Human-cost band
three civilians dead in Moscow; the USSR dissolved by December -- a low-body-count, high-system event
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.
Three named civilian dead in Moscow; plotter suicide; then a superpower's legal death -- costs of different kinds.
Economic collapse of the 1990s is a sequel ledger, not an August body count.
Bands
Dated span (19-21 August 1991)
Soviet 1991 coup attempt is taught as 19-21 August 1991. 1991-06 and 1991-12-26 are the usual poles.
Theatre (Moscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republ.)
Moscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republics is the geography of the ledger -- cities, seas, plants, or ministries as the file requires.
Committee announces
1991-08-19-am: Tanks; Gorbachev "ill."
Gorbachev quits party post
1991-08-24: The CPSU unravels.
Regions
Moscow
Core theatre of Soviet 1991 coup attempt (19-21 August 1991). The fuse the GKChP named.
Perestroika crisis
1985-91: Reform without a new union consent.
Acceleration
Aug-Dec 1991: Party banned; republics leave.
Memory
After: Yeltsin myth, later Russian revisits.
US / UK / AU / CA classrooms
English hours on Soviet 1991 coup attempt (19-21 August 1991) are thin beside Chile 1973 film and a paragraph on Lisbon 1974; Seoul 1979 is thinner still.
Korean comparative reader
Soviet 1991 coup attempt is a comparative officers' file beside 12 December 1979 -- three morals, no method.
Key numbers
Span19-21 August 1991
Cost bandthree civilians dead in Moscow; the USS.
TheatreMoscow, Foros (Gorbachev), union republ.
Hero article1991 Soviet coup d'etat attempt
Makers
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev (USSR president) is a named maker of the Soviet 1991 coup attempt story. Isolated at Foros, then returned too late to save a union presidency.
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin (RSFSR president) is a named maker of the Soviet 1991 coup attempt story. The tank photograph; later the 1990s Russian president -- a longer, harder file than August.
Gennady Yanayev
Gennady Yanayev (GKChP face) is a named maker of the Soviet 1991 coup attempt story. The shaking-hands vice-president of the television ruin.
Dmitry Yazov
Dmitry Yazov (Defence minister) is a named maker of the Soviet 1991 coup attempt story. The army name on the committee; units did not finish a seizure.
Vladimir Kryuchkov
Vladimir Kryuchkov (KGB) is a named maker of the Soviet 1991 coup attempt story. The intelligence name on the committee -- a last KGB political throw.
Boris Pugo
Boris Pugo (Interior) is a named maker of the Soviet 1991 coup attempt story. Died by suicide as the committee collapsed -- a named death of the plotters' side.
The "cost" English television celebrated as freedom was, for many Soviet citizens, a lost country and a hard decade. Both can be true.
Nostalgia politics later fed on that double ledger.