Nina L Khrushcheva: The failed coup that failed Russia

During Putin’s 20 years in power, the meaning of the August 1991 plot by Soviet hardliners to topple Mikhail Gorbachev’s reformist government has been inverted. Now, the attempted coup is portrayed as an effort by Russian forces to preserve the state, thwarted by anti-Soviet sentiment, writes Nina L Khrushcheva

Soviet Army tanks parked near Spassky gate (left), an entrance to the Kremlin and Basil’s Cathedral (centre) in Moscow’s Red Square on August 19, 1991. Picture: Anatoly Sapronyenkov/AFP/Getty

Thirty years ago this month, a group of communist hardliners seized control of Moscow and placed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev under house arrest at his holiday home in Crimea. 

They opposed Gorbachev’s economic and political reforms — perestroika and glasnost — and sought to topple his government. Within three days, however, the coup imploded. By the end of that year, so had the Soviet Union.