Communist hardliners stage coup against Gorbachev – archive, 20 August 1991
by Jonathan Steele in Moscow from on (#5NJ42)
20 August 1991: Boris Yeltsin rallies resistance as Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev is put under house arrest
Boris Yeltsin, Russia's president and most popular politician, was holding firm last night against the dawn coup which ousted President Gorbachev. The action by communist hardliners threatened to end the longest and most successful period of democratic advance in the country's tumultuous history.
Related: Gorbachev coup 20 years on: the scoop that got away
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