Seven days in August

08/18/1991

At 17.50, President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev was isolated by the conspirators in his residence in the area of ​​the Crimean village of Foros. A little earlier, by order of the head of the government communications department, Anatoly Bedia, all the presidential phones, including strategic and space communications were disconnected. The cottage is already surrounded by land, and from the sea it is blocked by patrols of combat boats.

In the evening, the Vice-President of the USSR Gennady Yanaev, members of the CPSU Central Committee Anatoly Lukyanov and Valentin Pavlov, KGB chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov, as well as power ministers Dmitry Yazov and Boris Pugo make final amendments to the GKChP documents. Then Yanaev temporarily assumes the powers of the president - supposedly in connection with the state of health of Gorbachev.

08/19/1991

At 5.00, the TASS management receives documents on the formation of the State Emergency Committee with a request to distribute them under the media. At the same time, KGB employees are assigned to the heads of the news agency. An hour later, on radio and television, they announce the introduction of a state of emergency in the country for a period of 6 months from 4 hours of Moscow time. The reason is “Gorbachev’s disease” and “the inability to fulfill his duties.” The GKChP creates a special body for monitoring the media and suspends the activities of parties and public organizations. Armored vehicles appear on the streets of Moscow: parts of the Kantemirovsky tank, Taman motorized rifle and Tula airborne divisions. By 9 o’clock in the morning, the President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin arrives in the building of the Supreme Council (White House), where he organizes the Center for Resistance of the State Emergency Committee. In the region of 11 hours, tanks are suitable for the building.

At 13.00, Yeltsin leaves the Armed Forces building to the assembled Muscovites and reads the “appeal to Russian citizens” from the tank. He calls the actions of the GKChP illegal and calls for citizens "to give a worthy answer to the puffers and demand to return the country to normal constitutional development."

At 14.00 , the edition of the newspaper "Moscow News" decides to go out in the format of leaflets-lanes. Content: Yeltsin’s decrees, resistance chronicle. The transmitter was disconnected and the broadcasting of the Echo of Moscow radio station stopped, the broadcast of Radio of Russia was interrupted.

At 15.30, a barricade begins at the White House building in case of assault. An hour later, the closure of independent democratic publications was announced (Moscow News, Kommersant, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Independent Gazeta, etc.). The Soviet press (only 9 newspapers) continues to go out. In the breaks between news releases on television, the swan lake is twisted.

At 17.00, a press conference of the heads of the State Emergency Committee is held on the air. At the same time, the radio station of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR transfers Yeltsin’s appeal to the people, soldiers and officers of the Armed Forces, the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It also spreads in leaflets.

The “Time” program along with the official messages of the State Emergency Committee shows Yeltsin’s appeal and the plot with the situation around the White House.

At 22.36 , the tank company of the Taman division - 10 tanks under the command of Major Sergei Evdokimov - passes to the side of the White House.

Meanwhile, in Leningrad in front of the Lensovet building (Mariinsky Palace), rallies are held on Isaakievskaya Square - they will last until the evening of August 21. The mayor of the city Anatoly Sobchak on local television condemned the coup. During the day of the GKChP, the leaders of the United States and European countries, as well as officials of Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Estonia, convicted. A number of countries expressed support for the puffers, including Iraq, Libya, Serbia, Sudan.

08/20/1991

In the morning, the editors of 11 newspapers closed by the couplings decide to release a “common newspaper”. Boris Yeltsin takes the position of acting Commander -in -Chief of the Armed Forces of the RSFSR before the return of Gorbachev. The GKChP gives orders to officers of the Ministry of Defense, the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to prepare the capture of the White House. The commander of the 106th Airborne Forces division, who headed the battalion of the Tula paratroopers, General Alexander Lebed goes over to the side of the defenders of the White House.

On the night of August 20 to 21, clashes of opponents of the coup with the military begin. In the Tchaikovsky tunnel on the Garden Ring, next to the US Embassy, ​​an attempt was made to block the column of armored vehicles. From random bullets and under the wheels of the BMP, captain Sergei Surovikin die three defenders of the White House: Dmitry Komar, Ilya Krichevsky and Vladimir Usov (posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union). These are the only victims of the August putsch.

08/21/1991

During the night, about 70 thousand defenders of the White House await the assault that has not begun. In the morning, the withdrawal of armored vehicles from Moscow began.

At 11.30, an emergency session of the Supreme Council was opened. On the agenda, one question is “about the political situation in the RSFSR that has developed as a result of the coup.”

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR Ivan Silaev and vice president Alexander Rutskaya fly to the President of the USSR. Then members of the State Emergency Committee are also sent to Foros. Gorbachev does not accept anyone. At night, he himself returns to Moscow with his family. Yanaev signs a decree on the dissolution of the GKChP and on the recognition of all its decisions invalid.

At 22.00, the Prosecutor General of the RSFSR Stepankov issues a resolution on the arrest of former members of the State Emergency Committee. Later they are placed in the SIZO Sailor Silence. The Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR Boris Pugo and his wife Valentine shot themselves on the morning of August 22, without waiting for an arrest.

08/22/1991

The concert “Rock on the barricades” was organized: the defenders of the Government House are supported by the “Time Machine”, “Alice”, “Metal Corrosion”, “Mongol Shuudan”. A rally of victory at the White House gathers several thousand people. A Russian tricolor is solemnly raised over the building of the government of the government, the memory of the dead is honored with a minute of silence.

On the night of August 22 to 23, during a rally near the KGB of the USSR, a monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky on Lubyanskaya Square was dismantled under the applause of the assembled.

08/23/1991

At a meeting of the Russian Supreme Council, Boris Yeltsin in the presence of Mikhail Gorbachev signed a decree on the suspension of the CPSU in the RSFSR.

08/24/1991

Mikhail Gorbachev announces the departure from the post of Secretary General of the CPSU Central Committee and calls on members of the Central Committee to dissolve the Communist Party.