The Failed Coup that Failed Russia

Thirty years ago this month, a group of communist hardliners seized control of Moscow and placed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev under house arrest at his holiday home in Crimea.

They opposed Gorbachev’s economic and political reforms – perestroika and glasnost – and sought to topple his government. Within three days, however, the coup imploded. By the end of that year, so had the Soviet Union.