On August 18, 1991, the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP) was organized. One of the few attempts to preserve what Russia had created and accumulated during the USSR, to keep the nation on the edge of catastrophe.
It included a number of high-ranking officials of the Soviet government. The members of the GKChP opposed the perestroika policy pursued by USSR President M. S. Gorbachev, as well as against the signing of a new union treaty and the transformation of the USSR into a confederative Union of Sovereign States, which only 9 of the 15 union republics planned to join. The main opponents of the GKChP were supporters of RSFSR President B. N. Yeltsin, who declared the actions of the Committee members unconstitutional. In historiography, the events of August 18–21, 1991, received the name "August Coup".
From August 22 to 29, 1991, former members of the dissolved GKChP and persons who actively assisted them were arrested, but from June 1992 to January 1993 they were all released on a written undertaking not to leave. In April 1993, the trial began. On February 23, 1994, the defendants in the GKChP case were amnestied by the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, despite Yeltsin's objection. One of the defendants, Valentin Varennikov, refused to accept the amnesty and his trial continued, which he ultimately won.
An Attempt to Save the Union
By August 1991, the actions of the fifth column, personified by M. S. Gorbachev with his team ("architect of perestroika" A. Yakovlev, E. Shevardnadze, G. Aliyev, etc.) and B. N. Yeltsin, were leading the Soviet state and people toward collapse and catastrophe. Gorbachev surrendered literally everything he could to the West, engineered an internal crisis and adopted a wait-and-see attitude. Yeltsin, with the great energy characteristic of him at that time, continued to rock the boat. He gained great popularity by criticizing the privileges of the party elite.
At the same time, the overwhelming majority of the people, the army, and the communist party advocated preserving the Union. That is, there existed a powerful potential for the renewal and modernization of the USSR (in essence, Great Russia). But for this it was necessary to suppress the rats, a small group of the Soviet elite, including hidden nationalist-separatists, traitors who decided that it was better to surrender Soviet civilization, capitulate to the West and gain the opportunity to privatize the people's wealth and enter the world elite. And also to rein in the insignificant but very "loud" groups supporting them – liberal-democratic organizations, the liberal intelligentsia, nationalists, the decadent youth in the capital, etc. And also to pay no attention to the howling and hysteria of the "world community" when the USSR/Russia would carry out cleansing, restorative procedures.
In this situation, the conservative part of the Soviet elite oriented toward preserving the state, which included USSR Vice-President G. Yanayev, First Deputy Chairman of the Defense Council O. Baklanov, KGB Chairman V. Kryuchkov, Prime Minister V. Pavlov, Defense Minister D. Yazov, Interior Minister B. Pugo, Chairman of the Peasants' Union V. Starodubtsev, President of the Association of State Enterprises and Industrial, Construction and Communications Facilities A. Tizyakov, took power into their own hands.
On the night of August 18–19, the State Committee on the State of Emergency was created. On August 19, a statement was made about the removal from power of President M. S. Gorbachev due to health reasons, and his duties passed to Vice-President Yanayev. In order to overcome the crisis, civil confrontation and anarchy, to preserve the sovereignty, territorial integrity and freedom of our state, and also as a result of the nationwide referendum on preserving the Union, a state of emergency was introduced.
During this period the country was governed by the GKChP.
Vladimir Kryuchkov noted:
"We opposed the signing of a treaty destroying the Union. I feel that I was right. I regret that measures were not taken for the strict isolation of the USSR President, that questions were not raised before the Supreme Soviet about the head of state's renunciation of his post."
18/19 August 1991
DECREE
OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE USSR
Due to the impossibility, for health reasons, of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev performing his duties as President of the USSR, on the basis of Article 1277 of the USSR Constitution, he assumed the duties of President
of the USSR from 19 August 1991.
Vice-President of the USSR G. I. YANAYEV.
18 August 1991
___________
STATEMENT OF THE SOVIET LEADERSHIP
Due to the impossibility, for health reasons, of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev performing the duties of President of the USSR and the transfer, in accordance with Article 1277 of the USSR Constitution, of the powers of the President of the Union
of SSR to the Vice-President of the USSR, Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev; in order to overcome the deep and all-encompassing crisis, political, interethnic and civil confrontation, chaos and anarchy that threaten the life and security of the citizens of the Soviet Union, the sovereignty, territorial integrity, freedom and independence of our Fatherland;
proceeding from the results of the nationwide referendum on the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics;
guided by the vital interests of the peoples of our Motherland, of all Soviet people,
WE DECLARE:
1. In accordance with Article 1273 of the USSR Constitution and Article 2 of the USSR Law "On the Legal Regime of the State of Emergency", and meeting the demands of broad sections of the population for the adoption of the most decisive measures to prevent society from sliding toward a nationwide catastrophe and to ensure legality and order, to introduce a state of emergency in certain localities of the USSR for a period of 6 months from 4 a.m. Moscow time on 19 August 1991.
2. To establish that throughout the entire territory of the USSR the USSR Constitution and the laws of the Union of SSR have unconditional supremacy.
3. To manage the country and effectively implement the state of emergency regime, to form the State Committee on the State of Emergency in the USSR (GKChP USSR) with the following composition:
Baklanov O. D. — First Deputy Chairman of the USSR Defense Council, Kryuchkov V. A. — Chairman of the KGB of the USSR, Pavlov V. S. — Prime Minister of the USSR, Pugo B. K. — Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Starodubtsev V. A. — Chairman of the Peasants' Union of the USSR, Tizyakov A. I. — President of the Association of State Enterprises and Industrial, Construction, Transport and Communications Facilities of the USSR, Yazov D. T. — Minister of Defense of the USSR, Yanayev G. I. — Acting President of the USSR.
4. To establish that the decisions of the GKChP USSR are binding for strict implementation by all bodies of power and administration, officials and citizens throughout the entire territory of the Union of SSR.
G. YANAYEV,
V. PAVLOV,
O. BAKLANOV.
18 August 1991
Collapse
Troops were being sent into Moscow by Yazov's order. Additional forces were deployed in Leningrad, Kiev, Riga, Tallinn, Tbilisi, etc. The Alpha special unit blocked Yeltsin's dacha. But the order to detain him never came.
Yeltsin freely departed for the building of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (the White House) and called the actions of the GKChP an anti-constitutional coup. The fifth column stepped up its actions. Crowds of people took to the streets of the capital and major cities. Without decisive actions and orders from the command, the disintegration of the security forces began.
For its part, the GKChP did not address the people with a reasonable and simple explanation of the situation and a call to the party, the army and the people to rise up in the struggle to preserve the Union.
The members of the GKChP, generally elderly people, products of the era of "stagnation", displayed fear and weakness. They lacked will and energy. They did not understand that to save the state and the people it was necessary to act quickly, in order to save the lives of millions, the fates of entire generations of Soviet (Russian) people. Or they understood, but still never dared. In their dealings with the press they showed uncertainty; the media retained a fairly high degree of freedom.
At this time President Yeltsin displayed confidence, climbed onto a tank, declared the members of the GKChP putschists and called on people to resist. A headquarters of its own was created in the White House; Yeltsin formed his own center of power. Some of the security forces went over to his side.
On 20 August the GKChP still never dared to carry out an operation to forcibly suppress the White House, although the troops led by the Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR, Colonel-General V. Achalov, were fully ready. In fact, this was the last opportunity to turn the situation in their favor. True, at the very beginning it would have been possible simply to arrest the leaders and activists of the fifth column in a targeted manner.
After that the security structures were demoralized, and the troops began to refuse to carry out the orders of the GKChP. On the morning of 21 August the troops were withdrawn from Moscow; in the evening the dissolution of the GKChP was announced. Its members were arrested.
Unfortunately, the weak will of the leaders of the USSR and the GKChP did not allow a "purge" and the healing of the Soviet elite. They merely wanted at least to postpone the signing of the Union Treaty, which meant the legal formalization of the collapse of the Union. It was necessary to act in a completely different way: harshly and swiftly.
As a result this led to a tragedy, one of the greatest geopolitical catastrophes in the history of mankind.