Perestroika crisis
1985-91 in Moscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republics: Reform without a new union consent. A memory map, not a present overlay.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Scale55
Intensity28
Duration12
Tech shift18
Political impact90
Cultural memory65
LessMore
Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
Are the scores a ranking of nations or armies?
No. Scores are browsing aids inside an era-bounded atlas — not live league tables of countries.
How many died?
Three civilians in Moscow on 21 August are the named dead of the street events. The systemic "death" was the union, not a battlefield.
Who was in the GKChP?
Gennady Yanayev (vice-president), Dmitry Yazov (defence), Vladimir Kryuchkov (KGB), Boris Pugo (interior) and others -- a committee of the centre's last cadres.
What did Yeltsin do?
As RSFSR president he denounced the committee, used the White House as a platform, and became the televised face of resistance. That did not make him the sole cause of failure.
Why did it fail?
Hesitation to use decisive force, elite splits, republic resistance, a public that would not treat the committee as legitimate, and plotters who looked unsure on television. This is analysis of a past failure, not a manual.
Did it end the USSR?
It accelerated an end already underway. Formal dissolution was 26 December 1991.
Foros, the White House, the Garden Ring tanks.
Belovezha forest as the December map point.
Maps
The putsch
19-21 Aug in Moscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republics: GKChP, tanks, White House. A memory map, not a present overlay.
Acceleration
Aug-Dec 1991 in Moscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republics: Party banned; republics leave. A memory map, not a present overlay.
Legal end
8-26 Dec in Moscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republics: Belovezha to the lowered flag. A memory map, not a present overlay.
Memory
After in Moscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republics: Yeltsin myth, later Russian revisits. A memory map, not a present overlay.
Portrayals
Mikhail Gorbachev biographies
The usual English doorway into Soviet 1991 coup attempt: Isolated at Foros, then returned too late to save a union presidency.
Boris Yeltsin biographies
The paired doorway: The tank photograph; later the 1990s Russian president -- a longer, harder file than August.
School survey chapters
Where Soviet 1991 coup attempt (19-21 August 1991) is a paragraph or a unit in US/UK/AU/CA -- often thinner than Moscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republics local hours.
Local museums / sites in Moscow
Thicker than the English paragraph. Memory is the usual late pilgrimage caption.
Feature film / television
If Soviet 1991 coup attempt has a visual canon, it probably outruns the monographs. Treat film as memory, not as a log.
Korean comparative essays
A Korean reader may pair Soviet 1991 coup attempt with 1950-53, Inchon, Tsushima, or the ROK force-structure story even when the campaign was elsewhere.
Rituals
1991-06 / 1991-12-26 dates
The usual ritual poles of Soviet 1991 coup attempt: Yeltsin elected RSFSR president and USSR flag down.
Museum and cemetery wreaths
Official and family rites at sites in Moscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republics. Nursultan Nazarbayev is often the civilian or corrective name on the plaque.
Classroom minutes
Where Soviet 1991 coup attempt is on the syllabus -- in Anglophone schools often beside 11 November or a Second World War unit, not always beside Moscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republics's own calendar.
Sayings
CNN archives are the English museum. Russian anniversary silence or spin is the local museum.
A Korean reader should note: low dead, high system change -- rare in this family.