Timeline Monday 19 August 1991

Events on Monday 19 August 1991 1

• 1991 August Coup Hardline Soviet officials attempt to oust Gorbachev A group of hardline Communist officials attempted to seize power from Mikhail Gorbachev and halt the Soviet Union's reforms. Boris Yeltsin rallied resistance from atop a tank outside the Russian parliament, and the coup collapsed within three days. Its failure accelerated the collapse of Soviet Communist Party authority and hastened the dissolution of the USSR later that year.