Attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in 1991

USSR. Moscow. Member of the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR, Acting President of the USSR Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev during a press conference at the press center of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the announcement of the introduction of a state of emergency in the country. In order to prevent the signing of the Union Treaty, which was supposed to replace the USSR with a new federation of sovereign states, representatives of the State Committee on the State of Emergency removed USSR President Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev from power and introduced a state of emergency in the country. Vladimir Musaelyan, Alexander Chumichev/TASS