August 1991. Soviet tanks rolled into the centre of Moscow while most people were away on their summer holidays. This included the two most prominent politicians of the world's largest country and nuclear power, arch-rivals Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin.
What followed was a chaotic, alcohol-fueled gamble by communist hardliners, including KGB Chief Vladimir Kryuchkov. While Gorbachev was held under house arrest in Crimea, Yeltsin boldly seized the political vacuum.
In this episode of Putschcast, former BBC Moscow Correspondent Tim Whewell shares his firsthand experience of the smoke, barricades, and desperation of the 1991 August Coup. He explains how Yeltsin’s defiance atop a tank rewrote the power dynamic, effectively sidelining Gorbachev long before the USSR fell.
Stationed directly at the Russian White House in Moscow, the BBC journalist witnessed how a plot engineered by the country's most feared men was stunningly amateurish, ultimately achieving the exact opposite of what its initiators intended.
During an infamous press conference, trembling coup leaders looked like incompetent bureaucrats. Meanwhile, when state television ran out of things to say, they famously broadcast a looped video of the Swan Lake ballet instead.
Tim shares incredible personal stories but also explains how easily things could have gone wrong. Ultimately, although three people tragically died, history looks back at this event as a failed, largely bloodless coup.
However, the aftermath reshaped global geography and continues to define the region to this very day. Within months of the failed plot, the USSR superpower collapsed, and new independent nations like Ukraine and Belarus emerged.
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