The Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR adopted laws that contradicted Soviet laws (the so-called War of Laws). Russia declared its sovereignty on 12 June 1990 and thereafter limited the application of Soviet laws, in particular those governing finance and the economy, on Russian territory. There were continuing armed ethnic conflicts in Nagorno Karabakh and South Ossetia. About a week later, a similar attempt was engineered by local pro-Soviet forces to overthrow Latvian authorities. In January 1991, a violent attempt to return Lithuania to the Soviet Union by force took place. In 1990, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Armenia had already declared the restoration of their independence from the Soviet Union. Scarcity of food, medicine, and other consumables was widespread, people had to stand in long lines to buy even essential goods, fuel stocks were as much as 50% lower than the estimated amount needed for the approaching winter, and inflation exceeded 300% per year, with factories lacking the cash needed to pay salaries. In 1991, the Soviet Union was in a severe economic and political crisis. Specifically, nationalist agitation on the part of the Soviet Union's non- Russian minorities grew, and there were fears that some or all of the union republics might secede. The reforms also unleashed forces and movements Gorbachev did not expect. These moves prompted resistance and suspicion on the part of hard-line members of the nomenklatura. Since assuming power as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985, Gorbachev had embarked on an ambitious reform program embodied in the twin concepts of perestroika and glasnost, or economic/political restructuring and openness. 6 Subsequent fate of GKChP Gang of Eight.5.6 Supranational bodies and organizations.4.5 Commemoration of the civilians killed.4.3 Beginning of radical economic reforms in Russia.The failed coup led to both the immediate collapse of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the dissolution of the USSR four months later.įollowing the capitulation of the GKChP, popularly referred to as the "Gang of Eight", both the Supreme Court of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and President Gorbachev described its actions as a coup attempt. Yeltsin subsequently became the dominant leader and Gorbachev lost much of his influence. The coup collapsed in two days, and Gorbachev returned to office while the plotters all lost their posts. The GKChP was poorly organized and met with effective resistance by both Yeltsin and a civilian campaign of anti-Communist protestors, mainly in Moscow. The GKChP hardliners dispatched KGB agents, who detained Gorbachev at his holiday estate but failed to detain the recently elected president of a newly reconstituted Russia, Boris Yeltsin, who had been both an ally and critic of Gorbachev. The treaty was to decentralize much of the central Soviet government's power and distribute it among its fifteen republics. They opposed Gorbachev's reform program, were angry at the loss of control over Eastern European states and fearful of the USSR's New Union Treaty which was on the verge of being signed. The coup leaders consisted of top military and civilian officials, including Vice President Gennady Yanayev, who together formed the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP). The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, also known as the August Coup, was a failed attempt by hardliners of the Soviet Union's Communist Party to forcibly seize control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was Soviet President and General Secretary of the Communist Party at the time.
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