20th anniversary of failed coup d’etat attempt in USSR

Representatives of the conservative circles of the Central Committee of the CPSU were included in the State Committee of the State of Emergency. They were going to remove Gorbachev from power and stop the perestroika policy launched by him. The State Committee of the State of Emergency was supported by some army generals. As a result, military troops entered Moscow, announced a 6-month state of emergency and closed down some mass media. The USSR Vice President, Gennady Yanayev, was one of the coup d’etat leaders.

The main purpose of the State Committee of the State of Emergency was to preserve the USSR. A new union treaty that would create the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics was about to be signed. However, the coup d’etat failed. The President of the RSFSR, Boris Yeltsin, headed the opposition. He urged democracy adherents to go out in the streets of Moscow. Part of military leaders also supported him. The leaders of the State Committee of the State of Emergency were arrested a few days later.

It is worth mentioning that the events of August 1991 were the final step on the way of declaring Independence of the majority of former Soviet republics. Belarus was among them.