A junta that lasted 72 hours
Duration as the fact.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Scale55
Intensity28
Duration12
Tech shift18
Political impact90
Cultural memory65
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Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
Are the scores a ranking of nations or armies?
No. Scores are browsing aids inside an era-bounded atlas — not live league tables of countries.
How many died?
Three civilians in Moscow on 21 August are the named dead of the street events. The systemic "death" was the union, not a battlefield.
Who was in the GKChP?
Gennady Yanayev (vice-president), Dmitry Yazov (defence), Vladimir Kryuchkov (KGB), Boris Pugo (interior) and others -- a committee of the centre's last cadres.
What did Yeltsin do?
As RSFSR president he denounced the committee, used the White House as a platform, and became the televised face of resistance. That did not make him the sole cause of failure.
Why did it fail?
Hesitation to use decisive force, elite splits, republic resistance, a public that would not treat the committee as legitimate, and plotters who looked unsure on television. This is analysis of a past failure, not a manual.
Did it end the USSR?
It accelerated an end already underway. Formal dissolution was 26 December 1991.
The Cold War's institutional end accelerated. Nuclear command, republic borders, and US-Russian "partnership" talk all sit on this hinge.
Coup law and later Russian politics never stopped arguing August.
Lessons
Union legitimacy wrecked
The centre could not claim emergency successfully.
December follows August
Acceleration, not a solo cause.
Keep the cost as a range
three civilians dead in Moscow; the USSR dissolved by December -- a low-body-count, high-system event Soviet 1991 coup attempt is not improved by a fake precise integer.
Memory is national
US/UK/AU/CA rites and the memory of Moscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republics will not match. Name the difference when teaching Soviet 1991 coup attempt.
Unresolved
Census still a band
"three civilians dead in Moscow; the USSR dissolved by December -- a low-body-count, high-system event" remains a band. New archives refine Soviet 1991 coup attempt; they do not un-happen 19-21 August 1991.
Archives uneven
Files on Soviet 1991 coup attempt remain unevenly open across Moscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republics. Boris Pugo's paper trail is not the same as Mikhail Gorbachev's.
August putsch
The English nickname.
Teaching hours
English classroom hours on Soviet 1991 coup attempt still disagree with hours in Moscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republics. Is this a how-to? is often the gap.
Shifts
Perestroika crisis
1985-91: Reform without a new union consent.
Acceleration
Aug-Dec 1991: Party banned; republics leave.
Memory
After: Yeltsin myth, later Russian revisits.
Afterlife of the name
Soviet 1991 coup attempt left institutions and stories that outlasted 19-21 August 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev became a caption; Moscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republics kept the rubble or the letterhead.
Outlook
Scholarship
New archives will refine Soviet 1991 coup attempt (Standoff, Belovezha) without un-happening 19-21 August 1991.
Memory handover
As witnesses die, museums and film carry Soviet 1991 coup attempt. Gennady Yanayev and Dmitry Yazov will keep being recast.
This atlas
Soviet 1991 coup attempt stays a historical file -- a closed seizure and its civic afterlife, not a live order of battle or a method.
Risk
closed event, live memory
The GKChP is history. Residual risk is myth (Yeltsin-only or NATO-only stories) and any use of this page as a seizure guide -- forbidden here.
A failed junta can change more than a successful one -- a historical observation about 1991, not a recommendation.
This atlas scores political impact high and intensity low on purpose.