The 1991 Soviet coup. A Personal Account.

Monday, August 19, 1991 -- Moscow

I arrived in Moscow from Los Angeles in the middle of June 1991 to spend the summer doing research for my doctoral dissertation. It was my first visit to the Soviet Union in three years after spending a year touring the country as a guide with the U.S. State Department's exhibition "Information USA." I was excited to be back. An American academic told me soon after my arrival that I had come at a good time. Things were quiet, he said, stable, the political situation was under control.

So it seemed for the first two months of my stay. Full Story

• Queuing at a news kiosk on Tverskaya Street on 19 August. The images of Gorbachev had been posted that morning.
• View down Tverskaya Street towards the Kremlin and Red Square in the early afternoon of 19 August
• Military vehicles off Tverskaya Street on 19 August
• Looking across the Manezh Square towards Red Square from the bottom of Tverskaya Street. 19 August
• Tanks along Kalinin Prospect on the afternoon of 19 August. The Lenin Library is visible in the upper left.
• Barricade along the Smolensk Embankment beneath the Kalinin Bridge
• An outer barricade guarding the White House near Kalinin Prospect
• A barricade behind the White House. Like most, it was hurriedly constructed with anything at hand
• The Russian tricolor became a symbol of resistance to the coup. Located directly behind the White House, this monument to the Revolution of 1905 adorned with a Russian flag took on new symbolic meaning.
• View of the White House to the south-east
• Sign at the White House: "The SCSE (abbreviation for the State Committee for the State of Emergency; GKChP in Russian) is a gang of adventurists"
• A protester at the White House with a sign depicting coup plotter Gennady Yanaev "screwing" the country. The sign reads: "Gena, enough already."
• Father Gleb Yakunin speaking at the White House
• The latest news was posted at a makeshift information center at the White House
• Tanks guarding the White House
• Soldiers defending the White House
• Tanks and barricades near the Hotel Ukraine
• Listening to the speakers at the White House
• A mobile news program on 19 August. The sign to the left reads: "Gena! How's your health?"
• News about the coup was communicated by leaflets hastily printed and stuck up around the city
• Crowds listening to speakers at the White House
• A man among the crowd at the White House
• Yelena Bonner speaking at the White House
• The barricade on the front steps of the White House. 19 August
• Boris Yeltsin speaking to the crowd from the White House's back balcony. Two bodyguards can be seen holding a protective shield around him
• Many demonstrators camped out at the White House during the coup. 20 August