August 1991 Coup Attempt Against Gorbachev

Hardline CPSU and KGB officials placed Gorbachev under house arrest at his Crimean dacha and declared a state of emergency on 19 August 1991, attempting to reverse his reforms and preserve the Union. The coup collapsed within three days after Boris Yeltsin, then President of the Russian SFSR, rallied public resistance from atop a tank outside the Russian parliament building, and troops refused to fire on crowds of demonstrators in Moscow. The coup's failure fatally undermined both the hardliners and, ultimately, Gorbachev's own authority, accelerating rather than preventing the Union's collapse.