Attempted coup d'etat in the USSR in 1991

USSR. Volgograd. Chief of the Volgograd military garrison, Major General V. G. Avvakumov (foreground) during an extraordinary meeting of the regional Council of People's Deputies after the announcement of a state of emergency in the country during an attempted coup d'etat. In order to prevent the signing of the Union Treaty, which was to replace the USSR with a new federation of sovereign states, representatives of the highest Soviet leadership, headed by USSR Vice President Gennady Ivanovich Yanayev, removed the president of the USSR from power and created the State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP). Eduard Kotlyakov/TASS