restored to his position as head of the USSR.  But by the time of the coup, the Soviet Union was riddled with economic problems.  There also remained the burning question of how to reorganize the relationship between the center in Moscow and the constituent republics.  Under such circumstances, the putsch not only failed, but it is also arguable that the Soviet Union would have soon collapsed, with or without the August Coup.

Episode thumbnail courtesy of BBC News.