State Committee on the State of Emergency

Background and formation

In December 1990 Gorbachev instructed KGB Chairman Kryuchkov to draft measures for introducing a state of emergency. Between 7 and 15 August 1991 Kryuchkov met prospective members several times at a secret KGB facility in Moscow, and on 17 August the group resolved to take emergency measures to block the signing of the New Union Treaty. On 18 August Baklanov, Boldin, Shenin and Varennikov flew to Gorbachev at Foros in Crimea to obtain his consent; he refused. That same day Gorbachev's communications were cut and the committee was formed, and from 6 a.m. on 19 August the 'Statement of the Soviet Leadership' was broadcast on radio and television.

Composition and measures

The committee consisted of eight members: Yanayev (Vice President), Pavlov (Premier), Kryuchkov (KGB Chairman), Yazov (Defense Minister), Pugo (Interior Minister), Baklanov (First Deputy Chairman of the Defense Council), Starodubtsev (Chairman of the Peasants' Union) and Tizyakov (President of the Association of State Enterprises). Yanayev assumed presidential powers on the ground that Gorbachev could not perform his duties 'for health reasons', and the committee declared a state of emergency in Moscow while issuing Resolution No. 1, which suspended the activity of parties and public organizations, banned meetings, demonstrations and strikes, and imposed control over the media. At 3:30 a.m. Defense Minister Yazov announced Gorbachev's illness and issued orders to army units, and troops and tanks moved into Moscow.

Collapse

The decisive resistance came from the RSFSR leadership under Yeltsin. Yeltsin condemned the coup as anti-constitutional and called for a general strike, and on 19 August he read out 'To the Citizens of Russia' from atop a tank outside the White House. Moscow residents erected barricades around the White House, and a tank battalion of the Tamanskaya Division went over to Yeltsin. In Leningrad hundreds of thousands of demonstrators likewise blocked the formation of an emergency committee. In the early hours of 21 August a clash in a tunnel killed three civilians, but the planned assault on the White House was not carried out, and the committee dissolved that day. Its members were arrested between 22 and 29 August. Interior Minister Pugo died together with his wife; the death was officially ruled a suicide, though some contemporaries questioned that finding.

Prosecution and amnesty

In December 1992 the Russian Prosecutor General approved the treason indictment, and from April 1993 the trial ran for more than ten months. On 23 February 1994 the State Duma amnestied all the defendants despite Yeltsin's objection, including Shenin and Lukyanov, who were charged as accomplices. Varennikov refused the amnesty and continued his trial, winning acquittal in August 1994. Kryuchkov, Yazov, Shenin and Pavlov were named at trial as the main conspirators.

Historical significance

The committee presented itself as restoring constitutional order and preventing the state's disintegration, and its sympathizers regard it as an attempt to save the country. The legislative and executive bodies of the USSR and the RSFSR, by contrast, condemned its actions as a state coup, and the events of 19 to 21 August are known as the 'August coup'. Who led it is disputed: Yanayev was the nominal head, but an internal KGB investigation identified Kryuchkov as its real centre, and Yeltsin held that the committee had no authoritative leader. Whether Gorbachev knew of the plans in advance is likewise contested. After the coup failed, the Supreme Soviet suspended the activity of the Communist Party, and four months later the Soviet Union was dissolved.