State Committee on the State of Emergency
국가비상사태위원회
The State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP) was a self-proclaimed emergency governing body formed on 19 August 1991 by Soviet hardliners seeking to remove Gorbachev and block the signing of the New Union Treaty. Composed of eight senior officials (Vice President Yanayev, KGB Chairman Kryuchkov, Defense Minister Yazov, Premier Pavlov, and four others), it declared a state of emergency on the pretext of Gorbachev's 'illness.' The committee collapsed within three days in the face of resistance led by RSFSR President Yeltsin and mass civilian mobilization. Its members were prosecuted for treason but amnestied by the State Duma in 1994; the coup's failure accelerated the suspension of the Communist Party and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
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- Wikipedia (RU) Russian Wikipedia: GKChP as самопровозглашённый орган власти (self-proclaimed organ of power), 19–21 August 1991; members: Yanayev, Pavlov, Pugo, Yazov, Kryuchkov, Baklanov, Starodubtsev, Tizyakov; created to block the New Union Treaty and preserve the USSR; collapsed within three days; members arrested 22–29 August 1991, amnestied 23 February 1994.
- Wikipedia (EN) English Wikipedia: self-proclaimed political body, 'Gang of Eight'; attempted coup d'état against Gorbachev; collapsed by 22 August; trial April 1993–March 1994; all defendants amnestied by State Duma except Varennikov who was acquitted.
- rferl.org RFE/RL (19 August 2016): details on the eleven named conspirators; Gang of Eight composition; Pugo's suicide; Kryuchkov as initiator; Yazov, Pavlov, Kryuchkov, Shenin as four chief conspirators; trial and amnesty details; post-coup careers of plotters.