1991 Soviet coup attempt: Difference between revisions

During the '''Soviet Coup of 1991''' ([[August 19]]-[[August 22|22]], [[1991]]), also known as the '''August Putsch''' or '''August Coup,''' a group of members of the [[Soviet]] government briefly deposed Soviet president [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] and attempted to take control of the country. The [[Coup d'état|coup]] leaders were [[hard-line]] Marxist members of the Communist Party ([[CPSU]]) who felt that Gorbachev's reform program had gone too far and that a [[Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics|new union treaty]] that he had negotiated dispersed too much of the central government's power to the republics. Although the coup collapsed in only three days and Gorbachev returned to power, the event crushed the Soviet leader's hopes that the union could be held together in at least a decentralized form.