On this morning, August 19, 1991, a group of high-ranking Soviet officials and military officers conspired to form the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP), and moved to seize power from Gorbachev and stop the liberal reform of the USSR and halt the New Union Treaty.

In August 1991, the Soviet Union was in its final crisis. Gorbachev's reforms had weakened the central state, stripped the Soviet doctrine and structure of Marxist ideology, republics were demanding independence, and a New Union Treaty was set to be signed on August 20, transforming the USSR into a loose confederation of sovereign states, named Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics, replacing “Socialist” in the Union’s name, and preserving common citizenship and Soviet military, but moving to a confederation structure.

The State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP), consisted of eight members who will become known as the "Gang of Eight".

Gennady Yanayev (Vice President, acting president)
Valentin Pavlov (Prime Minister)
Vladimir Kryuchkov (KGB Chairman)
Dmitry Yazov (Defense Minister)
Boris Pugo (Interior Minister)
Oleg Baklanov (First Deputy Chairman of the Defense Council)
Vasily Starodubtsev (Chairman of the Peasants' Union)
Alexander Tizyakov (President of the Association of State Enterprises)

Day 1

At 4am, The Sevastopol regiment of KGB border troops surrounded Gorbachev's dacha in Foros, cutting off all communications. General Igor Maltsev orders the closure of Crimean Airport, and warships are anchored near Foros. Two tractors block the runway, preventing Gorbachev's aircraft from taking off. His family hears the news of his ouster from a small Sony transistor radio, tuned to the BBC World Service.

The GKChP issued Resolution No. 1, declaring a state of emergency for six months, banning rallies and strikes, and suspending political parties.

At 6am, The GKChP declared Gorbachev unfit to rule due to "illness", a message read on live television to Soviet people, followed by a broadcast of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, a Soviet tradition for times of crisis or mourning. Vice President Gennady Yanayev proclaimed himself acting president, and tanks rolled into Moscow to secure order.

The GKChP appealed to the Soviet people that perestroika has "come to a dead end" and that "the honour and dignity of the Soviet man must be restored".

At 7am, The KGB issues an arrest list that includes Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his allies. However, almost no arrests are actually carried out during the coup. Russian-controlled Radio Rossii and the independent radio station Ekho Moskvy are taken off the air.

Yeltsin, who had been at his dacha outside Moscow, arrived at the White House (the parliament building) to coordinate resistance. Tanks from the Tamanskaya and Kantemirovskaya divisions begin arriving in Moscow; around 4,000 soldiers, 350 tanks, and 300 armored personnel carriers are deployed. Tanks take up positions near the White House and the Kremlin.

The GKChP dissolves freedom of the press, banning all but nine party-controlled newspapers.

Yeltsin issues his first public statement condemning the coup as a "right-wing, reactionary, anti-constitutional coup" and calls for a general strike. According to one of his advisors, Yeltsin's appeal becomes one of the crucial factors in turning the situation around.

Day 2

By the second day, protests and barricades swelled. Thousands of people were in the streets, and Boris Yeltsin was motivating the people to rise against the coup.
For years, liberal-nationalist sentiment had been growing under Gorbachev’s political reforms and anti-Soviet sentiment has been promoted in official Soviet state press that printed articles that expressed negative opinions of Soviet history, Marxism, and even Lenin. This had been directed by Gorbachev’s close advisor, Aleksandr Yakovlev, who, in his own memoirs, admits his goal was to destroy the Soviet legacy and turn people away from socialism towards liberalism and capitalism.

By afternoon of Aug 20, one of the Gang of Eight quits. Large crowds of protestors gather around the White House. An 11pm curfew order is ignored.

The GKChP prepared to storm the White House. KGB Chairman Kryuchkov searched for an assault team after the elite Alpha Unit refused to storm the building. Together with Yazov and Pugo, Kryuchkov canvassed commanders from nearly 20 other elite units, but found little enthusiasm among the candidates.

Day 3

In the early morning hours around 1am, a column of armored vehicles from the Tamanskaya Division was trapped in an underpass near the White House, blocked by barricades erected by protesters. Demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails at the vehicles, and several tanks and APCs caught fire. Soldiers fired their pistols into the air and towards any threatening members in the crowd.
In the violence and confusion, 3 protesters were killed:
Dmitry Komar, Vladimir Usov, and Ilya Krichevsky.
Komar and Usov were crushed by tanks trying to drive out of the fire and crowds, while Krichevsky was shot by a soldier.

The violent incident shook the military command. The morale of the military and central state was very low, and no assault on the White House to remove Yeltsin took place. The military commanders on site of the violence at the armored column ordered their troops to hold their fire, to not retaliate on protesters, and after the initial 3 deaths in the underpass scuffle, nobody else was harmed.

By 10am, the GKChP realizes they have lost the momentum and influence and the coup is unraveling.

At 1pm, the group calls for a meeting with Gorbachev to negotiate, but he refused.

6pm. Communications are restored to Gorbachev's dacha in Foros. A plane carrying Kryuchkov, Yazov, Baklanov, and Tizyakov flies to Crimea. Another plane, carrying Russian officials including Vice President Alexander Rutskoy and Prime Minister Ivan Silayev, also departs for Crimea to bring Gorbachev back to Moscow.

In the following days;

A victory rally is held at the White House, attended by tens of thousands of people. Yeltsin congratulates the nation on the defeat of the coup. The Russian tricolor flag is raised over the White House. The GKChP members are arrested.
Yeltsin issues a decree suspending the activities of the Communist Party of the RSFSR. The monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky is dismantled in Lubyanka Square.

Boris Pugo commits suicide by gunshot. His wife follows the same. He left a note:

"I trusted people too much. I have lived my whole life honestly."

August 23 Yeltsin publicly humiliates Gorbachev at a session of the Russian Supreme Soviet, forcing him to read documents confirming the complicity of the Communist Party in the coup. Gorbachev resigns as General Secretary of the CPSU.

August 24 Gorbachev calls on the Central Committee to dissolve the Communist Party.

Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev, former Chief of Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces, was found hanged in his Kremlin office. He left 5 notes, addressed to various people to handle his affairs. The common addressed note reads:

“When my Motherland is perishing and everything I considered the meaning of my life is being destroyed, I can no longer live. Age and my past life give me the right to abandon life. I have fought to the end.”

Nikolai Kruchina, Party Treasurer, commits suicide by jumping from his apartment balcony.

"I am not a conspirator, but I am a coward. Please inform the Soviet people about this."
Additionally, he left a thick folder on his desk containing detailed information about the illegal commercial activities of the CPSU in recent years.

August 29 The Soviet Parliament votes to suspend the activities of the Communist Party across the entire USSR.

The Russian Tricolor is legalized as the republic flag of the Russian SFSR by Yeltsin, and over the next few months, Boris Yeltsin maneuvered to complete the Belovezha Accords and illegally declare the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 25th, 1991.