On August 21, 1991, many tens of thousands of people came to the square in 1905 in Sverdlovsk. They wanted to express their position on the GKChP’s attempt to seize power in the country. The coup failed, and so many people never gathered on the square in front of the City Council building.
GKChP – the State Committee for the State of Emergency, a self-proclaimed authority. There were three days – from 19 to 21 August. An attempt to seize power happened on the eve of the signing of a union treaty between some of the former republics of the USSR. Among the members of the GKChP were high-ranking officials: KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov, Interior Minister Boris Pugo, Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov, USSR Prime Minister Valentin Pavlov, USSR Vice President Gennady Yanaev. August 19 An announcer on Central Television read out the text – a statement by the Soviet leadership. The statement said that the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, for health reasons, could no longer lead the country, now his duties are transferred to Yanaev, that the country will again be the same from now on – the USSR – and will live according to the old laws of the Soviet Constitution. The statement also included promises to restore order in the country and solve economic problems.
Gorbachev at that time was under mild house arrest: blocked at the government dacha in Foros. Newly elected Russian President Boris Yeltsin refused to cooperate with the State Emergency Committee, calling what was happening a coup. Tanks were brought into Moscow. People in the capital went to rallies to the White House, where Yeltsin was, took up defensive positions, ready to defend. Three Muscovites, defenders of the House of Soviets, died in a collision with soldiers … Part of the power structures was on the side of Yeltsin’s supporters, and a split occurred in the army. The GKChP itself resigned its powers. Two organizers of the State Emergency Committee could not accept defeat: the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Pugo and Marshal Akhromeev committed suicide.