The 1991 coup (1991)

Moscow.

The square in front of the White House.

Tanks, Muscovites around and on the tanks (many shots).

Leaflets being handed out to Muscovites.

A bulldozer with a bucket in front of the White House.

A group of people with a Ukrainian flag.

Young Muscovites sitting on a tank.

A guitarist singing.

Flowers in the barrel of a gun.

An interview with a Russian television correspondent about the situation in Ostankino; about filming with household cameras; about the historical value of the footage.

An interview with a Moscow State University student about her journalistic debut.

Journalists interview young people lying on the grass.

Barricades in front of the White House.

Interviews with Muscovites about the divisions that went over to Yeltsin's side.

People on the barricades, an interview.

A group of Muscovites discussing the location of Mikhail Gorbachev.

A caricature of the members of the State Emergency Committee.

A banner on a bus reading "Down with Communist Criminals!" An armed soldier on the roof of the White House.

A view from above of the square.

Barricades.

People on the square (many shots).

Windows of the White House.

In their offices, officials are talking on the phone.

Night.

Illuminated windows of the White House.

A crowd of people on the square, making noise, chanting "Yeltsin!

Yeltsin!" August 20, 1991

Moscow.

Anti-government troops on Tverskaya Street.

Soldiers in helmets, with weapons.

Muscovites talk to the soldiers, shame them.

A column of tanks on Tverskaya, surrounded by a crowd of people in civilian clothes.

A tank driver is given Yeltsin's Decree on the illegality of the actions of the State Emergency Committee.

An appeal to the people is hanging on the wall of a building.

Large signatures of Yeltsin, Silaev, Khasbulatov.

Muscovites read it.

The Moscow City Council building is guarded by soldiers.

Armed soldiers at Lenin's pedestal.

Muscovites talk to the platoon commander.

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Bogolyubov, a deputy of the Moscow City Council, talks to the commander, Senior Lieutenant Ignatov.

A heated discussion.

Bogolyubov reads out the Decree of the President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin on the criminal seizure of power by members of the State Emergency Committee.

Moscow.

Armored personnel carriers are parked in a park (shot from a moving car).

Tverskaya Square.

Rally in support of Yeltsin at the monument to Yuri Dolgoruky.

Muscovites with a Russian flag.

Poster "Yeltsin calls for a strike." The Moscow City Council building.

People are making noise and being indignant.

A representative of the Democratic Union party speaks in a raised voice about "criminals who carried out a coup d'etat." Interview with Muscovites about the communist military coup, about Gorbachev's position.

Armored personnel carriers are driving along Tverskaya Street.

People are running, blocking traffic.

They are blocking the path of the armored personnel carriers.

They are chanting "Shame!

Fascists!" Civilian Muscovites on armored personnel carriers.

People are talking to a soldier.

The armored personnel carriers are driving away.

People are applauding, shouting "Hurray!" Chanting "Yeltsin!

Yeltsin!" An armored personnel carrier near the Dolgorukov monument.

A crowd has surrounded it.

People are arguing with the police.

Men and women on an armored personnel carrier are talking to the military, trying to persuade them to leave.

They are chanting "Freedom!", "The army is with the people!" Military vehicles with soldiers on Tverskaya Street.

A crowd of Muscovites is blocking their movement.

The armored personnel carriers with people are leaving.

People have crowded around a man with a loudspeaker.

He is reading out an appeal to civilians and the military.

A demand not to obey the State Emergency Committee, to return to constitutional order in the country, a call for a general indefinite strike.

People are applauding, shouting "Hurray!" An outdoor cafe, people at tables.

Nearby are military vehicles, soldiers with weapons.

A correspondent asks questions to the soldiers, they do not answer.

An interview with Muscovites about the coup.

People are arguing, different opinions.