New poll shows narrow majority of Russians think nobody was right in August 1991 coup attempt

New sociological research shows that a narrow majority of Russians today (53 percent) say they think nobody was right in the August 1991 coup d'état attempt by members of the Soviet government to take control of the country from Soviet President and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. According to a new poll by the Levada Center, 13 percent of respondents sided with the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP), 10 percent supported Boris Yeltsin and company, and 25 percent found the question too difficult to answer.

The defeat of the coup has a similarly troubled legacy: just 6 percent of respondents said it was a victory for democratic revolution over the Communist Party. Thirty-eight percent said it was a tragedy with disastrous consequences for the country and the Soviet people, while 36 percent said the event was simply a struggle for power by the USSR’s ruling class.