Mikhail Gorbachev
Isolated at Foros, then returned too late to save a union presidency.
Foros
3
After
3
End of USSR
3
Yeltsin on the tank is the global still. Yanayev's hands are the anti-still.
The lowered Soviet flag in December is the sequel icon.
People
Boris Yeltsin
The tank photograph; later the 1990s Russian president -- a longer, harder file than August.
Photo
3
Office
3
Later
3
Gennady Yanayev
The shaking-hands vice-president of the television ruin.
Role
3
TV
3
After
3
Dmitry Yazov
The army name on the committee; units did not finish a seizure.
Role
3
After
3
Fact
3
Vladimir Kryuchkov
The intelligence name on the committee -- a last KGB political throw.
Service
3
Role
3
After
3
Boris Pugo
Died by suicide as the committee collapsed -- a named death of the plotters' side.
Role
3
Death
3
Side
3
Nursultan Nazarbayev
A republic leader in the union's last bargaining -- the end was not only Slavic.
Role
3
Alma-Ata
3
Point
3
Stanislav Shushkevich
A Belovezha signatory -- December's legal face beside Yeltsin and Kravchuk.
Accord
3
Role
3
Point
3
Debate
Was failure inevitable?
Counterfactuals about a storm of the White House remain; they are not a playbook. Most accounts stress splits and legitimacy, not a missing tactic.
Did August cause December?
Accelerant, not sole cause. The union was already cracking.
Do not freeze 1991 as a simple good-coup-failure story without the 1990s.
Korean comparison: a short shock versus 12.12's long shadow.