Konstantin Ivanovich Kobets

Константин Иванович Кобец

1939–2012 ○ Convicted for corruption 1997; died

The highest-ranking general who sided with Yeltsin during the August coup, commanding the White House defense

"The army will not go against the people" (at a press conference during the August 1991 coup)

As chief of the Soviet Signal Troops and Deputy Chief of the General Staff, he also took part in the Chernobyl disaster response. During the August 1991 coup, he was the highest-ranking active-duty general to break with the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP) and side with Boris Yeltsin, organizing the White House defense headquarters in Moscow; he was appointed RSFSR Defence Minister on 20 August and promoted to Army General on 24 August. In an ironic turn, he helped storm the same White House he had defended during the October 1993 constitutional crisis, and in 1997 was arrested and convicted on corruption charges.